Laptops, Concepts, and Discovery

Using the laptop as an effective discovery tool has been a persistent challenge in my English 101 class. The course is held in a lab. Student, who sit at tables or along U-shaped pods, bring their laptops to class every day. I require work on them every day. While they sit workingk, I can walk around easily checking each student's work on their screens. Somedays the class works very well, others not. This is the story of a day that went pretty well.

It is the end of the semester, the last day actually. At this point I can, finally, I believe, begin to teach them about effective style. We have been working on style the last few class periods. Today I decided to inroduce them to Francis Christensen's Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence, a concept he introduced in a slim volume in the lat 60s. To do so I had them all open Word and type in the sentence 'She ran quickly to the store.' For the next 20 minutes we worked on creating sentences that added information about one of the words in that sentence. First they all wrote a sentence that told about _She_, then about _quickly_, and lastly about_ store_. The sentences about _she_ tended to fall into two types: physical details and psychological details. Physical detail sentences tended to fall along the lines of _Her hair bounced as she ran._ or _She was running so hard that she started to sweat._ Psychological details focused on her mental condition: _She was worried because she knew the store closed in a few minutes._ The other two exercises were similar.

Then I added a complication. I had them write a second sentence about the last phrase in their 'store' sentence. If the store sentence was. _At the household section she picked out some clearning supplies _, they had to add something about the phrase 'picked out cleaning supplies:" something like _She put a stiff brush and two bottles of 409 into her cart._

After we worked through as a group on each of these sentences, a few students reading theirs aloud to the class, I had them write a new seven-sentence paragraph in which they combined all that we had done. They had to write the initial sentence and then one about each of the three concepts (_she, quickly, store) and then for each concept, they had to add a second sentence.

I went around to each student, making a praising comment (which was easy to do, as most of the sentences were interesting), and giving a revision tip. For instance one young woman tried to comment on 'she's' physical size, but was so cumbersome in her phrasing that it was nearly impossible to tell what she meant. I showed her a more direct way to phrase it. Some students had trouble adding the second sentence, and I showed them what to focus on in the first. Amazingly, to me, a number of the students called out to me, asking me to come back to see their revisions.

After we finished that (patience, I will get to a pedagogical point soon), I had them write, at one student's suggestion, _He walked the dog._ They then had to write a sentence about one of the three concepts in that sentence, and then another sentence about one of the concepts in the new, added sentence. After we practiced, and several read theirs outloud, they had to write six sentences, each one telling about the phrase that ended the previous one: _He walked the dog. It pulled vigorously at the leash. It was eager to get to the fire hydrant. The red object seemed to pull the dog like a magnet._

Once again I went around the room, checking each person's. Many people handed me their laptops to be sure I read theirs. As before I found an item to praise and a tip to give. I was impressed to notice that most of the sentences were much better in this second exercise. It was as if they were no longer doing an assignment: they were expressing themselves.

The entire process I have detailed took about 40 minutes. When we finished the last exercise, I introduced Christensen's concepts. I explained that there were two, and only two, ways to structure information either they could do (the first exercise)
A.
1.
a.
2.
a.
3.
a.

Or they could do (the second exercise)

A.
1.
a
(1)
(a)


They got it. Christianson explains, with numerous professional examples, that these two patterns, called _coordinate_ and _subordinate_, are the basis of all effective sentences, and that the ability to control the patterns is the basis of sophisticated style.

I have tried to teach this concept before, but I have always started out with the outline and had students write to fill in the outline. This time I reversed the process, giving them experience first and _then- hooking their experience (which at this point is 'old' knowledge to the concepts, which are 'new' knowledge.

What I did, then, was use controlled discovery. They discovered the patterns with my help, struggling, first, to simply get something down, but then to express something. After they had struggled, then I could meaningfully show them the concept. At that point they could have the 'aha' moment we teachers all live for.

I had them do this on their laptops. At first there was some 'interference' or 'static' because instant messages kept popping up and getting answered, but as the hour went on, the number of obvious answering went down. Since it was the last day, I did not have them do the thing I usually do with this kind of exercise--post it to a discussion board, where I and every one else in class can read it. I could have created a forum in Learn@UWStout, required them to post it, and added points for their performance. However the points would have been merely the last step in the process. They already had the basic concept, and I had already told them what they had done well, and one place where they could improve.

What I found here was that I had discovered a way to have them focus on interacting with their laptops. Once I had that--and I have to say that I cannot create this every time, I had them engaged and using their laptops to assist their engagement. In addition the small groups assisted the process. I heard any number of students read their sentences to others in their group.

The usual way that I have had of presenting concepts--first the general, and then the practice, is thus reversed, though I was more pleased with this way of handling Christensen, than I ever have before. I have more to work out about all this. Not only are concept and practice strategies relevant, so too are the small groups and the open, lab arrangement of the learning space. However, what is clear to me is that I have to find a different presence in the class in order to 'triangulate' students, concepts, and laptops.
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Christensen, Francis. Notes Toward a New Rhetoric: Six Essays for Teachers (New York: Harper and Row, 1967).