Trevor Aleo

Criticism LTD w/ Matt Seybold Matt Seybold joins Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson to discuss the political economy of literary criticism from past to present, amateur to professional. Seybold is Associate Professor of American Lit…

Matt Seybold joins Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson to discuss the political economy of literary criticism from past to present, amateur to professional.

Oh, that’s interesting! I’ve been seeing a number of people critique the flipped classroom approach recently, but their framing of it always felt a bit lazy. Could you say more about how they’re experiencing it and how it’s going for you?

“Print is a rent strike” appeared in the pages of @defector.com & @slate.com in the span of less than 24 hours courtesy of two very different, but very complementary essays by @jraden.bsky.social, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social.

These would be weekend must-reads regardless!

I should note, it’s for a Halloween birthday party our neighbors are hosting tonight. 🫠 But yes, all of us procrastinators are cooked.

What stage of capitalism is it when you can’t find a last minute costume because private equity closed your local Party City, the strip mall necromancy magic that resurrects Spirit is fading, & Target has put all of its Christmas stuff out a full week before Halloween? Because we’re in it.

Very glad that you’re all going & sharing your work! Unfortunately, I’m presenting during the same time slot, otherwise I’d absolutely attend. I’m around the whole weekend though & would love to connect if our schedules align.

NCTE panel on close reading, Saturday Nov 22 at 8:15am in the Mile High Ballroom 1E/1F

Hey high school English teachers! If you are going to @ncte.org 's convention next month, please be in touch! @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I, along with ed prof pals Robert LeBlanc and @philnichols.bsky.social, will be presenting and leading a workshop on Saturday, 11/22

This started out as a single re-post to celebrate @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social’s incredible book, but the opportunities that can be opened by more dialogue between literary scholars, teacher educators, and English teachers are just too exciting. Very excited for more.

I also write about bridging DL research & practice on my substack. It’s my attempt to expose more practitioners to the rich research out there & reflect on my experiences implementing before conducting my own research & theorizing. Article links within.

open.substack.com/pub/trevoral...

For more on English DL beyond what/who I’ve shared, check out some of the more foundational scholarship from the following:

Emily Rainey
Todd Reynolds
Leslie Rush
Peter Smagorinsky
Sarah Levine

Many more of us over @writinglit.bsky.social! I’d list the whole crew, but I’m sure I’d forget folks.

If you have access to Emerald’s journals, this special issue of English Teaching Practice & Critique is a treasure trove of disciplinary literacy scholarship for English.

www.emerald.com/etpc/issue/2...

If you’re curious what teaching authentic forms of “literary literacies” looks like in practice, check out @scottstorm.bsky.social’s short, open access article from ILA on having Ss close read, engage with criticism, and learn literary theory.

www.academia.edu/44649165/Rea...

You might be thinking “Oh, isn’t that already what’s happening in high school?” And, um, kinda—but not really? It happens in pockets, but it’s against the grain. Why? Because of regimes of testing, deeply entrenched grammar of schoolishness, & other factors Dan & Johanna cover in their piece.

Disciplinary literacy is a subfield in #literacies studies focused on understanding & teaching the cognitive processes, social practices, & communicative conventions of academic disciplines. For a deep dive, see Elizabeth Moje.

Great primer from Rachel Gabriel. ⤵️

www.ascd.org/el/articles/...

More of this! For Eng teachers, professors, or teacher educators looking for related research & resources creating connections:

A) Buy Dan/Johanna’s book. I was fortunate to get a review copy & it rocks
B) Check my 🧵 of resources & researchers. ⤵️
C) Support disciplinary literacy policy/initiatives

To support the narrative with which Dan & Johanna open this excellent piece, after the Jan 2024 episode in which they discussed their now published book (as well as Danielle Steel) I heard from many teachers who wanted more, as has been true for every episode about close reading.

Which is why...

Reason # 1,759 why the high stakes standardized testing regime is even more detrimental to the very purpose of writing in the age of LLMs than it was in the before times. Too many students experiences with writing begin and end with exercises in mindless compliance and contrived performance.

We are less than a week away from the ultimate #literacies HOMECOMING, and we cannot wait to see you there!

I just used Canva’s whiteboard tool! It’s free and if you have an .edu account, I think you can access the premium features too. Miro or Mural work just as well.

Worth noting: students will read the physical book. Additionally, I printed all the articles for us to read, annotate, & discuss together in class. IMO, this is what postdigital pedagogy can/should look like—intentional toggling between online/offline methods. #literacies #academicsky #edusky

Still a work-in-progress, but excited to launch my unit discussing, researching, & writing about the debate surrounding “The Anxious Generation.” Creating a digital whiteboard is infinitely more intuitive & functional than our LMS. All of these materials are hyperlinked to curated articles & media.

Calvin and Hobbes, seriously one of the best duos of all time. Maybe the highest percentage of human nature in a single duo. Up there with Lila and Lenu.

Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises

We both felt motivated to understand close reading better, to make the clearest, strongest, case we could for it, and to do it together every step of the way. It's been a huge gift to think with Johanna in the making of this book, which we now offer to the world. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

It is also, especially, above all, a collective book. At its heart: a series of twenty-one short essays. In each, a critic chooses a close reading that matters to them and demonstrates just one thing that that reading does that you could do, too. nd on.

Today is pub day for my third book: Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century. It is a handbook on how to read. It argues for the foundational importance of *caring* to thought. It offers an anatomy of close reading's five steps so we can hone the skills to perform them. It argues for why to read

Working on Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century let me bring together and sustain so many of the texts, ideas, and communities that I care about, and sustained me too. It looks to the future. And now it's in your hands.

at the risk of sentimentality, I'll say that this book has always felt hopeful, powerful, useful, and beautiful to me -- when we planned about it 4 years ago as I had a toddler and young kid and no childcare, 2 years ago when I thought I'd be laid off, and every day that I talked to Dan or taught

. @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I put this book together because we believe close reading to be powerful, beautiful, and useful, to make arguments, skill, and conversation. We hoped to offer more clarity about our central practice to more people. We worked together and with 22 brilliant contributors

Happy official publication day to Close Reading for the Twenty- First Century