Projects

Note: This page will list all projects and assignments from newest to oldest.

Final Portfolio: Meta-Analysis, Revision & Multigenre Remix

Deadline: Sunday, December 6, 2009 by midnight, no exceptions.

Portfolio Introduction

You all have created tons of new texts this semester, and it’s hard to believe we are in the home stretch. From blogs to visual texts, from statements of student philosophy to lesson plans and teaching assignments, most of you have met every challenge and given this class your best effort.

Now it is time for the final challenge. The final portfolio will be a multigenre text that will synthesize your vision of this course by both narrating and analyzing your texts, this class and your roll in it: what you did, what you learned, what you would do differently and why. In creating this document, you will get a chance to rethink and re-see your earlier work, through the processes of revising and remixing.

Think of the portfolio as your greatest hits from the semester, your best-of collection of texts with commentary, like a critical documentary of your performances over the semester.

Objectives

• Create a written plan or storyboard for completing the portfolio to help you organize.
• Revise and synthesize your Teacher Epiphany narrative and your Statement of Student Philosophy into a single document, most likely a Manifesto or Statement of Teaching Philosophy (consider and employ revision strategies discussed in class: addition, subtraction, arrangement, translation, re-creation, remix).
• Remix your best work into a multigenre text in an electronic format, mindful of how it is arranged in relation to the order of events in class. The arrangement does not have to be chronological; you can construct the multigenre text in a number of ways.
• Consider the best forum for publishing your multigenre text (Will you use MS Word? Create a new blog? Something else like Sophie author or Prezi?). Remember, it must be electronic.
• Add first person meta-writing (i.e. writing about writing) that narrates both the multigenre text itself and your experience of the course and analyzes the decisions and processes you used to both create the original and repurpose it in the portfolio. The meta-writing should add about 1500 words of new writing to the multigenre portfolio text (or the functional equivalent if you use a different compositional mode). The meta-writing can be interspersed with the other texts or appear as a preface or afterword. Again, arrangement of the text should be considered.
• Include essential supporting documents (drafts, peer reviews, teacher comments, workshops, etc.) in a folder in MS Word and/or as links on your blog.
• Create a one-page memo that grades your performance in this course and on the final portfolio. Be mindful of both the syllabus and criteria we have discussed in class when authoring this document. This document is private and ought to be e-mailed directly to me; I will also accept this document in hard copy.
• Turn in SIGNED Portfolio Submission Form from Course Guide page 119-120 directly to me.
• Complete the course survey questionnaire located on the blog. (This gives me information about the course, so I can revise it before I teach it again. I appreciate constructive criticism and honesty about the course and my teaching practice. Therefore, I will accept this document after final grades have been assigned, if you so choose, to belie any perception you might have that it impacts your grade.)

Analytical Considerations

The following are questions that will help your meta-writing and analysis of the course and your critical process in composing texts for the course. These questions are only meant to help guide your thinking and do not need to be answered if they are not applicable to your portfolio.

1) What processes did you utilize to compose the text?  How much was revision a part of your process?

2) What are the strengths of this text?  What are its weaknesses?  How did knowledge of the text’s strengths and weaknesses affect the composing process?

3) What are your strengths as an author and student? What are you weaknesses? How did you utilize your strengths and how did you address your weaknesses during the course?

4) What changes were necessary to create the final portfolio and why?  Did you change any texts? Did you leave texts out? Why? How do these decisions reflect your development as an author and student?

5) Explain the rhetorical situations for each text e.g. topic, audience, purpose, genre, forum, ethos, exigency, kairos, and technology. How did consideration of these influence your compositions, revisions, and remix? Did your rhetorical situations change from final-for-now versions to the final portfolio?

6) Which text is your favorite? Which text is your least favorite? Why?

Some questions about the course in general may include:

1) What have you learned from this course that has helped you develop as a critical thinker and composer of texts?

2) What issues do you still struggle with? What have you learned from this course that will help you address these weaknesses/struggles?

3) Do you feel better equipped to compose texts in real-world genres after taking this course? In what ways? Do you feel better equipped to compose college texts after taking this course? In what ways?

