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In
the course facilitation project, you and your peer will facilitate
one of our class meetings.The primary goal for facilitation is to
stimulate productive discussion of the course readings and their implications
for work in our field. Thus, class activities should focus on issues
raised by the readings and create opportunities for all members of
the course to contribute. Small group work, mini-workshops, larger
class discussion of your particular example(s) are encouraged.
preparatory
conference
One week prior to your course facilitation day, you will meet
with me to share a first draft of your detailed class agenda.
In advance of the meeting, you should read all the course readings,
locate a potential example(s), start writing down issues you want
to raise in your facilitation, and begin mapping out a detail
agenda for the class day.
On
the day before our conference, you should email me: 1) your potential
example(s) and 2) a Word file draft of your course
facilitation agenda.
email to listserv
By noon on the Thursday before your class facilitation day, you
should email our class listserv with the issues you want us to
consider for your facilitation day. If you want us to bring anything
to class as part of an activity you are preparing, you also should
let us know at that time. You also can tell us a little bit about
the agenda for the day.
course
facilitation agenda
The day of your facilitation, you will provide your agenda at
the beginning of class. This 1-2 page single-spaced agenda should
include the following information: brief overview of the day's
agenda, listing of the issues you want us to consider for the
day, context of the example(s) you are sharing with us, and background
information about the authors of the readings. Using this agenda
as a point of reference, rather than a script, you will initiate
and facilitate our discussion of the assigned readings and your
example. Remember you can include a range of pedagogical practices
such as break out groups, hands-on activities, or other classroom
methods to encourage participation.
spatial-visual
example(s)
To help us engage the readings and your activity for the day,
you will give us example(s) that illustrates a particular issue
in the readings. You can use your example(s) to prompt discussion
or even as part of another class activity. To find example(s),
you can draw from a variety of contexts and formats. Just make
certain to select something that you can feasibly
share with class. For example, you can provide copies of a text
or image, photos or video of a physical space, access to a virtual
space, a representative portion or replica of an artifact, etc.
Remember if you need us to have technology access you must plan
for this access weeks before your facilitation day.
Your
facilitation of discussion will be evaluated based on your level
of preparedness, the quality of your agenda, appropriateness of
your example(s), thoroughness of your attention to the readings,
and your commitment to engaging others, and your collaboration with
one another.
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The
seminar event is your opportunity to translate the theories we
have been reading into meaningful pedagogical practices, ones
that will impact the entire UA Writing Program. You and your colleagues
in the course will develop the content for and format of the event.
Supported by the UA Writing Program, the event's target audience
is spring '09 English 102 and 104 teachers. Our goal is to offer
this target population ways of integrating spatial and visual
rhetorics into their own 102 or 104 pedagogies. This integration
is meant to help the instructors as they plan their spring classes
and encourage them to participate in the UA Writing Program's
Spatial and Visual Writing Showcase held each spring.
The
event you will plan and host asks each of you to contribute individually
to the event in terms of some type of presentation--a paper, panel,
roundtable, installation, performance, among other possible offerings--and
collaboratively in the planning and executing of the event itself.
In other words, you will develop the content for the event as
well as its form. Anne-Marie Hall, Director of the UA Writing
Program, and Chris Minnix, Assistant Director of the Writing Program,
will provide us with some guidance and even financial support
to host the event. I will be sharing documents related to the
First Year Writing Showcase as a means to help us identify the
best type of event and its appropriate content.
in-class
brainstorming and event claiming & naming
On August 25th, I will
introduce the project, asking each of you to think about the
type of event you believe will best suit our audience's need
and your own ideas for a presentation. We will have a formal
class discussion to brainstorm our ideas on September 8th. After
that discussion, we will have another week to consider the best
approach to the event. Our decision of event will consider audience
needs, colleague presentation ideas, resources on the First
Year Writing Showcase, our budget, and input from the UA Writing
Program.
preparatory
conference
Once we have finalized the forum for the event, each of you
will need to begin thinking about the type of individual contribution
you will make. Although we will already have discussed the possibilities
in our event brainstorming session, now you will need to provide
more solid details about your individual contribution and its
place in the whole of the event. Thus, early to mid-semester,
I will schedule 20-30 minute conferences with each of you. These
conferences will be an opportunity for us to discuss your presentation.
You should come to the meeting with possible ideas about the
presentation you want to create. Be ready to talk about the
concept you want to explore, how its serves our target audience,
the purpose of your presentation, and the way you will present
it.
presentation
Your presentation should be able to be experienced during the
event our class has planned. Depending upon the range of presentations
proposed, we will seek out an appropriate venue. I suggest that
you speak with me early in your brainstorming if your idea seems
to need particular accommodations. In addition to thinking of
the content of the presentation, you also should consider how
best to convey its message. Remember you are educating other
teachers about visual and spatial rhetorics in a way that will
help them in their own classrooms. Do you want to read/perform
a paper? Conduct a mini-workshop with a handout? Create an installation
that demonstrates certain principles of visual and spatial pedagogy?
Create a framework for analysis that you instantiate in a new
media format? You have a range of possibilities, and as a class,
I assume that each of you will find a message and medium that
help you best think through your ideas.
event
preview
One week before our event, we will have a class preview. Depending
upon the event forum, we will structure the preview accordingly.
In other words, I expect that the preview will approximate the
event as closely as possible. There may be issues that we will
need to address as we experience one another's presentations.
This preview is also a way to offer valuable pre-event feedback.
All of you will need to be full participants in the preview,
meaning you will be both author and audience during the preview.
My hope is that you will be supportive and engaged just as we
anticipate with our event audience.
event
The event will be your chance to present your ideas about visual
and spatial rhetorics to our UA Writing Program community. You
should expect to have a receptive audience of colleagues who
want to discuss and learn more about visual and spatial theories.
Your performance should be structured to elicit engagement with
your ideas, and it should offer something to its audience. Think
carefully about the ways your presentation will have import
beyond the day of the event to benefit writing teachers and
students.
reflection
on your presentation
Each class
member also will reflect on her own presentation. After hosting
the event, each class member will write a one-page, single-spaced
reflection. Your reflection should discuss what you wanted to
achieve in your presentation and the ways in which those goals
were realized, or not, in your presentation and its performance.
What did you learn through the process of teaching others about
visual and spatial rhetorics? How did the audience engage your
work? What might you have done differently now that you have
completed the presentation? What advice would you give to someone
else working with your issues in the same medium? This reflection
will be a way for me to gain insight into your creative process
and its instantiation. Your reflection will be due one week
after the seminar event.
The
seminar event will be evaluated based on your level of preparedness,
your engagement with the issues that your presentation addresses,
the appropriateness of your presentation for the audience and
purpose, participation in the preview and final event, insights
in your reflection, and the quality of your presentation. As
we work together to conceive and plan the event, we also will
articulate specific criteria for the presentations based upon
the medium and issues with which you are working. You are always
welcome to speak with me about any aspect of this project as
it unfolds.
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