Assignment: Literal reading Dead line: 28th March

The assignments are in compliance to instruction from higher authorities so that  learning remains uninterrupted despite the closure of university.

“And say: My Lord, increase me in knowledge.” (Quran 20:114)  “Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.” (At-Tirmidhi)

(This assignment is first of the series of assignments calculated to initiate students into the art of reading)

Assignment: Literal reading

Dead line: 28^th March

A word to students

The practical manifestation of contemporary world media

You all (the students of media study and IT departments of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University), much to my pleasure, were quick to be well-aware that an excellent production company is the crux of any successful media venture, therefore, well-extended to stay abreast of a wide range of expertise media production can encompass from film and tv to corporate, promotional, educational or web based material and were responsible for everything from the initial concept of the project to completion.

I simply helped you with the concept, scripting, scheduling, casting and more so to ensure that an end product could engage audience in the intended manner by ensuring that all the details of a project are thoroughly thought through – and serve_ by being more conversant with the dynamic exercise of, interaction of, and communicative import of feelings, rather than compromise, message.

Multidisciplinary approach And interdisciplinary approach

This was from your side the practical manifestation of

a theoretical subject ‘contemporary world media’ through applying  multidisciplinary approach, that involves more than one domain as students from IT department as well applied themselves to draw meaningful results despite staying within their boundary and through interdisciplinary approach as students from media study and IT department analyzed, synthesized and harmonized links between disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole.

The practical manifestation of ‘development communication ’

You all were committed to securing projects particularly suited to developing country contexts and promoting social inclusion by focusing on the thematic areas of Inclusivity of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. 

Building rapport in an age that announces the “death of the subject”

You all were committed to learn how to maintain professionally a favorable public image of organizations or celebrities by deliberately managing the spread of information and controlling publicity.

You understood that interviews worth all the hassle; therefore went with me to conduct interviews for building rapport with conspicuously eminent figures, and prospective employers and most importantly interacted with intellectuals despite living in an age that announces the “death of the subject” and “the end of history’’ to learn as in the Said’s words the role of intellectuals as human subjects of action.

The practical manifestation of ‘Newspaper production’  

I was pleased to see you learning content gathering, Pre Press, Press and Post Press: the four pre-requisites for the whole Newspaper production process and visiting newspaper offices and watching videos for getting ‘A behind-the-scenes glimpse into how this newspaper gets made’ and getting acquainted with state-of-the-art technology that enables the Globe and Mail to print and combine both glossy and newsprint pages, a unique achievement in news paper production.

This was from your side the practical manifestation of a theoretical subject:  ‘Newspaper production’.

Acknowledgment and Thanks

I must acknowledge that you all were self-perpetuating: all I did was hold a class to decide what the next activity would be, and guided you to do so.

And THANK YOU for not cutting my classes, notwithstanding, many competing influences; you exercised your right of self-determination for arduous learning.

Assmbling of two disciplines:

Landing freelance academic writing jobs, I have good reasons to infer were your aspirations, animating you for the launch of the on-line paper and the research journal having an Impact Factor so that in the long run these mediums could serve as the launching pads for career in freelancing.

I was immensely pleased to have students from English department sharing your passions.

Two different disciplines (English department and media) were assembled for content writing.

This straddling of two research approaches by juxtaposing and combining separate disciplinary perspectives, added a breadth of knowledge, information and methods. Work carried on was done independently following separate perspectives and hand in glove to pull and intricately weave disparate strands to extend academic arguments.

The Helm of Awe

Students of media study department, English department and IT department and some even of chemistry department) were geared up for every plan and I _may sound like succumbing to hyperbole_ not only acting as a catalyst but also at the helm of efforts until the ‘The Helm of Awe: Corna virus inspired fear like the havoc-wreaking dragon Fafnir In the Fáfnismál, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda. 

A plea

Concerns mount of catastrophic coronavirus outbreak prompted government to mount pre-emptive measures; but your plans as I believe should not be a casualty by admitting the kind of sphere of magical power to strike fear associated with the power of serpents to atrophy your minds and wills, thus reducing you to solely creatures of sensual instinct.

