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last.updated 10.5.08

 

Designing Writing Assignments

Purpose


Composing, as we know, is central to the composition course. But the question we have to ask is: what are we going to ask students to write? what relationship do I want to create among my assignments? Then once we have addressed these question, we have to ask ourselves how are we going to articulate the assignment in a way that makes it understandable and accessible to all of our students? During today's class we will work on answering these questions.


Before Class

  • Read WPA-L discussion on the Five Paragraph Essay [BB]
  • Read Cushman, "The Public Intellectual" CT [819-828]
  • Read Reid & Kroll, "Designing and Assessing..." [Journal of Second Language Writing, 4.1]
  • Read Evans, "An Afrocentric Multicultural Writing Project" [BB]
  • Submit PAB entry #3 to the Blackboard Discussion Board by the beginning of class

Presentation–Composing Writing Assignments

The instructor will present "Composing Writing Assignments" as a way to think about multiple aspects of this process.

Discussion: Different Approaches to Assignments

Additionally we will address the following questions:

  • Evans is clearly angry What is he specifically angry about? In what ways does his argument address the problem he is angry about? How can we build an assignment relevant to other populations from what Evans advocates?
  • What is Cushman arguing? What are the pedagogical advantages of service learning? What are the risks?
  • If we can say that an argument was developed out of the collective wisdom of the WPA-L discussion on 5 paragraph essay, what would that argument be? Which individual argument did you find most compelling? Why?
  • What is Reid and Kroll arguing for? Do you agree with their individual analysis?

Activity: Analyzing Syllabi

You all will be divided into five groups. Each group will be assigned one of two Semester Syllabi:

As a group read over the document and address the following questions:

  • What argument is the instructor making about the teaching of writing? How does the instructor support this argument? How does this instructor see the relationship between reality, language, the writer, and the audience (i.e., the noetic field)?
  • Pedagogically what are the soundest features of the syllabus? Which features did not seem to fit or need to be explained more?
  • If you were to pick up this syllabus, do you feel that you could teach from it? Explain. What did the instructor do that lends the document to this usefulness? Or what does the instructor need to do to make the document more user-friendly?
  • What questions does this syllabus raise about Semester Syllabus assignment?

Be prepared to talk about your responses.