By Robin Bell of South Texas College
Description #
This activity presents a comprehensive, multi-layered exploration of a single text using Hypothesis. By combining individual analysis and group discourse, this approach encourages students to engage deeply with the text to foster critical thinking and develop argumentation skills. This iterative process unfolds through successive cycles of annotation and discussion, with each layer focusing on different objectives and deepening the understanding of the text in each round. The text used in this example is an open-ended play used as part of a unit in a Rhetoric class and the assignment contains four layers or rounds, each one lasting a week; however, this method has many cross-disciplinary applications and can be easily adapted. A few ideas appear below, but the possibilities are limitless:
- Processing dense scientific research
- Analyzing legal texts or historical documents
- Dissecting complex philosophical ideologies
- Evaluating case studies in business, medicine, and other fields
- Understanding complex biochemical processes
- Exploring creative works
