Interstitial Options
In one of the instructional posts you have been asked to read1, you’ll find this Latin phrase: Verba volant, scripta manent. It is the idea that “spoken words fly away, [while] written words remain.” It’s important enough to the philosophy in here that we probably want it posted on the wall as part our burgeoning creative clutter.
Why? Well, we live in a hypertextual world, which means that we can communicate through the Internet in ways that were unimaginable even 20 years ago. The written word is more permanent, more accessible, and more immediate.
Face-to-face discussion, of course, remains as powerful as ever in a classroom environment. What we want to do is to expand that environment to include interstitial options, like this website and Google Classroom. I’ve tried to explain the evolution of it in this essay, which you are encouraged to read. Here’s what Neil Postman had to say about it, in what is probably another lock for the classroom wall:
Writing makes it possible and convenient to subject thought to a continuous and concentrated scrutiny. Writing freezes speech and in so doing gives birth to the grammarian, the logician, the rhetorician, the historian, the scientist — all those who must hold language before them so that they can see what it means, where it errs, and where it is leading.
I’m repeating a lot of what you’ve already been told, but that’s the point: The more often we write down our ideas, the more we are able to revisit and refine them. The more we think in writing, the clearer those thoughts become. It’s an act of iteration, and we need to experiment with tools that let us iterate and collaborate better.
Some of you are already using the comment section of this website to ask questions and engage with the material. That’s great. You’re also sharing documents through Google Drive and leaving comments on each other’s writing in Docs. That’s great, too. Your next stop is Google+ Communities, which were fairly successful last year:
Look at those online communities, make note of how students are interacting, and consider how we can adapt Google+ for this year. You can build your own Google+ Community that is as focused (e.g., on a single table in a single period) or as expansive (e.g., the entire junior class) as you want. I want you to find time over the next two or three weeks to experiment. Those of you who have already built a Community need to share your findings with others.
One way to share our thinking and bolster a community is to use this subreddit:
It hasn’t been utilized in more than a year, but I think it could be rebooted to be tremendously helpful in here. It exists outside the technical boundaries of the school, yet runs under the auspices of the course. It isn’t just an extension of Room 210. It’s a subreddit about carving meaning out of difficult circumstances and using language to transform ourselves and our surroundings. It’s about becoming better people by hacking our current habits and mindsets. It’s part of a makerspace, and that kind of work continues long after you graduate and see your BHS Google account deleted.
At least, it could exist in that capacity. You’ll see that some of the erstwhile moderators are graduates, and I’ll reach out to them to see about their interest in remaining part of the community. I’ll also invite you to think about becoming a mod yourself, if this idea takes off.
The first thing I’d like you to try to do with one or more of these interstitial options is to share your Pareto Project ideas with each other. These projects are a great example of makerspace work that doesn’t require a classroom to be successful. Note carefully that this is not a formal assignment; it’s directed mostly at the students who fit (or are hoping to fit) the highest profiles. This is another example of doing more than just what is required, and it’s absolutely the best kind of galvanizing, infrastructural work you should be doing.
Ask questions below about how to get started with Reddit, Google+, etc, and offer suggestions about what else might help us work together interstitially. One of you has suggested Discord, for instance, so I’m looking into that. What else might fit our makerspace?
There’s no hyperlink, because you need to start making those connections on your own, at least eventually. Everything connects, and most things are reiterated again and again. If you can’t see the bigger picture, let me know, and I’ll help fill it in. ↩
The idea about using our writing to help us refine and return to ideas later rings very true to me. I feel that the more I am writing outside and in class, the higher the capacity I have to explore my thoughts in an efficient and thought-provoking way.
In period 9, a group of students and I have started experimenting with Google+ Community. So far, our community mostly consists of links to ramiform reading that we have all found individually that we would like to discuss interstitially when other work occupies our class time. I have also started using posts as a mechanism by which to organize myself, often by listing topics I hope to discuss in the future and to make announcements (like what day we are going to be working in the library, etc.). So far, I think we are using the community as a helpful way to share what we are spending our interstitial time on. However, it is impossible to replace a face-to-face discussion in class to a few typed words commenting on a post on the community so I would like to find a way to organize myself so that I have done most of my personal writing outside of class and I am then free to have discussions when I am in class… while the community is helping us share important information, we still haven’t found a way to make it work in a discussion capacity. So here we see again that we are constantly trying to hack the course to make it work when and how we want it to. I would definitely recommend trying to use a community- it does not take much energy to set up but it is a great way to share digital resources and to extend the feedback loop into interstitial space.
