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Drafting the Reflective Essay
Today, you will draft your Reflective Essay for the Post/er Project. You’ll write independently in response to the following prompts: Be aware that a COMPLETE Reflective Essay should also: HOMEWORK Complete the Post/er Project by December 15th!!! Your final project should be deliver AS A NEW PAGE to your WordPress site (the one that is linked in the right hand margin) and should include your post or poster and your reflective essay on a single page. I will be holding extra office hours on TUES 12/12 & THURS 12/14 from 10:45a-12p in Klapper 612.
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12/5: Peer Review of Post/er Project
In small groups of 2-3, access the Post/er Project assignment and do the following: HOMEWORK POST BLOG POST 8! Post your responses to point #3 above; these are your revision notes for your Post/er Project. This will be your last blog post of the semester. NEXT CLASS IS OUR FINAL CLASS! We will begin drafting your reflective essay in class next time.
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11/30: Crafting the Post/er Project
Recall what we learned from Cushman’s article “Rhetorician as Agent of Social Change” last class; Cushman’s work focuses on the power of “day-to-day interactions” (12) in activism. She understand the acts of helping individuals on writing for job and apartment applications as social activism because these seemingly small gestures impact people’s lives in significant ways. Building on Cushman’s understanding of day-to-day interactions, I’d like to hear from you about what kind of specific advocacy work your post/er can do. We’ll look at Jane Hu’s article “The Second Act of Social Media Activism,” in which the author considers “the link between activism, the Internet, and material action.” Hu introduces the term…
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11/28: Brainstorming the Poster Project (continued)
You began brainstorming towards your poster project in your last blog post that is due today. We will continue this work in class, beginning with Cushman’s article “The Rhetorician as Agent of Social Change.” We’ll look at pages 13 and 12, in that order, in Cushman’s text to begin thinking about how we, as rhetors of the Poster Project, can be agents of social change. After reading together, take a few minutes to answer the following questions: HOMEWORK READ Hu’s “Second Act of Social Media Activism.” Be ready to work with materials next class! We’re having an arts and craft day on Thursday, 11/30!
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11/21: Introducing the Poster Project
In preparation for the Poster Project, we looked together at this poster from Visualizing Palestine and a poster from Kidnapped from Israel. We will take some time in class writing quietly and individually about a social issue you care about. This will be a draft of Blog Post 7. HOMEWORK READ Cushman’s “The Rhetorician as an Agent of Social Change,” available on Blackboard. WRITE Blog Post 7, DUE NEXT CLASS 11/28. Brainstorming the Poster Project: Identify a problem that matters to you by focusing on exigence and audience: Exigence Audience Finally, in this post, I invite you to tell me if you’d like to work individually on this final project…
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11/16: Final Writing Workshop for Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism
We’ll look together at my revisions to the Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism assignment. Your final project is due on Tuesday, November, 21st. I will give you a grade with feedback and offer you an opportunity to revise based on that feedback. Revision is not mandatory. To see examples of your peers’ projects that are moving nicely towards the final product, check out the following: HOMEWORK Complete the Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism assignment, which is due by next class, Tuesday, November, 21st.
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11/14: Ungrading Our Rhetorical Analysis Projects
In Jesse Stommel’s “Ungrading: An Introduction” that you read for homework, Stommel encourages teachers to “demystify grading” by focusing on student learning and content knowledge. My learning goals for you in the Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism assignment were to gain a greater understanding of rhetorical concepts that are important to all public writing and to see how these concepts are part of large advocacy projects. The way I structured your learning for this assignment was by asking you to work in pairs to create a new website that contains the following parts: All pages were to engage the organization you chose and Keith Grant-Davie’s “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents”…
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11/7: Drafting Workshop
You have all class period today to work on your Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism website. As a reminder, I want to see the following pages on your website: Each page above should engage both the activist organization you’ve chosen AND Grant-Davie’s article (available on Blackboard). I will show you how to create a new website and give editorial access to your partner. I will circulate to answer questions. HOMEWORK DUE TUES, 11/14: DRAFT WEBSITES of the Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism are due IN CLASS. We will be looking at your work together. You must have a draft available in class next Tuesday to get credit for your work.…
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10/31: Primary and Secondary Audiences
Last class, we discussed how the rhetor of a discourse is often a complex network “that often involve[s] multiple rhetors” (Grant-Davie 269), ranging from a person or entity responsible for some content to sponsors that deliver or finance that content in some way. Grant-Davie’s concept of audience is no less complex than the concept of rhetor. Grant-Davie notes that audiences, like rhetors, exist in multitudes. He says there can be primary and secondary audiences, “audiences that are present and those that have yet to form, audiences that act collaboratively or as individuals, audiences about whom the rhetor knows little, or audiences that exist only in the rhetor’s mind” (271). In…
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10/26: Adding Rhetors to our list of Constituents
As we start class, ensure you’re sitting with your partner for the Rhetorical Analysis of Local Activism assignment. I’m tracking the groups and their chosen organizations here. We’ll think for a bit about what we understand the word “constituents” to mean. You’ve already taken some time to understand exigence as a constituent in the rhetorical situation, so today we’ll move through Grant-Davie’s text to better understand his definition of rhetors . Access Grant-Davie’s article “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents” on our Blackboard site. We’ll use class time to read pages 269-272 and write initial definitions of rhetor. With your partner, begin to apply these definitions of rhetor to the organization…
