Here is an example of a low-stakes Discussion Board (as through Blackboard) or Blog assignment that can really address the meat of the material without becoming a mini-essay, while allowing students to learn from each other and engage in Digital Writing.
(click image to enlarge)
Start the Discussion Board (or the Blog entry) with a quote from the material you are reading in class (here it is Act II of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet):
Had she affections and warm youthful blood,The first student to Reply to the Discussion Board, or post a Comment to the Blog entry will identify (speaker, context) and analyze the quote (what does the quote mean? what is the quote doing?), and then offer a second quote from the material for the next student to respond to (like a game of telephone):
She’d be as swift in motion as a ball;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me:
But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
(2.4.12-17)
This is Juliet alone speaking about her nurse out loud while she waits for her to come back with news about Romeo. Juliet basically is talking about how slowly the nurse is because of her old age, and if she had been younger she would be able to bring the news faster. Although the nurse helps Juliet throughout her affair with Romeo, Juliet still becomes frustrated with her companion at times, and is allowed to show her irritation because of her higher rank. When the nurse returns to Juliet with news of Romeo, despite Juliet being very eager to hear the news, the nurse is out of breath and teases about her own old age, making Juliet wait even longer. The nurse character is more of a maternal and friendly character to Juliet than Juliet’s own parents are, and she would never speak to her parents in the candid way that she speaks to and about the nurse.
Next quote:
“O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,And, likewise, the third student would interpret the quote and then add a quote of his own (see image above for a fuller example).
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
(2.2.109-111)
In this way, students can learn from each other, can connect main themes between quotes, and will have to read the previous work of students in order to not repeat a quote.
The chain can end with a student selecting a quote from Act III (if this assignment will be used again), or can link the last quote back to the first quote in some way (perhaps the last quote also reveals something about Juliet’s rank, or the nurse’s maternal role as a messenger).
This assignment can easily be modified based on existing Discussion Board requirements (such as a minimum sentence requirement, or responding to x number of students by name in response), and offers a way for online or hybrid classes to foster dialogue between students without too much guidance from instructors.
Discussion Board or Blog Assignment for Literature Courses
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