Wednesday, March 21, 2007
more on boxes
While I find the notion of boxes intriguing, I don't think I will be using them in my class, at least not right off. I could see toying with the idea of a box assignment as an activity, I don't think I'd want to do it as a formal assignment. While the argument was made in the texts that the linear argument format is old-school now, it remains a fact that college comp is designed to prepare students for this linear thesis-driven, claim-making, evidence providing, conclusion making style that they will utilize in other courses. So, for me, the boxes could work as a brainstorming activity, but not as a substitute for a formal essay. How would you grade it? Formal essays have the advantage of requiring basic rules, and it is useful to us as instructors to have this criteria in mind when we're grading. Boxes seem much more like a creative art, and so that type of writing would tend to be graded using a pass/fail model, again, which makes it work for an activity, but not a full project, at least not for college composition.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I had the same questions about using boxes. I would have no idea how to grade them, for one thing. And it seems that this level of comp, at least at Mizzou, is designed to teach the type of thesis-driven argument that students will have to use in later classes. I could see using them as a minor assignment, but not as making them a large part of English 1000. Perhaps they could be used more in an upper-level comp class.
I am glad I am not the only one with reservations about boxes. I am not sure how to incorporate them either since they do not seem to fit the idea of linear arguments, which seem to be the focus for EN1000. I think they sound interesting and fun, but a little overwhelming for the typical EN1000 class. How about for creative writing?
Post a Comment