scholarly journals 'You're in FunDzaland': Pre-service teachers (re)imagine audience on a creative writing course

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Mendelowitz
Keyword(s):  
Creative Writing ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Peer Feedback ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Group 2

This study explores how collaborative writing for a digital platform can enable students to (re) imagine audience. Although in the context of process writing peer feedback is foreground, in practice, its effectiveness is uneven. The digital revolution offers new opportunities for alternative peer feedback through collaborative writing and re-imagining self and other in the process. This study examines data from a creative writing course in which pre-service teachers wrote collaborative short stories for the FunDza digital site and individual reflective essays about the process. The study’s research questions are the following: (1) what were the affordances of this multilayered audience for engaging the students’ imaginations? (2) How did this process of (re)imagining audience impact on students’ conceptions of themselves as writers? The data set comprised 16 collaboratively authored stories (published on the site) and 34 individual reflective essays. Six of the latter were selected for detailed analysis. Hence, the data for this study encompass detailed analysis of two groups’ reflective essays on the process of writing their stories. These groups were selected because they exemplified contrasting collaborative, imaginative writing processes. Group 1 was familiar with the FunDza audience and context, while Group 2 struggled to imagine it. Thematic content analysis was used for analysis. Each essay was read first in relation to the entire data set, then in relation to the other reflections in the author’s group. The combination of gearing stories towards the FunDza audience and writing stories collaboratively created two sets of audiences that writers needed to hold in mind simultaneously. Analysis indicates that both audiences challenged students to make imaginative leaps into the minds of an unfamiliar audience, deepening their understanding of the writing process. It also highlights students’ mastery of writing discourses and increasing awareness of the choices authors make for specific audiences. Theoretically, this study theorises audience in relation to imagination. A number of concepts have emerged from this research that may enable a more fine-tuned analysis of the audience – imagination nexus. Structured freedom is an important thread that connects the central concepts of audience, imagination and collaboration, foregrounding the idea that imaginative freedom needs to be understood and worked with in nuanced ways. While freedom and imagination are closely related, the provision of free pedagogic spaces with specific constraints in creative writing courses can be extremely productive, as illustrated by the data analysed in this study.

scholarly journals Reform and Innovation of Creative Writing Teaching——Modular Teaching Design and Personalized Process Evaluation

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Ziwei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Creative Writing ◽  
Process Evaluation ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Teaching Objectives ◽  
Evaluation Scheme ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Teaching Design

In recent years, creative writing courses have attracted much attention in China, but there is a lack of relevant research on the practice of creative writing courses at present. Teachers are faced with such problems as vague teaching objectives, complex teaching contents, and lack of practical schemes. Moreover, it is difficult to evaluate the results of creative writing courses comprehensively and truly. Through the modularized combing of the course content and the establishment of personalized process evaluation scheme, we have realized the creative inspiration and creative practice guidance for students in creative writing course teaching, and enhanced the students’ participation in the course and practical ability.

scholarly journals Students and the Teacher’s Perceptions on Incorporating the Blog Task and Peer Feedback into EFL Writing Classes Through Blogs

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsin-Yi Cyndi Huang
Keyword(s):  
Peer Feedback ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Theoretical Hypothesis ◽  
English Major ◽  
Southern Taiwan ◽  
Group Interviews

<p>With the availability of Web 2.0 technologies, blogs have become useful and attractive tools for teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in their writing classes. Learners do not need to understand HTML in order to construct blogs, and the appearance and content can be facilitated via the use of photos, music, and video files (Vurdien, 2013). To provide an authentic and motivating writing environment, a blog task was designed and integrated into three writing courses for 57 applied English or English major students at two southern Taiwan universities. Using the triangulated approach, this study collected data from three different angles (students’ questionnaires, students’ focus group interviews, and the teacher’s observation log) to investigate whether participant perceptions empirically supported the theoretical hypothesis that blogging contributes to writing performance. The findings showed that both the teacher and students had a positive attitude towards the blog task and may indicate that blogging is a useful alternative approach but may also be regular incorporated in writing classes to enhance EFL writing motivation. Nevertheless, blogs may not be the most suitable tool for all types of writing tasks and the most appropriate medium for all components of feedback. The conclusions of this study are consistent with previous findings on the practicality and potential of using blog software to promote peer feedback as well as to facilitate effective writing instruction.</p>

