English 361: Everyday Rhetorics

Assignment 2: Everyday Expertise

For this assignment, you and a partner will research and become experts in an everyday rhetoric. You will assign readings for one week of class and teach us about that everyday rhetoric. The reason you are doing this is to learn more about a particular language, speech, and rhetoric of an everyday text we may not think about. You are also doing this to teach us (me and your classmates) about the everyday rhetoric you have researched. You will help us understand the codes of these texts and how they may uphold or promote particular values and even hide other ways of reading the world. 

Some examples of everyday texts are cereal boxes, canned meats, video games, road signs, houses, landscape, fashion, magazines, iPads, CD covers, music, and movies.  I recommend you get really focused in the texts you want to learn and teach us about.  What I mean is make sure that you don’t look at movies in general but instead look at say “zombie movies” or even a particular zombie movie. Also, take a look at future readings for inspiration!

This project is divided into a number of parts that are intended to help get you started researching and finding information on an everyday text you are interested in learning more about. Don't worry about not knowing what to do at this point. These activities are for brainstorming and our readings in later TWT will help you figure out the angles you may want to take.

Part 1: Reading Sequence (50 points)

You've got this assignment coming up called a reading sequence. Don't worry it's just a jargony way of describing how you are gonna design the order of the readings for the week that you teach the class about an everyday rhetoric. The reading sequence assignment asks you to tell me what readings will occur on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It also asks you to write a brief justification about why you chose to put the readings in the order you did—why'd you design the week of readings that way and not another way?

Creating a reading sequence is important for instruction because it helps learners build knowledge from one reading to another reading in a, hopefully, logical way. Think about how strange it would be to read Breaking Dawn and then read Twilight. Think about how strange it would be to watch Star Wars for the first time by beginning with Episode V and then skipping to Episode I. It might not make too much sense.

There are a number of ways to design a reading sequence. We'll talk about these in class. The main thing to remember is that a reading sequence should have some sort of rationale behind why it was produced. A reading sequence, after all, is sort of like writing—you are writing the readings and concepts you will introduce to your classmates.

Reading Sequence Documents

The following is a list of the documents and rules I've created for the reading sequence I expect you to design.

• You can use one reading from TWT that we haven’t read yet.
• Each day’s reading should be between 10-25 pages and shouldn’t include more than four separate documents. If a particular reading is really complicated or difficult, see me and I can be convinced to reduce the page count.
• You must submit the all the readings as pdfs and/or hyperlinks.
• You must provide a calendar that shows your reading sequence.
• You must provide a 500-750 word justification of your reading sequence.  Your explanation should answer the following questions:
  • What is the purpose of your reading sequence?
  • Why do you think your reading sequence is important?
  • Why’d you put your readings in this order?
  • Why’d you select these readings?

Remember, this is an academic essay. Don’t just answer those questions in order.  Your essay should use sources, be well organized, have a clear purpose, support, and be free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

Part 2: Lesson Plan (50 points)

You and your co-teacher will create a lesson plan outlining what you will be instructing us on they day you teach. Imitate the form of this lesson plan and fill out the content with your ideas.  Be as thorough as possible and, when it seems appropriate and will support your ideas, cite sources that back what you are doing with your lesson.

Part 3: The Instruction (100 points)

You will be assessed with a rubric similar to the one used for the Branding a Fairy Tale presentation. Your instruction, in other words, should have a clear purpose, be well organized, and follow your lesson plan. It should have openings, transitions, closings, and activities. You will collect the activities and use them to determine whether or not your instruction was a success.

Part 4: The Reflection (100 points)

Each of you will write a 3-4 page (750-1000 word) reflection on your experiences teaching. Discuss what you did well, what you wish you had done better, and what you will do in the future when you teach again. See this slideshare for help figuring out how to frame and write your reflection. I expect you to use sources from our readings, the activity you collected, maintain a formal tone, and your reflection should be free of spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. These are due one-week after your instruction!