Calendar

Week Thirteen

T 11/10

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Project analysis posted to blog

Class Happenings

• Discuss portfolio requirements
• Discuss revision strategies
• Discuss portfolio assessment criteria

R 11/12

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Blog response to workshop

Class Happenings

• Workshop
• Work on portfolio revisions

Week Fourteen

T 11/17

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Teaching assignment

Class Happenings

• Teaching assignment

R 11/19

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Teaching assignment

Class Happenings

• Teaching assignment

Week Fifteen

T 12/1

• No scheduled class activities
• Work on portfolio
• Portfolio conferencing with instructor

R 12/3

• No scheduled class activities
• Work on portfolio
• Portfolio conferencing with instructor

Final Portfolio deadline: December 6, 2009, midnight, no exceptions.

Project Four

Collaborative Project on Topics in Urban Education: Idealism and Reality

The last project we will do in English 101 is a collaborative synthesis project on a topic in contemporary urban education of your group’s choosing. Your group will be charged with creating a substantive, well-researched, interdependent project that makes use of available technologies in its composition and publication. This is really a chance to show what you can do and really reach for something.

In reflecting on the development of this course, I see a conflict or relationship between idealism (the way things ought to be) and reality (the way things really are). This may be a useful way to focus these final projects.

The Requirements

Collaboration and/or Interdependence

Whatever topic in urban education your group decides to cover, you may approach it collaboratively or interdependently. That is, the project will need to have a conceptual core to act as its center, and each group can either work together on a single project or each member can approach the project from a different angle. In this way, you have the option of working collaboratively or interdependently to make projects that, when viewed together, are greater than the sum of their parts. In my experience, some students will resist the idea of full collaboration, fearing that someone will shirk their share of the group’s duties. Having an option allows the group to negotiate how they want to approach the project: it will be one of the first choices you all make.

In my pedagogy, the entire classroom is a collaborative space. I have never felt comfortable viewing teaching as a collection of individuals thrown together. Many students, however, dread group work and collaborative projects. I hope this project makes you think differently about collaboration.

I have had groups in past classes, however, that decided to work on a totally collaborative project, creating one project they worked on together without the independent parts. This is certainly an option if you feel your group is up to the extra meetings and scheduling a project like this will need. The risk is greater, but the reward of a project you all can be proud of will match the risk.

Research

Believe it or not, we have already done a ton of research. You have read Gregory Michie’s See You When We Get There and will have read Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. You have also checked out two books and done some reading around in those texts as well. A synthesis project asks you to make connections. How has the research we’ve already done connected? What else do you need to learn about for your project?

In addition to using secondary sources like the books we’ve read, you may also want or need to conduct primary research like interviews or surveys. You will need to consider what kinds of research might be useful for your project. Primary research includes surveys, interviews (either face to face or via e-mail), observation, and analysis. A good primer can be found here.

Rhetorical Approach

What is your argument on your topic? How can you use research to persuade others of your argument? We have talked about rhetorical situations like audience, purpose, kairos, ethos, forum, exigency, and genre as the semester has unfolded. All of you as individuals as well as your group should carefully consider rhetorical situations as you use research to build your argument.

Technology

Composing works using emerging technologies has a great deal of value as most of you will be teaching in technology-rich spaces like our classroom. Although I will accept traditional research papers, I encourage all of you to attempt to compose in a new technology. At the very least, I expect each group to create a new blog to function as a hub that showcases the different projects you’ve created.

Teaching

Every group will get two chances to teach your classmates. The first opportunity is the read-group-share effort for Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Each group will be responsible for a ten-minute lesson that teaches classmates the key information from the chapter you are assigned.

In addition to this, each group will have a chance to team-teach classmates about the topic in urban education you’ve researched by implementing a classroom lesson during designated days once the project is complete. To this end, we will talk about authoring lesson plans and planning activities and presentations as another authentic teacher genre.

The Process

The first thing you should do is use class time to meet with your group mates and decide what topic in urban education (a list of possible ideas is below) you all would be interested in researching. You may want to discuss several topics before choosing one. As this is a synthesis project, you should also talk about how all the work you’ve done may or may not fit in with this project.

Next, you all should think about what human resources you all have that fit in with the projects requirements. What skills or assets are you bringing into the group already? Your assets may be physical things or intellectual things. For example, if you are going to make a video, does anyone have a video camera? Does anyone have computer programs to edit videos on or experience using those programs? These are physical assets. Has anyone researched or read books specifically related to the topic? These are intellectual assets: prior knowledge.

