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Thats What You Think: Script for Collaborative Learning and

Introduction to Texts, Fall 2011

Sean Mills

Free writing (5 minutes)

We will read selections from five texts from the Year II Anthology, then proceed to

work with them collaboratively.

1. Muriel Rukeyser poem Myth (p. 3); read entire poem. Two volunteers each readonce.

2. Augustine on the Certainty of Self-Knowledge, If I AmDeceived, I Exist (Cityof God, XI, 2); section 26: For we both are, and know that we are, and takedelight in our being and knowing. (First paragraph on p. 11.) Two volunteers

each read once.

3. Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense; fourthparagraph: The intellect, as a means for the preservation of the individual,

unfolds its chief powers in simulation . . . (p. 19). Two volunteers each read

once.

4. Descartes, Meditations, Book I:What Can Be Doubted; first paragraph:It hasbeen some years since I was for the first time struck by how many falsehoods I

had taken for truths when I was very young . . . (p. 13). Two volunteers eachread once.

5. Steve Martin, Writing is Easy! (p. 16); first paragraph: Writing is the mosteasy, pain free, and happy way to pass the time of all the arts. . . . Two

volunteers each read once.

Exercise:

Break into groups of two to three (the readers of each paragraph plus one or twoothers).

Each group writes a sentence collaboratively about their passage: I hear her orhim saying . . .(i.e., translate it).

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A representative from each group writes the sentence on the board in the orderthey were originally read. Replace each pronoun (her or him) with

Rukeyser, Augustine, Nietzsche, Descartes, and Martin.

Topic sentence: Each group thinks about the five paragraphs, using the summarysentences that translate each passage and reviewing the texts. Then, all groupsdraft separate topic sentences in order to construct a paragraph that might use thesummary sentences for supporting evidence.

A representative from each group writes that topic sentence on the board. Work together as a large group. Use most or all of the topic sentences and

supporting sentences to build a coherent paragraph that draws on all five texts.

(Go up to the board and prompt students to help compose, reorganize, and edit.)

Process (5 minutes): What did you observe about the paragraphs in this exercise? Howdid you contribute to the collaborative process? What did you learn from the others in thegroup? What did you learn from the other groups? How might this paragraph or

paragraphs develop further into a larger essay? Which of these texts would you like to

return to and read fully?