ACE Series Part V: A Call to ACE Critical Reasoning for the Last Time

Part I of Richard’s “ACE” Series can be read here.

We are at a pedagogical turning point. Once we could impress students with our powers of memorization and recall. But that day is ending. Fast thumbs and fine-tuned algorithms can replicate the same thing.

Sure, you can hold onto the belief that no one lectures quite the way you do. But what will you teach when your school uploads your lectures to iTunes University?

Our task is becoming less about just transmitting content. Whatever our respective domains, we are increasingly called to train students in application, access, and analysis.

The Matrix

In my own practice, I have been using the ACE model as a way to facilitate arguments about the religious, social, and cultural discourses that so thoroughly affect us all. Engaging these topics requires students to do a double take toward the life-altering actions that we human beings take for granted. My hope is that students will consider the good, bad, and ugly consequences that ensue.

I liken this approach to recent reflections made by Jonathan Osborne, professor of science education at Stanford University. Science, he says, is rooted in arguing for ideas in light of evidence. But he has found that in the K-12 years, people learn science through the acceptance of facts and not discovery. So he encourages teachers to facilitate “more opportunities [for students] to look at why some ideas are wrong, as well as what the right ideas are.” Coming from a humanities perspective, I am less concerned with absolute correctness as verifiable defensibility, but the thrust is the same. My job is to help students critically reason through a select course topic.

The ACE model matrix is a humanities’ response to the scientific method. It helps students ask a series of key questions to strengthen their arguments:

Is there an assertion to top off each paragraph?

1. Is it supported by pieces of evidence?
2. Is there an equal amount of commentary to connect each piece of evidence back to the assertion?
3. What type of assertions, evidence and commentary are represented in the paragraph?
4. How do the assertion, evidence, and commentary function in the presentation of the argument?

Colorizing ACE

To help students think through their responses, I encourage students to color each ACE component while emboldening the type and function of each.

Dr. Shamini Dias coordinates Claremont Graduate University’s Dissertation Bootcamp and specializes in integrating the arts into education. After implementing the model in her various settings, she found that the color-coding really “helps students see the structure of their own writing and troubleshoot their own arguments.” “When students can name and visualize the elements in their work, they can have more constructive discussions about how they can bring in the missing elements.”

When I first began using the ACE model, I left its implementation as an option. I quickly discovered that the ACE students spent more time prewriting and had stronger drafts. The best papers were those that saved manuscript formatting until the very end. These students boxed out their paragraphs just as in the video. Sometimes they jotted down a few words until they worked out the best articulation. Then once satisfied, they copied and colored it into manuscript form. The cohesion was astounding.

Scaffolding for Evaluation

Success with the ACE model has also helped me to better scaffold my evaluative measures. For lower-level courses where I require timed writings, I usually have students respond to two broad questions. I pass out scratch sheets of paper with ACE matrices and give them some time to jot down notes. Then I tell them to begin writing in their blue books.  This challenges students to creatively and cogently draw upon their wealth of knowledge. Assigning two questions also helps students to better gauge the breadth and depth appropriate to the task.

For upper-level courses, I scaffold the writing assignments toward a 2500-3000 word research paper. Many weeks, students write critical, ACE color-coded blog posts of 300-350 word. Students respond to each other’s work with a critical, 100 word ACE color-coded comment. This gets students intimately acquainted with the ACE model. The midterm paper is 1250-1500 words (half the length of the final) and asks them to provide an ACE treatment of a topic of their choosing. In the class period before it’s due, students must exchange ACE rough drafts for peer review. After I’ve evaluated their midterm papers, students can expand their midterm into the final draft or start explore a different topic. But whichever direction students choose to go, each activity equips them to express what they’ve learned.

Writing with the ACE model has proven a worthwhile way for my students to experiment with a host of ideas and subject their position to scrutiny. On more than one occasion, I have overheard students curse and exclaim, “I didn’t sign up for a writing class.” But most of the time, toward the end of the term, I hear that reassuring doxology, “I’ve never thought about it that way.” In either event, students become much better critics of their own work, others’, and even my own. I’m not sure that this means better job security for me, but I take it as a sign that learning is taking place.

And In Conclusion: Free Stuff!

For those interested in using the ACE model, I have attached a handout with the ACE model matrix. You can share the video and the handout with your students. I usually have them go over it for homework and then come to class with questions. I have had a blast with y’all here on Seminarium. And please keep us posted on how your ACE students are doing.

Handout:   ACE Model for Critical Thinking and Writing RN 1e_2013 supplement-Writing Like an ACE

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