Expected Behaviors of Engaged Discussion – ENGL 253: The Short Story – Cindy Debes

One of the student-learning goals for this course is to: “Express your own understandings of these texts in respectful dialogue with others and with intellectual engagement, imagination, and self-reflection.” Breaking down this goal into more manageable and practical behaviors will help you develop important critical thinking skills. By practicing these behaviors in group discussions, you will learn to question, engage, and contribute to the world around you in a more critical, intellectual way.

Some of the key behaviors expected of students engaging in effective discussion are:

  • Preparedness:Preparedness includes doing the readings and assignments on time, but it goes beyond these basic expectations of all students. To prepare for engaged discussion requires that you have developing your own thoughts and opinions on the readings so that you have questions and new perspectives to share before you even log on to the discussion. Taking notes over your analysis of the stories, annotating and questioning articles, connecting ideas in the material to points made in other readings or previous discussions are all ways of preparing your own thoughts. Forming and articulating new ideas during discussionscan be challenging, but preparing your ideas ahead of time gives you time to develop language to express yourself clearly as well as a foundation on which to build during the discussion.
  • Communicativeness: To participate in discussion requires a written or audibleexchange of ideas. Therefore, communication is a definitive component of any discourse. Online communication can be tricky at times, though. It is easy to miscommunicate or even offend classmates if you don't take time to compose your discussion posts carefully. You want to adhere toNetiquette and Expectations, but you also want to be mindful about how you summarize and respond to the ideas of others as well as how you position yourself and your ideas within an existing conversation. It is important to communicate respect for your peers and their efforts to engage in order to develop a group’s openness and responsiveness.
  • Openness: Openness includes the willingness to hear ideas from others, but it goes beyond the general civility you might have in a more social situation. After working hard to prepare your own ideas, it can be difficult to rationally consider an alternative perspective. It can also be a challenge to keep in mind that the person offering that perspective may feel as strongly about her position as you do about yours. Allowing multiple perspectives to exist equally in the mind simultaneously is the ultimate challenge of critical thinking, and it takes practice to be that open to new ideas. Allowing challenging ideas to play the role of “devil’s advocate” – a contentious opinion in order to provoke debate or test the strength of the opposing arguments – can help you practice the behavior of openness.
  • Responsiveness: Discussions require at least two people sharing their ideas and considering the ideas of others’. A handful of individuals each giving their own answer to a question without taking into account the answers provided by others is not a discussion; it’s a Q&A. Engaged discourse requires the ability to understand another’s point of view and then put it into context with earlier points as well as your own ideas on the topic. To be responsive, you must be able to listen to others’ ideas – even if they disagree with your own perspective – and to be able to frame your own ideas in connection with them. In doing so, you may change your own mind or the minds of others.

Example Reading Journal & Key Traits – ENGL 253: The Short Story – Cindy Debes

Week 1 Journal: Story of an Hour by Willie Wildcat

On my first reading, I was surprised with how short the story is. I was worried that I wouldn't have much to talk about since the story seemed pretty straight-forward. However, after reading it a couple of more times, a couple of sections stood out.

The first section that I want to examine more closely is paragraphs 9 - 11. I find this section somewhat confusing. What is coming toward her? She seems scared of it. It says she's "waiting for it, fearfully" and it is "approaching to possess her" and she "beat it back with her will." So clearly, there's a conflict between Mrs. Mallard and whatever it is coming toward her at the window. I need to figure out what it is that she's dealing with. Is it a monster? Is it death? In paragraph 11, she is different. She's saying "free," her eyes are "keen and bright," and her body is more "relaxed." So whatever is coming from the window, it seems like a good thing. So I'm not sure if it's a monster or death.

Another section that I'm focusing on is the ending. The first time I read the story, I didn't catch that the husband was actually alive. I'm not sure how I missed that, but I did! So the husband comes through the door completely unaware everyone thought he was dead, and then Mrs. Mallard dies. The last line says she "died of heart disease--of joy that kills." At first it seemed simple: she was happy to see her husband but the shock was too much for her weak heart. But maybe that seems too simple? The last line starts with "When the doctors came," which seems a bit strange. I mean, why not just say she died of heart disease? Why emphasize this is what the doctors said? Are the doctor's wrong? If they are, what kills her?

Now that I'm writing this out, I'm wondering if the monster or death (whatever is at the window) kills her? I'm not sure how that works because its just Mrs. Mallard and Josephine on the stairs, and Mr. Mallard and Richards at the bottom of the stairs by the door. There's no monster or anything actually there (not that I can tell right now!).

So, my first questions to investigate are:
What's at the window? Basically, what is going on in that whole section?
What kills Mrs. Mallard at the end?

Key Traits of Willie's Reading Journal

Note that the second paragraph of the journal, which isabout the first part of the story that stands out to Willie, uses the word "conflict." Conflict is a literary element, so Willie is showing us that he's familiar with the term and how it relates to the story. Also in this paragraph, Willie's quotingspecific text from the story and explaining what this text leads him to think. While he doesn't use the term, his questions about Mrs. Mallard are focused onhow she is characterized in that moment. While it might be helpful for Willie to use the terminology, "characterization," he's still analyzing character without it. It's important to analyze the story using literary elements, and writing about those elements in your journals demonstrates your knowledge and awareness.

