The 670 website is the primary location for all new TA instructional
materials throughout the summer, and during the fall and spring semesters
it will continue to function as a supplement to the 670 practicum as well
as to our 670 Blackboard site. WRT 105: Analysis, Argument, and Academic
Writing, the freshman course all new TAs teach in the fall, is broken
into three distinct units, and as the summer unfolds you will see more
materials appear specific to each unit.
- 670 groups
- wrt 105—fall 08
- wrt 205—spring 09
- useful links
- summer 08
Gale Coskan-Johnson (group meets in 239 HBC---lounge)
- Laurel Ahnert
- Aaron Chambers
- TJ Geiger
- Melissa Kizina
- Tina L
- Eric Van Hoose
Anne Fitzsimmons and Candace Epps-Robertson (group meets in 239---lounge)
- Kayla Blatchley
- Eric Darby
- Ashley Farmer
- J Haynes
- Santosh Khadka
- Rosemary (Boke) Ogugu
Betsy Hogan (group meets in 200 HBC)
- Tony Antoniadis
- Sarah Barkin
- Christine Kitano
- Rob Mengert
- Jasmine Santana
- Rachel Shapiro
- Lower Division Learning Outcomes
- WRT 105 Shared Syllabus [doc]
- The Keywords Document [doc]
- Introduction to Critical Encounters with Texts ("Finding a Place to Stand: Writing, Reading, and Researching in a Globalized World") [pdf]
- Jumpstart Unit
- Jumpstart Overview [doc]
- Jumpstart Assignment [doc]
- Jumpstart Evaluation Criteria [doc]
- Jumpstart Invention Portfolio Guidelines and Reflection Prompts [doc]
- Lloyd F. Bitzer's "The Rhetorical Situation" (Optional Reading) [pdf]
- Anne Fitzsimmons' Sample Jumpstart Calendar (TR) [doc]
- Betsy Hogan's Sample Jumpstart Calendar (MWF) [doc]
- Jumpstart Synthesis Heuristic [doc]
- Jumpstart Rhetorical Analysis Heuristic [doc]
- Analysis Unit
- Unit 2 Homeland (In)Securities Assignment [doc]
- Unit 2 Hypervisibility Assignment [doc]
- Unit 2 Rhetorical/Visual Analysis Assignment [doc]
- Unit 2 Re-imagining the Normal Assignment [doc]
- Sample student work:
- Argument Unit
- Argument Overview [doc]
- Argument Materials [zip]
- Additional Argument Materials [zip]
- WRT 205 Syllaubus: Critical Inquiry and Research: The Politics of Subcultures [doc]
- WRT 205 Learning Outcomes [doc]
- How to Assign and Teach a Shared Reading/s in WRT 205—some notes [doc]
- Guidelines for Developing Shared Inquiry for WRT 205 [doc]
- Research Skills [doc]
- Critical Inquiry and Research: Exploring the Borders of Nation/alism [doc]
- 205 Weekly Trajectory [doc]
- WRT 205 Course Trajectory [doc]
- WRT 205 Sample Sustained Essay#1 [pdf]
- WRT 205 Sample Sustained Essay#2 [pdf]
- Unit 2—Sustained Research Essay Assignment [doc]
- Sample 205 Inquiries [pdf]
- Sample Student Project:
Heuristics
Assignment Sheets
- Annotated Bibliography [doc]
- Annotated Bibliography [doc]
- Final Reflection [doc]
- COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND INVENTION [doc]
- The One-Sentence Summary [doc]
Claims and Theses
- Guidelines for Finding and Developing a Thesis
[doc]
- A list of 10 guidelines (adapted from Ballenger’s The Curious Researcher) for developing a thesis. Great handout for use in an in-class workshop on thesis development part way into unit 2.
- Tentative theses for the sustained essays
[doc]
- A list of tentative unit 2 thesis statements (subculture inquiry). Useful to understanding the working theses students may have developed provides a framework for an in-class activity for any topic of inquiry.
- The research essay and thesis statements
[doc]
- A handout for students explaining the difference between static and evolving thesis statements. Includes examples that can be reworked for your own topic of inquiry.
Close Work with Texts
- Responding to the documentary The Aggressives [doc]
- A prompt for responding to the film The Aggressives during unit 1 (subcultures topic of inquiry). Useful template for designing your own film response! Includes cool idea for email exchange with another class doing a similar inquiry.
- The Aggressives response [doc]
- Invites students to make detailed and specific connections between the film The Aggressives and other unit readings. Students are asked to examine the film as inquiry. A chart is provided. Useful template for designing similar practice with synthesis. (Ballenger referenced—available as pdf on public storage)
- Analyzing the Self
[doc]
- An excellent summary to help students understand subjectivity as it relates to them as readers, followed by a questionnaire to help illuminate this subjectivity.
