while the ability to follow conventions of all stripes is certainly important, the ability to understand, historicize, negotiate, and even resist those conventions is far more important. Formatting conventions do not exist in a vacuum, and while they are solidified in style guides and other texts, they are often fluid and change depending on technologies and rhetorical situations. For instance, the gold standard of student paper formatting exists for several reasons, not the least of which involves Microsoft’s push to use Times as the default font in word processors and web browsers. A knowledge of why those conventions exist, how to negotiate them, and the consequences for following and/or breaking them is far more useful for students than simply being forced to follow them blindly.
Katie Day on 29 Dec 10"Students use the iPod touches to record themselves reading what Nienhueser calls a fresh read passage, as it is the first time they have read it. They then listen to the recording and score themselves based on a rubric given to them by their teacher. The rubric scores students based on their level of fluency, expression, pacing and smoothness. Next, each student meets with a partner so they can evaluate someone else's recording. Nienhueser said students have to be able to explain why they chose the scores they selected. The partners also take time to see if they agree with each other's scores."
