10/31/2012

WEEK 9

How to prepare for class (the usual):

• Read: Jody Shipka’s Toward a Composition Made Whole.
• Wiki: A group-composed summary of Shipka's book.

Our class equivalent this week:

• Put on your costume if you do any of the following work on the 31st.
• On your blog: Please write a longish, coherent-enough-for-others-to-read post in response to: 

Given Shipka’s arguments about composition, do you think a class in which students composed (only?) non-alphabetic texts would help them learn the composing abilities you want them to learn in a “writing class”? To address this, you will need to describe the goals and purposes of a “writing class” and discuss how persuaded you are by Shipka’s arguments about what students learn from how she approaches composition. If you agree that some sort of multimodal composition should be included in a writing class, what specific discussions and/or reflections would you need to incorporate into a class to help students learn what you would want them to learn about writing (and perhaps its connections with multimodality)? (Do you think you even need to move from multimodality “back” to writing?) [In discussing all this, it is fine if you need to describe a whole writing program if that is what is necessary for you to address multimodality if you think it should be part of a writing program as opposed to a single class.]

• Wiki: One person add a “Writing” page to the “Definitions” part of the wiki (that is, there should only be one “Writing” page in the “Definitions” section). (And change “Week 1 Definitions” to just “Definitions” while you are at it.) As a group, please compose a definition of “writing” that draws explicitly on our readings from the previous weeks. (And, keeping in mind our discussions last week about writing in the wiki, and your descriptions of how you might use the Comments section, use the Comments section…)
• Also on the wiki, please revisit the “Argument,” “Digitality,” “Technology,” and “Composition” links. Again, using explicit references to our readings, revise these entries to be fuller and more coherent. (Imagine that these pages were to be a resource for others.) (As you write, also keep in mind our discussion about “coherence” and how a desire for coherence does not mean a silencing of alternate opinions, knowledge, beliefs, or perspectives.)
• On the blogs: Comment on each other’s ideas for multimodal projects and seminar papers. Offer suggestions, help, questions, encouragement… 
• Also on your blog: Please write a quick post in which you ponder the following:
• How am I making connections among the broad theoretical reading we are doing and the specific activities of my own thinking, writing, and teaching?
• Finally, on your blog: Please write a post listing any outstanding questions for you at this point. The questions can be practical (“How do I learn what I need to learn to make the multimodal project I have in my head?”) but should also include questions related to specific readings and to our discussions.

Please put in approximately 3 hours of work between Tuesday and Thursday on the items above described as “Our class equivalent this week.” You can do this work stretched out or all at once during our usual class time; it’s up to you. All the blog and wiki posts are due no later than 8pm on November 1.

Thanks!