How student-athletes learn plays

&
What that means for college writing instruction



Dr. J. Michael Rifenburg
University of North Georgia
@jmrifenburg

my wonder and my belief


We draw our research questions from our wonders


We draw our research designs from our beliefs


What I wonder


Our student-athletes engage with the rapid, public, embodied flow of text for their sport


I wonder: what does that look like?






What i believe


Our students write. A lot.

Our students come to the scene of academic writing with 
experiences
knowledge
processes
beliefs
about writing

I believe: we should connect what we know & they know to make knowledge together


My study

A decade long journey across Auburn, Oklahoma, and the University of North Georgia 

Following my wonder in student-athlete writing practices

&

Following my belief that student writers work with college instructors in writing heavy course to co-construct 
meaning and knowledge and community

End result

Image result for the embodied playbook rifenburg






Our focus


Section I: Knowing our student-athletes

&

Section II: Teaching our student-athletes


Image result for university of north georgia






My wonder


How does Faulkner teach these plays?
How do his players learn plays?

&

What does this teaching / learning mean for instructors who teach writing-intensive courses?

P

UNG Men's Basketball team



Players learn through 


spatial orientation
scaffolded situations 
haptic communication

haptic communication


 ancient Greek 

πτικός able to come into contact with, of or relating to the sense of touch 


πτειν to fasten


touch / feel / coordinating you & me / feel over sight


an action











haptic communication, cont'd


"To think of writing as a practice of coexistence is to image a merging of various forms of matter . . . in an activity not solely dependent on one's control but made possible by elements that codetermine the writing's possibility"

Laura Micciche's  "Writing Material" College English


T. J. Williams

"I feel like that happens sometimes because like when [another player] moves, you know that the spot that they just moved from is where you are supposed to be or in the general area. 


Like if someone is near me I will be like ‘Oh, crap, I gotta set a screen for them.’ I feel like that happens sometimes. Because the speed of the game sometimes you might call something and be like ‘uh’ and taking a minute and then you go right into it.” 

The embodied playbook


"The most athletic guys learn by doing. They don't learn by looking at it on a playbook or looking at it drawn up on a whiteboard" head coach Chris Faulkner




"[Running a play] is more muscle-memory-it. You hear the play , and it triggers something in you and you go" senior guard Travis Core

and if it goes wrong


not flowing with the team

&

not flowing in a writing class

a story of Kris

so what?


more than kinesthetic learning, more than reading content on sports in a writing class

understanding how knowledge is collaboratively constructed and writers need writers





In class

aligning our writing with others

internalizing rhetorical moves and  "you go"


Three ideas


A drill

A roster 

A lineup 


A drill


Moving out of the class.  Arranging students. 

Student A
Student B
Students C, D, E, F, G

Student A and a ball getting to Student B without running with ball.

Students C, D, E, F, G represent rhetorical concepts or sources

A roster

Individual or collective student activity

List
Student
Reading 1
Reading 2
Reading 3
Rhetorical concept 1
Rhetorical concept 2

Notate: what does each bring, do, strength, weakness

Lineup


Post-It Notes
Apps like Evernote, Trello, Google Keep

Arranging material

How the parts strengthen the whole in progression

What's missing


The NCAA
Athletics departments
NCAA Sports and Sponsorship Demographics Report
Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement
National Federation of State High School Associations
National Intramural-Recreation Association
Theory
Race
Power dynamics
Economics

But


I wonder what our students bring to us

And I believe that we work with students to 

write
&
read
&
learn
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