At this point, you can ask students to either 1) do Exercise 2.2 in class (or one of the writing activities on beliefs about reading in the Instructor’s Manual) or 2) have them share what they’ve written for Exercise 2.2 (or another assignment about reading beliefs). When discussing, have students put their beliefs on sticky notes, stick them on the wall or white board, and then move them into categories. Their categories can then allow you to shift to the next slide and emphasize the most harmful belief.Exercise 2.2: A Reader’s MemoirThis activity parallels the writing literacy memoir in Chapter 1, focusing this time on reading. Have students respond to this exercise as they are reading the chapter; it prepares them to understand the sections that follow about reading as a process and reading to write. This exercise leads naturally into the chapter’s discussion about “Reading Situations and Rhetorical Choices,” as well as “Reading as a Process.”
Point out how many sticky notes on the wall reflect this belief that meaning resides in the text to be dug up by the reader. If students also have Post-its that reflect some of the purposes of academic reading, use those to transition to the next slide on the purposes of reading academic texts.
As you review these four purposes, you might refer to students’ responses to Exercise 2.3:Exercise 2.3: Reading a LifeThis exercise (on page 49) asks students to “read” a photograph taken of a woman’s dressing table, titled “Ruth’s Vanity (on the day she died),” by applying the four frames of reading that they have just been introduced to. Students should refer to the sidebar “Reading the Visual” for tips on how to understand the language of a visual text. Ballenger also notes that this writing activity is connected to the ethnography essay in Chapter 9, so you might loop back to this exercise when you assign Chapter 9.
Discuss the reading scenarios in the chapter.Consider discussing Exercise 2.3: Reading a Life if you haven’t already.This exercise (page 49) asks students to “read” a photograph taken of a woman’s dressing table, titled “Ruth’s Vanity (on the day she died),” by applying the four frames of reading that they have just been introduced to. Students should refer to the sidebar “Reading the Visual” for tips on how to understand the language of a visual text. Ballenger also notes that this writing activity is connected to the ethnography essay in Chapter 9, so you might loop back to this exercise when you assign Chapter 9. The next slide presents the four purposes for reading in the same format as that for writing (from Chapter 1).
Key strategies for students to learn.Emphasize that you will expect students to write with everything they read in this class, and they should use several of the strategies from this chapter.
A variety of ways to write while reading.
Discuss the double-entry journal using the slides in this section and referring to the example in the chapter. In addition, have student discuss their responses to Exercise 2.4 and 2.5.
Consider including an example of another student’s double-entry journal to show students what one might look like. This slide transitions into the next section, Wrestling with Academic Discourse, because it offers reading strategies that can be applied to academic texts.In small groups, students should discuss their responses to Exercise 2.4 and/or 2.5:Exercise 2.4: Double-Entry Journaling with a Visual Text This activity prompts students to analyze an ad for Old Spice using the rhetorical analysis tools they’ve been introduced to. This time, however, they will respond to the writing prompts using a double-entry journal, which Ballenger has just described. Students should refer to the sidebar “Reading the Visual” for tips on how to understand the language of a visual text, as well as Figure 2.4 for tips on keeping a double-entry journal. In this type of response, students literally have to separate what they are reading from what they are thinking. This helps them visually to see the dialogue they need to have with the text; it also forces them to slow down when they read, consciously put it in their own words, and practice inquiry-based habits of mind. As Ballenger notes, this exercise connects to Chapter 7 and writing arguments, so you might loop back to this activity when you assign Chapter 7.Exercise 2.5: Reading Creatively, Reading Critically For this exercise, students read Ballenger’s short piece, “The Importance of Writing Badly,” and apply the inquiry strategies just discussed in the chapter, using the double-entry journal technique. When discussing students’ responses in class, refer to the sidebar “One Student’s Response: Briana’s Journal.”
At this point, students can discuss their responses to Exercise 2.6.Exercise 2.6: Reading Reality TVThis activity is a way to introduce students to the idea of academic discourse that Ballenger has just introduced in the section “Wrestling with Academic Discourse.” Students read two excerpts on reality TV, one from an academic journal and the other from a website. Then, students are prompted to analyze each excerpt using the strategies discussed so far. The final step in the exercise asks students to compose a 250-word response to the following questions (these responses can be blog posts, discussion board posts, written responses, etc.):What are some distinguishing characteristics between the discourse of criminology and the discourse of popular writing on the web? How might these differences influence how you read and use each as a college writer and a reader writing a paper on reality TV?This exercise works well to introduce students to analyzing academic discourse and preparing them for the chapter’s next section on typical features in academic writing. If students are struggling to understand what this section means, try one of the “Additional Activities” below, which asks them to read different genres and reflect on their reading process. In the end, one of the more important goals of this chapter is to help students see that the more we understand the ways in which reading is a process, the more control we can have over how we read. The next two slides visually represent some of the common features in academic discourse that students can look for when they read.
Consider asking students to annotate their academic reading by identifying these common features in the margins.
You might bring in examples to illustrate each of these qualities.The next slide is summary of the points covered in this chapter.