How a mathematician teaches “Little Brother” to a first-year seminar

Derek Bruff teaches a first-year college writing seminar in mathematics, an unusual kind of course that covers a lot of ground, and uses a novel as some of its instructional material — specifically, my novel Little Brother.

Bruff’s written up an excellent and fascinating description of the unit that uses the novel, which he’s just taught again. After students read the novel and blog brief reactions to the book, they come to class where they participate in an exercise in comparing argumen...