I argue that the ownership of all these plans entails the transformation of the inchoate into cultivated and think that students must be presumed to regard the obligations for nursing fetal to fruition

Infuriatingly despite expected nebulous nature of expectation and practice implicit in the academically diverse objectives of yours implies that attempt at crystallization should similarly be a nuanced multi-faceted through an incorporate attention to factors playing a role in the pathways to diverse outcomes.

Your whole being must not be pervaded by a languor because of being quarantined and you must not let lassitude to overcome to stultify you.

Teaching and learning method/ strategy 

‘In addition to the thesis of the plurality of teaching methods, current evidence suggests that teaching methods, their function is achieved only in the specific context’. Marina Ilic Semiz

John R. Yamamoto-Wilson subscribes to  Marina when he suggest that ‘anyone who is strictly following a rule book  is going to lack the flexibility to deal with the tremendous variety and complexity of real-life situations that teaching presents; therefore, a teacher should always be eclectic and use what works for him’.

Paul Stephens states: ‘Pedagogy is a two-edged sword: knowing one´s subject plus conveying its content as simply as possible without trivializing’.

I can differ with Paul to an extent because a good example of a double edged sword is an excuse that a teacher is recklessly inconsiderate in selecting the right method and strategy; therefore can rightly fail to convey the content of his subject despite knowing it.

Instructors do base teaching on two major parameters: a teacher-centered approach versus a student-centered approach, high-tech material versus low-tech material.

You are to have, because of the situation, “Distance learning” - the umbrella term for any learning that takes place across distance and not in a traditional classroom.

I have never taken a most extreme interpretation of teacher-centered approach_ and that is virtually impossible as well in distance learning_ viewing students as “empty vessels” with an end goal of positive results from testing and assessment; therefore teaching and assessment will not be two separate entities but will be connected and your learning will continuously be measured during your response to exercises according to my instruction; therefore, I have opted the ‘Student-Centered Approach to Learning’ to Distance learning.

Collaborative learning strategies when appropriate

Used in conjunction with your learning, the traditional lecture if needed can be an effective way to achieve instructional goals

For making learning environments interactive, I integrate technology (high tech approach) into the learning experience beyond class rooms to connect you with me.

Teaching methods are an important aspect of teaching and learning: determine the activities of teachers and students.

The considerate selection of the right method and strategy are important for the communication of the content of subject; but teaching methods can not simply be transmitted as Semiz says ready-made.

Scaffolding And Instructional strategies are my choice of pedagogy for instruction but both are to be tailored to fit my educational philosophy, students demographic, subject areas.

Scaffolding:

Modified to distance learning

 

Scaffolding as a method is not adhered holistically, but sufficient is harnessed to make it meaningful for you.

It is not the tampering of scaffolding on my part as alteration is for constructing constructively viable framework to redeem the inaccessibility to you that could otherwise ensured a informed give and take, and I then could build on the understanding and show you how a solution is arrived at by scaffolding your problems and then step back, offering support as needed.

Do exercise independently of me.

·       Aall modes of representation required for positive interaction are given in response to your queries.

·       Each answer, right or wrong, receives a positive response from me, to encourage your participation.

·       Understanding is checked as you do exercises. If more instruction is needed, more modeling is provided.

·        Correction is provided as needed but reinforced positively.

·       If you demonstrate knowledge and skill, I then fade and allow you to work independently, offering support as needed.

Instructional strategies/ instructional theory 

Modified to distance learning

I apply instructional theory for the explicit guidance on how to better help you develop but helping indicates approaches for the evaluation of you learning activities; therefore, I cannot focus on, without your learning activities (attempting exercise) those provide insights into, how to best structure material and instructional behavior to facilitate learning to help you grow independent, strategic learners so that you can independently select the appropriate learning strategies (strategy to attempt exercises)  to meet goals.

I do know instructional theory focuses on direct guidance, monitoring and assessing learning: step-by-step strategy instruction; but I do know as well this should come with the situations. Obviously, a method of instruction cannot be effective in every situation and occasion, that is, it’s not universal, but situational.