This post reminds me of something Ms. Mctigue said to us last year: fake it ‘till you make it. She was explaining to us if you produce fake or half-hearted evidence to receive a higher grade and you fool her, then good job. By doing this, you are only teaching yourself how to be a better student, and by the end of the year, you will authentically be reaching the top tier of profiles. If you only wish to meet the basic requirements in this course, you will still have to interact with Mr. Eure, read and write diligently, and collaborate with your peers in order to fill the class period. There is hardly an in between, the bare minimum requires a large investment.
You might have seen a copy of this section of a longer post, since it deals specifically with “faking it” in a grade-abated class. I put it together for the Pre-AP classes two years ago. You could probably learn something from the longer post in its entirety, too. I have to revisit it in light of some of the other system updates, but glancing over it, 90% still applies.
Are we going to be making a google community for our entire class (period 2) or is that up to us whether or not it will be made? I think we should so that we are able to hear ideas from others that we don’t sit with everyday. I see google communities as an outside of class discussion which will probably prove to be very successful and help in our collaborative environment. Espiecally because we will most likely not be able to have class disscussions everyday so we will have google communities as an outlet to intersititially disscuss with one another. Also a major benefit of having a class google community is allowing people who are not comfortable to speak in face to face class discussion a way to make their ideas heard and share them with everyone. Personally, I don’t like speaking in front of a large group of people so I know this will benefit me greatly.
I agree that we should make a Google+ community for all of period 2 to join. How about one for all of the AP Language classes; the more Pareto Projects and thoughts we can read about the better right? Or maybe we can just have the Google + community for period 2 like you suggested, and then make a reddit for all of the AP Language periods or vise versa???
I agree Christie, I think it would be helpful to see others ideas who we don´t with or aren´t necessarily friends with. It would be interesting to see others thoughts and perspectives. I also would prefer to type my responses on the classroom rather than presenting in front of the class.
Yes Christie, I think Google+ Community is a great resource. I typically use it with my table to share links to what we are doing outside of class and to list topics that we want to discuss in class in the future so everyone can be prepared to have those conversations. I believe that you can see it if you go on Communities (it’s called AP Language ’17 (period 9))… so far we have used it pretty regularly. However, I have found that it might be difficult to have large groups of students commenting on things, just because any one post would get so overwhelmed by comments that it would be hard to find a comment again or check if anyone responded to a particular comment. So far, commenting here on Sisyphean High seems to be more effective in terms of allowing for a lot of students to contribute, but then of course, it has to be on a topic Mr. Eure has started and we don’t have the ability to add our own posts. So I guess this is something that we’ll have to figure out. I’m looking forward to investigating Discord like Victor suggested; it seems like a great means of communication.
Regarding “spoken words fly away,” I think it is even moreso true with thoughts, which are incredibly fleeting. I was thinking about making some sort of journal to record random, interesting, sometimes kind of philosophical thoughts that often run through my head, and I think I will now after reading this article.
Regarding Discord, I am familiar with it and it is a very organized communication app. There can be multiple channels, and I think if we use it for this class, we could have a different channel for each topic, like one for Pareto Projects and another for sharing our writing. I think it would be cool to see all the conversations going on at once, in the organized chaotic manner Mr. Eure mentioned earlier in the year.
I had the same idea about the journal or recording space for keeping significant words or thoughts on paper as Victor. Sometimes an amazing thought comes to us that could be applied to many of our classes and our lives. So jotting down our random thoughts that come to us when we are not calling for them could be critical to being successful.
I agree with this as well, spoken words can be forgotten and are not as reliable as what is written down. Also being able to look back at written words shows us how much we have improved over time.
I like this idea, Sarah. I didn’t think about it this was at first, but it’s definitely true that we need to show improvement or growth throughout the triptych, quarter and school year, and you’re right- how could we be able to demonstrate that growth if we didn’t write anything down? In order to pin down specifically (not just in a general sense) how we have improved, we need to be able to point to comments that we posted, reflections that were written, responsive writings that were completed, the number of assignments on Classroom that we submitted, etc… all of which lend themselves to opening two files on our chromebooks and taking the time to compare them to figure out how we have improved and what factors led to that improvement.
