Possible Plans for English 101 – Cover Letter - WordPress.com

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Possible Plans for English 101 – Cover Letter To Whom It May Concern: The rest of this document contains the following materials:

1. A sample English 101 syllabus 2. A sample project for English 101 in which students build an online portfolio 3. A sample project for English 101 in which students engage in global revision

a. A sample student handout explaining global and local revision 4. A sample project for English 101 in which students examine the news writing genre 5. A sample project for English 101 in which students engage critical theory 6. A sample project for English 101 in which students write a detailed research paper

These are sample materials. I have designed them as part of an integrated course and, taken together, they cover all the required learning goals. However, I also tried to design them so you can take a single project and incorporate it in your own class. I have aligned each project with the learning goals it best covers throughout this document (although there is obviously room for interpretation and expansion). This way you can easily ensure that you’re still meeting all the learning goals throughout the class even if you pick and choose from these projects. I have described each project for you here, but I have not included assignment sheet handouts for students. I find that creating such handouts helps me gain ownership and understanding of projects I borrow, so I hope you will take the same opportunity. But, please feel free to contact me if you want help in developing such a material. I’ll be happy to assist! The sample syllabus also reflects Writing Project policies, although you’ll probably want to create your own syllabus and simply mine this one for source material. A final note: You’ll see that my grade distribution includes 25% for “Homework/Journal” that is not explained in any of the material below. I typically negotiate how students will earn this 25% with them at the beginning of the semester. Some possibilities include periodic quizzes, reflection assignments, attending study sessions or other out-of-class activities, or keeping a blog on the class. Any assignments that require regular participation and engagement with class members and class content are usually acceptable. Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Thanks for reading! Erin Frost Cell: 217-737-8101 Email: [email protected] Office: STV 424F

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Syllabus for English 101: Composition as Critical Inquiry

Fall 2010

Instructor Contact Information

Erin A. Frost Office hours: 9:15-10:45 a.m. TR and by appointment Office: Stevenson 424F Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Phone/Text: 217-737-8101 Website: http://students.english.ilstu.edu/eaclar4/351/home

Required Materials Access to the Internet The Writing Research Annual A flash drive for backing up files (recommended) A style guide (recommended)

Introduction and Goals of the Course

Welcome to Composition as Critical Inquiry, one of your required inner core courses. Despite what you might expect, this class will not teach you to write; it will teach you to be a stronger writer. After all, this may be your first writing-oriented course at Illinois State, but you're already a writer. Whether you Tweet, Facebook, text message, or keep a traditional diary, you have knowledge of writing that you bring to this course. Our goal is to help you develop as a writer and gain confidence to write in many different genres. The critical eye you’ll develop in this course will enable you to observe the world around you and see patterns of meaning that you can then discuss, research, and write and speak about.

In order to accomplish these goals, we’ll examine and critique some common ideas about what makes writing “good,” such as clarity, depth, use of jargon, and page count. You will be expected to do a substantial amount of reading, produce examples of writing in the genres we study, analyze the products you create, and participate in class discussions.

This class may include students from a variety of disciplines. We will take this opportunity to learn from each other and to achieve a better understanding of others’ fields. Much of the learning you do in this class will come from your peers. The classroom should be a place of mutual respect. You may not always agree with the opinions of others, but lively debate is part of learning. Collaboration will be key to your success.

In this course, you will learn to navigate a variety of genres used in the professional world. You will also become expert at analyzing audience and at utilizing various styles of writing. Most of all, you will come out of this course with an understanding of how to function as a writer, student, and citizen in a variety of situations. The Course Guide for English 101 is an extension of this syllabus that you should refer to for additional course policies and the general course design.

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Class Communication

I communicate class updates and announcements through email. You should let me know during the first week of class if I should send correspondence for you to an email address other than your Illinois State account. (Please also note that I use my gmail account as my primary address because it allows me to archive conversations with students.) I do recommend email as your first line of contact with me. Although I also give you my cell phone number so that you may text or call me, I more often use email to communicate. In addition, email provides a written record of our communication.

