syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 8.7.11

Teaching Applied Rhetoric Workshop (PhD)

Purpose

This course is grounded in the praxis of rhetoric and composition. For many practitioners in the composition classroom who have not been given a formal rhetorical education, it is difficult to see the relevancy of these ancient and/or abstract concepts to what they are (or could be) teaching their writing students. Therefore, as a way of demonstrating your own knowledge of applied rhetoric, you will be designing and conducting a 25 minute workshop that would help this audience of practitioners to understand a rhetorical concept and translate it into sound writing pedagogy.

Instructions–Choosing a Rhetorical Concept

For this project, the doctoral students will be divided into groups of 3-4.

The groups will be...

As a group your will choose a rhetorical concept. Some of these concepts can be, but are not limited to...

• a rhetorical canon
• a rhetorical appeal
• kairos
• death of the author
• performitivity

Try to choose somethin that can be relevant to the work all of the group members are working on in their individual projects.

By October 12, 2011, your group will submit an informal email to the instructor that identifies the concept your team will teach, why it is an important concept to teach, what your team preliminarily plans to do, and desired workshop date (see below). Because the instructor would like to see groups covering different topics, he will discuss topics with the class before this date in order to provide an opportunity to negotiate topics prior to this submission.

Instructions–Designing & Composing the Workshop

Each group will have 25 minutes to...

• introduce and explain the concept
• explain how the concept is relevant to the modern writing classroom
• provide a practical example or two demonstrating how this concept can be taught to writing students as part of an assignment or activity
• provide an opportunity for questions and answers (although the instructor reserves the right to let Q & A contiue beyond the 25 minute limit if the conversation appears productive).

Each group can mediate their workshop using the methods they feel is most appropriate for their goals. Thus possible forms of mediation can include any combination lecture, paper handouts, slideware, and video. If you have questions about the best means of mediated your workshop, please consult the instructor. Any take-aways should be posted to a group member's blog and announced in class.

Criteria

Logistics for workshop:

• 100 points
• 25 minutes
• The four workshop dates are...
  • November 2, 2011
  • November 9 , 2011
  • November 16, 2011
  • November 30, 2011

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

• a sense of audience–do you help your audience of novices understand the concept rather than treating them like an expert? do you draw upon their possible understanding of writing pedagogy?
• whether your audience will be able to apply what you have taught after this workshop
• an informed understanding and discussion of rhetorical studies and composition studies, as well as other topics the text covers
• a professional persona and an understanding of the discourse community
• appropriate use of conventions, including MLA or APA citation formatting