Text Message Rhetoric Lesson

One of the biggest challenges for AP Lang students is rhetorical analysis. Analysis is naturally difficult for them to wrap their heads around, and it's difficult to us to teach because we're essentially trying to teach thinking, which is about as abstract as it gets!

Of course teachers recognize the irony of this is that we, and our students, actually practice rhetorical analysis skills subconsciously all the time. Every time we over-think a conversation with a friend or a parent or a would-be significant other, we analyze how their conversational choices may have betrayed an underlying purpose.

So a few years ago I decided to harness this in my classroom as our very first introduction to rhetorical analysis. Instead of just analyzing face to face conversation, which would be difficult to replicate in the classroom, I had the idea to analyze text messages: they're written communication with infinite composition choices available, easily accessible en masse by students bringing their phones, and would allow students to realize that they do this kind of analysis by default.

I always start off with a general conversation about what analysis is, and I ask for examples of the last time they "over-thought" something someone said in a conversation; I like using that terminology because they immediately get it that they do this pretty regularly, even if they don't think they analyze rhetorically. Then of course I transition to the fact that formal analysis is just doing this intentionally and on a grander scale.

We move into discussing text messages as "texts" that can be dug into. They're skeptical until I give them an anecdote about how I was out shopping one Black Friday and texted my then-new husband something long and wordy and bubbly about my busy day and being excited to see him soon when I got home. I turn to the board and write "ok." and tell them that was his response.

They immediately go, "Oooooohhh yeah" and chuckle in recognition. They instantaneously get why that text message freaked me out thinking something was wrong.

So we talk about the choices that he made: the choice to put a period at the end of it, the choice to respond to an effusive message with a two-letter response, the choice to just write "ok" instead of "okay," "OK," or "o.k. :)"

(To be fair, we also talk about how his rhetorical choices may not have been intentional at all, because he's a stereotypical guy and doesn't think like that! But this leads to a conversation about whether authorial-intent or reader-assumption is more relevant here.)

 I ask them to get out their phones and spend some time looking for messages that seem to have made specific rhetorical choices: punctuation, unusual typing or spelling styles, abbreviations, emoticons, etc. A few volunteers write them on the board and the class analyzes what choices were made and what affect they could have on the reader's interpretation of author's purpose.

Finally, we end up trying to take the same message and write it with different choices to change the rhetorical effect. I have a graphic organizer that they used to take notes on the whole lesson.

Years ago I would have them wrap up by writing a brief analytical paragraph on the prompt seen on the handout. But that is now outdated because with the advent of full-keyboard phone screens, people don't text in that same style of shorthand anymore, so if I were going to do that part of the lesson again, I would probably change the example in the prompt.

This lesson works as a really great non-threatening intro to rhetorical analysis. It gives them confidence that they can do this and it just takes time to build into reading more complex texts.

But I'd say my favorite part of the lesson is more than just what they take from it; the best part is that it's a fun lesson. We spend most of the block laughing at the seemingly-silly choices that get made in texts between teenagers, and we laugh at ourselves for the over-analyzing we manage to talk ourselves into. I will relish any opportunity to make analysis seem like something they actually want to engage in.

My Favorite Technology for AP Lang

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Before 2013, I had always hated document cameras.

The first time I'd ever seen one was in college in the mid-2000's and they seemed utterly useless. Our professors would clunk around with it to show us something out of a textbook or a handout, and that was about it. I'd heard they could be really useful for science classes to show an up close version of an experiment or specimen... but I couldn't in any way see them being useful in English class because they just seemed to hard to manage, so dimly lit, etc.

That all changed when my school sent me to a Reading Apprenticeship training, ostensibly to help me with my struggling readers in my low level classes. Our amazing trainers used a document camera to interact with what they were putting on the screen. Writing on paper and having it projected for all to see! Creating handwritten brainstorms with us that we could all look at together! Inviting us up to add to the document! They weren't just using it to put something in front of us the way my college professors had. They were modeling for us what we could do with our students, as is the RA goal.

And with that, a lightbulb went on in my head.

I realized that what my AP students had always struggled with was close reading and annotation. Of course their challenges were on a different level from the Foundations level students, but ultimately they also needed to be an apprentice. And an apprentice needs a "master" to show them, to demonstrate how to do it. Reading Apprenticeship taught me how to think out-loud to model my own close reading skills, which was something my students had never really seen in detail before.

It seems so simple looking back, but so often I think English teachers get into a trap thinking "I assigned _____," so that means I taught it. RA highlighted that teaching and assigning are very different things. So I knew what I needed for the next school year, and I knew I wasn't only going to use it with my foundations students.

My document cam, or Elmo, has revolutionized my teaching in all of my classes, but especially in AP Lang. I have to be the model thinker in the room and the Elmo helps me do that.

At the beginning of the year, I have students bring in visual advertisements out of a magazine. I pick one at random, that I've never seen before and put it under the Elmo. I tell them to time me for two minutes while I do a close-reading/think-aloud of that advertisement. They say "whoa." They had never seen anything like my analysis done at such length before. And I had the proof that this was a first read. It wasn't something I'd already had on my computer, because they'd seen me pick it out of their stack. They heard a true demonstration of what it's like to do a close reading: misreads, roadblocks, and all. Then one of them comes up and tries it with a different advertisement. Then they do it on their own with a partner.

A little bit later in the year, we transition into doing the same thing with written texts. At this point, I both think aloud and annotate the text; I use lots of circles and underlines and arrows, but I also scribble all over the margins and in between the lines. One of my favorite texts to use for this is the beginning of Vladimir Nabokov's "My Father's Butterflies" because it's really hard; the students see what it's like to need close reading just to decode a text. Then I switch gears and use the first few paragraphs of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak; I show them how I can also close-read a very easy text, but the value is that I dig into it rather than just getting the plot. Here my think-aloud and my annotations demonstrate noticing things she's doing with her language. Sound important for Lang?

I can also have students write in class and then immediately put them up on the cam for review. As a class we talk through each example, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. It's so immediate and accessible.

Last year I even found myself using it for our daily agenda. I used to write the agenda in my plan book, and then copy it onto the white board. By the end of the year, I would just put my plan book under the camera for all to see. Same with bell-ringers. It saved me a few precious minutes and sanity. I could have that up while not sacrificing my laptop screen to the projector while I was also trying to take attendance.

So you might be asking yourself, "But can't you do the same thing with a SmartBoard?" You probably can, but I would argue with not quite the same ease. In my experience, writing with those electronic markers is clunky at best. Sure, I could probably underline or circle, but could I write in the margins and have it readable? The thick lines of the pixels and the inevitable distance between where I put the pen vs. where it shows up on the screen? I don't know about you, but I get frustrated with that really quickly. When I annotate in the margins, I want to be able to fit a lot into those margins, not have each word be three inches high and in really awkward handwriting with letter parts missing. And I definitely couldn't put up student work instantaneously with a SmartBoard.

I'm positive that many teachers have and use SmartBoards really effectively in AP Lang. But if you've always been frustrated with the SmartBoard's limitations or are getting the opportunity to choose a new technology for the first time, I recommend checking out a document camera for a less expensive and perhaps more seamless experience.

Have you ever used a document camera for any cool activities? Comment below to share your experiences!