Finally, you should begin planning. I would like a written plan (posted to a blog or via e-mail) by Friday, October 16 that states with a fair amount of detail what you will do and how you will go about doing it with an awareness of the project’s various activities and deadlines. After project three’s movie event, you should have a good idea of when and where people are comfortable meeting or if your schedules are too hectic to meet (Facebook groups and wikis are a good idea in this case).

After that, you should begin work and be deadline-oriented. Full-class workshops during this project may be for the whole group’s work.

Group 1

• PO: Chapter 1

1. Rachel
2. Mariah
3. Jaclyn
4. Danielle
5. Luke

Group 2

• PO: Chapter 2

1. MacKenzy
2. Cornell
3. Auriele
4. Traci

Group 3

• PO: Chapter 4, part 1 (p. 125-154)

1. Caitlin
2. Dani
3. Stefanie
4. Luis

Group 4

• PO: Chapter 4, part 2 (p. 155-183)

1. Matt
2. Brenda
3. Nolan
4. Jason

Group 5

• PO: Chapter 3

1. Ashley
2. Meghan
3. Rycharde
4. Nate
5. Alexa

Project Deadlines

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed “Think-Group-Share” Presentations: Tuesday, October 27 (10 minutes)
• Group project in finished form: Monday, November 9
• Teaching assignment with lesson plan/activity: Tuesday, November 17 & Thursday, November 19

Possible Issues:

• Race (versus diversity; and power and privilege; teaching cultural awareness/multiculturalism; white teacher in a multiracial classroom; classroom as contact zone, etc.)
• Gender (sexual issues in the classroom; and race; and authority)
• Classroom space (furniture, setup, safety, learning environment, overcrowding and access)
• Curriculum, standardized testing, NCLB
• Access Issues (books, supplies, technology/computers, etc.)
• Authority (and personality; ways of being the teacher; and discipline; democratic classroom, etc.)
• Sustainability and teaching practices (day-to-day and year-to-year; burn out and balance; in overcrowded classrooms, etc.)
• Economics/Money Issues
• Bureaucracy/Politics/Top-down reform
• Critical Pedagogy (power dynamics in the classroom; critical pedagogy; Paolo Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed; teaching for change)
• Learning Outcomes (grades versus learning)
• Reforming or Escaping the Inner City (change versus escape; para-curricular issues in urban education including home life, parenting, poverty, gang/organized crime activity, violence, underground economies)
• Teacher as Tourist in Urban Education (giving back versus charity; missionary mentality; “tour of duty”)
• Discipline (classroom)
• Teacher Recruitment (how to get and keep the best teachers in urban schools)
• Building student-teacher relationships (trust, care, student motivation)
• Language in the Classroom (Bilingual education (ELL); multiple Englishes; language and politics; language and standardized tests)
• Assessment/Evaluation (and politics, and race, and power, qualitative versus quantitative, grades/grading etc.)
• Myths of Knowledge Creation (critical thinking, book/text as absolute truth)
• Failure, Scrutiny, Pressure and outcomes for urban students and teachers
• Media portrayals of urban education (and race, and gender, and language, etc.)
• Myths of Teachers and Students in Inner Cities

Technological Resources:

• blog (wordpress.com)
• web site
• Edited video or photo slideshow: Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, DivX Author, zamzr.com (tutorial on zamzar.com) and YouTube
• Audacity (free sound recording)
• podbean.com (free podcast creation)
• Scrapblog (free scrapbooking for bloggers)
• paint.NET, Gimp, Photoshop, picnik.com
• PowerPoint
• Survey Monkey
• Wiki (pbwiki.com, wikidot.com)
• Mass Media (advertisement, news, web site)
• skit, performance, dance, role-playing
• Facebook/Twitter (social networking sites)

CALENDAR

Key:

CG=Course Guide

CU=See You When We Get There, Gregory Michie

PO=Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire

SC=Student’s Choice

CH=Class Handout

OR=Online Reading

Week Nine

T 10/13

Readings

• PO Foreword & Preface p. 29-40

Deadlines

• Project Analysis posted to blog

Class Happenings

• Discuss and begin project four
• Using Zotero to manage sources for groups and individuals
• Brainstorm and plan

R 10/15

Readings

• PO Chapter assigned to group

Deadlines

• Detailed group plan e-mailed to me by Friday
• Workshoppers: post your group’s plan and/or your plan to the blog

