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last.updated 1.7.13

Projects Proposal

Purpose

This assignment is asking you to produce an exploratory document that articulates what you will accomplish with your individual projects (Blog, Pedagogical Tool Review, Pedagogy Project, Conference Paper) this semester. By doing some preliminary research and organizing your thinking, you not only address this issue for yourself, you also prove to the instructor that the work you are planning on doing is viable. If you are struggling to cognitively organize your projects, this is your writing-to-learn opportunity.

Instructions–Invention

Begin this process by reading through the assignments descriptions for the work you are required to do in this course. As you read through these project descriptions, think about how you want to respond to them. Remember that you are encouraged to do research and produce documents that are relevant to your academic and/or professional interests. Therefore, you will benefit from envisioning a way to connect these projects; this connection, of course, is not a requirement. You may want to start this process by asking yourself:

• What type of course am I currently teaching?
• What type of courses would I like to teach?
• What instructional situation may I be asked to teach in?
• What type of professionalization opportunities would I like to advance or be in a position to facilitate?
• What do I want to take away from this course?

Once you determine what you want to learn more about, do some preliminary research on the topic(s) related to your chosen inquiries. Although, this assignment will give you an opportunity to plan an inquiry above and beyond what we will be covering in class, you are encouraged to continue to do more outside research for your projects throughout the course of the semester.

Instructions–Writing

Write a document that describes the work that you will be doing over the course of the semester. This document should include, but is not limited to...

• a description of what you will be doing for the projects
• an explanation as to why you have chosen this topic or specific outcomes for these documents. Why will this topic and these outcomes be relevant to you?
• proving that you have chosen viable inquiries by discussing the resources you will work from. Support this with evidence to demonstrate that you have enough resources to sustain your inquiry. It is assumed that several options that you find for the Blog will provide some of this evidence. For some less examined topics, you may have to extrapolate from resources that you can argue are similar to your topic. Start thinking about how you will do this work.
• anticipating and articulating problems that you may experience during your inquiry, if relevant, and how you might address these concerns. It is already assumed that the brevity of the semester will be an issue.

It is understood that over the course of the semester, the focus of your inquiry may change. However, you should be mostly committed to the project you propose. You are strongly advised to consult the instructor about any major changes that you make–not to get permission, but to get guidance.

Criteria

Logistics:

• 500-750 w0rds
• single-spaced
• This document is due on February 7, 2013 to the instructor (kdepew@odu.edu) by the beginning of class as an email attachment.
• 50 points

In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...

• a sense of audience–do you provide enough information and detail about your projects that your audience (i.e., the instructor) has a clear sense of what you have done and what you will be doing
• your projects' viability
• an informed understanding of English Studies. Does your inquiry demonstrate an understanding of the issues relevant to the teaching of English?
• an ability to articulate your knowledge of the course topics and your own research and writing processes
• appropriate use of conventions, including MLA or APA citation formatting