assignments ENGL513 Composition Theory & Pedagogy: Final Project
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Need to be in touch with me? Lee Torda, PhD Interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com |
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tells OVERVIEW
Over the course of our semester we have read and reflected on a spectrum of issues related to writing as the thing we ourselves do and to the teaching of writing. A quick read through our Class Discussion Board, shows not only the many issues we've discussed, but what is most salient to you as teachers and students of writing in the K-12 system.
Issues in writing theory and pedagogy cover a wide range of every aspect of the writing process: how to start, how to start when you don't want to start, what keeps us from starting, embracing our audience in the process, considering genre requirements, considering our relationship to standardized written English, how to think about the role revision plays in the process, when is a draft ever not a draft? But there is more, too, because writing doesn't happen in a vacuum and teaching writing certainly does not. And so we've had to consider things like who has access to the kind of writing and reading valued in schools? What keeps some populations from accessing academic reading and writing opportunities? What is the role of race and economic privilege in the classroom? What role does standardized testing play in literacy education? What role does the history of literacy education play in our writing classrooms today?
And, finally, there are issues relating to the cognitive elements of writing and reading: how do we learn to write? What is our brain doing when we learn to write? What role does our social environment play in how we learn? When, if ever, are we done learning to write? When do we become a "good" writer? How do we become a "good" writer? And, anyway, what is a "good" writer?
For your final project, I encourage you to consider issues, ideas, theories, and practices that we've covered in our class and apply it to project that is of interest to you.
DETAILS
You have several different options for completing this final assignment of the semester.
1. A traditional research paper/literature review. As I've frequently said this semester, I recognize the limitations of asking students to do research in a field that is most likely relatively new to you. You are learning different scholars, different theories, and applying them to very different texts. Thus, original research might be a particularly high bar to set. However, by researching a particular topic--for instance, teaching revision strategies--historically, one can determine something about where research in this area is heading, where it should be heading, what is missing from it, what particular writing practice it could suggest. This kind of final project will look the most like a traditional research paper in that it is largely a literature review organized around a tentative thesis. If you select this option, you should be thinking about a 3750 word paper--or roughly 15 pages. I won't specify a number of sources. That should be determined by your topic. You want sufficient sources that demonstrate that you understand the conversation you are writing about.
2. An extension or re-working of your ethnographic project. By either extending (including more students, adding an interview, including artifacts like student writing) or re-working (narrowing your focus to one student writer, watching another faculty colleague teach a writing assignment rather than looking at your own class--or vice versa), you could develop a final project that includes original, qualitative research. For the original project, no outside sources were required. If you choose to continue working with ethnographic/qualitative methods for the final project, you will need to include research on the subject you are trying to figure something out about. For instance, if you are looking at how students revise, you will need to do research/read about what other scholars have to say about the habit, practice, and teaching of revision. While it is difficult to neatly identify how many pages this will work out to be given that you will most likely include larger portions of observation, a similar final product of around 3750 words, excluding any appendices, should be what you aim for.
3. A course sequence. In this final project, you would design a writing assignment for use in, most likely, a classroom you might teach. You can design a writing assignment that supports teaching literature--or any other subject--or you can design one that focuses more specifically on writing (creative writing, writing the research paper, writing college essays, etc). It's up to you. The assignment should be substantial, one that runs for several weeks in a classroom. You do not need to include those curriculum guide things where you have the essential questions and all of that (unless you want to because it's something that is useful to you). You should write an overview of what the learning objectives are of the class, why you think these learning objectives are important and achievable, and a day-to-day syllabus of what students will actually be doing in the class. As with the ethnographic project, you want to include scholarship that gives evidence as to why this would be a successful course for students to take part in. The reflective overview should run around 2500 words with your supporting documents (day-to-day syllabus, any handout you might give to students) as an appendices).
4. A proposal for a writing related project for your institution. Do you think your school should have a separate expository writing class? Do you think that history and english should join forces to teach a research writing class? Do you think your school should have a student-staffed "writing center?" Do you have an idea about how your school should ethically manage MCAS test prep? You can use the final project to make an argument for and explain the details of a proposed, writing-centric project for your institution. As part of your proposal, you will want to include scholarship that gives evidence as to why your proposal is a good one. That is in addition to the outline of the proposal, including how feasible it would be as your institution. Furthermore, for this specific category, you will need to include data about your school--the size, demographics, MCAS scores if relevant. Essentially, you will need to argue why this proposed plan is right for your institution. The outline of your proposal would run around 1500 words. Your reflection including scholarship that extends your "why" argument should run around 2500, including any research on your school itself that is needed in your explanation.