- Reverse Engineering Macek
[doc]
- An exercise “reverse engineering”(asking students to look carefully at the construction, choice and use of source material) in the first chapter of Macek’s Urban Nightmares. Includes chart and explanation for students. Easily adapted to other texts—useful early in unit 1 or 2.
- Strategies for Analyzing the Rhetorical Situation
[doc]
- Brief explanation of the rhetorical situation, followed by 3 strategies students can use to analyze (background information, writer’s relationship to readers, and language). Use in class or as homework applied to a reading.
- Unpacking Halberstam [doc]
- A group activity (using Halberstam essay) which requires students to begin to define, connect and synthesize materials in preparation for writing unit 1 essay. Can be adapted to other texts.
- Group work with Sara Ahmed and David Sibley [doc]
- Worksheet with 4 excellent questions (summarize arguments, find quotes, check out end notes, ask questions) for use after students have read a pair of texts (Sibley and Ahmed). Hits important points and very easily adapted to other reading!
Imagine The Project
- Analyzing your research self
[doc]
- Reflection prompt for 3-4 page writing on student’s individual habits and preferences as research writers.
- How to prepare a research proposal
[doc]
- An in-depth explanation and set of prompts to help guide students in their production of a strong research proposal.
- Research project worksheet
[doc]
- A 7-question worksheet for the research project. Meant to provide important guidance/notes for the inquiry essay, including such key questions as “what’s at stake?”
Peer Review/Revising
- Unit 1 Peer Review [doc]
- A 3 reader peer review sheet. Each reviewer/reader is asked for feedback in separate issues (introduction, quality of inquiry questions, suggestions for drawing on shared readings). “Generic”—useful to any topic of inquiry!
- Generating a Field of Inquiry: Evaluation Criteria [doc]
- Unit 2 peer review
[doc]
- A worksheet designed for 3 readers to provide feedback on separate issues in a draft of the unit 2 paper—the thesis statement, the claims, and the sources. Can be used for any topic of inquiry w/out modification.
- Quick and Dirty Mini-Lessons
[doc]
- Provides examples of 3 excerpts and invites students to analyze problems with coherence, grammar and other issues. Excellent in-class activity to be followed by sentence-level peer review.
- Sustained Research Essay Evaluation Criteria
[doc]
- A list of criteria for the unit 2 essay applicable to any topic of inquiry. Could be used as a starting point for writing peer evaluation questions.
- Unit 3 Peer Response
[doc]
- A series of questions to guide student response to one another’s group work in selecting, working with and juxtaposing source materials.
Sourcing
- Bibliography mining
[doc]
- Invites students to dig into one of their own scholarly sources for another source useful to their project. Helps teach the recursive nature of research. Prerequisites: some previous practice with “reverse engineering” source material.
- Evaluating Scholarly Sources
[doc]
- An in-class small group exercise using the style text Harbrace Handbook to evaluate a scholarly article (“Buffy Night at the Seven Stars”) at a very close textual level and then practice summarizing. Activity could be easily modified for the Thomson and a reading of the teacher’s choice, or sections of Harbrace could be copied.
- Handbook heuristic
[doc]
- A carefully introduced and explained lesson designed to teach “the rhetorical moves necessary to successfully incorporate otherwise marginalized voices/experts” into student texts. Uses the subculture inquiry to id websites, but could be easily modified. Students use Thomson.
- Research Workbook
[doc]
- An adaptation designed to help students begin to think through the research requirements of the unit 2 paper in very particular terms, and to launch them in their searches. The heuristic is easily adapted to other areas of inquiry.
- Weaving Quotes into An Argument
[doc]
- An excellent and succinct explanation for use of direct quotes, followed by examples and an assignment for students to practice quoting in their own work.
- Integrating quotations
[doc]
- The how-to of smooth quote integration, plus tips for use of the ellipsis and brackets. Includes examples!
- Integrating sources
[doc]
- Overviews the choices and skills necessary to source integration, including sample launch phrases, choices for source use and technical info. (Last section should be revised to direct students to Thomson, not Harbrace). Could be followed up with in-class practice or used in revision stages.
- Mini-dialogue
[doc]
- Exercise for students to begin to practice summary and to begin to see the researched material as part of a larger “conversation” which should include their voice. Requires some time for students to prepare! Prerequisites: Students need to have read at least three sources for their projects.
- Research notes template
[doc]
- A template students can use to record not just the vital info, but also reflect on the connections to their own project. Perfect as part of req. for a research journal!
- Six Strategies for Analyzing Sources
[doc]
- A recap of Writing Analytically’s excellent advice for analyzing and writing about sources, including “use your sources to ask questions…let your sources speak.” Very useful-- Don’t imagine this is obvious just because they may have read it in 105.
- Evolving Research Assignment
[doc]
- A three step process for helping students develop and evolve their thesis for the unit 2 paper. Prerequisites: A good chunk of the initial research reading for students’ projects.
last modified Feb 9, 2009
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