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Project 1

Project 1: Rhetoric in Knowledge Communities

Project Description

This project is inspired by and heavily adapts from a project developed by IDEAL at the University of Iowa called "Rhetoric in Knowledge Communities." My adaptation of this project aims to introduce students to the concept of the rhetorical situation and position them to apply their knowledge of the rhetorical situation by analyzing a text that is tangibly meaningful to them as members of particular communities of knowledge. In the scaffolded assignments building up to the Project 1 Draft, students are asked to consider their own prior knowledges and how those knowledges arise from specific communities, activities, and interactions. Then, the Project 2 Revision introduces the concept of community cultural wealth and asks students to consider their own community cultural wealth and how they can use their unique knowledges, perspectives, and experiences to contribute to local communities.

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Learning Objectives

Throughout this project, students will:

  • approach writing as a subject of study as well as a practice

  • use writing and revision to develop new ideas and perspectives

  • learn and reflect about their college and local communities, and understand their roles within them*

  • demonstrate their ability to conduct a rigorous rhetorical analysis, supported with details and explanation*

  • integrate key course concepts into their analysis of a local community*

  • act on feedback about in-progress writing

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* These learning objectives are adapted or adopted from IDEAL's "Rhetoric in Knowledge Communities" project

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Texts

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* Although Yosso and Burciaga's research report provides a clear and concise introduction to the concept of community cultural wealth, there is a rich body of literature about community cultural wealth that exceeds the scope of this course. In addition to requiring students to read Yosso and Burciaga, I will provide information about and access to additional resources, including seminal literature, so that students who are interested in further exploring the concept of community cultural wealth are supported in doing so.

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Writing Assignments*

 

* All Project 1 writing assignments, excepting the Peer Review Prep worksheet, are adapted from IDEAL's "Rhetoric in Knowledge Communities" project

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Sample Writing Partners Prompts

  • What is writing?

  • How do you use knowledge that you've gained from your personal knowledge communities when approaching a new rhetorical situation?

  • Choose one type of community cultural wealth – aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, or resistant – and discuss the role this type of capital plays in your life at UMass Boston. What forms of this type of capital do you feel are valued in our campus community? What forms of this type of capital do you feel are not valued or valued to a lesser extent?

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Sample Lesson Plans

Project 2: Language and Community

Project Description

While Project 1 asks students to understand their roles within a local community that is meaningful to them, in Project 2, students actively participate in a local community in a way that is meaningful to their writing development. As writing tutors working with local K-12 students, ENGL 101 students will write with members of a specific discourse community and reflect on those writing experiences in conjunction with course concepts. Two key project concepts are discourse community and language use. Introducing the concept of discourse community builds on the work that students did with communities and knowledge production in Project 1, providing a more structured way to conceptualize relationships between writing and community. This project takes a translingual approach to engaging students in discussions about language use, positioning different forms of linguistic capital (which connects back to community cultural wealth) as resources rather than obstacles. It also challenges students to question language use conventions within specific discourse communities, asking who determines those conventions and what purpose they serve. Students will explore these concepts in dialogue with course texts, with community partners, and with each other.

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Learning Objectives

Throughout this project, students will:

  • approach writing as a subject of study as well as a practice

  • situate their learning about writing in both disciplinary and wider non-university communities

  • collaborate with community partners to develop new ideas and perspectives

  • reflect on their work with community partners and integrate key course concepts into their reflections

  • read and respond to peers' reflections to understand and engage with complex ideas and multiple perspectives

  • make purposeful linguistic choices in writing and communication

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Texts

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* Because this video does not have closed captioning or a transcript, I would work with staff members at the Ross Center for Disability Services to obtain a full range of accessible formats before using this text in my class

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Writing Assignments

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Sample Writing Partners Prompts

  • What relationships do you see between rhetorical situation and discourse community? When facing a particular writing task, can one help you better understand the other? If so, how? If not, why not?

  • Consider the language you used when composing your Project 1 Revision and the language you use when you compose your Writing Partners blog posts.

    • In what ways are these language uses similar? In what ways are they different?

    • What role does discourse community play in these similarities and differences? Were you writing in the same discourse community, or different discourse communities?

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Sample Lesson Plan

Project 2

Project 3: Theory of Writing

Project Description

This project asks students to reflect, as both individuals and members of specific communities, on their learning about writing as both a subject of study and a practice, and to articulate that learning by developing a cohesive, personalized theory of writing. Students then identify one or more learning gaps in their writing education and explore new literature to help them begin to fill in those gaps. This new knowledge is used to enhance their theory of writing.

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Learning Objectives

Throughout this project, students will:

  • approach writing as a subject of study as well as a practice

  • use an evolving vocabulary for reflecting on composing processes and rhetorical choices in their own writing

  • use reflection to develop and demonstrate conscious awareness of their own writing knowledge and practice as it develops over time and across contexts

  • use strategies of analysis and synthesis to discover, develop, and articulate ideas in relation to the ideas of other writers

  • develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which writing is a community-based activity as well as a meaning-making activity

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Texts

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Writing Assignments

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Sample Lesson Plans

Project 3

10-Week Collaborative Writing Activity: Writing Partners

Activity Description

This project, which spans the first 10 weeks of the semester (across Projects 1 and 2), gives students the time and tools to both reflect on their learning and write collaboratively with their peers. Students will share their collaborative writing by posting their reflections on a class blog. While students will be expected each class to produce a legible blog post, discussion, exploration, and perspective-taking will be prioritized over consensus. Quality and depth of content will be prioritized over quantity and structure.

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Learning Objectives

  • approach writing as a subject of study as well as a practice

  • use an evolving vocabulary for reflecting on composing processes and rhetorical choices in their own writing

  • read and converse (alongside writing) to understand and engage with complex ideas and multiple perspectives

  • approach writing as a collaborative process and understand the ways in which writing is co-created

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Writing Assignments

Writing Partners

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