Why Do I Use These Contribution Cards?

The Harkness method is a great idea for helping students be active and engaged, but it doesn't obviously address the connection between reading, class participation and writing. Since writing often earns the majority of a grade, the Cards help train students to practice the elements of a strong written composition when they contribute and take notes in class.

Simply put: any good paragraph requires a writer to ask a worthwhile question, observe the source material, reveal an implied truth by making connections and using logic, and clarify those ideas so a reader will "get it" on the first read. A good conversation among scholars and students uses the same elements in the same way.

When we practice asking, observing, revealing and clarifying, we are practicing both good conversation and good writing.When students hold these cards: "Ask," "Observe," "Reveal," "Clarify" and the wild card "Contribute," they know that playing a card to speak is also practice for paragraph building.

They learn about timing, concision, relevance, phrasing, courage and judgment.

Perhaps most usefully, the Cards create a balance in class participation that needn't become political. The Cards allow teachers freedom from having to grade class contribution directly, which can sometimes feel like a dubious exercise in rewarding points-per-word when many students learn well by listening and writing in class.
With the cards, each student speaks once by playing a card, and then that card is done. Quick responders spend their cards quickly; reticent listeners get the last word. Students learn the value of a card, the value of weighing their words. They quickly learn to write out their ideas and listen carefully, so their contributions are worth "spending the card."

The teacher can manipulate the game by handing out different cards, training students to improve their weak skills. It's just a tool, but I've found it revelatory not only about hidden strengths and weaknesses in students but also about my own habits in controlling conversations. At the end of an hour using the cards, I've filled my blackboards with phrases and ideas and references that students considered carefully. The way I've written and shaped them on the boards guides the class as well as my lectures do, but the students have been practicing composition and round-table discussion while testing their own ideas. For me, it's better.

Directions for Making the Cards:

Download the cards in pdf form. The links are above. Free and easy!

Make copies onto strong stock paper for best results. Cut out a card so it looks like the picture at left. Fold on the middle line to make a two-sided card and slip the card into a clear plastic cover. These covers are easily purchasable at any store that deals in comics, "Magic: The Gathering" or other trading cards.

Using the Cards in Class:

If you love big production value,
download and hand out the pdf document: Wendy Wonders v. the Evil Deadline (ETA June 2009)
This comic helps students see how good discussions are like good analytical paragraphs:
they ask, observe, reveal and clarify.

If you don't like a lot of fuss,
here's an easy way: Plan for 2 or 3 cards for each student. You can distribute them randomly or target them to a student's weak spots.

The Rules of Play:

The game starts when the students have their text, notebook, cards and pens at the ready. The teacher then invites the students to begin.

1. To speak in the game, a student plays a card by slapping it on the table in full view. SLAP!

2. The student asks, observes, reveals or clarifies according to the card being played.

3. The teacher's role is to write on the board what students say, which models note-taking as a way of shaping ideas for writing.

4. When a student has played all her cards, she cannot speak any more. She should dedicate herself to writing notes on what others say, following the teacher's model on the board until she develops her own method.

5. When all the cards are played, the game is done. Collect the cards.

6. After, the teacher helps the students see connections in the ideas and excerpts on the board. If this round of play were the pre-writing phase for an essay, what essay might we write from it? This final round allows a teacher to model a range of analytical intensity, from easy connections to ambitious theses. Ten minutes of this work at the end of a class gives the students something to aspire to, and teachers should enjoy the intellectual challenge without having to dominate the grand majority of the class period.

7. Writing assignments can grow out of these notes and ten-minute connections. This helps students practice direct connections between reading and class, discussion and notes, notes and essays.

The Cards:

ASK: If the card is an Ask card, the student asks a question.
This models how each paragraph must address an important question that serves the whole essay.

OBSERVE: If the card is an Observe card, the student reads aloud an excerpt from the text or a concise summary.
This models how each paragraph must touch the source text with precision. Although an observation might seem to answer another student's question explicitly, more often a well-chosen observation invites more intrepretation and discussion.

REVEAL: If the card is a Reveal card, the student offers an inference, insight or hypothesis.
This models how each paragraph must build logically to a kernel, a claim, a topic sentence with an idea: the point of that unit of analysis.

CLARIFY: An Clarify card asks the student to phrase a sentence with precise, clear word choice and syntax. Usually the ideas for the sentence are up on the board already, and the student is practicing how to make a rough writer's draft into a presentational draft. Joeseph Williams' book Style offers superb guidance for this stage of writing. This card is useful for advanced classes, but might impede the flow of ideas for less experienced players.

CONTRIBUTION: A Contribution card is a sort of wild card: the student playing this card offers whatever best contributes to the discussion.