On most Thursdays discussion with be peer-facilitated -- that means the members of one group will be responsible for composing questions, fielding comments, making connections, and keeping us on topic.
I will be facilitating the facilitators to ensure that each gets a chance to speak and respond. This is an opportunity to practice leading and moderating a conversation.
To prepare, come up with a few fruitful questions that engage the day's readings. You'll want to write down these ideas so you can refer to them in class. Some strategies include:
- identifying a passage that you'd like to work through in detail
- suggesting a difficult concept that could use clarification
- formulating relationships between the assigned texts
- inviting observations about the intersections of the theories and particular digital artifacts
(see the handout on "Critical Reading Toward Critical Writing" for more ideas)
You should also look over the blog responses from that week if possible. Building on your classmates' work is another great way to generate discussion questions. You could:
- bring up aspects of an essay that you don't understand
- propose answers to or productive ways of addressing questions raised in an essay
- indicate additional elements or examples that you think support or contradict an essay's argument
This assignment does not receive an individual grade -- combined with your collaborative class notes and general participation it is worth 16% of your final grade.
