umbrella or bridge: discourse communities as the centerpiece of fyc
DESCRIPTION
This presentation reviewed conversations and results from a curriculum-revision task force charged with re-imagining how discourse communities can feature in our first-year writing courses. The task force positioned discourse communities as the centerpiece of the class, but with multiple small assignments, rather than a single high-stakes writing task. I show how discourse communities can be presented in manageable segments to help students acquire a social view of writing. Presented material includes sample assignment sheets, an explanation of our assessment strategy, and critical reflection from a teacher who piloted this approach. I presented this talk at the Classroom Matters: Pedagogy in Practice and Philosophy conference at the University of Florida, February 2013. Text similar to the content presented with these slides can be found at this blog post: http://bit.ly/VDR3dYTRANSCRIPT
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Umbrellaor
BridgeDiscourse communities as the centerpiece of FYC
Chris Friend / @chris_friend / University of Central Florida
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Umbrellaor
BridgeDiscourse communities as the centerpiece of FYC
Chris Friend / @chris_friend / University of Central Florida
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The Scenario
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✤Flexibility of writing process
✤Strategies for responding to rhetorical situations
✤Skills for reading complex texts
✤Understanding how conventions, lexia, & genres are situated w/in discourse communities
The Curriculum
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High-School Precedent
✤ Transactional✤ Unknown audience✤ Goal: Test-passing✤ Artificial & high-stakes
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The Assignments
✤ Process Analysis✤ Rhetorical Analysis✤ Discourse Community
Ethnography
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The Problem
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Duplication
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“The staff at the restaurant where I work is a discourse community.”
×25 per class. Every semester.
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Missing Expectations
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Students identified a discourse community but did nothing with that info.
We wanted analysis/extension/conclusions.
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The Task Force
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Our Mission
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We were tasked with finding a new approach to DCs that could help
students apply, not just state, their knowledge.
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The Dirty Work
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We decided to create a sequence of assignments and evaluation rubrics—
helpful, but overkill. And hard.
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The Solution
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Course Sequence
Major Units
Rhetorical Analysis
Discourse Community Ethnography
Writing Process
Major UnitsMajor Units
Writing ProcessWriting Process
DC
Definitions
DCCharacteristics
DCAuthority
DC
Genres
Rhetorical AnalysisRhetorical Analysis
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Course TimingMajor UnitsMajor Units
Writing ProcessWriting Process
DC
Definitions
DCCharacteristics
DCAuthority
DC
Genres
Rhetorical AnalysisRhetorical Analysis
weeks 1–4weeks 5–6
week 7weeks 8–9
weeks 10–11weeks 12–15
7 weeks? Are you
nuts?
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The PhilosophiesUmbrella and Bridge
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We see DCs as bridging other units together and
as umbrellas, containing several concepts within.
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Assessment
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Definitions
✤ Purpose: Understand specialized language & its use in academic conversations
✤ Supporting text: None from book; students look up specialized definitions
A Evaluates term’s function to show knowledge construction
B Illustrates how specialized definition enhances meaning
C Explains differences in definitions
D States that definitions differ
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Characteristics
✤ Purpose: Understand what a DC is & how it functions
✤ Supporting text: “The Concept of Discourse Community” by Swales
A Evaluates how characteristics form group identity
B Illustrates hierarchy of characteristics w/in the group
C Explains (w/ examples) how group meets characteristics
D States that group is a DC
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Authority✤ Purpose: Understand how &
why authors adjust writing for different audiences
✤ Supporting texts:✤ “Learning to Serve” by
Mirabelli✤ “Reading & Writing Without
Authority” by Penrose & Geisler
✤ “Identity, Authority, & Learning to Write in New Workplaces” by Wardle
AEvaluates how authors’ use of
authority is appropriate for each audience
B Illustrates how citation & authority work as negotiation
CExplains (w/ examples) styles of
citation, quoting, and establishing authority
D States difference in authority between articles
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Genre✤ Purpose: Identify the
origins, use, affordances, & constraints
✤ Supporting texts:✤ “Generalizing about
Genre” by Devitt✤ “Intertextuality & the
DC” by Porter
A Evaluates how DC uses genre in “furtherance of its aims”
B Illustrates intertextuality w/in genre samples
C Explains scene of genre’s use
D States genre is used in specific scenario
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Assessment Goals
✤Clarity✤Flexibility✤Simplicity✤Focus
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The Application
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Confidence
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Students comfortably and competently used the vocabulary of DCs.
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Repetition/Redundancy
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Major UnitsMajor Units
Writing ProcessWriting Process
DC
Definitions
DCCharacteristics
DCAuthority
DC
Genres
Rhetorical AnalysisRhetorical Analysis
Repetition/Redundancy
✤ Repetition: Characteristics include lexis and genre
✤ Redundancy: Authority requires rhetorical analysis
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Audience
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Students wrote to an artificial audience—me.
Still needs to be fixed.
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Gratitude: Visual Credits✤ Color scheme (You are beautiful)
by Sanguine on colourlovers✤ Umbrella and bridge title images
courtesy Microsoft✤ Old schoolhouse by
WarzauWynn on Flickr✤ Bullseye from Rob Ellis' on Flickr✤ Rocket failure by jurvetson on
Flickr✤ Thumbs-up by wynner3 on Flickr
✤ Stormtroopers by JD Hancock on Flickr✤ Luke Alike✤ Maybe He Won’t Notice✤ Stupid Garbage Compactor…
✤ Guard inspection by Defence Images (UK Ministry of Defence) on Flickr
✤ Teacher’s apple by Forty Two on Flickr