DAWA Project Response Draft -

Remember that it must be approximately 1,000 words in length (give or take 150 words or so) to get the full ten points for the assignment.

Let's continue to work on questions for the Demystifying Academic Writing Assignments project.

Here are some of the questions we developed from our last session.

For instructors:

Why did you want your students to do this assignment?

Literacy narratives are assigned in composition courses because of a relatively new disciplinary interest in something called "disposition." Disposition refers to the attitudes and beliefs students bring with them to a writing class. Sometimes, for instance, students consider themselves "bad" writers; sometimes they see themselves as "successful" or "gifted" writers. Both of those beliefs can make it difficult for students to really be open to new ideas about writing; some research suggests that students will be more open to thinking in new ways about writing if they've spent some time reflecting on their past experiences as writers or readers. Students, we hope, will be able to see the source of their ideas about writing; they might have had teachers who used ineffective ways to teach them to read or write in the past, or they developed (or were taught) unhelpful ideas about what makes writing "good." For many students, for instance, "good" writing is just writing that has no grammatical or spelling errors. Often students have learned in school a lot of "rules" about writing that they need to unlearn because they're simply not true. Much of what students learn about writing in school applies only to school assignments, and not to "real" writing outside of an academic setting.

Why did you assign it when you did?

The hope is that if you assign a literacy narrative early in the semester, students will be prepared to hear throughout the semester new ideas about writing because they'll have recognized that the "rules" that they were taught were just one way of thinking about writing (and in many cases not very good ways). The hope is that if students do this kind of self examination early in the class they'll be well positioned to reconsider their old views about writing. 

What learning outcomes did you hope to see in your students?

I hoped that students would recognize that many of their beliefs about writing are not only untrue, but unhelpful. Many American students, for instance, are taught that essays are exactly five paragraphs long. Even if you show them that almost no texts are five paragraphs long--except the texts that students write for class assignments--many of them continue to write five-paragraph essays, or essays very like them, where they just list, in paragraph form, their ideas about their topic. My hope is that the literacy narrative will help students view their past experiences with learning about writing with skepticism.

Did the assignments reflect those learning outcomes? If not, did they reflect some other outcome?

I hoped that students would recognize that many of their beliefs about writing are not only untrue, but unhelpful. Many American students, for instance, are taught that essays are exactly five paragraphs long. Even if you show them that almost no texts are five paragraphs long--except the texts that students write for class assignments--many of them continue to write five-paragraph essays, or essays very like them, where they just list, in paragraph form, their ideas about their topic. My hope is that the literacy narrative will help students view their past experiences with learning about writing with skepticism.

Were there other more abstract outcomes you hoped for?

 I always hope for additional, conceptual outcomes! Maybe a student will recognize a rhetorical dimension: "The reason I hated writing in school, I realize now, is that I never really understood what the exigence was for my papers. I wrote them, but I never had a clear sense of who I was writing to or why I was supposed to be writing." An answer like that would be awesome!

Have you ever tried a longer/shorter version of the prompt?

No, because I think it's important to have all those questions making students think about all the dimensions of literacy.

How do you think the results would be different/how did the results differ?

I think if I made the assignment shorter students wouldn't explore their experiences as thoroughly as they do, and they wouldn't remember half of what they do remember using those questions.

How would you relate the assignment to disciplinary conventions and expectations?

Literacy narratives are a big assignment genre in composition and writing studies right now because of the interest in disposition and its role in student attitudes about and approaches toward writing.

For students:

What did you see as the purpose of the assignment?

How long did it take you to complete the assignment?

Was the assignment challenging?

What steps did you take to complete the assignment?

Did you successfully assess your own performance on the assignment? IOW, were you surprised by the grade you received?

Attachment:- Assignment.rar