5. An annotated bibliography. Similar to the traditional research paper, this might be a good alternative if 1) you are concerned about formulating a new argument; 2) you think you might want to do a thesis in this field; 3) you prefer reading a lot to writing a lot. Using the chapter articles from A Guide to Composition Pedagogy that we've been using to guide the Pedagogy Presentations as a model, you will identify some practice or theory from Writing Studies and do a deep dive into that area by locating 15 to 20 articles, books, book chapters on your topic. You'll produce three sentence annotated bibliographies of each of your sources--argument, methodology, significance, and then write a 1500 word introduction to the bibliography summarizing the key themes, scholars, shifts over time, and implications for writing that your articles explore.
HOW YOUR FINAL PROJECT SHOULD LOOK WHEN YOU TURN IT IN
WHEN IT APPEARS IN YOUR FINAL PORTFOLIO: Revision Reflection
The final project makes up the bulk of your final portfolio. When you turn in your final portfolio, you will include the final, revised, polished version of your final project. You will need to include the workshop draft, and you will need to also include a 300 word reflection on the following:
WORKSHOPPING THE FINAL PROJECT
During the last class, you will get feedback on your final project drafts from me and the rest of your classmates. The entire last class will be devoted to workshopping our material. In order to make it manageable for everyone, you will have to read three other people's papers in our class. Though we will talk about everyone's paper, you'll get feedback from me and those three other people. What I have found is that even listening to others talk about someone's paper, even if you haven't read it, helps you to understand your own project better and to think about how revision will work in your own piece--and I have even found that folks, from the conversation of those who have read the paper, have things that they can contribute to the writer being workshopped.
WHEN YOU ARE BEING WORKSHOPPED
Your responsibility is to get your materials to your classmates in a timely manner so they can read and respond with care. When you make your materials available to your classmates, most likely as a link to a google.doc, you will need to provide a short overview (between 200-300 words) of 1) what you are trying to do in your final project; 2) what you feel like you have a good handle on; 3) and what you would most like help with.
WHEN YOU ARE A READER
Your responsibility is to read and respond to your classmates with care. You should feel free to make comments on the draft directly, but you must provide written feedback (200ish words at least) that addresses the “what you would most like help with” part of the writer’s overview to their project. Again, the easiest way to do share this work with the writer and with me is to 1) make a copy of the draft and 2) write comments directly into the document. On the day of the workshop, make that link available to your writer and cc me (I want to give folks credit for doing excellent workshopping).
HOW COMPLETE DOES YOUR DRAFT NEED TO BE
Potentially, the more you have completed, the more feedback and the more useful feedback you will get. But that is not always the case. Your draft does not need to be polished or even very finished in order for the workshop to be useful. Particularly if you are struggling to get your piece in shape.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED
The Final Project makes up the bulk of your final portfolio and is worth 25% of your final grade.
To earn a "B"grade for 25% of your final grade you must:
To earn an "A" grade for 25% of your final grade you must:
To earn a "C" grade for 20% of your final grade you must: Turn in a revised, polished final piece in your final portfolio
Failure to meet the requirements for a "C" grade will result in a grade of "F" for 25% of your final grade.
Over the course of our semester we have read and reflected on a spectrum of issues related to writing as the thing we ourselves do and to the teaching of writing. A quick read through our Class Discussion Board, shows not only the many issues we've discussed, but what is most salient to you as teachers and students of writing in the K-12 system.
Issues in writing theory and pedagogy cover a wide range of every aspect of the writing process: how to start, how to start when you don't want to start, what keeps us from starting, embracing our audience in the process, considering genre requirements, considering our relationship to standardized written English, how to think about the role revision plays in the process, when is a draft ever not a draft? But there is more, too, because writing doesn't happen in a vacuum and teaching writing certainly does not. And so we've had to consider things like who has access to the kind of writing and reading valued in schools? What keeps some populations from accessing academic reading and writing opportunities? What is the role of race and economic privilege in the classroom? What role does standardized testing play in literacy education? What role does the history of literacy education play in our writing classrooms today?
