Poetic Knowledge in the Dialectic Classroom: Narrative Assessment

One of the challenging questions concerning the goal of poetic knowledge in the classroom is how to assess it.  In short, we can’t assess it in the sense of measuring it.  However, what we as instructors can do is to help our students assume a posture of learning that best places them to receive poetic knowledge.  We can also give assignments which are based not solely on an objective grasp of the material but allow room for the student’s subjective response and incorporation of the material into their own realm of personal story.  One way to do this is through narrative assessment.

I have chosen the term “narrative assessment” to make this practice distinct from a Charlotte Mason-type of narration.  There are strong similarities between the two, but also consequential differences due to the format of online and classroom learning.  A true Charlotte Mason-style narration would take place after a single reading or exposure to the material being narrated, and would entail minimal guidance from the teacher.  The benefits of this kind of narration are tremendous but not easily adapted to the time constraints of a flipped classroom in an online environment, as well as the complexity of the material being studied.

The narrative assessments that are integral to my Introduction to the Great Books courses are assigned every few weeks over the material that has been covered by the student to that point in the semester.  As such, when the student writes a narration, it is not after their first exposure to the material.  He or she will have read the books on their own, completed a reading guide for the assigned readings, and have discussed them thoroughly during class before the narration is written or orally submitted in an audio or video format.  

However, these narrations do allow for the development of poetic knowledge in the following ways.  First, the student chooses the topic for the narration and retells the story or material in his or her own words.  Doing so brings the student inside the story in an integrative experience of the selection rather than an outward analysis of the material, which is one of the key components of poetic knowledge:  a knowing from the inside of a subject.  Students also choose whether to write the narration or to submit it orally.  My goal as an instructor is not to assess grammar, syntax, or expression in this paticular assignment, but to find out what has resonated most with the student and how he or she is integrating that material into a wider realm of pre-existing knowledge.  In other words, I would like to learn whether any part of the material we have studied together provoked an affective (and thus poetic) response in any way?

Second, a required element of the narrative assessment is to connect the selection being retold to another story from the student’s personal vault of knowledge.  This story can be a book, a movie, a television show, a video game, or a piece of art or music that the narrated selection brings to mind for the student.  As the student progresses through the classes, the level of connection they are expected to make increases from a simple identification of a similar story, to a comparison of specific themes or characters, to an additional contrast of dissimilarities between the two.  This part of the assessment allows the student to create their own “memory hook” for the story in a way that integrates it into their existing narrative world of stories that are already personally meaningful to them, and promotes the science of relations among those stories. 

Thirdly, the narrative assessment asks the student to consider the significance of the story to the world in which it is set–how the selection they have retold relates to events before or after it–or to consider primary themes in the story and where those themes are most evident.  This requirement helps the student to assess the importance of the story within the world in which it is presented, and to further the student’s understanding of the story in that realm.  These last two elements also serve to move the student toward the type of thinking needed for upper level study by introducing the comparative analysis of texts at a basic level and within the realm of previously established knowledge. 

Finally, the student is asked to do a little outside research to learn something new about the selection and to give a specific personal response, which provides further insight to the instructor concerning what in the story connected with the student and how he or she is using that material to further understanding in other areas.  The repetition of this assignment throughout the semester provides extended opportunities for students to firmly establish their ability to use these skills to begin to articulate their own “science of relations” for the stories and to expand their ability to communicate those connections as their intellectual maturity grows. 

To learn more about the classes I am offering this year, you can find me here at Kepler Education.