This document outlines some practical classroom activities for collaborative composition. It begins by defining collaboration and exploring the historical basis in theorists like Bakhtin, Barthes, and Foucault. Benefits of collaboration are discussed, including generating complex thought and mirroring real-world practices. The document provides a scaffolding model called IMSCI and describes establishing inquiry, modeling, shared writing, and independent writing. Additional collaborative activities are presented, such as using wikis and think-pair-share techniques.
1. Collaborative Composition
Histories:
Some Practical Classroom Activities
Monique Babin, English
Clackamas Community College
Oregon City, Oregon
CCHA Regional Conference – Portland Oregon,
Oct. 2012
2. Agenda
How do we define collaboration?
What is the history of collaborative
composition theory?
What are some benefits to
collaboration?
How do we help students
achieve successful
collaboration?
What can we conclude?
3. Collaborative learning includes . . .
Peer tutoring
Peer response
Small group and class discussion
Co-authored texts
Group papers (Viggiano)
4. Theoretical Basis for Collaboration
Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975)
Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980)
Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984)
Kenneth Bruffee
Patricia Bizzell
David Bartholomae
5. Mikhail Bakhtin
Language and communication are . . .
Dialogic
A product of social interaction and
recreation
Made up of utterances that belong to
speech genres
Contextual and
intertextual (Brandist)
6. Roland Barthes
The author is no longer the sole origin
of a text‟s meaning.
To view the author as central to the
meaning of the text is an act of
suppression of difference.
With no final meaning signified, we
have only the text. (Allen)
“The text is a fabric of quotations
resulting from a thousand sources
of culture.”
7. Michel Foucault
The author is outside the text and
precedes it.
We classify works as characteristic of
an author (e.g. a poem is
Baudelairian).
The author becomes the expression of
the discourse rather than
the text being the
expression of the author.
8. Kenneth Bruffee
“Thought is internalized conversation.”
Therefore, though is not “an essential
attribute of the human mind,” but
rather “an artifact created by social
interaction.”
“If thought is internalized public and
social talk, then writing of all kinds is
internalized social talk made public and
social again.”
9. Patricia Bizzell & David Bartholomae
Students have to “appropriate . . . a
specialized discourse . . . mimicking its
language.” (Bartholomae)
We need to help students determine
the conventions and demystify them.
The writer “is in a constant tangle with the
language, obliged to recognize its public
communal nature and yet driven to invent out
of this language his own statements.”
(Bartholomae)
10. Benefits of Collaborative Writing
Forces writers to articulate thought
processes.
Provides peer models for students who
may be struggling.
Allows for more complex projects.
Builds relationships and community.
Generates higher order and more
complex thought.
Mirrors real-world practices.
(Viggiano)
11. Provide Scaffolding
I – Inquiry
M – Modeling
S – Shared Writing
C – Collaborative Writing
I – Independent Writing
(Read)
12. Inquiry
Present a sample
Read aloud
Ask student to identify predominant
features and conventions
Provide specific writing instruction
appropriate to the task
(Read)
13. Student Sample: Evaluation of a Work of Art
The ball could have been tiled illustrating a mosaic design of
Oregon only, however city officials thought it important to show the rich
diversity of the world through a mosaic design of ecological
awareness. The layers of saturated color add depth and dimension to
Eco-Earth. Each two inch by two inch tile was cut by volunteers to fit
the design of the 60 panels that comprise the ball. Oceans are a blend
of aqua blue in the deepest areas of the oceans, marine blue tiles flow
along the forms of the continents. The panels encircling the spherical
sculpture replicate the latitude and longitude lines of a globe. Many of
the icons depicting each individual ecological system are layered with
14. Student Sample: Evaluation of a Work of Art
brilliant colors thoughtfully chosen to consciously represent each
ecological environment. There is a whimsical nature about Eco-Earth
that appeals to children; this is evident in the mythological creatures
such as a mermaid that lies in the aqua tiled oceans. Planet Earth has
been portrayed using many different mediums of art, however what is
awe inspiring about Eco-Earth is the level of skill required to mortar
86,000 tiles onto a curved surface and unfold a unique depiction of our
planet. Eco-Earth . . . [makes] one contemplate why . . . it is vitally
important that we care for our Earth through educating ourselves on
the balance of people with our ecological environments.
17. Collaborative Writing
Student writing group assumes
complete responsibility
Students produce a single text or
parallel texts, but process is
collaborative
Process is particularly valuable to
English language
learners (Read)
19. Elbow’s Collaborative Collage
1. Arrange students in small groups and have them
write individually on a given topic.
2. Have students choose sections that they like best
and share them with the group.
3. Instruct students to create a collage from their
favorite pieces (sequence, additions, omissions,
transitions, etc. must all be determined). Any new
pieces are written individually, but revisions are
made as a group.
