WR Classes
Inner Critic
In the first half of this reflective activity, students give voice to negative self-beliefs in the form of an uncensored personal letter from their imagined “Inner Critic” to themselves, listing their shortcomings, expressing anxieties, and identifying the perceived consequences of failure. Some instructors assign the first letter at the start of the semester, while others […]
Planning Peer-to-Peer Work: Groups, Peer Review, & Workshops
Writing classes are interactive, with students talking, writing, and collaborating with each other, in various permutations of pairs, small groups, and larger groups, nearly constantly. But how do you decide what kind of peer-to-peer work to integrate into a given class? This page offers some tips for instructors. You may also be interested in the […]
Framing a Conceptual Problem
This handout (inspired by the Little Red Schoolhouse approach) explains how to frame a conceptual problem in a paper’s introduction. Students may use this handout to consider the discrete rhetorical moves an introduction involves, especially when creating research problems of their own in WR 15x. Objective To help students reflect on the key elements of framing a […]
Strategies for Conferences and Tutoring Appointments with English Language Learners
Note that some of these strategies are more applicable in tutoring contexts, but most of them are also effective in faculty-student individual–or group–conferences.
Strategies for “Challenging” Conferences and Tutoring Appointments
Note that some of these strategies are more applicable in tutoring contexts, but most of them are also effective in faculty-student individual–or group–conferences.
Reading for Research
This handout prepares students for the different purposes and ways that they’ll use reading as they research their topic. You might start with a general discussion about reading practices and strategies before turning to this handout. For a greater focus on reading and analysis of exhibit sources, see this close-reading exercise. Objective To familiarize students […]
Write the Title First
In this in-class exercise, students create genre-appropriate titles to generate potential topics and arguments for their alternative genre assignment. Writing the title first helps to narrow their focus and think in the way the genre necessitates. This exercise works best after analyzing a number of genre models and identifying the genre’s conventions. Objective To begin […]
Elevator Story
This assignment is especially effective if you assign it just after students write abstracts. Comparing the four parts of an abstract to the four parts of an elevator story (also known as an elevator speech or elevator pitch) helps students to identify the consistencies and differences between the genres and their audience’s expectations. Guide to […]
Developing Key Terms
All good arguments draw their strength from strong textual evidence and analysis. This exercise has two parts. In the first, which can be done for homework, students select passages from shared readings, closely analyze them, and then examone their responses for key terms. In the second, which is an in-class exercise, they use key terms […]
Class Participation Rubric
This activity is especially useful for those who grade their students’ class participation. Asking students to collaborate on participation criteria gives them a sense of agency and makes tangible a facet of their final grade which might otherwise seem subjective. Guide to Oral/Signed Communication in Writing Classrooms Objective To reflect on your participation in class […]