Assignment Sequencing

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Assignment Sequencing

• English 104

Susan Yanos Jared Pearce Greg Romano Kristie S.
Fleckenstein Carole Clark Papper
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Possible Alternatives

• Cognitive Development Model
• Social Action Model

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Cognitive Development

• Loosely based on work of James Moffet
• Both the assignments and the demands placed on
  the student as writer increase in complexity.

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Moffet, briefly . . .

• In James Moffets ideal curriculum, students
  actively participate in their own learning, using
  language in functional, realistic ways, to
  explore and write about the worlds they
  inhabit.
• Ideally, students progress in abstraction (and
  their assignments increase in difficulty), as
  they move along a communication continuum from I
  --gtYou --gt It.

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Moffet, briefly

• I --gtYou --gt It means that as the writer
  develops, she progress from I--gtI communication
  (e.g., reflection) to I--gt You (f2f conversation,
  written correspondence, more abstract
  correspondence directed to an unknown audience)
  and finally to I--gtIt.
• I--gtIt communication is characterized by both
  increased abstraction in thinking/writing and
  increased distance between writer and
  reader/audience.

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Cognitive Development Four Action Stages
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Cognitive Development Recording

• Time frame-- 2 weeks
• 1. Observe
• Physical
• On-site, both setting and behaviors
• 15 minutes
• Make careful notes
• Textual
• Explore an assigned text
• Follow the set time limit
• Make careful notes
• 2. Record
• Focus on 3 different audiences
• Roommates, instructor, police
• Absent classmate, instructor, parent
• Select details accordingly

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Cognitive Development Reporting What Happened

• Time Frame -- 4-5 weeks
• fieldwork (choose different audiences)
• textual (choose different audiences)
• 2 reports (formal compositions)
• Visual--multiple media option (website)
• Print
• The key here is beginning to to recognize the
  movement away from self (I) addressing the needs
  of an audience (You) toward other (It).

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Cognitive Development Generalizing

• Time Frame -- 4-5 weeks
• Analysis of patterns in body of data
• From body of data, evolve generalization about
  that body of data,
• Formal research project (incorporate conventions
  of academic research writing)

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Cognitive Development Theorizing

• Time Frame -- 4 weeks
• Incorporate all the stages
• Recording, reporting, generalization
• From body of data evolve a theory about what will
  happen
• Speculate about causes
• Infer future theory
• Predict future trends

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Options for Finals

• Visual presentation on the project
• Compose a timed writing prompt growing out of
  project and write the essay in response to it

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Social Action Model

• Research and Change
• not a course in writing about specific issues
  rather a course in
• researching something students want to change and
  then
• composing in order to address that need to change
  and how to effect change

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Social Action Model

• Multiple Rhetorical Situations/Audiences
• Academic
• Indifferent
• Hostile
• Community

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Social Action Model

• Academic --
• Addressing the demands of the academic situation
• Begins with advocating for change (research
  paper)
• Explore situations needing change
• Address multiple academic audiences
• Incorporate formal style, appropriate sources
  incorporation

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Social Action Model

• Moving beyond the traditional academic audience,
  we need to consider the elements of the
  rhetorical situation in terms of three
  alternative audiences
• Hostile
• Indifferent
• Community

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Social Action Model

• Explore alternate ways of persuasion(e.g.,
  narrative as persuasion)
• Develop different approaches to/emphases on the
  trilateral relationship
• Employ different approaches to/emphases on the
  trilateral relationship
• Enter community
• Determine nature of audience
• Develop approach based on students own analysis

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Social Action

• Community (composed of academic, indifferent and
  hostile audiences)
• Enter community
• Determine nature of audience
• Develop approach based on students own analysis

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Social Action

• Begin with Academic Context (the research paper
  on a given topic) to complete the progress of
  summary?synthesis?analysis
• Move from this to different rhetorical situations
  in order to meet the demands of the other 3
  essays