Participation and Attendance

Engaged participation makes for a more enriching and productive learning environment for the entire class. In order to fully participate, it is essential that you complete readings and other homework assignments. I also may give quizzes as part of your participation grade, although I generally only resort to this if it becomes apparent that not all students are completing assigned readings. Participation counts as 10 percent of your grade, and it is a 10 percent I will hold to a very high standard.

It is impossible to participate in a class that you do not attend. Because this course functions as a community in which we will constantly collaborate, showing up for class is crucial to your success. I understand that absences sometimes cannot be avoided, but it is up to you as a responsible adult to decide what course of action will benefit you most. In the event that you must miss class, it is your responsibility to keep up, which may mean staying in contact with a classmate, contacting me, and/or checking our progress via the website. Absences will affect your grade. There is no official penalty for your first two absences, although it may affect your grade if you end up “on the bubble.” On your third absence, you will lose ½ letter from your final grade in the course. Each absence after this also results in a ½ letter grade reduction. Missing eight days will result in automatic failure in the course.

Late work

I do not accept late work. Failure to turn in a project on time will result in a zero for that project. I do, however, understand that life does not begin or end with class. With this in mind, please keep in contact with me should life conspire to prevent you from completing work on time. I am very willing to grant extensions or otherwise work with students who make an effort to communicate with me. Extensions must be requested in writing, preferably by email, so that we each have a record of both your request and my affirmation of your new due date. While I will honor oral extension agreements that I remember making, please protect yourself by taking the time to create this record. Although I almost always agree to extensions, please do realize that I have the right to refuse such a request and schedule your request for an extension accordingly. Extensions requested at the time an assignment is due are unlikely to be granted. In the same vein, I strongly recommend that you purchase a flash drive to back up your work for this class and/or that you store all work in more than one location. Backing up files is a necessary professional practice in the age of digital information. I am not likely to grant extensions or exceptions because you failed to back up your files.

Group Work

Group work often is required in the professional world, and it is an integral part of this class. You should be prepared to engage responsibly in group work and all the difficulties and rewards that come with it. There may be times when a group member has to do more than his/her fair share of assigned tasks. However, as in the professional world, there are ways to responsibly ensure that group members do not take advantage of others. You should always communicate with me about a difficult situation within a group, and you should do this in a professional manner. I will handle these situations as they arise, but if a problem becomes apparent with one group member, that member may be removed from the group and given an alternate assignment. Because this indicates a failure to collaborate with others—which is an important goal of the class—that student’s final grade for the course will drop one full letter grade.

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Grading Grades in this course are determined based on daily work, projects, and participation. I do not give quizzes unless it becomes apparent that students are not doing daily reading; in this circumstance, quiz grades are part of the participation grade.

Homework/journal – 25% Participation – 10% Project 1 – Building Ethos: The Wired Workspace – 5% Project 2 – Re-visioning Research – 15% Project 3 – Culture and Ethics: A Journalistic Exploration – 15% Project 4 – Tactics and Strategies: Looking at the World Through Critical Theory – 15% Project 5 – Researching for Freedom – 15%

Project grades are determined based on the rubrics and guidelines I will provide you for each project. I am open to creative re-interpretations of project guidelines so long as your proposal still meets the learning goals for the project and you get your alternative idea approved before proceeding with it. You may revise each project (except for the final project) once in an effort to achieve a better grade. Your latest grades will always be available to you via Blackboard. You can access Blackboard by logging onto your iCampus account and navigating to the Blackboard course list on the lower left. Although many instructors use a straight scale for grading, I use Illinois State’s official scale, which is as follows:

93-100 = A 83-92 = B 73-82 = C 63-72 = D Below 62 = F

I do not “bump up” final grades for students who are close to a higher grade. In other words, if you earn an 82% in the course, you will receive a C. I give ample opportunity for students to do well; it is your responsibility to earn the grade that you desire.

Extra credit

I do sometimes offer extra credit. Please keep in mind that extra credit is just that—extra—and you should not rely upon it or expect it to save your grade. I usually offer extra credit in the form of attending campus events. If you know of an event that you think is worthy of some extra credit points, please let me know as far in advance as possible and I will consider offering it to the entire class as extra credit.