scholarly journals Re-Imagining the First Year as Catalyst for First-Year Writing Program Curricular Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Crank ◽  
Sara Heaser ◽  
Darci L. Thoune
Keyword(s):  
College Retention ◽  
Habits Of Mind ◽  
Curricular Change ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Program ◽  
Research Project ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Multiple Measures ◽  
Writing Course

This article describes a revision of a first-year writing program curriculum using the pillars of the Reimagining the First-Year Program. The authors adapted principles related to mindset and habits of mind from both college retention scholarship and composition scholarship. After developing a research project in order to understand what elements of mindset correlate with readiness for credit-bearing writing courses, the authors created a multiple measures placement system for enrolling students in a credit-bearing first-year writing course with co-requisite support.  

scholarly journals Whip: Communicate and Test What to Expect from Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e25317
Author(s):  
Stijn Van Hoey ◽  
Peter Desmet
Keyword(s):  
Data Quality ◽  
Controlled Vocabulary ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Data Publication ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Maximum Utility ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Publication Guidelines ◽  
Available Information

The ability to communicate and assess the quality and fitness for use of data is crucial to ensure maximum utility and re-use. Data consumers have certain requirements for the data they seek and need to be able to check if a data set conforms with these requirements. Data publishers aim to provide data with the highest possible quality and need to be able to identify potential errors that can be addressed with the available information at hand. The development and adoption of data publication guidelines is one approach to define and meet those requirements. However, the use of a guideline, the mapping decisions, and the requirements a dataset is expected to meet, are generally not communicated with the provided data. Moreover, these guidelines are typically intended for humans only. In this talk, we will present 'whip': a proposed syntax for data specifications. With whip, one can define column-based constraints for tabular (tidy) data using a number of rules, e.g. how data is structured following Darwin Core, how a term uses controlled vocabulary values, or what the expected minimum and maximum values are. These rules are human- and machine-readable, which communicates the specifications, and allows to automatically validate those in pipelines for data publication and quality assessment, such as Kurator. Whip can be formatted as a (yaml) text file that can be provided with the published data, communicating the specifications a dataset is expected to meet. The scope of these specifications can be specific to a dataset, but can also be used to express expected data quality and fitness for use of a publisher, consumer or community, allowing bottom-up and top-down adoption. As such, these specifications are complementary to the core set of data quality tests as currently under development by the TDWG Biodiversity Data Quality Task 2 Group 2. Whip rules are currently generic, but more specific ones can be defined to address requirements for biodiversity information.

Scaffolding Agency and Responsibility in Cloud-Based Collaborative Writing

2017 ◽  
pp. 508-519
Author(s):  
Kate Fedewa ◽  
Kathryn Houghton
Keyword(s):  
Writing Process ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Composition Classroom ◽  
Google Docs ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Composition Teachers ◽  
Shared Writing

Although most students regularly interact online for social reasons, many are uncomfortable collaborating for academic work, even work utilizing familiar cloud technology. Because collaborative writing in digital spaces is becoming commonplace in work and academic environments, composition teachers must help students to recognize their individual agency within group work and to develop strategies for a shared writing process. How can we scaffold online writing experiences so that our students' ability to collaborate emerges as a strategic and still-developing part of the learning process? In this chapter we discuss strategies for scaffolding a collaborative writing process using Google Docs in the composition classroom. We describe four sample activities appropriate for undergraduate writing courses: anonymous invention, group annotated bibliographies, group agendas and project plans, and peer review. We suggest best practices for developing individual agency and shared responsibility for group writing in the cloud.