Class Happenings

• Workshop: group brainstorm
• Group work time

Week Ten

T 10/20

Readings

• Finish PO chapter assigned to your group
• Research for project

Deadlines

• Begin work on drafting project
• Think about PO presentation

Class Happenings

• Work time
• Group meetings

R 10/22

Readings

• Research for project

Deadlines

• Blog response to workshop

Class Happenings

• Workshop
• Work time: finish planning for teaching PO Tuesday

Week Eleven

T 10/27

Readings

• Research for project

Deadlines

• Group teaching presentation for Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Class Happenings

• Presentations on PO

R 10/29

Readings

• Research for project

Deadlines

• Blog response to workshop

Class Happenings

• Workshop
• Peer response

Week Twelve

T 11/3

Readings

• Research for project

Deadlines

• Have a working draft of your final projects
• Put projects together in a hub

Class Happenings

• Work time
• Group meetings

R 11/5

Readings

• Research for project

Deadlines

• Blog response to workshop

Class Happenings

• Workshop
• Peer response

Week Thirteen

T 11/10

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Project analysis posted to blog

Class Happenings

• Discuss portfolio requirements
• Discuss revision strategies
• Discuss portfolio assessment criteria

R 11/12

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Blog response to workshop

Class Happenings

• Workshop
• Work on portfolio revisions

Week Fourteen

T 11/17

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Teaching assignment

Class Happenings

• Teaching assignment

R 11/19

Readings

• TBA

Deadlines

• Teaching assignment

Class Happenings

• Teaching assignment

Week Fifteen

T 12/1

• No scheduled class acitivities
• Work on portfolio
• Portfolio conferencing with instructor

R 12/3

• No scheduled class acitivities
• Work on portfolio
• Portfolio conferencing with instructor

Final Portfolio Deadline: Sunday, December 6, 2009

Project Three

Visible Rhetoric and Visual Texts: PSAs, Films, and Urban Issues

For the third project, the class will make a number of turns. First, we will be making a move away from focusing on our individual beliefs in favor of working on projects that require research. Next, we will begin to do some work collaboratively. Finally, project three will require you to author a text in a mode that is different from what traditionally occurs in a composition classroom.

In respect to the three major changes our class makes at this point, project three will be three weeks long and have three phases. In the first phase, we will be learning about and responding to visible rhetoric and design. As we have discussed, rhetorical situations like audience, purpose, ethos, kairos, forum, genre, and technology can influence how we measure the success of a text we read or write. These rhetorical situations can, in turn, be applied to texts in other media. When combined with design terminology specific to visible texts, which we will learn from engaging with Cheryl E. Ball and Kristin L. Arola’s cd-rom textbook ix: visual exercises, we can develop and use a new critical vocabulary to analyze visual texts.

This critical vocabulary will be important for discussing and writing responses to public service announcement (PSA) campaigns produced by the AdCouncil (adcouncil.org) to promote educational initiatives. With your group mates (listed below), you will be responsible for individually covering a visual PSA (in the categories of print, outdoor, web banners or television) for a particular campaign of the AdCouncil, which can be found on their website. I have assigned groups and PSA campaign coverage based (as much as possible) on intended majors.

The first week of this project will engage will visual textual analysis. By the end of the project, you will need to post an 800-1000 word analysis of a PSA on your blog. The analysis should include or demonstrate:

• analysis of the PSA’s rhetorical situations (audience, purpose, ethos, kairos, delivery, exigency)
• analysis of the PSA’s use of visible design elements (see: ix: visual exercises)
• a link to the location of the PSA you chose to analyze
• a copy of the PSA posted to your blog
• blog post created as a new “page” on your blog
• attention to the design aspects of the blog page based on our reading of ix: visual exercises including (but not limited to) font, spacing, arrangement

The second phase of the project includes watching a film that engages with urban education as main point of emphasis (choices below). I would like for your group to view the film together (maybe a kind of movie night with snacks) and discuss the film upon its conclusion, making connections with other currents of discussion we’ve had in class (especially to our reading of See You When We Get There). This will take organization and planning, of course. Films can be obtained at The Movie Fan, Milner Library, Normal Public Library, Bloomington Public Library, Family Video, Netflix, or Blockbuster. Each group member should summarize what happened, both in the film and discussion, in a blog post (which counts for one of the required weekly posts).

