| Discussion
Questions (10%) |
At least two
times during the semester, you will collaborate with one or two
colleague(s) to develop discussion prompts to share with the class.
Your selections will be made by "signing up" for a class
day covering readings that are of particular interest to you. Because
there are no assigned teams, you will have the added benefit of
working closely with all of your colleagues in the course.
Description
of Discussion Prompts
After carefully reviewing
the assigned readings, you and your colleague(s) will craft two to
three discussion prompts. Those prompts can take the form of questions
or statements related to the day's assigned readings. Your prompts
should reflect our local classroom context and its rapport as well
as the implications of the course readings for members of the rhetoric
and composition community. Remember your questions should focus on
key issues and theoretical or pedagogical concerns rather than mere
questions of definition or identification.
Guidelines
for creation of discussion prompts:
- Construct
prompts that attend to key issues, concerns, or problematics
of the day's assigned readings.
- Provide
adequate contextualization for your prompts through direct quotations,
notations to past class discussions, etc.
- Focus on
the implications of the theoretical readings for practices as
teachers and scholars in rhetoric and composition.
- Collect
you and your colleagues' prompts into one Word file.
- Email those
prompts as both body text in the email message and a Word file
attachment to our class
listserv by 9 am the
Friday before our class meeting.
Evaluation
of Discussion Prompts
At the end of the semester,
you will receive a grade for your discussion questions. This holistic
score will be based upon the thoughtfulness, complexity, and overall
contribution to stimulating our class discussion.
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|
| Critical
Reading Collection (30%) |
To
encourage all of us to make connections between the theories of spatial
and visual and our work in the field of rhetoric and composition,
you will create a critical reading collection. This collection can
be developed in any range of media, but its purpose is to relate critical
implications, connections, and reflections on our course readings
to your roles as teacher, researcher, and member of our field.
Note: Your critical reading collection is an on-going, semester-long
project comprised of 10 "units". You should complete 1 unit
for each of the 10 days of our course readings marked on the course
calendar with "Share Critical Reading Collection Entry."
You must be ready to share your week's contribution with the entire
class during our discussion, expect to share at least two units throughout
the semester.
Description
of Critical Reading Collection
Your critical reading
collection should focus on a specific issue(s) raised by our class
readings for the day. That issue should be related to your life
as a teacher, scholar, and member of the rhetoric and composition
community. Since many of the theorists we are reading are not
members of our field, you need to make connections between their
theories and your praxis. In terms of expressing those connections,
you may decide to write a one-page position statement about the
reading, articulate the reading through a particular experience
you have had as a teacher or researcher, create a visual or spatial
response to the reading that accounts for its relationship to
your ideas, among other options. Overall, I expect the 10 units
of your critical reading collection to offer you a space for critical
reflection on the theories we will be engaging.
Guidelines
for creation of your critical reading collection:
- Your collection
can be created in any medium or combination of media (Word files,
Photoshop or Fireworks image files, hypertext documents, multimedia
pieces such as Director, Flash, or other movies, etc.), but
it must be in a form that can be "turned in" or shared
with me and other members of the class.
- Collections
should have at least 10 critical "units", one for
each designated "Share" day.
- Each unit
should
Critically
explore the relationship between the assigned readings and
your role(s) as teacher, scholar, and/or member of rhetoric
and composition.
Offer
other members of the course a way to understand your position(s).
Challenge
other members of the course to see the readings in ways
they might not have considered.
Push
you to experiment with spatial and visual aspects of document
creation in a range of media.
For each
week marked "Share Critical Reading Collection Entry",
an entry is "due," meaning you should be ready to
share your unit with other members of our class. Your entire,
completed critical reading collection, however, is not due
for evaluation until Wednesday,
May 7th by 2 pm. I recommend that you talk
with me about the progress of your collection as the semester
progresses and that you share, even outside of class, individual
units with your colleagues.
Calendar Days marked with "Share Critical Reading Collection
Entry" include 2.3, 2.10,
2.17, 2.24, 3.3, 3.24, 3.31, 4.7, 4.14, & 5.5.