The situation includes the concept of instructional conditions, which consist of the nature of: (1) what is to be learned, (exercises sufficiently tell you) (2) the learning environment, (you have to create yourself as your university is closed) and (3) the learning development constraints (You major constraint is not having step by step explanation but remember constraints aren’t roadblocks, just opportunities to build bridges. viewing constraints as possibilities to improve the given task, can spark an innovative approach leading to creative quality design (the quality you intend to offer to me by taking into consideration of my requirements)

There are so many variable that an instructor cannot control in real educational settings; and here you work in non-academic environment; therefore instructional methods work best as they are probabilistic rather than deterministic not guaranting the success of the goal achievement rather increasing the chances of learning success by helping you to achieve the highest possible chance of the desired learning outcome effectively and/or efficiently.

 Both methods differ but not my primary role that will be to facilitate overall comprehension of exercises through assessment of your response to them.

The objectives of assignments:

The best growth prospects lie in tailoring all assignments of different series to budding media media professionals and academic writers' needs.

All assignments of different series are the way of calibrating each increment of skill and knowledge so to be well situated for honing  students for  essentially ritualized grand narratives, cultivated and honed and written down over the years and  in the words of John Stephens "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience" and for exploring a wide range of disciplinary perspectives for presenting theoretical explorations as well as in-depth case studies of ritual and narrative in different media and historical contexts for getting to grips the close interrelationship between ritual and narrative as pivotal means of human meaning-making and of ordering experience and for exploring the essentialities of media industry. 

Assignments encapsulate my view of tertiary education and challenge the accepted notion of it.

All assignments of all series  reflect and underscore the conviction on my part that tertiary education should be acquired on one’s own initiative so that recipients learn as Malcom Knowles says ‘ diagnosing their learning needs, formulating their learning goals, identifying human and material resources ..And learn other important skills such as time management, self-assessment, and setting their own goals. ..

It is a firm conviction on my part that self-taught students discover much for themselves having discovered their autodidactic streaks and consequently tend to internalize content more than those who take part in directed learning and get to learn how to actively look for solutions instead of having solutions brought to them.

I must, however, make a concession that self-directed learning can supplement instead of superseding instructional learning as latter is unrivalled because of instructional specifications containing the details of an Enabling Objective and associated key learning points, the relevant assessment strategy and media selection processes, time allocated, resource requirements and essential references.

Self-directed learning is something I knowingly, if not grudgingly, acknowledge less than a means.

The series of assignments are, therefore, by no means substitute for nor independent of lectures; but precede latter.

Tell me  a gap

As the instructional designers I always follow what the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas once said: “All generalizations are dangerous, including this one” for focusing on how to best structure material and instructional behavior to facilitate learning and never assume because of the warning of Charles that ‘ similar performance problems occurring in different environments will require the same learning intervention’ and thus do away in my instructional design with cookie-cutter modules and instead concentrate on designing on a blueprint that is unique and customized for the problem at hand. As the instructional designer I understand that each gap is specific; therefore, provide a unique “bridge” that each student needs to fill each of them perfectly.  .

Minus your response I can never know a gap, subsequently fail to live up to providing a bridge unique to your need.

Assignments are the twin goads of punishment and rewards.

Each assignment is assessed independently. I must warn you that I am conditioned into believing that a student can be conveniently pigeonholed as nincompoop and academic and studious polymath if demonstrates a lackadaisical approach or avid passions to assignments.  The acquisition of this trait is predisposing element in predetermining my response given to the performance of his in exam regardless how good it is or how bad it is.

These assignments, thus, act as the twin goads of punishment and reward.

Measuring success

In order to determine what kinds of teaching are successful we need to know how "success" is to be measured. What is the basic recipe for success as a teacher I would say it lies in the answer to the question "What do you teach?" If you answer "people" then you've probably got the right idea! More than chemistry, or geography, or literature, teachers are engaging with people's lives. They want their students to achieve their potential, they are there to help and guide and support them. If the aim of the course is (for example) to be able to write a 1000-word academic paper, then they work with each student to try to show how that aim can be achieved’John R. Yamamoto-Wilson

Content (of texts) and exercises amply tell you what I teach and my response to your attempts will allow you to determine the achievement of your potential and me to measure my success as a teacher. 