scholarly journals Effect of Group Size and Individual Characteristics on Intergroup Encounters in Primates

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonaventura Majolo ◽  
Aurora deBortoli Vizioli ◽  
Laura Martínez-Íñigo ◽  
Julia Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
New World Monkeys ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Intergroup Encounters ◽  
Group 2

AbstractIntergroup encounters are common in nonhuman primates and can vary from affiliative to aggressive. We extracted data from the literature to test five different hypotheses: 1) where there are group size differences between opposing groups, whether the larger group is more likely to win an intergroup encounter than the smaller group; 2) whether the likelihood of a group engaging in aggressive intergroup encounters increases with group size; and 3–5) whether dominant, older individuals, and/or males are more likely to participate aggressively in intergroup encounters than subordinate, younger individuals and/or females. Our data set comprised 52 studies on 31 primate species (3 lemur species, 5 New World monkeys, 19 Old World monkeys, and 4 apes). We found that the larger group is more likely to win an encounter against a smaller group than vice versa. We found no significant relationship between group size and propensity to be aggressive during intergroup encounters. We found weak/no support for the effect of age, dominance rank, and sex on the frequency of aggression displayed toward outgroup individuals during intergroup encounters. Species- and population-specific differences in inter- and intragroup competition and in the degree of the unequal distribution of resources across group members may explain why age, dominance rank, and sex are not strong predictors of aggression during intergroup encounters.

A deep view into the nucleus of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy: M54

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S351) ◽  
pp. 47-50
Author(s):  
M. Alfaro-Cuello ◽  
N. Kacharov ◽  
N. Neumayer ◽  
A. Mastrobuono-Battisti ◽  
N. Lützgendorf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metal Complex ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Globular Clusters ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Dwarf Galaxies ◽  
Dwarf Galaxy ◽  
Star Clusters ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Data Set

AbstractNuclear star clusters hosted by dwarf galaxies exhibit similar characteristics to high-mass, metal complex globular clusters. This type of globular clusters could, therefore, be former nuclei from accreted galaxies. M54 resides in the photometric center of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, at a distance where resolving stars is possible. M54 offers the opportunity to study a nucleus before the stripping of their host by the tidal field effects of the Milky Way. We use a MUSE data set to perform a detailed analysis of over 6600 stars. We characterize the stars by metallicity, age, and kinematics, identifying the presence of three stellar populations: a young metal-rich (YMR), an intermediate-age metal-rich (IMR), and an old metal-poor (OMP). The evidence suggests that the OMP population is the result of accretion of globular clusters in the center of the host, while the YMR population was born in-situ in the center of the OMP population.

Identity, self and other: The emergence of police and victim/survivor identities in domestic violence narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 636-659
Author(s):  
Jennifer Andrus
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Police Interactions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This article analyzes narratives about encounters between police officers and domestic violence victim/survivors in the context of domestic violence calls. Narratives are sites in which individuals create relationships between themselves and others, oriented around a set of unfolding events. Narrative is a motivated, engaged retelling of prior or anticipated events produced in interaction with others, in a particular context stocked with constraints and affordances. In the process of telling stories, identities emerge. In order to understand the relationship between narrative and identity, I analyze stories told about police interactions with domestic violence victim/survivors from the perspectives of both the police and the victim/survivors. Working empirically with a data set of 48 interviews, I use critical discourse analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the ways both groups narrate domestic violence and confrontations with police officers, the ways they create story worlds stocked with characters, the ways story characters are formed and deployed, and the ways those characters are positioned against/with/by the storyteller, allowing the storyteller’s identity to emerge. This article is an analysis of the relationship between the storyteller and the story world and the storyteller’s process of constructing an/other in order to position in relation to that other. Ultimately, I argue that identity emerges for the storyteller in the way she or he constructs characters in a story and then positions in relation to those characters.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document