Methodological/Pedagogical Plan
Purpose
This final assignment gives you the opportunity to apply what you have learned. After this course some of you may want to do a rhetorically grounded research project; others will want to design new pedagogical strategies.
Instructions
Your first task is to decide whether designing a research plan or a pedagogical plan will be more relevant to you. In either case you will want to design a plan that you (or someone else) could execute by reading your document. While you will not have to actually execute the plan, you will have to provide a rhetorically grounded rationale.
Other requirements for both plans include...
- 2000-2500 words, single spaced
- a professional format (i.e., headings, bulleted lists, white space, images)
Methodological Plan
If you are planning to do a research project (e.g., your thesis) on rhetorical theory or rhetorical practice this option will give you the opportunity to compose your preliminary plan. Your plan should include...
- A
statement of the problem: What
rhetorical problem will your project address? What are your research
questions?
- A
brief review of literature:
What have other scholars said about the same (or similar) problems?
What have other researchers done methodologically to address similar
problems?
- A
methodological design:
What will you specifically do to address the research problem? What
steps will you take to collect and analyze data? This should be designed
with enough detail that anyone could pick up your document and understand
what to do.
- A
design rationale:
Why will the plan that you designed yield the information that you need
to answer your research questions? This will be a meta-discussion of
your methodological intentions and may be supported by scholarship.
- A statement of anticipation: What problems do you anticipate will arise when you execute this plan? How will you handle these problems if they arise?
Pedagogical Plan
For the pedagogical plan you will develop a unit, lesson, or workshop and explain how it is rhetorically grounded. You are also encouraged to address a pedagogical context that will be most relevant to you (e.g., composition class, professional writing class or workshop, tutorial or conference). This does not have to be a context that you are currently teaching within; it could be a context that you would want to teach in. Depending on the context that you choose, you will want to develop a plan that spans from a single session to an entire unit.
- An
explanation of context:
Where would you enact this plan? Describe the "student" population
and the resources you will have. What does a person not in this context
need to know about this context? How long will the plan take to enact?
- Your
pedagogical goals:
What should the "students" learn by the end of the given time
period? Why is it important for "students" in this context
to learn what you are teaching them?
- A
pedagogical design: Break the pedagogical project into the appropriate
units (e.g., minutes, days) and explain what you will be asking the
"students" to do during this time period. This should be designed
with enough detail that anyone could pick up your document and understand
what to do.
- A
design rationale:
Why will the plan that you designed fulfill your pedagogical goals?
This will be a meta-discussion of your pedagogical intentions and must
be supported by rhetorical scholarship.
- A statement of anticipation: What problems do you anticipate will arise when you execute this plan? How will you handle these problems if they arise?
Criteria
The Methodological/Pedagogical Plan will be due on April 29 , 2005.
In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...
- a sense of audience–the plan should be written so that a knowledgeable audience could execute it in your absence.
- a plan that is viable; the plan both fulfills your intentions (e.g., answers your research questions, addresses your pedagogical goals) and can be reasonably executed within the given context
- an informed understanding of rhetorical theory and its application
- an informed understanding of the rhetorical situation you are proposing to work within; this will be based upon your description of the context, the plan you propose, and the problems you anticipate
- an ability to articulate your knowledge of rhetoric, as well as your own research and writing processes
- appropriate use of conventions, including MLA or APA citation formatting
last.updated 01.11.05