During the quarter, you will complete three major assignments designed to build on each other intellectually and conceptually. These assignments are:
Assignment #1: Audio Essayand Reflection 20%
Students will learn Audacity and read material which explores perceptions of the family in American culture. Students will compose an audio essay about cultural practices that shape their family and write a reflective essay about their rhetorical choices in creating the essay.
Assignment #2: Consumerism and Marketing (Group Project) 30%
Students will work collaboratively to create an advertisement using Photoshop which targets a specific audience and persuades them to take a particular action. Students will also compose a written rationale which uses rhetorical theories to explain how and why the advertisement persuades its audience.
Assignment #3: Research Website Portfolio: Performance and Identity 30%
Students will design a personal website which showcases their individual research (annotations and short research paper) and digital media compositions for the course (audio essay, reflective essay, advertisement, and rationale).
WebCT Posts 10%
Class Participation 10%
Introductory activity
Introduction to course, texts, and syllabus
First-day essay: Literacy autobiography: see Cynthia Selfe’s questionnaire.
Developing Analytical Habits of Mind
INTRODUCE ASSIGNMENT #1
WA, From Ch. 1, "Habits of Mind: Getting Ready to Have Ideas" (3-17)
WA, From Ch. 2, "Noticing: Learning to Observe" (21-34)
Electronic Reserve: Reworking the Family Album (Frame)
Visions: “The Visible Cripple: (Scars and Other Disfiguring Displays Included),” Mark Jeffreys
Practicing Notice and Focus and The Method on Family Photographs
WA, from Ch. 3 “Interpreting: Asking ‘So What’” (37-41) & Ch. 4 "Reading: How to Do it and What to Do with It" (53-58)
Practicing The Method and Asking "So What"
Visions: “No Snapshots in the Attic: A Granddaughter’s Search for a Cherokee Past,” Connie May Fowler
Review Sample Student Audio Essays for Assignment #1 from Previous Classes
Bring in Family Photographs. Stories, or Heirlooms
Day 4
Learning Audacity
Visions: “Rhetorical Triangle; Intro to R.V 1-14”
Visions: Essay on Audio/Oral Culture TBD
Practicing The Method & Analysis of Rhetorical Situation on Sample Audio Essays
Day 6
Analyzing Visual Evidence
RV Intro- The Concept of Rhetorical Gaze, 14-30
DUE: DRAFT OF ASSIGNMENT #1 (in class peer review, bring audio essay to class)
Discuss Reflection Paper and Peer Review
Unit II: Consumerism and Marketing Campaigns in the U.S.A.
Day 7
Marketing in the United States
DUE: FINAL A#1 and Short Reflection Paper
INTRODUCE ASSIGNMENT #2
Visions:“Made in the USA?” (Frame)
Visions: “Student Activists versus the Corporate University,” Liza Featherstone
Day 8
WA. From Ch. 4 "'What to Do with the Reading" (60-66), with emphasis on "Comparing and Contrasting One Reading with Another" (62-66)
WA: From Ch. 11 "Organizing Comparisons and Contrasts" (219)
Visions: Essay on Visual Choices and Persuasion TBD; C/C key ideas and rhetorical triangle
In-class activity: Looking at Advertisements and Websites
Day 9
Digital Marketing Campaigns
Review Samples of Marketing Campaigns
Learn Photoshop in Class
Day 10
Select Groups for A#2
Continue Working on Advertisements / Campaigns
Visions: “Nickel and Dimed,” Barbara Ehrenreich or Giroux’s article on Disney
Day 11
Analyzing Moving Images
Video: Merchants of Cool
Visual: MTV Websites
WA, From Ch. 5 "Linking Evidence and Claims: 10 on 1 Versus 1 on 10" (75-95)
UNIT III: Researching the Final Portfolio
Using Library and Internet Resources [In Class RESEARCH WORKSHOP]
Due: Draft of A#2
Introduce Assignment #3
WA, From Ch. 9 "Getting Started" (163-176)
WA, From Ch. 9, “Integrating Quotations” (182-184)
Day 13
WA, From Ch. 7: "Recognizing and Fixing Weak Thesis Statements" (121-135)
Visions:“On the Cutting Edge: Cosmetic Surgery and New Imaging Technologies,” Anne Balsamo
Day 14
Learn DreamWeaver in Class
DUE: Final of A#2
Visions: Performance and Identity (Frame)
Day 15
Continue with DreamWeaver
Show Examples of Portfolio Projects
Visions: “The Politics of Staring: Visual Rhetoric(s) of Disability in Popular Photography,” Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
Day 16
In-Class Workday
Day 17
Strategies for Writing and Revising
WA, From Ch. 8 "Writing The Researched Paper" (152-154)
Introductions/Conclusions and Grammar Issues
WA, From Ch. 10: (191-206)
WA, From Ch. 14, "Nine Basic Writing Errors" (260-277)
Peer Review
Sample Student Papers
Issues of Style and Entering the Critical Conversation
WA, From Ch. 13 "Shaping Sentences" (241-255),
Day 19
Conferences
Individual Conferences on Assignment #3 (Mandatory)
**Meet in Instructor's Office at your designated time**
Day 20
Course Evaluations
In-Class Large Group Writing Workshops ___________, _________, __________
FINAL ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE DURING FINALS WEEK (CHECK FINALS DATE FOR YOUR CLASS PERIOD] Submit to me in person, [Classroom and time]