Patrick Higgins's Profile

The problem with 40 students is that there is no way to read (much less comment upon) every post if every student is posting every week. I am toying then with a rotation model (inspired by Randy Bass),  in which students are divided into five groups of  eight students, cycling through these five roles:

• Role 1 – Students are “first readers,” posting initial questions and insights about the reading to the class blog by Monday morning
• Role 2 - Students are “respondents,” building upon, disagreeing with, or clarifying the first readers’ posts by class time on Tuesday
• Role 3 - Students are “synthesizers,” mediating and synthesizing the dialogue between first readers and respondents by Thursday
• Role 4 - Students are responsible for the week’s class notes (see next section on Wikis)
• Role  5 – Students have this week “off” in terms of blogging and the wiki

I like the rotation model because each group of students is reading for and reacting to something different. The shifting positionality affords them greater traction, offers greater variety, and guarantees a dialogue without comments from myself.