Evaluation
of Critical Reading Collection
As 30% of your overall course grade, the critical reading collection
is a significant assignment in our course. Your critical reading
collection will be evaluated based upon its thoughtfulness, complexity,
attention to our classroom and field contexts, and overall contribution
to other members of the course. Keep in mind that while the final
evaluation of the collection will not come until the end of the
semester, your grade will be lowered if you are unprepared to
share your day's response with us. Of course, the quality of your
writing and your use of sound document design principles will
be other criteria in the assessment of your critical reading collection.
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| Spatial
& Visual Rhetorics Project & Presentation (20%) |
During the semester,
you will develop and present a spatial & visual rhetorics project
to our class.
Description of Spatial & Visual Rhetorics Project & Presentation
You should select from the range of 12 spatial and visual rhetoric
projects considering which one will be most useful for you as
a teacher and scholar (See list below). You might decide to follow
a more traditionally academic route and develop an annotated bibliography
or encyclopedic definition that you can work into your seminar
project, or you might want to explore a less traditionally academic
route and create a visual or spatial redesign related to your
teaching. Keep in mind that despite your selection of project,
you will be presenting it to our class.
Depending
upon your own teaching and research interests, select one of the
following:
- Create
an encyclopedic definition for a spatial or visual rhetoric
term. (Your bibliographic references should include at least
15 sources.)
- Create
an annotated bibliography on a spatial or visual rhetoric topic.
(Include at least 2 books and 7 articles, book chapters, etc.)
- Create
an annotated web resource page for a spatial or visual rhetoric
topic. (Include at least 20 sources. Remember the page design
must consider a particular audience that you construct for the
resource page.)
- Create
a visual argument (any medium) and develop a one-page statement
on the argument and your ability to express it in this particular
medium. (Only one rule, no words are allowed in your visual.)
- Create
a pedagogical lesson related to spatial or visual rhetoric.
You must have the lesson plan and supporting materials.
- Create
a spatial or visual redesign of an existing space or visual
project. Provide a one-page narrative about the audience and
purpose of your redesign. Also provide a one-paragraph discussion
on your experience developing this redesign project--challenges,
triumphs, etc.
- Develop
three charts, maps, or other visual displays on readings from
our course syllabus. Also provide a one-paragraph discussion
on your experience developing these charts, maps, or other visual
displays--challenges, triumphs, etc.
- Develop
three charts, maps, or other visual displays on readings not
from our course syllabus but still related to spatial or visual
rhetorics. Also provide a one-paragraph discussion on your experience
developing these charts, maps, or other visual displays--challenges,
triumphs, etc.
- Study 2-3
different movies. Write a 3-5 page paper discussing both the
spatial and visual issues related to those films.
- Create
a visual or redesign an existing visual using two different
theoretical frameworks--post colonialism, feminism, structuralism,
cognitivism, poststructuralism, among others--and write a 1-page
discussion about your design choices and your challenges and
triumphs to articulate the visual across your two selected frameworks.
- Study a
particular space across time (at least 2 different site visits
of 45-minutes to 1-hour)--theorize the ways the space affects
relationships among people and objects. Provide rationales for
your choice of site. Write a 3-5 page report discussing your
findings.
- Observe
three different classroom spaces (desktop computer, laptop computer,
traditional, MOO, distance, etc.) and write a 3-5 page paper
discussing the different teaching styles and approaches. Be
certain to center your discussion on the ways relationships
are formed across these different spaces.
Guidelines
for creation of your spatial and visual rhetorics project:
- Your project
must reflect your own interests as a teacher, scholar, and member
of the rhetoric and composition community.
- Push your
own thinking regarding spatial and visual theories despite the
project you select.
- Develop
a 10-12 minute presentation that offers all members of the course
a chance to learn from you.
- Consult
with me at any point in the development stage of this project
for feedback.
To prepare
for this project, you will meet with me individually some time
during the third or fourth week of class (February
10th - February 21st). Your spatial & visual
rhetorics project is due on Monday,
March 10th. You should email an electronic version
and bring a hard copy of the project to me for evaluation. You
also should prepare your 10-12-minute presentation of your materials.
