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The following syllabus was constructed with the Book Creator App. Click the link below to see the full syllabus and assignment guidelines.
Many of my students come in with the expectation that all college level writing looks like the five paragraph essay. They often struggle to write in other forms. I think that many students struggle with an entrenchment from a repetative practice, but I also think there's often a lack of trust between student and instructors. Students may second guess what an instructor asks fo them if it is radically different than what they have encountered before. There's too much at stake if they write something different than what their instructor expects.
The goal of this course is to build trust with students and help them see how practicing writing in style they don't expect can help them understand how to assess and respond to thier rhetorical situation. I start the course by having students write reviews of their favorite tv shows, movies, albums etc. This allows me to get to know them and allows them to practice using the principles argumentative writing (claim, evidence, analysis) in a genre other than the five paragraph essay. The research memoir assignment asks students to evaluate how they get their news and learn how to fact check their sources while using university resources. Finally, the children's book assignment asks students to think about writing for a radically different audience. They have to think about multimodal design as well as the ways they can make their writing accessible to those with disabilities.
One tool, I've enjoyed using with students is the BookCreator App. This is the same app that I use to create my syllabus. The app allows students to create digital books in the same library and comment on each other's work. The app is built with accessbility in mind, including a read aloud function, the ability to add voice recordings, and closed captioning to videos inserted in the books. But discussing what the tools that the app lacks is also a great way to talk about accessbility and design. Early in their design process, I talk with students about how to find hex codes and check for assessible contrasts using WebAim's Contrast Checker, how to use Colblindor Filter to see how thier images look to those with various types of color blindness, and how some font types are more accessible than others.
One thing that students have appreciated from the course is that I use 'due weeks' instead of 'due dates'. This idea is taken from Anne-Marie Womack. (See Womack's Assessible Syllabus Website for more ideas) Rather than giving students one day to turn in their work, students can turn in their work any during a seven day period. Students have reported that they've appreciated the flexibility of this choice because it allows them more control over their work schedule and often feel less stressed by the flexbile due weeks than the due dates.
The goal of this course is to build trust with students and help them see how practicing writing in style they don't expect can help them understand how to assess and respond to thier rhetorical situation. I start the course by having students write reviews of their favorite tv shows, movies, albums etc. This allows me to get to know them and allows them to practice using the principles argumentative writing (claim, evidence, analysis) in a genre other than the five paragraph essay. The research memoir assignment asks students to evaluate how they get their news and learn how to fact check their sources while using university resources. Finally, the children's book assignment asks students to think about writing for a radically different audience. They have to think about multimodal design as well as the ways they can make their writing accessible to those with disabilities.
One tool, I've enjoyed using with students is the BookCreator App. This is the same app that I use to create my syllabus. The app allows students to create digital books in the same library and comment on each other's work. The app is built with accessbility in mind, including a read aloud function, the ability to add voice recordings, and closed captioning to videos inserted in the books. But discussing what the tools that the app lacks is also a great way to talk about accessbility and design. Early in their design process, I talk with students about how to find hex codes and check for assessible contrasts using WebAim's Contrast Checker, how to use Colblindor Filter to see how thier images look to those with various types of color blindness, and how some font types are more accessible than others.
One thing that students have appreciated from the course is that I use 'due weeks' instead of 'due dates'. This idea is taken from Anne-Marie Womack. (See Womack's Assessible Syllabus Website for more ideas) Rather than giving students one day to turn in their work, students can turn in their work any during a seven day period. Students have reported that they've appreciated the flexibility of this choice because it allows them more control over their work schedule and often feel less stressed by the flexbile due weeks than the due dates.