At least three times during the semester, you will collaborate with one or two colleagues to develop rhetorical précis and discussion prompts to share with the class. Your selection 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 Reading Journal
With one of the course goals being to develop a critical understanding of issues in computers and composition theory and practice, you and your colleagues will create a collaborative reading journal. This on-going, semester-long project will culminate with your own electronic collection of rhetorical précis from the course. This reading journal will serve as a reference guide for your future development as a scholar, teacher, and administrator of computers and composition.

Guidelines for creation of rhetorical précis:

• Identify the key issues, arguments, and concerns related to each of the day's assigned readings.
  
• Create one to two paragraph précis for each of these readings.
  
• Save those précis in one team Microsoft Word file that includes an APA citation for the article (in bold) followed by your précis (not bolded).
  
• Email this single Word file collection of précis to the class listserv by 9 am the day of our class meeting.

Download Word file with information about creating rhetorical précis.


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. In addition, your questions should focus on key issues or 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.
  
• Email those prompts to our class listserv by 9 am the Friday before our class meeting.
  
  

Evaluation of Rhetorical Précis & Discussion Prompts
At the end of the semester, you will receive a grade on your contribution to the reading journal and your discussion questions. This holistic score will be based on the thoroughness of your précis and the contribution those summaries made to our course reading journal. In addition, your discussion questions will be assessed for their thoughtfulness, complexity, attention to our classroom context, and overall contribution to stimulating our class discussion.

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Description of Resource Review
Your resource review should focus on a specific technology training opportunity such as a technology workshop hosted by the CCIT Multimedia Lab, University of Arizona Library, or University of Arizona organization, an online tutorial through CBT, a videotape tutorial, or other on-going, accessible training opportunity. As a starting point, I have listed some local campus resources on our course resources page. Your one- to two-page single-spaced review should be formatted in Word. Since we are sharing these reviews with other class members, a common format will allow for easier exchange.

Guidelines for creation of your resource review:

• Identify the title of the training opportunity, the representative organization, the forum (i.e. workshop, online tutorial, videotape tutorial, etc.), the date and time, number of other participants, and the target audience for the training (i.e. assumed skill level of participants, membership of a particular department of campus community, learning style, etc.).
• Summarize the goals and objectives of the training opportunity. What specific technology were you learning? What were you expected to know at the end of the training? What did you learn?
  
• Evaluate your experience with this resource:

  Did you feel like a member of the target audience for the training? Why or why not?
  
  What were some of the benefits of this training forum? What are some of its drawbacks?
  
  What theories of technology were discussed or implied by this training?
  
  In what ways did this training change your thinking about technology and teaching others new technologies?
  
  How useful and relevant is this training to you and other members of our course?

• Provide an attachment of any handouts, resources, or other information you feel is relevant to understanding or participating in the training.
  

Your resource review is due on Monday, September 23rd. You should email a Word file attachment of your resource review to our class listserv as well as bring a hard copy of the review and any attachments.

Evaluation of Resource Review
Your resource review will be evaluated based upon its thoughtfulness, complexity, attention to our classroom context, and overall contribution to other members of the course. Of course, the quality of your writing and your use of sound document design principles will be other criteria in the assessment of your review.

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During the semester, you will develop a computers and composition pedagogy project. This project will ask you to connect the course readings, your own research, and your teaching and administrative experiences to develop a pedagogical portfolio.

Description of Pedagogical Portfolio
Your pedagogical portfolio should focus on a particular assignment and place it in the larger classroom context, a particular syllabus for a computers and composition course here at U of A or another university, or the development of support for an aspect of a computers and composition administration (i.e. teacher training, acquistion of technologies, setting up a computer teaching lab, etc.). Prior to completing this project, you will submit a project proposal. This proposal should outline your agenda for the project. Additionally, you will be presenting your project to our class.