And, finally, there are issues relating to the cognitive elements of writing and reading: how do we learn to write? What is our brain doing when we learn to write? What role does our social environment play in how we learn? When, if ever, are we done learning to write? When do we become a "good" writer? How do we become a "good" writer? And, anyway, what is a "good" writer?
For your final project, I encourage you to consider issues, ideas, theories, and practices that we've covered in our class and apply it to project that is of interest to you.
DETAILS
You have several different options for completing this final assignment of the semester.
1. A traditional research paper/literature review. As I've frequently said this semester, I recognize the limitations of asking students to do research in a field that is most likely relatively new to you. You are learning different scholars, different theories, and applying them to very different texts. Thus, original research might be a particularly high bar to set. However, by researching a particular topic--for instance, teaching revision strategies--historically, one can determine something about where research in this area is heading, where it should be heading, what is missing from it, what particular writing practice it could suggest. This kind of final project will look the most like a traditional research paper in that it is largely a literature review organized around a tentative thesis. If you select this option, you should be thinking about a 3750 word paper--or roughly 15 pages. I won't specify a number of sources. That should be determined by your topic. You want sufficient sources that demonstrate that you understand the conversation you are writing about.
2. An extension or re-working of your ethnographic project. By either extending (including more students, adding an interview, including artifacts like student writing) or re-working (narrowing your focus to one student writer, watching another faculty colleague teach a writing assignment rather than looking at your own class--or vice versa), you could develop a final project that includes original, qualitative research. For the original project, no outside sources were required. If you choose to continue working with ethnographic/qualitative methods for the final project, you will need to include research on the subject you are trying to figure something out about. For instance, if you are looking at how students revise, you will need to do research/read about what other scholars have to say about the habit, practice, and teaching of revision. While it is difficult to neatly identify how many pages this will work out to be given that you will most likely include larger portions of observation, a similar final product of around 3750 words, excluding any appendices, should be what you aim for.
3. A course sequence. In this final project, you would design a writing assignment for use in, most likely, a classroom you might teach. You can design a writing assignment that supports teaching literature--or any other subject--or you can design one that focuses more specifically on writing (creative writing, writing the research paper, writing college essays, etc). It's up to you. The assignment should be substantial, one that runs for several weeks in a classroom. You do not need to include those curriculum guide things where you have the essential questions and all of that (unless you want to because it's something that is useful to you). You should write an overview of what the learning objectives are of the class, why you think these learning objectives are important and achievable, and a day-to-day syllabus of what students will actually be doing in the class. As with the ethnographic project, you want to include scholarship that gives evidence as to why this would be a successful course for students to take part in. The reflective overview should run around 2500 words with your supporting documents (day-to-day syllabus, any handout you might give to students) as an appendices).
4. A proposal for a writing related project for your institution. Do you think your school should have a separate expository writing class? Do you think that history and english should join forces to teach a research writing class? Do you think your school should have a student-staffed "writing center?" Do you have an idea about how your school should ethically manage MCAS test prep? You can use the final project to make an argument for and explain the details of a proposed, writing-centric project for your institution. As part of your proposal, you will want to include scholarship that gives evidence as to why your proposal is a good one. That is in addition to the outline of the proposal, including how feasible it would be as your institution. Furthermore, for this specific category, you will need to include data about your school--the size, demographics, MCAS scores if relevant. Essentially, you will need to argue why this proposed plan is right for your institution. The outline of your proposal would run around 1500 words. Your reflection including scholarship that extends your "why" argument should run around 2500, including any research on your school itself that is needed in your explanation.
5. An annotated bibliography. Similar to the traditional research paper, this might be a good alternative if 1) you are concerned about formulating a new argument; 2) you think you might want to do a thesis in this field; 3) you prefer reading a lot to writing a lot. Using the chapter articles from A Guide to Composition Pedagogy that we've been using to guide the Pedagogy Presentations as a model, you will identify some practice or theory from Writing Studies and do a deep dive into that area by locating 15 to 20 articles, books, book chapters on your topic. You'll produce three sentence annotated bibliographies of each of your sources--argument, methodology, significance, and then write a 1500 word introduction to the bibliography summarizing the key themes, scholars, shifts over time, and implications for writing that your articles explore.
