Hi Doug,

 

Although I could hardly call myself a “dedicated Inkshedder,” I teach an elective course in Engineering called “Language and Power”, which is essentially a playful survey of rhetoric from Aristotle to modern.  I use a variation of Inkshedding – perhaps a hybrid with free-writing – where students write index cards on a particular topic of discussion (today for instance, we were playing with Aristotle’s topoi from The Rhetoric 2.23 ) and then pass their card to another student who comments, refutes, adds support etc. After a few “passes”, the cards become rich points for discussion within small groups in the class.

 

The students love it. They laugh at each other, they push each other to think harder, and they engage with the material. So it’s been a win.  I had one student say to me after taking the course a few years ago, “I see what you were doing, you didn’t want us to learn stuff, you wanted us to experience it.”  I’ve mused about that dichotomy.

 

If you want more about it, let me know.

 

Rob Irish

 

 

Hi all,

 

I am planning to make an informal presentation to a local writing conference here in Virginia on using Inkshedding in the classroom. I know that some dedicated Inkshedders have made this switch from a conference tool to a classroom tool, and I’d really appreciate it if you could share your stories of what you did with it. Specifically, I’d be interested in hearing:

 

·       Which courses did you used it and how much?

·       What makes you think it’s more valuable than old standbys like journaling, freewriting, etc.?

·       How have you adapted the basic formula of listening to a few presentations, writing comments by hand and throwing them in a pile, trading them around, and eventually publishing excerpts? Have you tried it in electronic environments, for instance?

·       Have you received any feedback from students?

·       Are you aware of any potential drawbacks to this practice? How have you worked around them?

·       If you tried it and stopped, what made you stop? In what ways did Inkshedding fail to live up to your expectations?

 

And of course, anything else that you think might be helpful for others to know about Inkshedding. If you’re aware of others who have written about the subject, that would be really helpful too – I have Russ Hunt’s well-known piece “What Is Inkshedding,” but I’m sure there have been others buried in the Inkshed newsletter archives and other places.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Doug

 

Dr. Doug Brent

Professor, Department of Communication, Media and Film

University of Calgary

 

Visiting Professor (August 2014-May 2015)

Department of English

Old Dominion University

Norfolk, Virginia

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL-L command to [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]

To view or search the list archives, go to https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CASLL-L -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-