Thinking Aloud

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What else might we do here besides open that door?

#CritPrax Letter of Hopes & Intentions

Our #CritPrax DHSI course begins tomorrow! What are your expectations for the week? Here are my intentions for the time we share together.
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This broken egg reminds us that failure is often necessary, even in writing. How can we teach students to embrace failure and revision when they've been taught that one draft is sufficient?

Revision: Writing Through Failure

Writing affords us the ability to revise our ideas before delivering them. Here’s why writing classes should teach through failure.
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A small statue of a shushing finger in front of a face rests on a shelf. In the background, stacks of books. What information do we lose by removing sound from our texts?

In Defense of Sound

The sound of student writing tells us more than the content alone. Reading text aloud brings life to the words.
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A chain-link fence has been damaged through forceful impact. Hyperlinks, too, provide shape and surface to texts, and they also have expected patterns to follow.

Rhetorical Hyperlinks

Teaching students to effectively use digital rhetoric starts with a simple tool: Students need to learn how to make good hyperlinks.
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Who has the authority to go past "authorized personnel only" signs? Who gets to say?

America Has an Authority Problem

We teach children to respect and follow authority without teaching them how to build their own authority. Can we afford to let that continue?
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An album's success tells us more about genres and expectations than it says about musical quality

Enacting Genres, Grammy-Style(s)

Looking at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards through the lens of genres helps explain why Beyoncé amazed but didn’t win Best Album.
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A pile of various colorful stamps, mostly canceled and weathered. What discourse communities do they represent?

Discourse Communities: Building Identities, Sharing Expectations

John Swales listed the six characteristics that qualify groups as discourse communities. Here's why they matter and how to understand them.
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Stylized lettering adding visual distinctiveness to an outdoor wall

The Visual Literacies of Writing

Writing requires visual literacies, which too often go unacknowledged. Students need to learn about readability and effective document design.
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