Reflective Blog Entry

When I used my "writing what we teach" assignment in my 110 course, I gave hard copies to all students rather than simply putting it up on an overhead. I did this because I wanted the students to be able to write notes on their own copy as well as to have it as an example for later.
I first had the students read the essay silently and then we discussed it together and as we went through it, either I or the students made mention of places in the text where margin notes were appropriate and the students wrote them in. I focused these notes on examples of textual support, irrelevant tangents, and misspellings.
I kept Lisa Delpitt's pedagogy of a directive style in mind through this lesson. The students knew the example I was giving them was my own and although it was a work in progress, it was something they should try to a certain extent to model.
I also kept Rene Girard's theory of mimesis in mind because although I wanted my students to imitate me and follow my example, I wanted to show them that they need to adhere to the proper format while still finding a way to make their own textual analysis unique, rather than being a recreation of mine.
My earlier blog explains how students reacted to the activity (see my critical analysis).