I am also sometimes amenable to your revising previously graded work for a higher grade even beyond your one allowed revision. You may request this option, but understand that it is contingent upon my ability to make time to re-grade your paper as well as my perception of your level of effort. Students who do not appear to put in significant effort on initial drafts will not likely be granted an additional revision opportunity. This option is intended as a safety net for students who wish to take academic risks in efforts to pursue superior work, not as an incentive to do mediocre work on a project with the expectation of revising unendingly.

Special accommodations

Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 309-438-5853 (voice) or 309-438-8620 (TTY).

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(Tentative) Schedule

Week 1

Aug. 24 – Introduction to class. Go over syllabus. Free-writing on what you hope to do in this class to be turned in before you leave (statement of purpose). Homework: Possible reading from WRA. Aug. 26 – Discussion of statements of purpose for class. Discussion of reading for today. Introduction to Project 1. Homework: Research Portfolio sites. Possible reading from WRA.

Week 2

Aug. 31 – Discussion of reading for today. Discussion on portfolio sites. Assign genre analysis for P1. Homework: Complete genre analysis. Sept. 2 – Discussion of genre analyses. Create rubric for P1 together. Get started on creating personal portfolios. Homework: Complete a draft of online portfolio.

Week 3

Sept. 7 – Discussion: show portfolios on projector. Time for partner peer review. Return to and comment on genre analysis assignments. Homework: Finish commenting on genre analyses. Sept. 9 – All components of P1 due. Debrief from P1. Introduce P2. Discuss global and local revision (handout). Homework: Possible reading from WRA. Gather ideas for found texts for P2.

Week 4

Sept. 14 – Group work on found texts for P2. Have students commit to a text they will globally revise. Homework: Possible reading from WRA. Research on chosen found text. Sept. 16 – Discussion of P2 projects and suggestions from classmates on how to do each project. Work Time for P2. Homework: Work on P2.

Week 5

Sept. 21 – Draft of P2 due. Break into groups for peer review of P2 drafts. Discussion of analyses. Homework: Peer review someone else’s P2. Begin work on analysis. Sept. 23 – Peer review conversations in groups. Time to work on analyses. Homework: Finish all components of P2. Possible reading from WRA.

Week 6

Sept. 28 – All components of P2 due. Debrief from P2. Introduce P3. Read article chosen by instructor in class and discuss in terms of ethics and culture. Homework: Find at least three news articles about a subject that interests you. Print them and mark everything that bothers you in terms of content with one color. Mark everything that bothers them in terms of style in another color. Make notes in the margins explaining your marks. Sept. 30 – Discussion of marked articles. Discussion of Associated Press Style and journalistic genres. Discussion of the components of a “good” news article. Negotiation of rubric. Homework: Create a context for a news article that you think needs to be written, then write that article.

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Week 7

Oct. 5 – Peer review of articles. Homework: Revise articles. Oct. 7 – P3 due. Debrief from P3. Midterm chat. Sign-up sheet for midterm meetings available. Homework: Possible reading from WRA. Read assigned news article for P4.

Week 8

Oct. 12 – Debrief from Midterm Chat. Introduce P4. Discuss article read for today using key terms. Homework: Read handout from The Practice of Everyday Life. Oct. 14 – Class devoted to understanding and discussion the reading due today. Homework: Bring to class an article that you think will be interesting when analyzed using The Practice of Everyday Life..

Week 9

Oct. 19 – Group work on articles. Homework: Write a minimum 600-word analysis of your chosen article using Certeauian theories. Oct. 21 – Analysis due. Class discussion of analyses. Time for students to find a local news article related to their topic. Discussion of how chosen topics affect our everyday lives. Homework: Engage in public discourse about a topic you care about. This may mean commenting on the local article you found today, reposting it with commentary on your Facebook status, or anything else that gets people talking.) Make sure this is something you can provide me with access to in order to receive credit.

Week 10

Oct. 26 – Discussion of engagement in public discourse. Introduction to final P4 project and formation of groups. Homework: Begin work on P4 group paper. Oct. 28 – Work Day for P4 group paper. Homework: Work on P4 group paper.

Week 11

Nov. 2 – Work Day for P4 group paper. Homework: Finish P4 group paper.

Nov. 4 – Possible time to finish of P4 paper. All components of P4 due. Debrief from P4. Introduce P5. Homework: Think about what you might like to do for P5.