Assignments are your only portfolio

The compilation of your response is your portfolio as this is the only academic work possible because no other forms of educational evidence can be assembled for the purpose of evaluating the quality of your work, learning progress, and academic achievement to determine whether you have met learning standards or other academic requirements for your courses.

Assignments are your gateway to success in the examination.

The pattern of questions in exam will be patterned after the exercises in assignments; therefore, these assignments are your gateway to success in the examination.

Doing assignments together

Each assignment has the collaborative components: recipients and giver. I am not a merely a passive instructor but eager to be engaged in a kind of exchange so to have a continuous back-and forth commentary. You are not doing assignments but we are doing together.  Assignment is not a private act, a personal journey, a solo flight with no copilot. I am always around to look over your shoulder making snide comments or gush about your views so that ideas are revised, rejected or accepted, and thus become our mutual property.

We share the process of doing assignments, a real time event in the intimate space where ideas and skills take shape

I always hover as a receiving presence. Your query will invite me into space between you and assignment.

You cannot be a freelance academic writer

I know that there is nothing more coveted by you than freelance academic writing jobs that intrigue, generate excitement, jobs that grab hold and simply will not let go

Sarah says:

‘My point is, a writer who doesn’t have time to read is like a musician who doesn’t have time to listen to music, or a chef who doesn’t have time to eat. The two activities are complementary and necessary if you’re going to write well’.

Stephen King says: ‘if you do not have time to read, you do not have the time or tools to write’

My perspective:

These both scholars are right if it is assumed that one is already well-equipped for reading but he does not read because he is handicapped by the lack of time or simply indifferent to it.

But my concern is the lack of reading skills, minus them you gain no tool to write, no matter, how much time you spend with books.

Stephen King’ in his excellent book On Writing says: “The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing… Constant reading will pull you into a place… where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.”

True but one must learn how to read first

People read without knowing how to reading. You can never know reading unless you know what reading is.

And remember that reading skill is proven to be the essential precursor to the development of writing skill.

Therefore you’ve got to sharpen up your reading skills; and thus we begin with exercises of reading comprehension.

You may be looking forward to hearing words from me for the galvanic effects or for electrifying but words are redundant because I believe problem with exercises adherence can never be fighting sloth as there was nothing more stimulating than was the stimulating class of yours

You all are already highly charged; therefore neither pep talk nor provocative words are required for rejuvenating you to spring to the assignments at hand.

Soldier on with dogged tenacity.

Prof Dr Sohail Ansari

Dept of media studies SBBU

Instructions for queries:

I love to be swamped and overwhelmed by an avalanche of queries but dread to have similar but not same inquiries

Therefore students must coordinate and must choose a person having a focus for the group representing queries.

Instruction for submission:

You submit your attempts of excercises on my blog as well as on Watsap groups so that HOD respected sir daster can evaluate.

Pattern of instructions:

Once I have enough queriesinquires either you have my lecture through voice mail or reply through blog or through watsap. After the deadline no inquiry is entertained.

My tutoring will be limited to areas of inquiry.

Deadline and other assignments:

You will have exactly three days for each assignment. You will have another assignment before the dead line of an assignement you are engaged with.

Brace yourself for the inevitable deluge.

Exercises:

Literal Comprehension Skills include selecting the topic sentence of a paragraph, identifying the main idea of a passage, identifying the supporting detail of a passage and determining the meaning of words by context; it is simply what the reading text says or what actually happens in the story. It provides the foundation for comprehension because without understanding the reading text, you could not go any farther. Main Idea is the central and the most important idea of the whole paragraph or passage. (Mujani, Husein, Faidah and Iyana 2014).9

Now you know what literal comprehension skills include.

Let’s begin with ‘Determining the meaning of words by context’.

Determine the meanings of underline words by context.

Do any five of them

1      ‘that an excellent production company is the crux of any successful media venture’

2       Your whole being must not be pervaded by a languor because of being quarantined and you must not let lassitude to overcome to stultify you.