It's also important to notice that, toward the end of the journal, Willie makes a connection between different ideas he has about the story. At first, he thought the part of the story at the window and the death at the story's end were separate sections, but as he's been thinking about it, he gets the sense that they might be connected. Making connections -- even if you're not sure yet abouthoworwhythings are connected -- is an important part of critical thinking. These unclear connections provide you with new paths of inquiry for further study, and they are points you can talk about with others in discussion.

Example Analysis Summary & Key Traits – ENGL 253: The Short Story – Cindy Debes

Week 1 Summary: Story of an Hour by Willie Wildcat

The discussions over "A Story of an Hour" were very helpful to me. I realized that there's quite a bit going on in this little story, way more than I ever imagined.

I was able to answer my major questions from my journal assignment. First,after talking to Wanda in the Characterization post, I was convinced that there isn't really anything coming at Mrs. Mallard, at least not physically. Instead, Mrs. Mallard is experiencing a "monstrous joy" because she feels happy and "free" now that her husband is dead (or so she thought at the time). It's "monstrous" because she's glad someone's dead, which isn't nice. In that same discussion, we talked about Mrs. Mallard's character, and what it means that she's not nice. Sara pointed out that she IS nice, really, because she fights at the good feelings "striving to beat it back with her will." If she wasn't nice, she wouldn't be bothered by being happy. This makes sense to me, but I still think Mrs. Mallard is kinda messed up.

The second big question I had was about the ending and what kills Mrs. Mallard. And Hey! I was right in my journal: the two parts of the story ARE connected. Because Mrs. Mallard was happy when she thought her husband was dead, that means when she sees him undead (not zombie, but just alive) she's UNhappy. She doesn't want him to be alive. So she *is* shocked, but it's not from the joy of his living, it's the sadness of his living. It's the loss of the happiness that kills her.

Now, I'm still a bit confused about why she was so happy her husband was dead. John thought Mr. Mallard must have been abusive toward his wife. If that was true, it would make more sense for her to be happy he died (and I might like Mrs. Mallard a bit more). But Chris pointed to the line: "She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had neverlooked save with love upon her..." Chris said that this means that Mr. Mallard always looked at her with love, and it's Mr. Mallard's hands that are kind and tender. So Mr. Mallard isn't characterized as an abusive guy.

Alex seems to think that it isn't Mr. Mallard at all that Mrs. Mallard has a problem with, exactly. She just doesn't want to be married to anyone. That would explain why Mrs. Mallard was glad Mr. Mallard was dead(even though he seems like a nice enough guy), but that still seems to make Mrs. Mallard a bit... mean. She could have just left him or whatever if that was the case. Why stay if you're unhappy?

One of the things I think I need to study more is the setting. This is an old story, so maybe divorce wasn't as common then. I know it wasn't common for women to stay single a long time ago, either. I need to figure out when the story is set, and I might need to talk to someone (Google?) about the history of marriage to figure out if the time period might have influenced Mrs. Mallard's choices.

But, I just thought of this, if the story is set when it was written (a long time ago.. I need to look that up) that would mean writing a story that's anti-marriage would be kinda scandalous, right? So I'm not sure, then, if marriage is really the problem or not. Maybe it is? I dunno.

I think these are pretty important questions that I still have to figure out before I'll understand what the whole story is trying to say.

Key Traits of Willie’s Analysis Summary

In his summary, Willie starts off by providing the answers he's discovered for the questions he had in his journal. Notice that Willie is self-reflective about how he came to accept these answers as part of his overall interpretation. He explains the thought-process he had, and he's specific about what interactions with classmates and what text from the story lead him to these conclusions.

Also, his understanding of the text is much more nuanced. For instance, Willie is able to explain the last line of the story in much greater detail, and he is able to point to specific text that helps him understand what was at the window. His reading of the text is "close," which means thathe's picking up on words and phrases that have significant but subtle meaning. These close readings help him understand the story in a more nuanced way.

Another key trait Willie demonstrates is that, after he found the answers to his initial questions, he came up with new questions, such as: why is Mrs. Mallard happy her husband is dead? He discussed this with others who gave different possible answers: 1) Mr. Mallard is abusive, and 2) Mrs. Mallard just doesn't want to be married. Willie explores both possibilities, what texts supports or doesn't support those ideas, and what implications they each have for Mrs. Mallard's character.

Willie is still undecided about how he wants to answer the question himself, and that's okay. He thinks that exploring the story's setting more closely might help him figure out some of these answers, which gives him a new path of inquiry. He even adds a new connection about how the cultural impacts of the setting might not just help explain Mrs. Mallard but it might also bring a larger context to the meaning of the story as a whole. Even though he doesn't fully understand the story yet, Willie's interpretation is getting stronger, just like his critical thinking skills.