Week 12

Nov. 9 – Mini-lectures on possible critical lenses for P5. Discussion and questions. Sign-up sheet for individual meetings available. Homework: Research any critical lenses that interest you and research potential topics for paper.

Nov. 11– Mini-lectures on possible critical lenses for P5. Discussion and questions. Sign-up sheet for individual meetings available. Homework: Research any critical lenses that interest you and research potential topics for paper. Decide by Tuesday what your topic and critical lens will be and if you will work alone or with partners.

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Week 13

Nov. 16 – Meet at Milner to do research on papers. Homework: Have at least 500 words of your paper’s first draft written by Thursday.

Nov. 18 – Informal oral presentations and peer feedback session. Homework: Continue work on P5 paper.

Week 14 - No Class (Thanksgiving Break)

Week 15

Nov. 30 – Review of components of a good research paper. Discussion of P5 analysis. Work time. Homework: Continue work on P5 paper and analysis. Dec. 2 – Work time. Organize peer review groups. Homework: Draft of P5 paper due tomorrow (Dec. 3) electronically. Peer review assigned drafts.

Week 16

Dec. 7 – Peer review. Homework: Complete all components of P5.

Dec. 9 – All components of P5 due. Course evaluation.

Week 17 (Finals Week)

We will not formally meet during finals week. However, you must pick up your graded P5 from my office before or during our Final Exam period in order to receive a grade in the course.

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Project 1 Building Ethos: The Wired Workspace

The Project

This project is worth 5% of the student’s final grade. This percentage is intended to encourage investment and participation without causing a “freak out” early in the semester. This project is intended to take about two weeks and can be conformed to fit either a TR or a MWF class. This project does work well as a first project because it asks students to think about ethos and their identities as students, and its technological focus often aids in student investment. To begin this project, tell students they will be creating a personal portfolio-style home page. Begin the project by having students look at a variety of portfolio websites in order to develop familiarity with the genre. Jim Kalmbach’s Hypertext website is an ideal spot to start looking at some portfolio sites. Go to http://english.illinoisstate.edu/kalmbach/351/spring2010/default.html and use the drop-down menu on the right to view past student portfolios. After viewing a few as a class and discussing conventions that are common across those sites, ask students to use a search engine to find other portfolio sites and continue their investigation individually. Then bring the class back together to see what interesting things they found, making sure to guide discussions so that students think about the rhetorical situation of these sites with particular attention to what it means to be an “academic” or “non-academic” genre. Help them complicate the notion of work for the “real world” and examine ways in which students can make sure their work is always “real” to them. Have students choose three portfolio websites that they admire to use as a focus for a genre analysis. In this paper, they will identify the features of these sites and what makes a portfolio site different from other websites; in doing so they will be asked to think about style, structure, visible rhetoric, technological constraints (such as access), and the expectations of the user. This analysis will include a section discussing why these features exist—why are these features important to the genre, rhetorically? Next, ask students to help you create a rubric (you can be the scribe and put it on the projector) that you will use to assess their finished websites. If you have certain criteria that you want included (such as audience awareness or a required draft/storyboard) that they don’t come up with, make sure to suggest it to them and invite discussion. With technology guidance from the instructor, have students create their own portfolio website. This part of the project should be started in class and should include an overview of possible platforms, including an explanation of how to use Publisher to host a website on the students’ server space. Set a due date for rough drafts and have students peer review each other’s websites according to the rubric they designed.

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Finally, have students return to their original genre analysis and validate their learning by adding comments to it. (This can be done in Microsoft Word, in CompClass, or in hard copy.) Ask them to respond to their genre analysis by comparing their portfolio site to the ones they examined in the analysis. Have them react to what they thought they would do as compared to what they actually did, and what genre conventions they followed and broke. Instructors can also have students journal throughout this project. Ideal journaling points would be when students are thinking about drafting their sites and at the end of the project. Another advantage of this project is that students can update their new portfolios throughout the semester; the portfolio can effectively function as a turn-in system for future projects.