Students might also write a reflection that discusses the
group experience, along with the benefits and drawbacks of
working in a group. (Viggiano)
20. Additional Collaborative Activities
Post passages from class readings to a wiki
and have students provide annotations.
Assign student groups to lead weekly class
sessions.
Have students create or contribute to a
wiki-style encyclopedia or glossary.
Ask students to co-author a short story.
Remove an excerpt from a short story and
have students write the missing piece.
(Phillipson)
21. Additional Collaborative Activities
Have a small group of students (3 or 4)
work together to outline an argument.
Think-Pair-Share.
Pass the prompt freewrite.
Others?
24. Conclusions
The theoretical basis for collaborative
writing demonstrates the social nature of
language, thought, and communication,
and the need to introduce students to
collaborative learning and writing.
Instructors must model these processes
in the classroom and create clearly
defined collaborative activities.
25. References
Allen, Graham. “Roland Barthes.” New York: Routledge, 2003.
Print.
Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the University.” When a Writer
Can’t Write: Studies in Writer’s Block and Other Composing
Problems. Ed. Mike Rose. New York: Guilford, 1985. 273 –
85. Print.
Brandist, Craig. “The Bakhtin Circle.” Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. N.p. 15 Jul. 2005. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Bruffee, Kenneth. “Collaborative Learning and the „Conversation of
Mankind.‟” College English. 46.7 (1984): 635 – 52. Print.
Foucault, Michel. “What is an Author?” Twentieth Century Literary
Theory. Ed. Vassilis Lambropoulous and David Neal Miller.
New York: Albany State UP, 1987. 124 – 42. Print.
Phillipson, Mark. “Engaging in Collaborative Writing.” Enhanced:
New Media Tools and Resources for Enhancing Education. 12
Nov. 2007. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
26. References
Read, Sylvia. “A Model for Scaffolding Writing Instruction: IMSCI.”
Reading Teacher 64.1 (2010): 47-52. ERIC. Web. 14 Mar.
2011.
Viggiano, Emily. “Teaching Tip Sheet: Collaborative Writing.”
George Mason University. N.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Notes de l'éditeur
Why collaborate? Is it important for our students to learn collaborative skills? Will they be expected to work collaboratively beyond college?Issues in collaboration: What are some problems and obstacles to successful collaboration?Nature of collaboration: What about the ideas of authorship and the text are inherently collaborative? Why is it important to help students understand the collaborative nature of authorship and the text?How to achieve successful collaboration: once we have established the value of collaboration and have identified some of the obstacles, we will talk about how help students collaborate more effectively. If we are going to ask them to work in teams or to write collaboratively, we owe it to them to provide them with the tools that they need to have a successful collaborative experience. Students are no more prepared to collaborate than they are to accomplish any other specialized task that we are here to teach them. If we expect them to collaborate and to do it well, we must teach them.
Why collaborate? Is it important for our students to learn collaborative skills? Will they be expected to work collaboratively beyond college?Issues in collaboration: What are some problems and obstacles to successful collaboration?Nature of collaboration: What about the ideas of authorship and the text are inherently collaborative? Why is it important to help students understand the collaborative nature of authorship and the text?How to achieve successful collaboration: once we have established the value of collaboration and have identified some of the obstacles, we will talk about how help students collaborate more effectively. If we are going to ask them to work in teams or to write collaboratively, we owe it to them to provide them with the tools that they need to have a successful collaborative experience. Students are no more prepared to collaborate than they are to accomplish any other specialized task that we are here to teach them. If we expect them to collaborate and to do it well, we must teach them.
Why collaborate? Is it important for our students to learn collaborative skills? Will they be expected to work collaboratively beyond college?Issues in collaboration: What are some problems and obstacles to successful collaboration?Nature of collaboration: What about the ideas of authorship and the text are inherently collaborative? Why is it important to help students understand the collaborative nature of authorship and the text?How to achieve successful collaboration: once we have established the value of collaboration and have identified some of the obstacles, we will talk about how help students collaborate more effectively. If we are going to ask them to work in teams or to write collaboratively, we owe it to them to provide them with the tools that they need to have a successful collaborative experience. Students are no more prepared to collaborate than they are to accomplish any other specialized task that we are here to teach them. If we expect them to collaborate and to do it well, we must teach them.
Students have to learn to speak the language of the university and its disciplines. “They must learn to speak our language.”
What Elbow describes as becoming “conscious and articulate about rhetorical decision making.”Writing can be lonely.
There is some real value to collaboration. Discussions of authorship and text provide natural opportunities to discuss the collaborative nature of all writing and also the demands of audience and purpose. Audience and purpose are not always immediately understood by students (even when explicitly stated in the assignment) and opportunities to discuss these concepts (while exploring conflict and trying to reach consensus) are important. Face-to-face and online environments offer their own unique challenges to successful collaboration, and in each environment, there are important lessons to be learned about what makes certain types of collaboration more successful in one environment compared to the other.