Smartphones and Sentence Diagrams: Stimulating Mindfulness in the Writing Classroom
Submission Type
20-minute Presentation
Abstract
We are accustomed to thinking of smart phones as distractions from the serious intellectual work of the classroom. This presentation explores strategies for incorporating these devices into writing classes (and into their online spaces) to assist students in cultivating mindfulness toward close reading and composition. Examining first how mindfulness aids students’ writing, I show how many traditional pedagogical practices, such as diagramming sentences, work best when they are explicitly used to make students more aware of their thought process while composing and revising. Not only can smartphones contribute to more dynamic, mindful lessons involving these traditional methods, they offer new and convenient tools for stimulating mindfulness within and beyond the classroom. For instance, assignments that require students to document and share their thoughts and experiences through their phones – via photos, dictated notes, recordings, emojis, and even tweets – encourage them to pay closer attention to the contents of their minds as they read and write. Sharing material from their phones in online course spaces and in the physical classroom not only aids students in revising their work but fosters a sense of the interconnectedness between our work in the classroom and their lives outside it.
Session
Poster
Location
Thomas Great Hall
Start Date
5-17-2017 5:45 PM
End Date
5-17-2017 7:30 PM
Smartphones and Sentence Diagrams: Stimulating Mindfulness in the Writing Classroom
Thomas Great Hall
We are accustomed to thinking of smart phones as distractions from the serious intellectual work of the classroom. This presentation explores strategies for incorporating these devices into writing classes (and into their online spaces) to assist students in cultivating mindfulness toward close reading and composition. Examining first how mindfulness aids students’ writing, I show how many traditional pedagogical practices, such as diagramming sentences, work best when they are explicitly used to make students more aware of their thought process while composing and revising. Not only can smartphones contribute to more dynamic, mindful lessons involving these traditional methods, they offer new and convenient tools for stimulating mindfulness within and beyond the classroom. For instance, assignments that require students to document and share their thoughts and experiences through their phones – via photos, dictated notes, recordings, emojis, and even tweets – encourage them to pay closer attention to the contents of their minds as they read and write. Sharing material from their phones in online course spaces and in the physical classroom not only aids students in revising their work but fosters a sense of the interconnectedness between our work in the classroom and their lives outside it.