Assessment

During this project, students will be assessed in the following ways: § Participation in class discussions (This will be part of their participation grade.) § Genre analysis (Instructors should develop their own criteria for this analysis. My

example is below.) o Does the student analyze three portfolio sites? o Does the student identify genre conventions including those under the categories

of style, structure, visible rhetoric, technological constraints, and user expectations?

o Does the student discuss why such features are important to the genre and how they interact with content?

§ Website (Evaluate according to the rubric students devised.) § Peer review (Evaluate according to level of investment and effort.) § Self-analysis (Evaluate according to level of investment and effort.)

Learning Goals

This project will require students to: 1. Identify Genres by:

§ Identifying the features of the online portfolio genre and articulating the differences that separate this genre from other web-based genres

§ Demonstrating how choices in their own product either adhere to he conventions they identified or deviate from genre conventions and why they do so.

§ Developing an understanding of how genre features shape content by analyzing multiple samples from the genre before beginning work on their own product

2. Create content § Students will learn to create a product of the web portfolio genre § Students will be aware of the rhetorical choices they make in creating their

portfolio and constructing a public ethos and § Students will be able to defend those choices analytically with a rhetorical

vocabulary 3. Organize information

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§ Students will examine how organization and navigation work in web genres by conducting an analysis of three samples from the genre

4. Technology/Media § Students will identify the limitations created by technological resources in relation

to web design as they struggle to create their own portfolios § Students will learn about appropriate and innovative tools for digital products

when we debrief from the project (and when they revise the project at the end of the class)

§ Students will examine issues of access and the implications for digital works during class discussions

8. Grammatical Usage and Sentence Structure § Students should be able to identify the writing style of online portfolios through

the use of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary as evidenced in the genre analysis.

§ Students should make informed decisions about writing style in their product to create a web portfolio that will build a positive ethos for them

§ Students should be able to identify the ways in which they stylistically mimic the sites they used as examples in their self-analysis paper

§ Students will identify the areas in which they must work to improve their writing style in their self-analysis paper

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Project 2 Re-visioning Research

The Project

This project is worth 15% of the student’s final grade, which means it is weighted equally to the four other main projects. This project is intended to take about two weeks. In this project, students will undertake a global revision of a found text.

Begin the project by discussing the difference between global and local revision. (See handout for examples to use. Here is an example of a research paper that a student turned into a website: http://womenassexobjects.weebly.com/) This project usually opens to general confusion from students; be aware (and tell them) that working through this confusion is part of their learning. Ask them to think of texts that they see every day and/or texts that affect their lives, and then ask them to imagine how these texts might be more effective if they were presented in a different genre. (Some examples you can use to get them going are how legal texts are so much easier to understand after reporters have simplified them—but make sure to complicate the problems with such simplification.) This should begin to give them ideas about what their global revision can do. Have them break into small groups to talk this over, and suggest that they may want to work in groups if their found texts are very large.

After completing the project, have students write a detailed analysis of how their revisions changed the genre of their chosen work. Did they use a known genre? How so? Did they deviate from its conventions? In what ways? Or did they create a new genre entirely? Does the work meet its intended purpose? When doing this, what was the historically trajectory of their content and why did they choose a particular genrew to represent it? Instructors can consider letting students format this analysis in different ways. If they wrote a paper, they might write their analysis using comments as they did in Project 1. If they did a website, they might need to write a separate paper. Discuss with students how their project will drive the form of their analysis.

Students are encouraged to undertake multimedia projects, and they should consider submitting their creations to TheJUMP, a brand new undergraduate multimedia journal. Publications like this look great on resumes, which can provide a talking point for revision of Project 1.

Assessment

During this project, students will be assessed in the following ways: § Revised project (Instructors may consider having students design their own rubrics for

this project since they will be doing a variety of genres, or instructors may create a standard rubric that is available when students begin the project.)

§ Self-analysis (Evaluate according to level of investment and effort or other pre-established criteria.)

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Learning Goals

This project will require students to:

1. Identifying Genres § Students will identify multiple genres and what separates them. § Students will document how the features of their chosen genre highlight their

chosen content. § Students will analyze how their work conforms to their chosen genre. § Students will compare features of the old and new genres of their work to show

how the content changes with those features. 2. Creating Content

§ Students will examine and create content in multiple genres § Students will defend their rhetorical choices by employing cognitive/conceptual

skills related to argument and analysis in their revisions and will identify the use of these strategies in their analyses.