3      ‘well-extended to stay abreast of a wide range of expertise media production can encompass

4     You understood that interviews worth all the hassle

5     ‘for building rapport with conspicuously eminent figures, and prospective employers and most importantly interacted with intellectuals’

6       ‘not cutting my classes notwithstanding many competing influences you exercised your right of self-determination for arduous learning’

7       ‘You all were self-perpetuating..’

8       ‘I have good reasons to infer were your aspirations, animating you for the launch of the on-line paper.’

9       ‘so that in the long run these mediums could serve as the launching pads for career in freelancing.

10     ‘This straddling of two research approaches by juxtaposing and combining separate disciplinary perspectives’.

11     ‘students of media study department, English department and IT department) were geared up for every plan

12     ‘I _may sound like succumbing to hyperbole_ not only acting as a catalyst but also at the helm of efforts

13     The series of assignments are, therefore, by no means substitute for nor independent of lectures; but precede latter.

14     hand in glove to pull and intricately weave disparate strands to extend academic arguments.

15     It is not the tampering of scaffolding on my part as alteration is

16     calibrating each increment of skill and knowledge so to be well situated for honing students for  

17     "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience"

18     students discover much for themselves having discovered their autodidactic streaks and consequently tend to internalize content more than those

19     I must, however, make a concession

20     These assignments thus act as the twin goads of punishment and reward.

Identifying the main idea of a passage

Do any one of the following:

1       I believe should not be a casualty by admitting the kind of sphere of magical power to strike fear associated with the power of serpents to atrophy your minds and wills, thus reducing you to solely creatures of sensual instinct’.

2       It is a firm conviction on my part that self-taught students discover much for themselves having discovered their autodidactic streaks and consequently tend to internalize content more than those who take part in directed learning and get to learn how to actively look for solutions instead of having solutions brought to them.

3       Alexandre Dumas once said: “All generalizations are dangerous, including this one”

4       A student can be conveniently pigeonholed as nincompoop and academic and studious polymath if demonstrates a lackadaisical approach or avid passions to assignments.  The acquisition of this trait is predisposing element in predetermining my response given to the performance of his in exam regardless how good it is and how bad it is

5       There is nothing more coveted by you than freelance academic writing jobs that intrigue, generate excitement, jobs that grab hold and simply will not let go

Exercise

Question: An author disagrees with ‘Sarah’ and ‘Stephen King’. How far you agree with the disagreements of an author?

Literal comprehension

Literal comprehension is the understanding of information and facts directly stated in the text. It is recognised as the first and most basic level of comprehension in reading. Students can employ literal comprehension skills (by skim reading and scanning) to better locate information efficiently.

Literal comprehension - NSW Department of Education

Now you have another definition of literal comprehension. We go literal comprehension according to this definition

Skimming:

Exercise:

Quickly read through following texts to get the gist or main idea

Do any one:

1       ‘ensuring that all the details of a project are thoroughly thought through – and serve_ by being more conversant with the dynamic exercise of, interaction of, and communicative import of feelings, rather than compromise, message’

2       ‘academically diverse objectives of yours implies that attempt at crystallization should be similarly a nuanced multi-faceted through an incorporate attention to factors playing a role in the pathways to diverse outcomes’

3       ‘An author was making sure that you were ‘being more conversant with the dynamic exercise of, interaction of, and communicative import of feelings’ but how far you think his communicative intensions transform into text?’ 

4     ‘otherwise ensured a informed give and take, and I then could build on the understanding and show you how a solution is arrived at by scaffolding your problems and then stepped back’

Scanning:

Reading to locate particular elements or specific details in a text, such as key concepts, or certain information. Exercise: ‘Most importantly interacted with intellectuals despite living in an age that announces the “death of the subject” and “the end of history’’ to learn as in Said’s words the role of intellectuals as human subjects of action’

 Do the following exercise having done with all the exercises above

Exercise:

Each passage of a text (of a word to students) must have appeared to you a maze of mumbo jumbo; you must have felt getting deeper and deeper into the mire of gobbledygook. But that is for sure, no blathering crept in to mar a text and you will know yourself, provided you penetrate a text (But remember no Abracadabra can help, you have to stretch yourself) to understand that text penetrates deeper into the implications of your activities for you, and for our university and into the underlying reasons for the mode of instruction I intend to follow.

