Developing Engaged Citizenship through the First-Year Composition Classroom
From PraxisWiki
Contributor: Ericka Wills
School Affiliation: Illinois State University
Email: erwills@ilstu.edu
Introduction
How do we teach our students the fundamentals of composition in a way that keeps them engaged with both classroom work and the world around them? This question is a central concern for instructors of first-year composition courses. While I certainly have no definitive answer for this musing, I would like to share a unit that was successful in my classroom.
The goal of this unit is to present students with the opportunity to compose visual and written projects in a variety of technology-rich mediums that encourage both individual and collaborative efforts on research, writing, and revising. Overall, this unit focuses on social justice and democratic issues in order to use the space of the classroom to teach not only composition but also to encourage responsible and engaged citizenship. To achieve these goals, the unit is broken into four interconnected sections.
Contents |
Annotated Bibliography
In the first section of this unit, I allow students to self select research groups that jointly choose one controversial political topic for their study. While the groups collectively focus on a single topic, individuals are free to decide their own position on the topic. For example, in the fall 2008 semester, students chose to focus research on an election issue and presidential candidates’ positions. Together, students worked to compile an annotated bibliography of ten collected sources that included 8 scholarly journal or book sources, 2 personal interviews conducted by the students with individuals who held opposing perspectives on the issue, and 2 Internet sources consisting of annotations of information from the McCain and Obama websites. Collectively, the students wrote a bibliographic entry, annotation, and list of selected quotations from each source. Individually, students provided a reflection on how each source might support or refute their personal position on the topic as well as how the information would fit into a persuasive composition.
While this assignment might seem mundane or elementary, it serves the goal of allowing students access to the appropriate foundational knowledge on the political issues they would later be asked to take a stand on. Also, since this section of the unit requires students to work collectively to research information, not only do students have to negotiate the best way to divide up the workload, but they also have to cooperate as a group even if individuals hold opposing political views. This experience helps students learn that collectivity does not mean consensus, and they had to be able to allow for a variety of political views.
Finally, since our university’s first-year composition courses are taught in computer labs, which allows students to compose and collaborate electronically with the use of Microsoft Word. Throughout the projects, students could share sources and annotations in electronic format.
Poster and Gallery
In the second section of this unit, students work individually or in pairs to create a poster that includes graphic and textual elements to persuade viewers about the student(s)’s position on the topic. For example, within a single research group, one student used Microsoft Word to create a poster that supports McCain’s position on education while another student used Adobe Photoshop to create a poster that supports Obama’s position.
To foster this process of creating persuasive visual compositions and to help students better understand the rhetorical situation they were working with, I took my students to view a collection of persuasive visual art called “The Graphic Imperative” that our school was exhibiting at the university art gallery. When these types of gallery resources are not available, perhaps media and Internet sources of persuasive visual art can be introduced into classroom instruction. After seeing persuasive visual art and learning some of the basics of graphic design, students were especially excited to have an authentic audience for their own visual compositions as they were able to display their work in an election night exhibit the university galleries hosted!
This section of the unit had a lofty goal: to help students learn to analyze and compose visual texts as an essential skill for engaged citizenship. For my students, the best way to learn about analyzing a visual text was to view and discuss multiple posters at “The Graphic Imperative” and, most importantly, translate this experience of viewing into the act of creating. As students worked to compose their posters, they had to put themselves in the position of the audience in order to critique the communicative function of their graphic design.
In addition, students were asked to expand their technological knowledge by using a computer program to create their posters rather than draft them by hand. Students were allowed to choose the program they felt most comfortable with but were encouraged to use software that was appropriate for graphic design. Most students preferred to use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, which they were familiar with and were readily available on all university computers. Although they were using familiar software, most students had not used these programs to compose graphic texts, so this experience encouraged them to explore new ways the software could be used. Other students, who had experience with Adobe Photoshop, were able to successfully create posters with this program; however, use of this software was limited because it was not available on all university computers.
Research Essay
Third, students individually write a six-page research essay that repurposes the information they had presented in their posters and annotated bibliographies. This more-tradition composition assignment allows students to think about the different rhetorical situations of, one on hand, presenting a visual composition to a general audience in public spaces and, on the other hand, creating a persuasive scholarly essay geared toward an academic audience. While the essays are composed individually, the students work in peer review groups and receive instructor comments to guide the composition and revision process. Thus, the process of revision becomes collaborative, and the students are able to benefit from each other’s strengths.