3. Organizing Information in Multiple Genres § Students will identify the organizational structures that govern different kinds of

writing genres and will choose one genre to fit their content. 4. Technology/Media

§ Students will engage with technologies depending on their genre choices. They will demonstrate in their analyses how their text is affected by their choice of technology or medium (in terms of its conception, production, and distribution, as well as the potential ways the text may be taken up by users).

5. The Trajectories of Literate Activity § Students will trace the rhetorical velocity of their chosen text and will examine

how genre, as a cultural force, shapes its content. 6. Flexible Research Skills

§ Students will research to discover a found text and will learn how to conduct research by both primary and secondary means.

1. Students may use digital databases, print material, and/or archival resources in searching for a text to revise and for critiques of that text.

2. Students may use primary research including observation, experiment, survey, and/or interview methods to create a better-supported revision of their found text.

7. Using Citation Formats and Citing Source Material in Multiple Genres § Students must use a citation style to cite their original text and they will choose

this style based on the intention of their text. 8. Grammatical Usage and Sentence Structure

§ Students will identify the appropriate grammar for their genre and make informed decisions about its usage.

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Sample handout on global and local revision

YouTube on the difference between global and local revision Local revision Here is a YouTube video of One Republic’s “Apologize.” (Although the videos are interesting, we’re really using the audio as our text here.) Pay attention to the strings in the first 30 seconds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPHDoZNbMeE Now, here is a YouTube video of the same song by the same group, but guest featuring Timbaland. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePyRrb2-fzs Pay attention to the fact that piano now dominates the first few seconds, and then Timbaland’s vocals become the focal point. However, the basic thread of the composition is the same. This is an example of local revision. Global revision Here is a YouTube video of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by Daft Hands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cYWfq--Nw Get the feel for the beat (and try not to get too into the dancing hands), then listen to Kanye West’s version of “Stronger.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsO6ZnUZI0g You can still hear the influence of Daft Hands, but this is really an entirely new song with a different purpose and audience, isn’t it? That’s global revision.

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Project 3 Culture and Ethics: A Journalistic Exploration

The Project

This project is worth 15% of the student’s final grade, which means it is weighted equally to the four other main projects. This project is intended to take about two weeks. Begin this project by having students read a news article(s). Deliberately choose something that will lead to a discussion of ethics and culture. One great possibility is to have students search for “Facebook” on CNN.com. They will find articles about Facebook’s discrimination against those with Native American surnames and articles about privacy concerns. This can lead to an excellent discussion of the problems with bias in the news media. Next, encourage students to search a subject that is more interesting to them and to read the corpus of recent news articles on it. Have them mark everything in the article that bothers them in terms of content with one color. Have them mark everything in the article that bothers them in terms of style in another color. Discuss. Introduce Associated Press style. Discuss difference in journalistic genres—columns, articles, editorials, etc. See handout. Ask students to write news articles on their chosen topic. Have peers review them. Allow students to choose the context, and encourage them to actually submit the articles. For example, they could write about racism at Illinois State and submit their piece to the Vidette.

Assessment

During this project, students will be assessed in the following ways: § Participation § Critical thinking about problematic terms in news articles § Peer review § Written article (in context)

Learning Goals

This project will require students to: 1. Identify Genres by:

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§ Identifying the features of the news writing genre and articulating the differences between journalistic genres including articles, columns, and editorials.

§ Documenting how the features of a news genre shape its content. § Demonstrating how the choices they make in their articles conform to the genre § Comparing how features of the different news genre shape content in different

ways. 2. Create content

§ Students will learn to create a product of the news writing genre § Students will be aware of the rhetorical choices they make in creating their news

article § Students will be able to defend those choices analytically

3. Organize information § Students will examine how organization and navigation work in news genres by

conducting an analysis of three samples from the genre and working with other students’ samples of the genre

4. Technology/Media § Students will identify the technologies and tools necessary to produce a text in the

news writing genre and will discuss the current state of newspapers and how it relates to technological advancement

§ Students will decide upon appropriate technologies and tools to use in the specific context of the article they will write

§ Students will examine issues of access and the implications for digital works during class discussions and will demonstrate how a given text is affected by the use of different technologies or media (in terms of its conception, production, and distribution, as well as the potential ways the text may be taken up by users).

