Unit 1 Rationale - CHAT and Pop Culture Presentations

The PowerPoint presentations you create for Unit 1 are designed to thoroughly familiarize you with Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and to help you apply CHAT to understanding the writing which surrounds us every day.  This in-depth description of the project is meant primarily as a reference - I recommend skimming it, and then returning to it as you consider your projects.

Unit 1 - CHAT and Popular Culture

Unit 1 - Popular Culture and CHAT - Spring 2012

For Project 1, you'll be preparing a presentation on a work of popular literature of your choice. In preparing your presentation, here are relevant links you'll want to review.

Course Schedule and Resources: Fall 2011

This schedule from the Fall Semester of 2011 can give insights into how the course generally works.

Course Policies - Spring 2012

Here is a complete copy of the course policies for Sections 007 and 015 of English 101.  You can also download a PDF copy from the Moodle.

Semester Schedule - Spring 2012

Here's our current schedule. There will be quizzes on each reading on the day it's listed. Also note the assignments and deadlines in italics.

Presentation Checklist: Pop Culture and CHAT

This checklist for your **Popular Culture** presentations should help guide you as you put together your PowerPoint presentations.

English 101 Learning Outcomes: Composition as Critical Inquiry

English 101 at Illinois State University teaches under the Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS) model.  Unlike traditional composition courses, which focus on mastering the specific conventions of academic essays, the RGS model emphasizes recognition of the variety of "genre situations" students will face in their academic, professional, and personal lives.  This recognizes the fact that every writing assignment is governed by its own standards and conventions, and that these in turn shift in accordance with the differing needs and goals of professional and academic disciplines.

English 101

Fall 2011, Unit 1: Community, Style, and Syntax in Genre Studies

In Unit 1 of Fall 2011, students worked in groups to share "manufactured documents" on their blogs.  Through these blogs, they imagined stories of shark attacks and murder mysteries, September 11th and the Potato Famine, weddings and college admissions.  Their research focused on both the specific events surrounding these situations and the genre conventions used to report these situations.  From police reports to wedding vows, the students revealed a great deal of creativity in revealing just how we learn about the stories we "know."

Examples of Student Work - "How-To" Blog

ENG 101 Final Portfolio

The final portfolio represents all the work you've written over the course of the semester.  You should be sure to proofread for grammar and spelling, and then add in notes to let me know which of your pieces stand out as your favorites as well as which ones you felt didn't work as well as you wanted.  Think of this as an opportunity to show what you've learned over the course of the semester

Unit 4

Uploading PowerPoint Presentations to Facebook

For your Project 4 Proposals, you'll need to upload your slides to Facebook in order to share them with your classmates.

Project 4 Proposal Guidelines - Uploading PowerPoint to Facebook

Project Proposals: Slides and Text

Next week, you'll be presenting your project proposals to your classmates.  To give you a better idea of what these proposals should look like, I'm putting together a slideshow of what your proposals should include.  Please don't feel limited to PowerPoint - you can certainly create slides, videos, text, or Prezis to propose your project.  However, do make sure to provide information on all the Major Proposal Requirements.

Unit 4 / Project 4 Proposal Guidelines - Uploading PowerPoint to Facebook

Revised Schedule - Unit 4

Here's the revised schedule for the rest of the Fall 2011 Semester.  This schedule includes both our in-class activities and your homework assignments, so please refer back to it as needed.

Unit 4 / Project 4 Overview - Updated Schedule

Project 4: Selling to a Hostile and/or Indifferent Audience

Here it is, our last project of the semester.  For this project, you'll be integrating everything we've worked on so far to create individual projects, and then you'll use Facebook Fan Pages to share your progress and solicit suggestions from other members of your discussion groups.

Final Draft Essay with MLA Citation Due with Final Portfolio on Thursday, 12/8/2011

Unit 4 / Project 4 Overview - Updated Schedule

CHAT Maps: Who Am I? And Where Am I Writing From?

On Tuesday, we mapped out how some of the lines of causality and detail within our essays.  Today, we're going to look at how we as fit within the scope of our writing - not just as writers, but as people located at a particular time and place in our lives.

Unit 3 / Mapping Writing - Mapping Yourself

Mapping Your Writing: Causality and Details

In writing an article, you want to make sure that you convey your central points in ways which are logical and relatively straightforward.  You want each of your main assertions to prepare the reader for what comes next, and then you want your selected details to support those assertions.

Unit 3

Choosing Groups and Topics for Your Grassroots Articles

This week, we're going to use the perspectives gained in your portfolios to go ahead and write articles for the Grassroots Writing Research Journal (GWRJ).

Unit 2 / Midterm Assessment

Midterm Assessment: Negotiating Grades

Today we're going to go over midterm assessments (a continuation of Student-Centered Grading).

Unit 2 / Midterm Assessment - Student-Centered Grading

Upload Your Project 2 Link-Exchange Paragraphs

What is Plagiarism? (and how do we avoid it?)

Plagiarism is one of those "heavy" words in an English course - or in any humanities course.  We are constantly told that we must avoid it, and yet we are using a genre studies model which calls for collaboration and research.  This is why today we're going to talk a bit about what plagiarism is (and what it isn't).

Unit 2

Alternative Assessment: Student-Centered Grading

Today we'll look at how we assess our progress as individuals, as group members, and as students within the larger context of the classroom and university.  Much of the "changes" we'll be looking at involve how to enter this discussion with our colleagues about personal performance.

This lesson is based largely on Cathy N. Davidson's article Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Unit 2

Examples of Visual Projects

Here are a few examples of visual projects that I've put together over the past year.  These are mostly just to give an idea of what a project might look like.  You'll naturally want to choose your own direction for your project, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have on how to use related techniques.

Bear in mind that the way you describe your project is more important than the final product.  I'm looking for your writing process, for how you think about presenting information.

Unit 2 / Genre Conventions - Visual Projects