Peer Review Tomorrow

Please bring hard-copy drafts of your literacy narratives to class tomorrow for Peer review. Drafts are due to me for feedback by Friday noon.

Literacy Narrative Rubric

+Essay includes required elements: 1) some kind of narrative (biographical or autobiographical) about an individual’s literacy experiences, 2) reflection and analysis of those experiences which attempts to attribute an overall meaning or lesson to the narrative.

+Essay exceeds / meets assignment length requirement (1500-1700 words)

+Essay has an explicit (easily identifiable) structure or organization. Effective topic sentences and transitions also help guide the reader. Pararaphs are unified and coherent. That is, centered around a single theme or idea and sentences lead from one to the next in a logical manner (“flow”).

+Essay has an explicit thesis or controlling idea that is supported by the reflection and use of sources. Like Project 2, this could come at the beginning, middle or end of lit narrative but you need to have a "so what?"- an overall finding or controlling idea that the narrative leads or adds up to. You should “make some overall point about your literary experience” (WAW 458). For many who write literacy narratives, the controlling idea is a kind of personal definition of literacy.

+Essay’s controlling idea is supported by the other elements of the essay (narrative and reflection) as well as by the sources. I want the narrative to support what your overall statement or thesis is saying. Think back to Alexie, how is his final statement “I was trying to save our lives” connected to his whole narrative.

+Essay’s sources are used with specific rhetorical (persuasive) intent. They have a purpose, a reason to be in the text other than the requirement. For example, if you discuss Brandt’s idea that we can misappropriate literacy, how has that affected your literacy experiences or your definition of literacy now?

+ Sources are incorporated effectively. Quotes utilize signal phrases and parenthetical references according to a specific style (MLA, APA, Chicago). If using something other than MLA, let me know.

+Exceeds / meets assignment source requirement (2 sources; at least 1 from WAW)
+Essay contains very few or no surface-level errors (punctuation, grammar, spelling) as a result of careful proofreading.

+Essay shows an awareness of the rhetorical implications of tone (the kind of language you use), tense (past, present, etc), and person (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd) . Avoids colloquial / slang unless there’s good reason. First person can make these essays really powerful. But it’s also difficult to find a good balance between formality and informality. This is the type of essay that becomes really effective with a unique voice or tone that departs from the formal/professional-but if you get too informal it can seem amateurish.

+Essay contains a Works Cited page which adheres to MLA or other APA style

An essay in the A range effectively fulfills between 10-11 of the criteria.An essay in the B range effectively fulfills between 8-9 of the criteriaAn essay in t he C range effectively fulfills between 6-7 of the criteriaAn essay in the D range effectively fulfills between 3-5 of the criteriaA failing essay fulfills between 1-2 of the criteria.

Week 6 Schedule

As I talked about in class Thursday, I changed the schedule around a little for this week. For tomorrow, (Tues) read Malcolm X's "Learning to Read" (WAW 353). No blog post, but you'll want to do some drafting on your literacy narrative. I'll hold the peer review for the literacy narrative on Wednesday. Please print out and bring a draft of your essay for peer review. Not bringing in a draft that day will result in a deduction to the essay grade. Thursday will be some kind of "skills" review, determined in part by you guys. I'll ask you on Tuesday to write down something you need to work on- documentation, quoting, comma usage, etc. and then Thursday we'll try to get to as many of those things as possible. Literacy Narratives are due to me via e-mail attachment Friday noon.

Reading for Monday and a Reminder about Upcoming Due Dates

For Monday, please read Shirley Brice Heath's "Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-shifting Oral and Literate Traditions" (WAW 367). No blog post for this one, but I would like you to identify one quote or passage that is particularly interesting, confusing, or poignant. It might be a sentence or two that helped you understand a central argument from the article, or just a passage that you need clarification on. Underline or highlight this sentence/passage and be prepared to share it in class.

You'll want to start doing some drafting on your literacy narratives. Look back over the assignment here, and use the writing you've done on your blogs as jumping-off points, passages that you can develop into fuller essay elements. Peer review for the literacy narrative is this coming Tuesday, May 1. Not bringing in a draft on that day will result in a "late paper" penalty. Details about this are on the syllabus. Have a good weekend.

Reading for Tuesday and Post 9

I'll be handing out a student example essay of the literacy narrative in class today. Please read it carefully and we will apply a rubric to it in class tomorrow. I want you to see it as a possible model for the literacy narrative but not the only model.

For Wednesday, you'll need to read Dennis Baron's "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies" (422). Then respond to the following prompt:

Sometimes Baron seems to shrug at technology and suggest that it's hard to imagine new technologies as fundamentally changing the shape or nature of writing. Do you agree that this seems to be one of his messages? For practice, be sure to integrate a quote into your post. 200 words to your blogs before Wednesday.

Post 8: "The Future of Literacy"

Read "The Future of Literacy" (WAW 395) and respond to the following prompt:

Consider how visual and technical literacies have been integrated into your own schooling, if in fact they have been. How do your in-school experiences compare to your experiences with technical and visual literacies outside of school?

250 words to your blogs before class Monday.

Revision Guidelines

You have the opportunity to revise 2 of 3 essays (Wikipedia Edit, Wikipedia Reflection, Literacy Narrative) in this class to improve your grade. You should know that to receive a higher grade, you'll need to do a deep revision which goes beyond basic editing of surface-level errors. If you choose to do a revision on either of these papers, you'll e-mail me two items.

1. a cover letter (1-2 pgs) explaining how you understood my original feedback, what changes you've  made  in your revision to address that feedback, and how the essay is improved after your revision. It's important to me that you address all of my comments both in your letter and in the revision
2. The revised essay. Again, in order to improve your grade, I'll expect you to go beyond mere editing and really think how you can improve the essay on a deeper, more thoughtful level. 

This is a great opportunity to critically examine your work and to think about how it's received by other readers; this kind of meta-cognitive activity will improve your writing abilities. This is optional. 

*If you're interested in revising the Wikipedia article, you'll need to make your edits on the actual article space. 

Due Dates To Be Announced