Reading Response #24- Anzaldua / Collected Works Portfolio

For the reading response on Anzaldua, please write

• a  summary
• a synthesis (keep in mind the conversation on dominant/minority discourses: Gee, hooks, Delpit, Smitherman, Heilker and Yergeau, Alexander, Cixous, etc)
• personal response

Then answer questions # 1 and 2 under Applying and Exploring, found below: 

1. Anzaldúa describes Western culture’s art as “individual” in contrast to the more communal nature of tribal art (221). What is the significance of this distinction? Is current literacy and/or art culture becoming more communal or more individual? Explain your reasoning.|
2. Anzaldúa utilizes an approach which is very much in the realm of creative writing(poetic language, metaphor, etc.), would it have been more effective if it was written in a traditional academic format? Why or why not?

Congratulations! You made it to the last Reading Response. Make sure you hit a home run on this last one. Show me what you can do in terms of summary, synthesis, and engaged response!

Note: This isn't due until Friday, 11/30. For Wednesday, please bring a flash drive with everything you've collected for your portfolio (final essays, peer reviews, etc). We'll work on collecting all your various pieces into folders. Collected Portfolios will be due to me via e-mail by Friday 11/30 at 12pm. Your Portfoios need to include:

• Reading responses, compiled in a single document and labeled by number 1-24 (copy/paste to Word)
• Process work for each essay, organized by project (Intro/conversation, rough draft, topic proposals, etc)
• Final drafts for each project with my Feedback (for Project 2- your cover letter to me with a link to your group project)

Organize these in a folder (with multiple subfolders), zip them and send to me via e-mail. This is your Collected Works Portfolio from which you'll choose your best work for your Selected Portfolio. 

Reading Response 23: Cixous

For the Cixous  Reading Response, please respond to the following:

• Sunmary
• Synthesis (Think specifically about Flynn and Alexander here)
• Personal Response

And do the following Questions from the Apparatus:

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1. Did this piece make you uncomfortable? Why or why not? Do you think Cixous was attempting to create a level of discomfort in her reader? Why or why not?
2. What does Cixous mean when she implores her female readers to "write themselves"? What is she suggesting writing can do with regard to identity?

Reading Response 22: Alexander

For the Reading Response on Alexander,

Please complete the following:

• Summary
• Synthesis
• Personal Response

Applying and Exploring Ideas #3 and #4:

3.       What significance trans pedagogy hold for everyone within a composition class, according to Alexander? In other words, what can “normally” gendered students gain from exposure to trans theory in their composition classrooms? Does this significance hold true for every minority discourse we have read in class?

4.       On page 200, Alexander describes gender as a “construct” that is “deeply personal and profoundly political.” What does Alexander mean when he calls gender a “construct?” What are the implications of such a construct being both “personal” and “political” and why then might we need to address this construct in the writing classroom?

Final Drafts of Project 3 - The Ethnography are due Tuesday  (11/20) before 8pm. Please email them to me as an email attachment.

Reading Response 21: Delpit or Smitherman

For Friday (11/16), please read both Delpit and Smitherman (as we'll discuss both) but you may choose to do a reading response to either one. Whichever you choose, your response needs to include: 

• Summary 
• Synthesis: Think about Gee, Brandt, and the Flynn we just read, but what's really important here is that you to compare the reading you choose with the other assigned reading. E.g., if you choose to respond to Delpit, include a comparison of Smitherman in your synthesis. Think about the major differences in how these two authors respond to the same issue. 
• Personal Response

If you choose to write on Smitherman, respond to Questions 2 and 3 in QDJ:

1.     How is Smitherman using Black Idiom (BI) rhetorically?

2.     How does language promote power for specific races and classes?

If you choose to write on Delpit, respond to Questions 3 and 4 in QDJ:

1.     Do you agree with what Delpit is arguing? What are some effective parts of her argument? What are some weaknesses or shortcomings?

2.     Name the things that Delpit suggests teachers should do to help students "master the dominant discourses and to transform them?"

Peer Review Project 3 / Reading Response 20

Hi Everyone,

After talking with a few you I've realized most of you are still in the preliminary stages of your drafts and I've decided to push back the draft due date so you can send your peers something more "finished." Drafts are now due to Safe Assign and peers by Sunday 5pm.