• watch film as a group
• discuss film within context of class/See You When We Get There readings
• respond to the film viewing and discussion on main page of blog (200-300 words)

The third phase of the project includes creating a visual PSA of your own that engages with the film you watched in some way and complicates or rethinks a film’s portrayal of an issue. You will do your own independent work, but the group will be there for expert, informed peer response and to articulate how your piece responds to the film and urban education, in general.

The visual text you create can be low-tech (posterboard and markers or collage, say) or high-tech (using screenshots, Photoshop, Picnic, setting up a sequenced photoshoot, collage, image manipulation and revision, etc.—use your imagination). The only stipulation about the visual text is that it must be digitized (e.g. if you make a poster, you will need to digitally photograph or scan it into the computer). The visual text you make should show evidence of your awareness of aspects of visual design and visible rhetoric. Post the final product on your blog as a separate page.

• create low-tech or high-tech visual text
• demonstrate awareness of rhetorical situations and visual design elements
• render the visual text digitally
• create a page to house text on your blog

The class groups are as follows (in random order):

Group 1

1. Rachel
2. Mariah
3. Jaclyn
4. Danielle
5. Luke

PSA campaign: Early Childhood Development

Film: “Half Nelson” (2006)

Group 2

1. MacKenzy
2. Cornell
3. Auriele
4. Traci

PSA Campaign: Supporting Minority Education

Film: “Lean On Me” (1989)

Group 3

1. Caitlin
2. Dani
3. Stefanie
4. Luis

PSA Campaign: College Access

Film: “Dangerous Minds” (1995)

Group 4

1. Matt
2. Brenda
3. Nolan
4. Jason
5. Ariel

PSA Campaign: High School Dropout Prevention

Film: “Stand and Deliver” (1988)

Group 5

1. Ashley
2. Meghan
3. Rycharde
4. Nate
5. Alexa

PSA Campaign: Think Before You Speak

Film: “Freedom Writers” (2007)

Note: I have assigned films mainly to ensure a range of coverage (i.e. so every group doesn’t choose “Freedom Writers”), but your group may change to one of the following or advocate for another one not on the list that I overlooked. Other films to consider: “Blackboard Jungle,” “To Sir, With Love,” “Light It Up,” “187,” or “Hoop Dreams.”

Objectives: Complete all three phases of this project including a written analysis of a visual text; film viewing, discussion, and response; and authoring an original visual text that revises a notion of urban education encountered in the film.

Deadline: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 6 pm.

CALENDAR

Key:

CG=Course Guide

CU=See You When We Get There, Gregory Michie

PO=Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire

SC=Student’s Choice

CH=Class Handout

OR=Online Reading

Week Six

T 9/22

Readings

• CU: Ch. 5, p. 119-134

Deadlines

• Project 2 Analysis posted to blog

Class Happenings

• Introduction of Project Three
• Group Meeting (10 min.) to exchange info. (facebook, etc.)
• Read: ix: visual exercises

R 9/24

Readings

• CU: Ch. 5, p. 134-151

Deadlines

• Determine which PSA you will analyze
• Begin to draft an analysis (target 200-300 words; messy brainstorm or thought droppings)
• Post comment on student blogs for workshop
• Blog post

Class Happenings

• Full-class workshop (Danielle and Stefanie)
• Small-group peer response session
• Group meeting to plan film viewing

Week Seven

T 9/29

Readings

• CU: Ch. 6, p.153-168

Deadlines

• Continue drafting analysis
• Post film and discussion response on blog

Class Happenings

• Finish ix: visual exercises (if necessary)
• Talk about blog design
• Class discussion (CU and films)

R 10/1

Readings

• CU: Ch. 6, p.168-182

Deadlines

• Continue/finish drafting analysis
• Post comment on student blogs for workshop
• Blog post

Class Happenings

• Full-class workshop (Alexa and Rachel)
• Small -group visual text brainstorming

Week Eight

T 10/6

Readings

• CU: Ch. 7 and Appendix: “What I Did and How I Did It: Notes on Method”

Deadlines

• Begin visual text and bring to class
• Blog post

Class Happenings

• Work time
• Large-group discussion

R 10/8

Readings

• Instructor’s rationale for Pedagogy of the Oppressed (on blog)
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed (PO): Introduction, p. 11-26

