Multi-Modal Reading Response Logs

Here is how these multi-modal reading response logs are described on one syllabus. The bracketed explanation is how they are explained to the class.

Presented in a variety of ways, these are responses to the assigned readings. Their primary purpose is to help all of us connect with the readings in a variety of ways. Think of them as a way to jump-start discussions or review concepts. Worth up to 20 points each, the Responses to Readings are due five times during the semester, in specific "rounds," and are worth up to 100 points for all five. Each person will have a chance to respond once in each of five different formats:

• voice-mail reading log (a 1-2 minute call to the instructor's voice mail, the day before the class due date. That way, the calls can be listened to and discussed in class that day. )

  [Voice-mail gives individuals a chance to talk to the instructor, uninterrupted, for a full two minutes - before the tape cuts them off - in which case they can call back and continue their entry. In a large class, it's hard for every single person to get the teacher's ear for even that amount of time. It's especially hard if the individual is shy or soft-spoken and other students dominate the discussion. With voice mail, the instructor hears each person's voice, and each student has his or her undivided attention for as long as the student wants to speak into the telephone.]

• a 250-word, e-mailed reading response log to the instructor, copied to entire class.

  [E-mail is, of course, writing, but the informal kind that e-mail encourages.
  It goes to the whole class, and everyone is encouraged to jump into the conversation.]

• a conventional written log (preferably word-processed), 250 words, handed in.
  
  
• a sketched, drawn, or graphed response to any of the class readings and presented to the class (using overhead, board, poster, computer, etc.)

  [In some classes, the "sketched" response more often than not is words written in outline form, defined by other words. It takes a while, especially with English majors, to get them thinking visually. However, sometimes sketched responses to readings can enhance a class discussion and help people form reactions to, and remember, complex articles.]

• a 3-D log. A 10-15 minute response that may be one of a number of things: sculpture, drama, role-play, pipe cleaners, dance, interview, Tinkertoys, Toobers and Zots, yarn, music, etc.

  [For this option, students have written songs, made videos, designed Web pages, brought in models using shoe boxes and miniature furniture, created a yarn Web, and written a short play. If one or two people in the class do something really insightful and creative with this, other people will also push the envelope on this option.]