The exploratory

Pedagogical tools K.E. Brashier

Sometimes conferences sing.  Yet just when I would like them to sing opera, they might merely hum a bit of country-western.  After my first year of teaching at Reed, I reflected upon my conference performance and toyed with various ideas as to how to induce more of the ecstatic arias and lively crescendos, and I came up with something I call an "exploratory."

Simply put, an exploratory is a one-page, single-spaced piece in which you highlight one thought-provoking issue that caught your attention in the materials we are considering.  This brief analysis must show thorough reading and must show your own thoughtful extension –

·         Your own informed, constructive criticism of the author;

·         Your own developed, thoughtful question (perhaps even inspired by readings from other classes) that raises interesting issues when seen in the light of the author's text;

·         Your own application of theory and method to the primary source;

·         Your own personal conjecture as to how this data can be made useful; or (best of all)

·         Your own autonomous problem that you devised using the data under discussion.

I am not here looking for polished prose or copious (or any) footnotes – save all that for our formal papers.  (I do not return exploratories with comments unless a special request is made.)  Exploratories are not full, open-heart surgeries performed on the text.  Instead, exploratories tend to be somewhat informal but focused probes on one particular aspect in which you yourself can interact with the text and can enter into the conversation.

            What is not an exploratory?  It is not merely a topic supported by evidence from the book, nor is it a descriptive piece on someone else's ideas, nor is it a general book report in which you can wander to and fro without direction.  Bringing in outside materials is allowed, but the exploratory is not a forum for ideas outside that day's expressed focus.  (Such pieces cannot be used in our conference discussions.)  It is instead a problematique, an issue with attitude. 

            The best advice that I can give here is simply to encourage you to consider why I am requesting these exploratories from you: I want to see what ignites your interest in the text so I can set the conference agenda.  That is why they are due the evening before a conference.  Please embed your exploratory in the body of an e-mail and not as an attachment, and please bring a hardcopy to conference.  As they set the agenda for the conference, late exploratories are of no use.  (Being handed a late exploratory is like being handed your salad after you've eaten dessert and are already leaving the restaurant.)  I base roughly half my conferences on exploratories, and I will use them to draw you in, parry your perspective against that of another, and build up the discussion based on your views.  Exploratories help me turn the conference to issues that directly interest you.  They often lead us off on important tangents, and they often return us to the core of the problem under discussion.  So if you are struggling with finding "something to say," simply recall why I ask for these exploratories in the first place.  Is there something in the text you think worthy of conference time?  Do you have an idea you want to take this opportunity to explore?  Here is your chance to draw our attention to it.  Your perspectives are important, and if you have them crystalized on paper in advance, they will be easier to articulate in conference.

            Since I began using exploratories, most students have responded very favorably.  Students like the fact that it is a different form of writing, a bit more informal and more frequent, somewhat akin to thinking aloud.  It forces one not just to read a text but to be looking for something in that text, to engage that text actively.  And it increases the likelihood that everyone leaves the conference singing Puccini.