Deadlines

• Continue visual text
• Post comment on student blogs for workshop
• Blog post

Class Happenings

• Full-class workshop (Nate and Aurelie)
• Small-group peer response session

Week Nine

T 10/13

Readings

• PO: Foreword and Preface, p.29-40

Deadlines

• Project analysis posted to blog

Class Happenings

• Project Four Introduction

Project Two

Statement of Student Philosophy

Throughout our teaching careers, we will be asked to write and rewrite statements of teaching philosophy, texts which reveal our core values, theories, and practices of being teachers at a given moment. These documents and this genre can be make-or-break texts when looking for employment. Statements of teaching philosophy necessitate that we write personalized and memorable texts, full of conscious and well-thought-out statements.

At this point, however, few of you will have had significant teaching experience or enough education courses to know what you might want to include in a statement of teaching philosophy. In addition, many of you may not know enough teacher-speak, the jargon of the profession that can form a framework for this kind of text. To make this assignment more authentic, then, you will be writing a statement of student philosophy. This text will present a realistic picture of your core values, theories, and practices of being a student with examples from your real experiences of being a student.

When composing this kind of text, it is easy to write platitudinous statements or to fill the text with clichés we perceive the audience as wanting to hear. This temptation, however, should be avoided as it generalizes the text, removing any aspect of original voice.

The personal narrative you wrote for project one has hopefully prepared you to do well in this document. Now, you will condense and illustrate your view of yourself as a student, providing specific examples as evidence of your claims.

Considerations:

• Do you cram?
• Do you study for exams weeks or months in advance preparing a little each day?
• Are you organized?
• How do you organize?
• What process do you go through writing a paper?
• How do you read readings? In detail? Skim and scan?
• How do you take notes?
• How do you use notes to help you for classes?
• Do you prioritize classes?
• Are you a procrastinator? How does this affect the quality of your work?
• Are you able to balance school-related work with a healthy social life?
• Does the place where you study affect the amount of quality of work you do?
• Are you easily distracted?
• Do you have difficulty estimating how long a certain task will take?
• Do you have a visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic learning style? Do you struggle in classes where the instructor teaches to another type of learning style?
• What is your attitude toward classes and learning?
• Do you have control over your attitude or is it automatic?

All the above and more can be in play in this assignment. For the purposes of this assignment as engaging with a teacher genre, it is important to portray yourself as student with accuracy, honesty, and detail. This is not a trick assignment. I cannot choose what kind of student you are or judge you on how you choose to be a student, but it is interesting to see how you will construct yourself as student in a concise text.

Objective: Compose a concise statement of student philosophy (600-800 words) that is still rich in specific, memorable personal and critical details.

By the end of this project, you should be able to:

• craft a statement of student philosophy that is appropriate in addressing its intended audience (teachers, administrators, etc.)
• determine and include the key attributes that make you a unique student and reveal them with specific details
• present your views in a realistic fashion that notes strengths, changes, and significant experiences (i.e. no one is “the perfect student,” so you need not bill yourself as such)
• craft a text that is an example of self-advocacy
• compose sentences mindful of purpose, economy, and concision (doing the most with the least)
• demonstrate understanding of and proficiency in this genre of writing
• continue to work on collaboratively authoring assessment module

Deadline: The final-for-now version of this project is due on September 19, 2009 by 6 pm.

CALENDAR

Week Four

T 9/8:

Readings:

• CU: Ch 3, p. 51-65

Deadlines:

• 321 Response to project one on blog:

In-class:

• discussion (project 1 wrap-up/pedagogy/classroom issues)
• project two introduction
• using Milner library pt. 1

R 9/10:

Readings:

• CU: Ch. 3, p. 65-83
• OR:  Do research on writing assessment. Find an article that talks about writing assessment at any level of education using one of the database searches @ Milner or Google Scholar.

Deadlines:

• Begin a draft of project two
• Craft two response questions
• Workshoppers: post draft of work to your blog by 6 pm Wednesday
• Read drafts on workshoppers’ blogs and leave a written comment

In-class:

• full-class workshop (response questions)
• partnered peer response
• work time

Week Five

T 9/15:

Readings:

• CU: Ch. 4, p. 85-100

Deadlines:

• Continue drafting the project

In-class:

• Work time
• class discussion (CU)

R 9/17:

Readings:

• CU: Ch. 4, p. 100-117

Deadlines:

• Arrange with someone in class to do a peer response activity outside of class using the blog, e-mail or STV 250 folder, answering each other’s response questions, save responses in STV 250 folder.