5. The Trajectories of Literate Activity § Students will trace the trajectories of the information found in news and will

discuss how those sources are shaped by interactions with people, materials, and technologies. They will consider the social and cultural forces that shape how a genre is understood and identified and the potential uses that readers make of news content.

6. Flexible Research Skills § Students will demonstrate knowledge of a variety of source materials appropriate

for news articles, including digital databases, print materials, archival resources, experiments, observations, surveys, and interviews.

7. Using Citation Formats and Citing Source Material in Multiple Genres § Students will learn the difference between academic styles and Associated Press

Style. § Students will integrate source material into their articlesin appropriate ways,

including quoting and paraphrasing sources, and effectively integrate source material.

8. Grammatical Usage and Sentence Structure § Students will identify how sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and

vocabulary function in the news genre as opposed to in academic work. § Students will identify grammatical conventions in the news genre and will use

those conventions in their own work.

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Project 4 Tactics and Strategies: Looking at the World Through Critical Theory

The Project

This project is worth 15% of the student’s final grade, which means it is weighted equally to the four other main projects. This project is intended to take about three weeks. In this project, students will learn to apply critical theory to everyday texts. Start this project by providing students with a news article to read as homework, followed by a class discussion that introduces students to the terms “strategies” and “tactics” (as Michel de Certeau uses them) and asks them to apply those terms to the article. (Here is a suggestion for that article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/15/hospitals.ban.vbacs/index.html) Having now introduced students to critical theory, provide them with a handout of a relevant portion of de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life. (I would suggest using the 14-page General Introduction to the book.) Advise them that the reading will be difficult but that you will discuss it and work it out together. You will likely need to devote a class period to this. Once students are feeling more comfortable with this new theory, ask them to find an article that lends itself to this type of critique. Give them time to discuss their articles in groups, then ask them to write a short paper in which they analyze their chosen article using this new method. Soon after this exercise, ask students to localize the issue and consider how news articles and their topics affect their everyday lives. Then, ask them to engage in local discourse about a topic they care about. This could mean having them comment critically on a news story, having them use their Facebook account as a space for public debate, organizing a public forum, or any number of other creative interpretations of the assignment. Make sure students devise a method so that you can see their efforts and the outcomes so that they can receive credit. (Often, a screenshot of a conversation will do this.) Finally, introduce the culminating assignment of this project: a group paper. Students often dislike group papers, but the emphasis on community throughout this project and the ability to choose a topic that gets them fired up often changes their minds. I use an organize approach at this point. After introducing the criteria for the project, I ask students to think about what topic(s) they want to cover and choose their own groups so that everyone’s interests are reflected. I’ve had students pair off, form larger groups, and—in one instance—do a project together as an entire class. Make sure to be transparent about requirements before students choose groups and to be careful and flexible in negotiating the amount of content required for each individual group.

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(For example, you might ask a group of two and a group of eight to talk to each other about content requirements. They often reach agreement on what is fair with little intervention.)

Assessment

During this project, students will be assessed based on the following deliverables: § Participation in class discussions (this will be part of their participation grade) § Analysis of chosen article using Certeauian theory § Proof of local engagement § Group paper

Learning Goals

This project will require students to: 1. Identify Genres by:

§ Identifying the features of the online portfolio genre and articulating the differences that separate this genre from other web-based genres

§ Demonstrating how choices in their own product either adhere to he conventions they identified or deviate from genre conventions and why they do so.

§ Developing an understanding of how genre features shape content by analyzing multiple samples from the genre before beginning work on their own product

2. Create content § Students will learn to create a product of the web portfolio genre § Students will be aware of the rhetorical choices they make in creating their

portfolio and constructing a public ethos and § Students will be able to defend those choices analytically with a rhetorical

vocabulary 3. Organize information

§ Students will examine how organization and navigation work in web genres by conducing an analysis of three samples from the genre

4. Technology/Media § Students will identify the limitations created by technological resources in

relation to web design as they struggle to create their own portfolios § Students will learn about appropriate and innovative tools for digital products

when we debrief from the project (and when they revise the project at the end of the class)

§ Students will examine issues of access and the implications for digital works during class discussions

7. Using Citation Formats and Citing Source Material in Multiple Genres: § Students will cite sources in the final paper for this project using an academic

citation format. They will demonstrate the ability to integrate source material into their written projects in appropriate ways, including citing material correctly, quoting and paraphrasing source material, and effectively integrating source material to support a persuasive goal.

