Pedagogy Forum

We discussed how voice shifts according to audience and purpose, focusing on sentence structure and vocabulary choice. After creating a range of audiences, from most informal (instant messaging) to the most formal (the Queen of England), I gave them a purpose: instruct your audience on effective toothbrushing techniques. Here's what they came up with, from least to most formal.

IM: Teethbrusher55: grab ur toothbrush, apply paste (squeeze tube from bottom 4 best results). Wet tb b4 or after applying tp. Put tb in mouth. Start at side upper or lower teeth. Get all or as many teeth while brushing. Wait until end or while your brush you should spit it out and rinse. Also, should use mouthwash if you can!

To Your Mom (email): Hey mom just wanted to let you know how to brush your teeth. Gently place the toothpaste on the bristle part of the brush. Bring the toothbrush to your mouth and use an up and down motion. When finished rinse your mouth out with water and give the mirror a quick smile!

                        Xoxo, your daughter

To a Professor (letter): 

Dear Professor,

            To begin, squeeze the tube of toothpaste on to the bristles of the toothbrush. You don’t need to use too much though. After you have moistened the toothbrush, proceed to brush teeth firmly but not too hard. Brush in whichever patterns you desire, as long as it is a thorough job. Rinse teeth out when you are finished, but do not swallow. After of all this, you should give a big smile.

To Boss (memo)

• First, apply a moderate amount of toothpaste to the bristles of your toothbrush.
• Then place the head of your toothbrush under gently running water.
• Apply brush to teeth, continuing to brush in circular movements. Be sure to be thorough in brushing every tooth.
• Next, expel the excess toothpaste foam build-up into the sink and then continue by vigorously brushing your tongue.
• Lastly, fill your mouth with water from a cup, and swish it back and forth between the gaps of your teeth. Then gargle to remove excess foam from your tongue. Discard water into the sink.

The Queen

Your Supreme Highness—

It has come to my knowledge that you have been terribly wronged by your royal etiquette advisor. I was very disheartened when I discovered such saddening news. If the Queen would allow me, it would be my deepest pleasure to instruct thee on brushing thy teeth. To commence to brushing, first wetten the toothbrush followed by supplying a thin layer of toothpaste over the bristles of the brush. With a steady hand slowly bring the brush to thy teeth. On the recommendation of the world’s most renowned dentists, brush in a synchronized circular motion across thy pearly whites. The brushing should continue for approximately one and one-half minutes for the highest results reserved only for your majesty.

Here's an activity I recently used in WRTG108's 4th hour. Following an explanation of passive and active voice (guaranteed to confuse), students broke into groups. Each group was instructed to briefly narrate a traditional fairy tale, first in passive voice and then in active voice. Two groups read theirs aloud to the class. Here's one of the best:

Passive: There were three little pigs. They were told by their mother to live on their own. It was decided that each pig would build his own house. A house made of sticks was built by the first pig. A house of straw was built by the second pig, and a house of brick was built by the third and youngest pig.

Active: There were three little pigs who lived with their mother, and who were overstaying their welcome. One day Mother Pig told them to grow up and live on their own. Each pig decided to build a house of different material. The first pig, in a not-brilliant move, decided to construct his house of sticks. The second, equally ignorant, chose to build his house of straw. Obviously, he wasn’t concerned about fire hazards or random gusts of breath. The third little pig, the only one who inherited his mother’s common sense, drew up a construction plan, bought some bricks at Pig Home Depot and waddled out the door with his bricks. He constructed his house of bricks and lived happily ever after, while his idiot brothers were screwed. The end.

Struggling to work writing into your teaching life? Here are a few resources for finding ways to balance your dedication as a teacher with your own projects as a writer (of fiction, or scholarship, or whatever).

The Library of Congress has uploaded a large number of photographs to flickr. You can not only use them in your scholarship and/or teaching, but LOC is also hoping that folks will help to identify the subjects of the photographs through tagging. 

As we discuss various strategies for introducing some modicum of research into AWI, this could be extremely helpful. Not only would classes have access to primary texts, but it's an opportunity to talk about tagging. Students use tags on a regular basis, but may not recognize the revolutionary aspect of this process, which takes classification out of the hands of "experts" and into the hands of everyday folks. 

Here's a link to David Weinberger's book on this idea, complete with sample chapters, articles, and podcasts. And here's a link to a fascinating short video on YouTube that encapsulates the thinking behind Web 2.0 in a way that made sense even to me!