Guidelines for creation of your one-two page pedagogical portfolio proposal:

• Define the audience(s) for your project (Consider who would be most interested in your project: undergraduate computers and composition teachers? a composition WPA? graduate computers and composition instructors? etc.).
• Describe the purpose(s) of your project (Consider what you are trying to achieve in your project: to create a lesson plan on web analysis? a case to teach design principles to hypertext authors? a syllabus for a teacher training course on computers and composition? etc.).
• Identify your rationale(s) for this project (Think about why this project is useful for you and your professional development: Does it create a space to think through an assignment you have always wanted to try? ask you to work through administrative or curricular issues that you feel are significant? etc.).
• Prepare a working bibliography (Despite the fact that this is a "pedagogy" project, you should conduct research for your project: search journals for articles that offer support or even counter your view, look on the WWW for information and syllabi related to computers and composition, locate computers and composition administrative information, etc.)

This proposal is due on Monday, September 30th. Please email me a Word file attachment and bring a hard copy to class.

Guidelines for creation of your pedagogical portfolio:

• Provide a one-page overview of the audience(s), rationale(s), and purpose(s) of your pedagogical portfolio. This information can be taken directly from your plan for the pedagogical portfolio.
• Include a teaching philosophy or statement of administrative philosophy. This document (no longer than one page) should emphasize your position as a teacher or administrator of computers and composition (or your appropriate field) and offer a sense of the guiding purpose for your teaching or administrative life.
  
• Construct a one- to two-page specific plan to implement your work. For example, a lesson plan for your teaching of a particular concept that includes supplies, script, time, and relationship of these activities to other course goals and projects. Or you might have a plan outlining the steps to gain support for computers and composition teacher development. Or you might tailor a MOO space and develop particular assignments. Or you might decided to create a web site for your computers and composition undergraduate writing course. Of course, the specifics of your plan are dependent upon the project you are creating. Please speak with me about this component if you need more guidance.
• Create the supporting materials (at least one well-developed document). If you are crafting an assignment, provide the assignment description, guidelines, and grading criteria. If you are developing a syllabus, include the required components such as policies, readings, schedule, etc. and a rationale for your choices. If you are proposing a curricular change or computers and composittion teacher training course, you must create the course description, requirements, and possible reading/assignment list. If you are developing a MOO space for teaching, you must create the objects you will need to teach in that space as well as appropriate exercises or assignments. As with your plan, please speak with me about the details of your supporting materials.
  
• Provide an APA bibliographic reference list of resources you used to develop your portfolio.
  

Your pedagogical portfolio is due on Monday, October 28th. You should email an electronic version and bring a hard copy of the portfolio to me for evaluation. You also should prepare a 20-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 portfolio itself (i.e. a description and analysis of the kinds of materials you have produced or a tour of your MOO space), 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 not only to describe your project but also to reflect on its significance to you as a teacher or administrator. In terms of using technologies in your presentation, try to integrate resources such as PowerPoint, the WWW, or other technologies. Your formal presentations will occur on Monday, October 28th and Monday, November 4th 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 Pedagogical Portfolio
Your portfolio will be evaluated based upon its contribution to the practice of computers and composition teaching or administration, its attention to issues and trends in computers and composition, its assessment of audience(s), purpose(s), and rationale(s) as you have constructed them, 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 portfolio. Note: Your grade on the portfolio will be significantly lowered if the quality of your plan or presentation are below average.

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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 computers and composition or technology theory audience (computers and composition instructors, rhetoric of technology theorists, etc.). 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 November 18th, 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 ACE, 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 computers anc composition investigation, to offer strategies or approaches to a particular computers and composition 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, November 18th. 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, December 2nd. Your final draft is due as an email attached Word file on Friday, December 13th by 2 pm.

Evaluation of Researched Seminar Paper
Your seminar paper will be evaluated based upon its contribution to the the field of computers and composition, its attention to issues and trends in computers and composition, 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 8.12.02