Attending to Affective Domain with Word Clouds

This Wordle captures students' responses on the first day of class.

This semester, I want to do my best to weave in social-emotional learning and affective domain into lessons or activities that engage critical thinking and writing skills. 

We began our first week of school this past Wednesday. I wanted students to reflect on their initial thoughts and ideas about being back in school after a six-week break. So during our first meeting, I asked the class of just under thirty college students to jot down three single words that describe their thoughts and feelings about being in an English class. Then at the end of our second meeting, I asked them about what they were thinking and feeling now that we've met twice. The Wordle above captures the "before" responses, the one below, the "after." The fonts size represents the number of responses. 

This is the "after" Wordle

On the agenda for our third meeting? Sharing and discussing both slides. I'm curious about what the scholars "make" of these word clouds,  to see what "claims" they can come up with based on the evidence we gathered. Sneaking in some CER (Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning work)! In terms of significance, the "so what." So, I may ask questions that go something like this: Why is tracking our emotions important? Why bother taking time to check our individual and collective mood? Still percolating. 

I'll follow up with a short digital journal assignment, urging students to intentionally include a claim, evidence, and reasoning in their entry. CER is a different way of conceptualizing AXES paragraph templates, where "A  stand for Assertion, "X" for eXample, "E"  for Explain/Elaborate, and "S" represents Significance. While it's formulaic, I hope to get students to recognize the patterns and elements of arguing a point, essential component of the "game" of academic writing. 

I will post excerpts of students' journal responses in a subsequent entry.