Unlike the usual essay assignment, the Difficulty Paper does not ask you to assume the role of an expert defending a thesis, but instead to document the challenges you faced while reading. These challenges can range from understanding difficult passages or problematic vocabulary to disagreements or conflicts you may have with the authors’ ideas.
This is the video you need to watch to understand the assignment https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYiVXL5r56
Hear more from Rose in Chapter 15 or here: http://mikerosebooks.blogspot.com/
Week9
~Reflecting on your reading
~Learning to work with difficulty
I have been reflecting on a line that is our inspiration for the writing for this week from Rose inChapter 13 “In Search of a Fresh Language for Schooling”: “There’s not much public discussion of achievement that includes curiosity, reflectiveness, uncertainty, or a willingness to take a chance, to blunder” (Rose 126). If I, or the format of this course, squashes this curiosity etc.
This week you will read an article and work on strategies to work through difficulty. WARNING: you may need to read the article more than once! You will see why.
PREREADING : Reflect on what learning is. Reflect on what transformation is.
VIEW: What is Problematization?
READ and Annotate (and reread as needed!):
“Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice” by Jack Mezirow, chapter 12 in the book
And/Or “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education by Paulo Freire.
Please read this chapter introduction (this and the article were supposed to be in the book, but for some reason it did not make the publication
The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education is Chapter two of his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. What is Pedagogy? Be sure you get to page 6 (sometimes I have my students start here to make sure they get to his idea for the resolution of the banking concept!).
WRITE :
Problematizing Difficulty Reflection (10 points)
The Difficulty Paper is a strategy borrowed from Mariolina Salvatori that asks you to reflect on your own experience of reading something—a book, poem, essay, or story. Unlike the usual essay assignment, the Difficulty Paper does not ask you to assume the role of an expert defending a thesis, but instead to document the challenges you faced while reading. These challenges can range from understanding difficult passages or problematic vocabulary to disagreements or conflicts you may have with the authors’ ideas. If you do not want to share your challenges/forum post publicly, feel free to email them to me.
Not all articles that you read in classes will be discussed with others; this paper is meant to give you a strategy for when you are faced with challenging text and ideas on your own.
The purpose of this assignment is to help you pay greater attention to what your mind does as you read and to allow you to explore a text in greater depth. In particular, I want you to learn about difficulty in reading to recognize that in difficulty lies rich promise for interesting discoveries. All readers encounter frustration/uncertainty etc. and we are exploring how to recognize it and use it to understand a reading.
To create this reflection, read the articles above and then analyze/problematize your difficulty with one.
Read through the text and notice any places that make you stop and think or that puzzles you. Look for sections that particularly confuse or interest you (it might help you get started to look back at your annotations).
Part 1 Writing:
After introducing, make at least three points, in separate paragraphs, about what was confusing, difficult and/or thought provoking etc. (don’t let these descriptors limit you) about the author’s message. This means you will have to write about ideas, not just the text in general. So, work on quoting and paraphrasing here….include examples from the author and analyze why they caused you difficulty.
Writing about ideas might be harder to support (it was too long….that is hard to support with examples, other than how long it was! I know these articles might be longer than what you might like…). Or, how about this one: it was repetitive (I hear this a lot from students about many articles. The repetition was probably for the audience, so they get/follow the ideas (review how McCarter and Rose did this. I think they did it well, which I know I should support! But, I can see how you might not agree). Repetition is also another hard one to prove, but giving a few examples of where it was could work.
Talk through your difficulty in each part to try to see what it was and what you think as you are trying to figure it out.
What do you think it means? What new insights did you gain? Even if you still do not know what it means, that is ok (remember the chance to blunder is not meant to make you feel dumb it is a place to learn!). Do not just point out the difficulty, puzzle through it.
In what ways did your understanding change or shift after rereading the piece? Did your inquiry lead you to ask additional questions? Include cited examples in each section. One example is good, two can be better!
Try to be as specific as you can with your ideas and examples. Please refer to and cite specific passages, and use quotes/paraphrases (properly cited) when appropriate. This will give you a chance to practice and help you locate ideas that you might use later in your academic synthesis paper.
Note: please include at least 3 quotes from the text to support your ideas.
Part 2 Create a Works Cited entry.
Freire’s article is a chapter out of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, so to cite you could either explain in text, like this: https://style.mla.org/chapter-in-authored-book/
You could also do it this way for the Works Cited: https://style.mla.org/chapter-from-a-classroom-web-site/
Citing the book would be just fine for our class too: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_books.html
Part 3 Self-Reflection:
In closing: What do you see as the value or purpose of this assignment?
Share a story about yourself as a reader and a writer doing this assignment. In other words, what are you feeling and thinking about yourself? About school? About learning? What happens when you encounter confusion and difficulty?