However, I'm not going to push back the peer review due date. Peer Reviews (which should take you less time to complete) are due Tuesday 5pm. Remember to look over the Responding to Peers Assignment sheet and make sure you hit all of the criteria:

•  A summary of your peer's essay, 
• Marginal comments that identify where the writer is meeting specific criteria
• Blue highlight for well constructed sentences/passages
• Bellow highlight for sentences/passages that need work
• A letter to the writer where you tell them how they are successful but also how they could improve the piece to meet the project goals and criteria. This means you need to reference the assignment sheet to do this. 

You can do all of this inside the document. Be sure to rename the file before you send it back to your peer, and be sure to CC me (or send me another e-mail with the attached peer review).

We won't meet on Monday due to the holiday, but you have a Reading Response due Wednesday over Flynn (ROW 156-168). For the Reading Response, please do the following:

• Getting Ready to Read: What have your experiences been with gender differences in the classroom? Did your teachers relate to or treat male and female students differently? How so?
• Summary: Focus mainly on "Composing as a Woman" but you'll want at least a line or two on how she updates/contextualizes that piece in the second selection. 
• Synthesis: Think mainly about works we've read that deal with identity. Villanueva, Heilker & Yergeau, Gee, Wardle, etc. 
• Questions for Discussion and Journaling: 1. Flynn says that "Women's perspectives have been supprressed, silenced, marginalized, written out of what counts as authoritative knowledge. Difference is erased in a desire to universalize" (157). What does this mean? How does the silencing of women's voices relate to the marginalization of other minorities?

Have a good weekend!

Project 3 Rough Drafts, Reading, and Peer Review

***UPDATED - DRAFTS NOW DUE SUNDAY 5pm******

Project 3 drafts are due to Safe Assign and peers by Sunday 5pm. Drafts should be ready to show your peers! Don't forget that these initial drafts need to contain a cover letter to your peer. Check out the assignment sheet for what the cover letter should include. Please upload your essay file in Blackboard ("Post Drafts"). If you are having trouble uploading your essay, just e-mail it to me as a .doc attachment. You also need to e-mail your draft to your assigned peer. We'll exchange e-mails in class. You don't need to cc me on this e-mail, but if you don't receive a draft from someone let me know.

Before class Friday, I'd like you to read Sean Branick's "Coaches Can Read Too" in WAW. No reading response due but this is another good example (from a first year student) of an ethnography. Pay attention especially to how he organizes his essay as we'll talk about this in class.

If you want to meet with me to chat about your draft, just let me know. I can usually work something out.

A separate post/instructions on the peer review is forthcoming. 

Reading Response 19; Villanueva

For Reading Response 19, over Victor Villanueva's article "Memoria is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color" (ROW 169), please do the following:

• A Summary of the article
• Synthesis-Think especially in terms of identity and its effects on Discourse/discourse community as well as secondary/primary discourse
• Personal Response
• Questions for Discussion and Journaling #7: Using the concept of Discourse from the James Paul Gee's "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics," what are Villanueva's primary and secondary Discourses? Are these straightforward categories or is it more complex than Gee's article accounted for?
   
  
  
  Due to your blogs before class Wednesday November 7

Reading Response for Monday

Reading Response 18 is over the Heilker and Yergeau reading in ROW. I'll post the apparatus on Blackboard, but for this response I'm only asking for three elements:

1. Summary
2. Synthesis (especially with readings that deal with Identity (e.g. Wardle, Gee)
3. Personal Response

Your main task is to work on collecting data  (interviews, forum/discourse analysis) and drafting your ethnography. Remember rough drafts are due next Thursday night at 9pm.

Reading Response 17; Intro/Conversation for Project 3

Hi Everyone, 

Assignments for this week include a Reading Response due before class Wednesday on the Wardle article (Note: this is a change in the schedule, we are not reading Malinowitz for that day) and an Intro/Conversation draft due for Friday. 

For the Reading Response- Before Class Wednesday

We'll working on answering some of the specific questions in the textbook in class. What I'd really like you to focus on here is:

• A summary of the article
• A synthesis of the article with ALL of the readings we've done so far on discourse community in this unit (Swales, Gee, Devitt et al). How does Wardle add to or depart from these authors' takes on the concept of discourse community? What does she do that's different.