While the rhetorical piece students create in this section of the unit is, perhaps, the most traditional of scholarly endeavors, the experience of writing the essay is enriched by the previous experiences of the students’ viewing and composing visual texts. The research essay is framed as another articulation of the same topic they had addressed in their posters, yet the essay is functioning in a different rhetorical situation. While the posters were composed to address a general audience in a variety of public forums, such as shopping malls, coffee houses, or bus stops, the essay has a more specific audience of potential voters interested in educating themselves on election topics and the candidates’ positions. Therefore, the goal of the essay is not only to give students experience writing in an academic genre but is also designed to encourage them to take into account the different rhetorical situations that influence the composition of the essay versus the poster.
Reflection
Finally, students were asked to write a three-page unit analysis that synthesize and reflect on the experiences they had in working collectively and individually in compiling research and in creating visual and textual pieces. This reflection allows students to discuss directly the process of composing in different rhetorical situations – for different audiences, forums, genres, etc. – and provides them a space to justify the composing choices they have made. In addition, the reflection allows a space for personal writing in which the students could include emotional reactions to the project, journal their overall progress toward their composition goals, and track their strengths and weaknesses.
The goal of encouraging students to critically engage with their own work is, perhaps, more difficult than getting them to critique others’ compositions! However, a less-formal reflection that allows for academic critique of their own work, as well as a space to express personal emotion and reactions, helps students begin to analyze their own compositing and composition processes. Moreover, reading these unit analyses allows me, as the instructor, to receive feedback about assignments and understand what composition goals students have set for themselves so I can better provide the tools to assist them.
Assessment
While the unit as a whole receives a single grade, individual sections are evaluated with different criteria. At the beginning of each section, the students are made aware of the criteria upon which the projects would be evaluated as well as the fact that the final unit evaluation would, ultimately, be based on the Single Project Grading Standards rubric which our department has adopted as a grading standard. (Click here to view .pdf of the document.)
The first section of the unit, the bibliography, is evaluated as pass/fail. If students are able to work as a group, to include all the sources they need, and to correctly follow the annotated bibliography form, they pass this section.
The second section of the unit, the poster and gallery visit, are evaluated based on participation in the gallery visit, effort and creativity, communicative function of the poster, and ability to understand and address the appropriate rhetorical situation. Since this class in not a graphic design course, and the students may have had limited experience in this area, their effort to create a work that took into account the elements of rhetorical situation (audience, genre, forum, etc.) are the primary factors for evaluation. Unfortunately, the grading rubric adopted by the department is less applicable for visual texts, so this section of the unit was graded as outstanding, satisfactory, or unsatisfactory based only on the rubric’s general guidelines.
The third section of the unit is graded using the department’s Single Project Grading Standards, which uses letter grades to evaluate students’ composition in the categories of Reading and Writing Processes, Rhetorical Situations, Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, Structure & Style, Grammar & Mechanics. In addition, I evaluate the essays in terms of how they fit into the unit as a whole, specifically, how the students adjust the information in their posters to fit the essay form and how they use the sources from their annotated bibliographies.
The last section of the unit, the Unit Analysis, is graded under the section of Unit Analysis and Writing Process Journal on the department’s Single Project Grading Standards. While this section of the rubric allows for a letter grade to be selected, since the type of writing I ask students to produce in the unit analysis was, in part, personal writing, I limit evaluation to the categories of outstanding, satisfactory, or unsatisfactory, which roughly equals an A, B, or D on the rubric.
Overall, how students do in all these units is weighed holistically and then translated onto the corresponding categories on the department Single Project Evaluation Rubric to arrive at their final advisory letter grade.
Conclusions
On the whole, my students were pleased with the variety of experiences this unit allowed them, and I believe it challenged each of them to become better compositionists and more engaged citizens. In their unit analyses, many students mentioned they had little interest in the election before this project, but as they worked on their assignments, they became more concerned with the issues at hand.
While this unit worked very well as a way to encourage students to engage with national and international election issues, I believe some of the projects can be adjusted to address local community or university issues as well. Moreover, while the 2008 election was a good catalyst to get students involved with these issues, civic engagement does not have to wait for political elections! Students can pick any type of social, environmental, cultural, economic or political issues that they feel passionate about and use their interest as the foundation for creating compositions that encourage engaged citizenship.
Sample Student Posters
1. Choose One