I made a google community, but I’m trying to figure out if it would be more beneficial to keep it intermediate or class wide.
And if I were to expand my community to other peers, when would be the best time to do that?
I think that both ideas are great, so maybe you should just make both an intermediate and class-wide google community. After some time using them each, you can determine which one you like better (or maybe you will like them each the same) and find more interesting/useful, and focus more of your own time and effort into that one.
I think that the best time to expand your community to your peers (if you choose to do that) would be during the 36th chamber. During our class period you can talk face to face to your peers about it and address any issues or questions they have concerning how to use the google community.
The Google Community that Olivia, Rachel, Colleen, Brendan and I have in period 9 is very useful for sharing resources that we discovered interstitially- sometimes things that will help with Pareto Projects or as tangential points of study from the classwork. Sharing ideas is crucial, which would seem to indicate that the larger the community, the better. However, it can be overwhelming being a part of a community that is too large because then you don’t have time to explore everything. A compromise between the two extremes is likely to be the best solution.
The point of a large Google Community, to me, is not to sit down for multiple hours to read, analyze, and respond to every person’s ideas. Instead, it is to look at the ideas of the people you don’t talk to, basically, the people you are not friends with. Making a Google Community between the people you are close with or sit with during AP Lang could be seen as pointless, because you can just engage in a conversation about Pareto Projects or classwork right there. We’ve all been going to school together for a very long time now, but how many of us have the same people in our classes year after year, yet don’t recognize the potential of others because we are not friends with them? The answer is probably a lot. By creating a large, interactive Google Community, we can help each class, and even both AP Lang classes to become closer, and not so exclusive. I see how not being able to explore everything could be an annoyance, but interacting with new people is far more important for a class that is not based on traditional grading. This may also help with Sasha’s idea of an anonymous compliment box, because if our classes are more open to discussing with people we may not always talk to, everyone would feel more comfortable collaborating and giving each other compliments. 🙂
I agree, sometimes it’s hard for some kids to break out of their shell and be comfortable enough around new people to share something as personal as writing or their own thoughts and takeaways from texts but online it can be easier. Of course, we need to interact in real life as well but posting and commenting online with people you might not otherwise talk to, is a good way to start getting comfortable.
I love the way you considered the “cons” for Google Community, as for the most part, it is seen as a positive resource. I still think that it has the potential to be just that, but I do agree that we need to take into consideration as to whether or not it should be between those who we work with everyday, or even those who we’ve worked with over the past years. Therefore, I agree that Google Community, if used between varying groups within the class or even between classes, could be a very beneficial resource.
I think that by creating a place where we can write ideas and share them, we can communicate better instead of talking to each other and forgetting what we both said 5 minutes later. This hub like are may lead to people communicating more creative ideas for an assignment instead of some generic and bland idea that has been used before.
I agree with having a resource where we can look back on in classroom discussions. Rather than communicating in person without jotting their ideas down to eventually forget it in the long run. It should be shared with everyone in the classroom that way no one would be lost with the different assignments or discussions that take place in the class.
I think you are right about needing to turn back to comments to re-analyze feedback and re-examine what we are working on. It’s also true that everyone should have access to everyone else’s ideas. However, I worry that due to the mass of comments on here, that we will not be able to find specific comments again. Do you think this will be the case as we accumulate posts? Or is there another forum we can use to post comments to keep more organized?
I think that creating a Google+ Community is a great idea. Not only does it let your friends/classmates analyze and comment on your work, it also helps you to take in feedback and use that feedback to make your writing better than it was before. It’s just like the article from the beginning of the year “How Feedback Should Work”. Absorb the feedback that others give you, whether it’s good or bad, and use that feedback to strengthen your writing. Having a Google+ Community is a great way to do that since you can “publish” your work to a select community so you could have the other members in that community comment on your work. I’ve used this tool in the past, and personally I find it very helpful. I believe it will help everyone else too.
I agree with John, I think that a Google+ Community is a great idea too. It gives you the feedback you always want from your teacher, but now it is even easier to get it from your peers/friends. Sometimes your peers know exactly how to help you with your writing or inspire you in ways that your teachers can’t.
In regard to what was written about using google + communities, my table has one. We made one at the beginning of the year so that we could share ideas and get feedback from each other. I think it has really helped all of us to understand how this class works and how to do the assignments.