Doing some extensive work on this synthesis will help you with the Intro/Conversation draft due Thursday night 9pm.  

Intro/Conversation Draft- Thursday night 9pm

This is an informal writing assignment, but a very important one as it will go directly into your Project 3 essay. For this draft, I'd like you to 

• introduce the concept of discourse community. What is a discourse community? How does it help us understand how writing/language are always wrapped up in social relationship/groups?
  
• trace and summarize the conversation between the different authors we've read this far: Swales, Gee, Devitt et al, Wardle. For an example of this, check out Course Documents in Blackboard. After your review of the conversation, try to imagine some possible ways that your ethnography might add to the ongoing conversation.

500-600 words to your blogs. 

 

Reading Response and Project 3 Proposal for Monday 10/29

Reading Response: 

I'll put up the apparatus in Blackboard, but you only need to do a shorter response for this since you have the proposal as well. Please do the following for the Devitt et al.

• Summary
• Synthesis
• Personal Response. 

Project 3 Proposal Assignment

 In your proposal, I'd like you to:

• demonstrate how the community you've chosen to study qualifies as a discourse community using Swales' 6 characteristics.

• discuss your interest or involvement in studying this discourse community. What would you like to find out about this group? What are you curious about in terms of language/writing?

•  pinpoint one or two individuals you might interview for the project

• locate a set of texts you can analyze (these can be oral transcriptions, emails, blog, discussion boards, memos, menus- anything that is used to further the groups goals

600 words to your blog - Carefully proofread and formal

Extra Credit Assignment - Analyzing Political Rhetoric

*Completing this optional assignment will allow you to erase 2 minor violations (either absences or missed reading responses) but you'll need to do a thorough and engaged job with it.

For this assignment, I'd like you to write an 800-900 word essay in which you examine the political rhetoric of a recent debate or stump speech. As we're in the heat of an election season, it shouldn't be too difficult to find something on Youtube that you can watch and re-watch in order to perform careful analysis. Before you watch the event, however, you need to read an essay over at Writing Spaces called "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis." Reading this will provide you with the language you'll need to perform rhetorical analysis, and I'll expect that you show an understanding of the various concepts discussed in this article, especially these key terms: exigence, audience, rhetor, constraints. You might also refer to the Aristotelian appeals: ethos, pathos, logos.

Keep in mind that this essay should not simply be a summary of the debate/speech but needs to be a well developed argument about the speech/debate that summary could play a role in. You need to come up with an original argument about what makes a particular candidates speech effective from a rhetorical standpoint. What is the candidate trying to accomplish? What is s/he trying to make us believe, think or do after hearing their speech/talking points? You should also have specific points of evidence that supports your claim. For instance, quotes from the speech and analysis of those quotes.

To get credit, you'll need to meet the following criteria

• An original argument regarding the rhetorical effectiveness of the candidate's speech
• Familiarity/understanding of concepts from the reading 
• Use of concepts from the reading to illustrate and analyze certain features of the speech/debate 
• Realization and illustration of the candidate's argument. What s/he wants us to think, do, believe after hearing. 
• Works Cited page that cites the speech (you might have to look this up on Purdue's OWL or other resource) and the Writing Spaces article

If you're not meeting these criteria, I may send your essay back to you and ask you to revise.

Due Date: I will accept these any time before the course final (8am on 12/12) 

Reading Response for Gee- Due Wednesday 10/24

For the Gee reading, please do the following:

• The second bullet under "Getting Ready to Read" that begins "Consider two or three activities"
• A summary of the article
• Synthesis
• Personal Response
• Question #1 under "Questions for Discussion and Journaling"

Project 2 Peer Review Instructions / Readings for Monday

Peer Review Instructions

As we've discussed in class, my absence on this coming Friday necessitates a few changes to the schedule. I'm going to try, below, to explain these as clearly as possible so that you know what's expected of you in terms of the peer review. It is your responsibility, however, to contact me if you have questions. 

• Instead of us meeting in Gordy or Ellis on Friday during class, I would like you all to meet on the second floor in the library and continue working in groups on your projects. I'm going to try to put up a sign-in sheet somewhere, so stay tuned for details about that. I will be in Louisville, Kentucky that day for an academic conference so I'm trusting you guys to meet with your groups without me that day. Please don't disappoint your group's expectations.
  
