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WA1
From cartershannon
Instructor Guide: English 102, Spring 2010
English 102 is about research and writing. See syllabus for specific objectives, and readinfo about the theoretical framework athttp://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/102_GUIDE.htmIn short, the goal of English 102 is to teach students how to develop an effective researchquestion and respond to (and tweak) that research question with original researchinvolving loads of primary source materials--some of it archival and some developedthrough fieldnotes and other means.We are also concerned here with the idea that all academic research contributes to a larger scholarly conversation. Thus, students are introduced to the larger scholarly conversationin literacy studies (via
Literacies in Context
and other readings) and expected to engagethat conversation with their own research.Fieldnotes are INCREDIBLY important here and throughout the semester. Teach your students that early. Use the guides provided by FieldWorking and online, including thishandout:http://e102.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/agenda-september-30/You can even use this method when listening to oral histories, reading through artifactsincluded in the digital collections, conducting interviews, and, of course, when visitingthe fieldsite. No good project comes from limited research. They must get involved in that researchquickly and spend loads of time generating pages upon pages of fieldnotes, Thosefieldnotes need to be expanded and analyzed several times, noting recurring patterns.Introduce them to the concept of “coding”--early!
Fieldworking
is incredibly useful in helping students develop appropriate researchquestions, obtain relevant permissions, develop good plans for research (surveys,interviews, interview questions, research site, archival research, etc), and just abouteverything else related to this work.
Literacies in Context
and the texts included athttp://e102.wordpress.com/resources/ should introduce students to the larger scholarly conversation in literacy studies.
“Optional” texts
I have ordered three “optional” texts that you may decide to require in your own courses.Make that decision early, and let me know. We’ll get information to you about how to getthat set up as “required” text for your specific section(s) of English 102.You don’t need to select any optional text, but you are welcome to.Option 1:
An American Story
(Debra Dickson, 2001). This literacy narrative offers auseful way to explore the specific ways that reading and writing functioned in one life. Acommon story like this can help you generate productive conversations in class,especially when used to make sense of the theoretical lens provided by scholars likeDeborah Brandt (“Sponsors of Literacy”). It’s an interesting story that foregrounds issuesof race, class, and politics in some really provocative ways.Here’s a discussion guide:http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385720281&view=rg
Option 2:
A Better Pencil
(Barron, 2009). This has gotten quite a bit of press. Just googleit and you’ll find a number of interviews and reviews, which is amazing for a number of reasons. I mean, it JUST came out! This one is useful in that it offers a historical view of writing from the perspective of technology. Barron is accessible and the text itself isinteresting. If you are interested in foregrounding the technical side of things, I wouldrecommend this. If you are interested in writing from a historical perspective, I wouldalso recommend this.You might even just read this yourself over the br eak, regardless of whether you use it or not. Might lead to some interesting classroom activities.Option 3:
Shane: The Lone Ethnographer
(graphic narrative). You may find
Shane: The Lone Ethnographer
particularly useful in terms of developing effective research methods.In some ways, it is a little goofy. But I have found NOTHING that makes the researchmethods more accessible than this short, rich and (at times) amusing text.So Options 1 and 2 are useful in terms of offering a common story to work with that isn’t just the scholarship, which can be a little difficult to work with. Option 3 offers another way into the research methods, which are incredibly important to this course.But again, you don’t need to select any optional text. Theyare there for you if you wantthem, though.I can also make
They Say, I Say
available if you wish. Just let me know.
Research Portfolio
Students will be working on this throughout the semester. There are a number of examples available, both online and in our various offices. See more about the ResearchPortfolio in Fieldworking and in the sample syllabus.Hunter’s is athttp://huntj.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/Arielle athttp://boopdedoop.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/The rest of the blogroll athttp://www.e102.wordpress.comincludes some usefulannotated bibliographies, which help illustrate the various artifacts and activities studentscollected and found most useful in developing their projects. The annotated bibliographyserves as the table of contents for their research portfolios, so even if the students didn’tdigitalize their portfolios (they weren’t required to) you’ll be able to see what theyincluded in those portfolios.Including their codebooks. Codebooks are CRUCIAL!Handout detailing Research Portfolio available athttp://e102.wordpress.com/was/(scrollto “Research Portfolio”)List of topics covered in one section of English 102 available at http://e102.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/presentations-thursday-1217/
Celebration of Student Writing
Start preparing them for this right away. It’ll happen at the end of the semester, just as ithas each term since Spring 2007. See info on syllabus and video athttp://www.ncow.org/ browse/video/carter_worthcelebrating.html
Writing Assignments:
Everything leads to the final project. I would suggest you even direct comments for eachmajor writing assignment toward the major project, so that each time you comment youare speaking to that particular assignment as it serves (potentially) the major research project. How might WA1 lead to a productive final project, for example? What aboutWA3? Ideally, each of these writing assignments will inform (directly)the major research project they take on. It should at least enable them to explore several potential projects.
WA1, Literacy History:
Literacies in Context),
this essay calls upon you to reconstruct keymoments in your literacy history by identifying the agents sponsoring this literacy andnarrating the way literacy has "pursued" you in a variety of contexts. (see
Literacies inContext,
39, for full description).Suggestion: Use Deborah Brandt’s interview script to help students flesh outdetails of their personal literacy narrative.Alternative: If you wish to foreground the technology of literacy rather thanwriting and reading in society, try pushing the interview protocol Selfe andHawisher used in studying “Literate Lives in the Information Age.”
An American Story:
If you are using Dickson’s
An American Story
in your course, it would be quite useful to trace Brandt’s concept of sponsorship throughthat text. You could ask students to trace the notion of sponsorship throughDickson’s life, focusing on her life as a writer and a reader.Even if you choose to focus WA1 on their own lives (especially through theuseful tool provided in one or the other interview scripts listed above), the
An American Story
activity could be useful. One option would be to make thisanalysis of Dickson’s literacy narrative a group activity, requiring differentgroups to focus on different phases of Dickson’s life and trace the “sponsors”emerging from that research.You’ll find copies of both interview scripts athttp://e102.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/generating-ideas-for-wa1/Details for assignment can be found athttp://e102.wordpress.com/was/(scroll to end) ,including a Peer Review Guide.
WA2, Found Literacies:
Making use of the readings presented in Chapter 4 of
Literaciesin Context,
this essay calls upon you to examine the particular ways in which literacyfunctions in a given community located on the Texas A&M-Commerce campus or thesurrounding community. You are encouraged to use both images and text in thedevelopment of this argument. (see
Literacies in Context,
213, for full description)Suggestion: Try to get students to focus on “texts” associated with their potentialresearch site. The more specific the better. Resnick is useful in providing studentswith a series of lenses through which to read the functionality of texts. A more
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Guide E102 Spring 2010
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