HOW YOUR FINAL PROJECT SHOULD LOOK WHEN YOU TURN IT IN
- See each specific option for word counts.
- Typed, double-spaced, 10 or 12 point font, Garamond or Times New Roman preferred.
- Have an excellent title of course. No need for a cover page.
- The easiest way to make this document available to me is to create a shareable/editable link to a google.doc. That one document should include your workshop draft, your revised draft and, if possible, any appendices. Use the heading feature in a google.doc to make it possible for me to locate material quickly. If you need to email me attached documents, try to .pdf them and include them as one attachment instead of multiples. But I understand if that is not possible.
WHEN IT APPEARS IN YOUR FINAL PORTFOLIO: Revision Reflection
The final project makes up the bulk of your final portfolio. When you turn in your final portfolio, you will include the final, revised, polished version of your final project. You will need to include the workshop draft, and you will need to also include a 300 word reflection on the following:
- How did the workshop affect the final project? and
- What would you do differently if you had had the time and/or what would the next step be for this project (what sort of research, what sort of action plan, etc). This should be typed. It can be single-spaced to conserve paper.
WORKSHOPPING THE FINAL PROJECT
During the last class, you will get feedback on your final project drafts from me and the rest of your classmates. The entire last class will be devoted to workshopping our material. In order to make it manageable for everyone, you will have to read three other people's papers in our class. Though we will talk about everyone's paper, you'll get feedback from me and those three other people. What I have found is that even listening to others talk about someone's paper, even if you haven't read it, helps you to understand your own project better and to think about how revision will work in your own piece--and I have even found that folks, from the conversation of those who have read the paper, have things that they can contribute to the writer being workshopped.
WHEN YOU ARE BEING WORKSHOPPED
Your responsibility is to get your materials to your classmates in a timely manner so they can read and respond with care. When you make your materials available to your classmates, most likely as a link to a google.doc, you will need to provide a short overview (between 200-300 words) of 1) what you are trying to do in your final project; 2) what you feel like you have a good handle on; 3) and what you would most like help with.
WHEN YOU ARE A READER
Your responsibility is to read and respond to your classmates with care. You should feel free to make comments on the draft directly, but you must provide written feedback (200ish words at least) that addresses the “what you would most like help with” part of the writer’s overview to their project. Again, the easiest way to do share this work with the writer and with me is to 1) make a copy of the draft and 2) write comments directly into the document. On the day of the workshop, make that link available to your writer and cc me (I want to give folks credit for doing excellent workshopping).
HOW COMPLETE DOES YOUR DRAFT NEED TO BE
Potentially, the more you have completed, the more feedback and the more useful feedback you will get. But that is not always the case. Your draft does not need to be polished or even very finished in order for the workshop to be useful. Particularly if you are struggling to get your piece in shape.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED
The Final Project makes up the bulk of your final portfolio and is worth 25% of your final grade.
To earn a "B"grade for 25% of your final grade you must:
- Participate inf the whole class workshop as a writer, including providing your draft to the class in a timely manner in order for it to be read with thought and care by your readers/classmates
- Participate in the whole-class workshop as a reader, including providing thoughtful feedback to your assigned three writers
- Turn in to me a copy of the workshop comments you provide to writers/classmates (probably as a shared editable google.doc to both me and the writer).
- Turn in a revised, polished final piece in your final portfolio, including drafts and a revision reflection, again, probably as a link to a google.doc with emailed attachments as necessary.
To earn an "A" grade for 25% of your final grade you must:
- Do all of the things described above for a B grade
- Participate with an eye towards learning as much as you can from your classmates as a writer and helping as much as you can as a reader during workshops, both during the workshop and through your written comments
- Produce a final project that demonstrates considerable progress towards new research and/or new applications of research in Composition Theory & Pedagogy.
To earn a "C" grade for 20% of your final grade you must: Turn in a revised, polished final piece in your final portfolio
Failure to meet the requirements for a "C" grade will result in a grade of "F" for 25% of your final grade.