• Instead of exchanging drafts of your projects to each other by Thursday night, they are now due Friday by 3pm. To exchange drafts, all you need to do is elect one person in your group to send the project link to all of the members of another group. However, I also want you to draft a cover letter collaboratively and then include this cover letter in the email where you send out the link. We will assign partner groups on Wednesday

• Once you receive the link to another group's project, you are responsible for your own, individual peer review of that project. Like the peer review for Project 1, you'll need to follow the guidelines in the "Responding to Peer Writing" sheet (on Blackboard). This time, however, you'll want to compose the peer review in a separate Word document-since you can't comment in the actual project space. You'll also have to be creative with how you  identify certain passages and problems. So if you notice that something isn't effective, you'll have to be sure to identify where the passage is in the project. 

Reading and Reading Response for Monday

• You also have a reading response due to your blogs before class Monday morning. Please note that I have removed the Glenn readings. You are only responsible for the Chapter 4 Intro and the article by Swales. Do the reading response over Swales. Here's what I'm expecting:
  
• The second prompt under "Getting Ready to Read" that starts "Write a brief description of a time..."
• A summary of the article. 
• Synthesis-What connections can you make to other things we've read this semester?
• Personal Response
• Question #5 under "Questions for Discussion and Journaling."  

Upcoming Readings on Design

Hi Everyone,


Please note the "design handouts" listed on the schedule can actually be accessed online and should be read online. For Monday, please read "Hyperlinks are the 'Tubes' of the Internet," and "Page Titles, Headlines, and Subheaders, OH MY!"

For Wednesday, read "Damnit, Jim, I'm a Writer, Not a Graphic Designer! (Or, Who Gives a CRAP?)," and "It's Not Plagiarism If It's on the Web, Right?"

Each of these readings is made up of multiple small sections, so make sure you go through everything. You'll also want to click on some of the links, especially examples of poor or successful design. No reading response on these, But you still need to read through these thoroughly and apply what you've learned to the work you're doing on Project 2.

By the way, all of these readings are from an open-source, free writing textbook called Writing Spaces. It has helpful chapters on a lot of topics. So you might save a link to it for future writing questions, just as you should also remember the Purdue OWL as a great resource.

We also have a specific milestone to meet by Monday for Project 2. The schedule asks for a "text of each group member's contribution & summary of the argument." You don't have to turn in anything formal/or post to your blog but I do want each of you to be able to show me what you've accomplished so far. Your individual literacy history should be very well developed at this point, and you should have 2-3 paragraphs in which you try to synthesize each group member's history, connect it all with the conversation already in progress (literacy in flux/literacIES/brandt, baron, wysocki, etc.), and try to make an overall claim about literacy-how you define it, how it works, etc. I think most of you are on target for meeting this milestone. But please come and talk to me if you need help.



Have a good weekend!

Project 1 Due Dates, Groups for Project 2, and Post for Monday

Hi Everyone,

A couple of things.

Project 1 is due to my email inbox in the following 3 stages: 


Friday 5pm: Cy, Jack W, Jennifer, Kate, Patrick

Saturday 4pm: Jessica, Megan, Roland, Evan, Holly

Sunday 3pm: Chase, Jack C, Luciana, Courtney, Alicia, Jada, Sierra


When you send it to me, make sure that your revise your cover letter to reflect the work you've put in since the peer review. In particular, you need to explain what changes you made after peer feedback and why, and if you did not make recommended changes, why not.


Reading Responses for Monday

The assignment for Wysocki is questions 2 and 3 in Questions For Discussion and Journaling and question 2 in Applying and Exploring Ideas and the Meta Moment. Do these in addition to the pre-reading, summary, synthesis and personal response. 



We also assigned groups for Project 2 today

Group 1: Jack W., Jada, Courney
Group 2: Evan, Megan, Chase
Group 3: Luciana, Cy, Alicia
Group 4: Jack C., Patrick, Jessica, Cierra
Group 5: Roland, Holly, Jennifer, Alicia

Everyone needs to begin thinking about a specific theme of focus for these projects. We're all looking at literacy, but what in particular interests you? Sponsorship? Technology? Access? (Mis)appropriation? I've also made discussion forums on Blackboard for each group. Feel free to use these to toss ideas off each other. They're under the "Discussion" Tab. 

Have a good weekend, 

Mr. V