That presentation can be a mini-workshop to present a specific
pedagogical application (i.e. present a brief portion of a lesson
you have developed), a presentation of the project itself (i.e.
an explication of your encyclopedic definition or discussion of
your spatial research), etc. In other words, the format of your
presentation is entirely up to you, but it should be evident to
all of us that you are prepared to not only describe your project
but also reflect on its significance to you as a teacher and scholar.
In terms of using technologies in your presentation, try to integrate
resources such as PowerPoint, the WWW, or other technologies.
Your formal presentation will occur on Monday,
March 10th in CCIT 311. Note: If you have
questions about the layout of the lab or its resources, please
go to http://iws.ccit.arizona.edu/labs/instructional/311.html.
Evaluation
of Spatial & Visual Rhetorics Project
Your spatial and visual rhetorics project will be evaluated based
upon its contribution to the practice of teaching and scholarship
in rhetoric and composition, its attention to issues and trends
in spatial and visual rhetorics, your project's consideration
of our classroom context, and its thoroughness, complexity, creativity,
and feasibility. Of course, the quality of your writing and your
use of sound document design principles will be other criteria
in the assessment of your project. Note:
Your grade on the project will be significantly lowered
if the quality of your presentation are below average.
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|
| Researched
Seminar Paper (40%) |
Based
upon course readings and your own research, you will develop a 10-20
page seminar paper.
Description
of Researched Seminar Paper
This paper will be directed to a particular forum (journal, conference,
etc.) and to a rhetoric and composition audience. Based upon your
own background, interest, and experience, you should develop this
paper as more than a classroom exercise. In other words, your
10-20 page paper should be acceptable for the forum and audience
for which and whom you create it. Prior to completing this project,
which is due on Wednesday, May 7th,
you will submit a project proposal. This proposal should outline
your agenda for the project. Additionally, you will be sharing
a draft of your paper with a peer in the class.
Guidelines for creation of your one-two page researched seminar
proposal:
- Define
the audience(s) for your paper (Consider who would be most interested
in your paper: attendees at the Computers and Writing, Conference
on College Composition and Communication, or Rhetoric Society
of America conference or readers of JAC, Rhetoric Review,
College Communication and Composition, Computers and Composition,
Kairos, Written Communication, The Writing Instructor,
etc.).
- Describe
the purpose(s) of your project (Consider what you are trying
to achieve in your project: to create a pedagogical article,
to develop a particular argument, to point out a potential area
of spatial and visual rhetoric investigation, to offer strategies
or approaches to a particular spatial or visual rhetoric problematic,
etc.).
- Identify
your rationale(s) for this project (Think about why this project
is useful for you and your professional development: offers
you a way of highlighting your research? gives you a chance
to present ideas and receive feedback from colleagues? etc.).
- Prepare
a working bibliography.
This
proposal is due on Monday, April 7th.
Please email me a Word file attachment and bring a hard copy to
class.
Guidelines for creation of your researched seminar paper:
- Provide
a one-page overview of the audience(s), rationale(s), and purpose(s)
of your researched paper. This information can be taken directly
from your plan for your seminar paper.
- Include
polished draft of the 10-20 page researched seminar paper including
an APA bibliography of your references (You can use MLA or other
citation format only if the journal or conference requests that
format).
A first completed
draft of your researched seminar paper is due for peer review
on Monday, April 21st with
comments returned to your peer and me by
Monday, April 28th. Your final draft is due as
an email attached Word file on Wednesday,
May 7th by 2 pm.
Evaluation
of Researched Seminar Paper
Your seminar paper will be evaluated based upon its contribution
to the the field of rhetoric and composition, its attention to
issues and trends in spatial and visual rhetorics, its assessment
of audience(s), purpose(s), and rationale(s) as you have constructed
them, and its thoroughness, complexity, and perceptiveness. Of
course, the quality of your writing and your use of sound document
design principles will be other factors in the assessment of your
paper. Note: Your grade on
the paper will be significantly lowered if the quality of your
plan, first draft, or comments to your peer are below average.
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last
updated 1.04.03
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