In-class:

• full-class workshop
• continue our collaborative authorship of writing assessment module

Week Six

T 9/22:

Readings:

• CU: Ch 5, p.119-134

Deadlines:

• Project analysis and response post for blog

In-class:

• discussion (project 2 wrap-up)
• project three introduction
• begin IX: visual exercises

Project One

The Teacher Epiphany

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

-Socrates

Many pre-service and professional teachers can recall the exact moment they knew they wanted to be a teacher. Others are inspired by memorable teachers or coaches. This assignment asks you to talk about those times in your life that have shaped your character and directed you to become a teacher.  This project asks you to write a narrative, a sequence of events that led you to be interested in teaching.

Simply narrating these events, however, is not enough. The ability to critically examine and interpret significant moments can enrich our life and further solidify the passions, ideals, and values that make us who we are. The ability to articulate why an event, story, or person is important while simultaneously presenting the narrative or story itself takes practice and talent.

Furthermore, this is a genre writing we often have to perform on statements of teaching philosophy, scholarship applications, course proposals, and grant proposals, among other documents.

Objective: Compose a 800-1200 word critical personal narrative that explores significant moment(s) in your life that have helped you decide to become a teacher.

By the end of this project, you should be able to:

• compose an original narrative that reveals specific, personalized experiences in first person
• include critical commentary and analysis of events in the narrative
• engage with stages of process in composition including invention, planning drafting, peer response, and revision
• demonstrate via your text how your awareness of rhetorical situations like audience, purpose, ethos, and kairos, etc. influence your composition
• demonstrate awareness and competence in using language to create an authentic rhetorical performance

In addition to these learning outcomes, we will work together to construct an evaluative rubric to measure to what extent these outcomes were achieved in the project.

The deadline for the final-for-now version of this text is Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 6 pm.

CALENDAR

Reading Key:

CG=Course Guide

CU=See You When We Get There, Gregory Michie

PO=Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire

SC=Student’s Choice

CH=Class Handout

OR=Online Reading

T 8/25:

Readings:

• CG: Skim p. 7-20; Glossary p. 71-82
• CU: Ch. 1 “Other People’s Stories” p. 1-14

Deadlines:

• Writer’s Inventory assignment posted to blog
• Blog url e-mailed to teacher

In-class:

• project one introduction
• response questions, workshops, peer review
• text discussion/ rhetorical situations
• work time

R 8/27:

Readings:

• CU: Ch. 2, p. 15-31
• OR: Samples of student personal narratives on blog

Deadlines:

• Begin a draft of project one using a freewrite as a source.
• Craft two response questions
• Workshoppers: post draft of work to your blog by 6 pm Wednesday
• Read drafts on workshoppers’ blogs and leave a written comment

In-class:

• full-class workshop (response questions)
• partnered peer response
• work time

T 9/1:

Readings:

• CU: Ch. 2, p. 32-49

Deadlines:

• Have a draft of this project completed, make sure you craft two new specific response questions for each draft.

In-class:

• writing time (blog time for response to ch. 2 CU OR writing about how your writing has been evaluated in the past)
• class discussion (begin talking about evaluating project one; CU)

R 9/3:

Readings:

• OR: Rubric for rubrics pdf in instructor reserve folder (http://english.illinoisstate.edu/courses/digitalreserve.shtml)
• CG: Single Project Grading Standards, p. 105-106

Deadlines:

• Arrange with someone in class to do a peer response activity outside of class using the blog, e-mail or STV 250 folder, answering each other’s response questions, save responses in STV 250 folder.

In-class:

• full-class workshop
• devise rubric for project one

T 9/8:

Readings:

• CU: Ch 3, p. 51-65

Deadlines:

• 321 Response to project one on blog:
• What are three things you learned or feel more confident about in your own writing after project one?
• What two things can you improve on? OR What, if you had the chance would you do differently?
• What is a question we can discuss or an area where this project should be changed or improved?

In-class:

• discussion (project 1/pedagogy/classroom issues)
• project two introduction
• work time