empathy and derision in "student blooper" collections.

167 Pages·2016·0.87 MB·English

by  Jessica Winck

University of Louisville
ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
8-2016
Amused teachers and public readers : empathy and
derision in "student blooper" collections.
Jessica Winck
University of Louisville
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd
Part of theRhetoric and Composition Commons
Recommended Citation
Winck, Jessica, "Amused teachers and public readers : empathy and derision in "student blooper" collections." (2016).Electronic Theses
and Dissertations.Paper 2544.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2544
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AMUSED TEACHERS AND PUBLIC READERS: EMPATHY AND DERISION IN
“STUDENT BLOOPER” COLLECTIONS

By
Jessica Winck
B.A., Emerson College, 2008
M.A., Ohio State University, 2010
M.A., Eastern Michigan University, 2012
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Faculty of the
College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in English/Rhetoric and Composition
Department of English
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
August 2016

AMUSED TEACHERS AND PUBLIC READERS: EMPATHY AND DERISION IN
“STUDENT BLOOPER” COLLECTIONS
By
Jessica Winck
B.A., Emerson College, 2008
M.A., Ohio State University, 2010
M.A., Eastern Michigan University, 2012
A Dissertation Approved on
July 28, 2016
by the following Dissertation Committee:
______________________________
Bronwyn Williams
______________________________
Karen Kopelson
______________________________
Brenda Brueggemann
______________________________
Kiki Petrosino
______________________________
John Duffy
ii
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to the unnamed students whose writing, published online
and in print without their permission or knowledge, appears throughout this dissertation.
Their work inspired this project and inspired me.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe thanks to many people who supported me and my work while I wrote this
dissertation. Bronwyn Williams, my dissertation director, listened to my ideas in
countless brainstorming sessions and read and responded to multiple drafts of this
project. Most of all, I thank him for believing in me and this work. In addition, I am
grateful to my committee members – Karen Kopelson, Brenda Brueggemann, Kiki
Petrosino, and John Duffy – who provided feedback that challenged me and nurtured the
core aims of this project. I also want to thank my fellow dissertation group members, who
read and responded to drafts of these chapters. Many colleagues near and far also deserve
my thanks. I am grateful to John Dunn, jr., Ann Blakeslee, and Douglas Baker, who
nurtured my interest in empathic, ethical teaching. Additionally, I give thanks to the
generous teachers and scholars who, at conferences, offered feedback that shaped my
ideas in this project. And at moments when I struggled with the vision for a chapter or a
section, Ashly Smith was available in person, on the phone, or over Skype to help me
find my way again. I want to express thanks to my partner, Michael Revel, for his love
and generosity, and for making day-to-day life so joyful. Finally, I thank my parents,
Michael and June Winck, who taught me empathy. Their influence shaped this project
and my life, and their uncommon goodness will be with me always.
iv
ABSTRACT
AMUSED TEACHERS AND PUBLIC READERS: EMPATHY AND DERISION IN
“STUDENT BLOOPER” COLLECTIONS
Jessica Winck
August 9, 2016
This dissertation examines the long-standing tradition in education of sharing and
publishing students’ unintentionally amusing mistakes. Often called “bloopers,” “boners,”
and “howlers,” students’ writing mistakes have been published in print since at least the
early 20th century and more recently online. Using theories of reading student writing,
academic discourse, ethics, and humor, this project analyzes the misconceptions that
teachers and public audiences have of students, re-reads student writing for its potential,
and explores the ethical implications of sharing student work with public audiences.
The first two chapters ground the reader in the historical, social, and cultural
contexts in which teachers share or publish student writing. The culture of remediation,
persistent in K-12 and higher education contexts, shapes readings of student writing that
prioritize correctness. Collections of student “bloopers” imply aspects of teacher-student
relationships; thus these relationships can be re-thought not only in terms of broader
models like remediation, but also through the practices that help define those
relationships, such as methods of reading and assessing student writing.
v
The third chapter reviews several frameworks related to ethical uses of student
writing, such as those embraced by professional organizations and institutional
guidelines. Through a closer look at the value of student writing from a research
perspective, this chapter explores the tension between the treatment of student writing in
research and the treatment of student writing in teaching. Meanwhile, the fourth chapter
provides an extensive re-reading of several published student excerpts on the website Shit
My Students Write. Through the application of humor theory, we can acknowledge the
aspects of student error that prompt teachers to be humored while also interrogating the
assumptions and misconceptions about error that inform why we are humored.
This dissertation concludes with recommendations for engaging with
representations of students and student writing. Teacher education is an important site
that can foster changes in the teaching profession. Further recommendations for advocacy
through public rhetoric are provided.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………..iv
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………...v
CHAPTER I…………………………………………………………………………...1
CHAPTER II…...……………………………………………………………………...40
CHAPTER III………………………………………………………………………….65
CHAPTER IV…………………………………………………………………………100
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..120
REFERENCES..……………………………………………………………………….137
CURRICULUM VITA………………………………………………………………...153
vii
CHAPTER I
AMUSED TEACHERS AND PUBLIC READERS: EMPATHY AND DERISION IN
“STUDENT BLOOPER” COLLECTIONS
Fig. 1. “Anne Hathaway.” Shit My Students Write. 19 July 2013. Web. 7 March 2016.
If we believe the drama created by the popular blog Shit My Students Write, then
we assume that this excerpt is from the writing of a student in an English class, likely in
high school or college. We can assume the teacher found the passage humorous enough to
share with others and then submitted it to Shit My Students Write. Since its publication in
July 2013, this passage has accumulated 13,842 “notes,” which indicate how many times
Tumblr users have “liked” or reblogged the post. Even 13,842 people is an astounding
number for the audience student writers traditionally have in the writing classroom, let
alone that many interactions with the text: “likes” indicate approval, and reblogging
indicates that viewers want to share the text with others.
The audience for this student text, along with the hundreds of other student texts
on Shit My Students Write, is not limited to Tumblr users. Student writing published on
1