Event Recap: “Teaching with Commonplacing” Pedagogy Workshop

Just in time for the new academic year, the Keats-Shelley Association of America’s Vice-President of Public Outreach Dr. Olivia Loksing Moy and Communications and KSJ+ Fellow Dr. Kacie Wills hosted a “Teaching with Commonplacing” virtual workshop. Commonplacing has been a focus of the K-SAA’s public outreach since 2023, and we will continue to highlight it through 2025. Professors, teachers, librarians, and enthusiasts joined together on our Zoom call to brainstorm and discuss strategies for bringing commonplacing into the classroom and beyond.

The workshop opened with a helpful overview of the history and contemporary practice of commonplacing. Pedagogically, commonplacing presents an exciting, multimedia alternative to traditional, linear essay writing. Multiple instructors noted many students find they are proud to produce a tangible record of their interactions with the texts they read throughout the class. Students may also feel empowered by employing skills they have already built through their interactions with media in the digital sphere, described on the K-SAA’s commonplacing page as “the social-media arts of posting, re-posting, sharing, replying, embedding, and compiling.” 

Commonplacing can also provide a student’s first introduction to working with archives and special collections, which workshop attendee Jamie Chen noted has been incredibly generative in creative writing courses. Additionally, in the age of generative artificial intelligence (AI), instructors were excited by an assignment that requires students to engage with texts in a way that cannot be easily replicated by Artificial Intelligence. 

Dr. Daniel Block, Chair of the English department at King School, shared some examples of commonplacing assignments he has generated, including “Byronic Vibes” and “Commonplacing Macbeth.” Instructors also shared their experiences with including bookmaking as an element of commonplacing. Their binding methods focus on physically interacting with texts and range from using needle and thread to more contemporary zine-making. Many teachers shared they had also found success with online platforms such as PADLET, Miro, and Substack. 

Whether engaging with it online or on paper, bringing commonplacing into the classroom can encourage students to focus on the creative process of reading and writing rather than just the final product.

You can find more teaching materials here, and the takehome toolkit from the workshop here. If you adapt an assignment, please give credit to the original instructor, and don’t forget to check out the second volume of the KSJ+ special issue on commonplacing!