Question:

You have done with all exercises and msut have a good understanding of a text; therefore how far the expectations of an author ‘must have appeared to you a maze of mumbo jumbo…’ are justified. 

Question:

The use of word ‘Abracadabra’ is an example of ‘Pun’ ‘double entendre’ ‘wordplay’ or an example of tongue in cheek.

Prove with examples.

Question:

An author was making sure that you were ‘being more conversant with the dynamic exercise of, interaction of, and communicative import of feelings’ but how far you think his communicative intensions transform into text? 

Exercise:

The English in a passage ‘Each assignment has the collaborative components: recipients and giver. I am not a merely a passive …..’Is not the URDU translated into English and one can not follow it even one knows the meanings of words unless has at its command the sense of English.

The point is that passage employing language that captures the flavor of English.

Acquaint yourself with English written in the sense of English.

Following exercise helps you to understand what an author means by the flavor of englsih.

Exercise

Select (not choose) any English newspaper of Pakistan such as DAWN; The Frontier Post; The express Tribune.

 

 Read any Coronavirus News, Articles or any editorial to judge three things: 

 Coherence & Cohesion

​ Lexical Resource (Vocabulary Range)

​ Grammatical Range & Accuracy  

 Select (not choose) any English international newspaper such as International New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; international khaleej times; The Guardian.

Read any Coronavirus News, Articles or any editorial to judge same three things: 

Now focus specifically on Lexical Resource and Diction

:

1       Lexical Resource (Vocabulary Range)

Lexicon refers to word stock (lexis words/ vocabulary) used on a particular occasion or in a particular sphere.

2       Diction

Diction is a literary device, that refers to the choice of words and style of expression that an author makes and uses in a piece of writing that can mean phrasing · turn of phrase.

Ensure that contents of both articles or editorials or News (one published in national newspaper and one published in international paper) are same in terms of the coverage of Coronavirus virus and then examine the difference in terms of Lexical Resource and diction.

Juxtapose both and highlight the difference so that you can understand what a writer means.

Note:

(This part of exercise is only for those students of English department those are interested in linguistic patterns, how components of language interact with one another, how people gain knowledge of language, the way knowledge of language interacts with other cognitive processes and how language varies. In short those students those are interested in Linguistics research; for example Fatma memon, Iqra, farooq, Mehren Jamali and Tooba Noor just to name a few.)

Exercise:

1       Apply lexical quality hypothesis (LQH) in a limited way to judge that variation in the quality of word representations in a text that has consequences for reading skill, including comprehension.

2       Can we apply high lexical quality that includes well-specified and partly redundant representations of form (orthography and phonology) and flexible representations of meaning, allowing for rapid and reliable meaning retrieval to examine the text of ‘ a word to students’ Yes or No should be substiated by reasons.  

3       Low-quality representations lead to specific word-related problems in comprehension.

4       Can you choose lines from a text to demonstrate some of the implications of the LQH. 

5       Take individual aspects of the lexicon (the complete set of meaningful units in a language) into account by encompassing the number of lexical entries used in a text (vocabulary breadth), the semantic quality of these entries (vocabulary depth), and the connection strength between lexical representations (semantic relatedness); as such, it serves as an output for the decoding process and as an input for comprehension processes.

6       Apply a multicomponent approach to examine whether measures of vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and semantic relatedness were differentially predictive of individual differences in reading comprehension skills among all of you; and examine how  each individual measure of lexical quality adds significantly to the prediction of reading comprehension after all other measures are taken into account, with written lexical breadth and lexical depth showing the greatest increase in explained variance. You can thus conclude that multiple components of lexical quality play a role in your reading comprehension.

7       Can we apply the ALC model to any passage with all of its various representations, retrieved or constructed; those can all serve as emotionally competent stimuli (ECSs), that is, elicit a conscious or unconscious affective response in the reader.