§ Students will investigate and demonstrate how different methods of citation are

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shaped by the goals of the text. 8. Grammatical Usage and Sentence Structure

§ Students should be able to identify the writing style of online portfolios through the use of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary as evidenced in the genre analysis.

§ Students should make informed decisions about writing style in their product to create a web portfolio that will build a positive ethos for them

§ Students should be able to identify the ways in which they stylistically mimic the sites they used as examples in their self-analysis paper

§ Students will identify the areas in which they must work to improve their writing style in their self-analysis paper

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Project 5 Researching for Freedom

The Project

This project is worth 15% of the student’s final grade, which means it is weighted equally to the four other main projects. This project is intended to take about four weeks.

This project will open with a brief introduction to some critical lenses that students might use to frame their research projects (feminism, decolonial theory, other critical theories … rhetorics of freedom). At this point in the semester, you should know your students well enough to make some informed choices about what kinds of theories might interest them. Encourage them to pick a lens that will help them argue for more free or ethical treatment in some context. Students will choose one critical approach to research more thoroughly and will write a reflection on what topics/genres it might fit well with.

Students will write a research paper on a topic of their choice. It must contain at least 3,000 words and 12 sources that are cited according to an academic style. Part of the challenge for this project is determining which style would be most appropriate for the students’ chosen topic. Students must attend a Visor Center session in order to earn an A on this project. Students also will write a minimum 600-word analysis demonstrating their critical thought about the rhetorical choices in their paper. Students should also conduct an audience analysis in this paper and should discuss exigency and how they made it clear in their paper.

Students may complete this project individually or in groups of two or three. If completed in groups, students may choose to write one analysis together or choose to write separate analyses.

Peer review will be a major part of this project and will be done in several rounds. It will be conducted in class and is therefore dependent upon attendance/participation. Peer review will be conducted orally in the first round and later will happen on paper (perhaps through CompClass) so that a record of comments and discussions is created.

Assessment

During this project, students will be assessed in the following ways: § Rough draft (turned in for peer review) § Peer review § Final draft § Self-analysis § Visor Center form

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Learning Goals

This project will require students to: 1. Identify Genres by:

§ Identifying the features of a research paper § Demonstrating how choices in their own product either adhere to he

conventions they identified or deviate from genre conventions and why they do so.

2. Create content § Students will learn to create a research paper § Students will be aware of the rhetorical choices they make in creating research

paper and why those choices are important § Students will be able to defend those choices analytically with a rhetorical

vocabulary 3. Organize information

§ Students will examine how organization affects audience perception of their research paper through peer review

4. Technology/Media § Students will identify the limitations created by technological resources in

relation to drafting as they explore the challenges and offerings of CompClass § Students will learn about appropriate and innovative tools for developing print

products 5. The Trajectories of Literate Activity

§ Students will deeply examine the roots of the sources they use, analyzing the context and history to ensure they are using the source correctly.

6. Flexible Research Skills § Students will learn a variety of ways to find source material, including digital

and print § Students will learn about the appropriate usages of both primary and secondary

sources. 7. Citation

§ Students will learn to use an accepted academic citation format, likely MLA or APA

§ Students will learn to integrate source material into their projects § Students will learn to choose citation styles depending upon the goals and

intentions of that citation style 8. Grammatical Usage and Sentence Structure

§ Students should be able to identify the writing style of research papers through the use of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary as evidenced in the self-analysis.

§ Students should make informed decisions about writing style in their product to create a research paper that will build a positive ethos for them.

§ Students should be able to identify the ways in which they stylistically mimic the articles they use as sources in their research paper.

§ Students will identify the areas in which they must work to improve their writing style in their self-analysis paper.