RRRR (Read, React, Respond, Reflect)
For every assigned text in EL250, including an article, a section from a book, a game, or a video, I am asking every student to contribute to an online discussion.
First we will start out simply posting a comment to the appropriate page on the EL 250 website.
But once everyone has had some time to experiment with the SHU weblog system, I'm asking for everyone to employ this four-step process, designed to prepare for a productive online discussion.
- Read the assigned text (or play the game, or watch the video clip, etc.).
- React by posting an "agenda item" (see FAQ) to the weblog I have given you.
- Respond to 2-4 items posted by your peers (that is, leave comments on their blogs)
- Reflect on the reading in a 200-word informal essay (see "reflection paper" in the glossary).
When there is more than one page listing assigned readings for a day, I am asking for you to do more than one RRRR sequence for that day. (At first, I'll make sure to spell this out for you for each day, but eventually I'm going to expect you to start initiating the RRRR sequence on your own.)
Rather than counting the number of words on your blog, I'm interested in seeing you engage intellectually with the course content and your peers, whether you do that on your own blogs, on the course blog, or in the comments you leave on peer blogs.
The process of reading, reacting, responding, and reflecting is part of all critical thinking and writing. In our online community, we will practice, in an informal manner, the intellectual activity that goes into the production of a college-level research paper.
While your agenda items and lengthier reflections should be a little more formal, when you leave comments, don't worry too much about typos or grammatical mistakes. Feel free to use :) and LOL if you like.
