Academic Literacy through Rhetoric: RWS100 Program Overview

1. Session 1: Welcome • 9.30: Intro to RWS100 and the lower division writing program • TA Introductions; photo session(program of assimilation and mind control revealed)

2. Overview of RWS100 • 10.15: Overview of RWS100 • The program, RWS100, ICT, Spring students, the course theme, etc.

3. RWS 100 and the lower division writing program • See the orientation handout for contact info and resources for new TAs. • Argument is at the center of the program and 100. • We mostly focus on non fiction, argumentative texts.

4. RWS 100 and the lower division writing program • We ask students to interpret, analyze, and produce written arguments, because this is central to academic literacy, critical thinking, and civic life -Lasch: “argument is the essence of education,” and “central to democratic culture”; - Universities are “houses of argument.” - Graff: “Argument literacy” is key to higher education. - argument and interpretation = big part of academic work/literacy

5. We want students to be able to identify claims, evaluate evidence and reasons, locate assumptions, identify argumentative moves, pose critical questions, produce sophisticated arguments, etc. • We do this not just because we think it’s good for their souls, critical thinking, ability to reason, deliberate, be engaged citizens, etc. But also because it’s key to their professional futures – every gateway requires it.

6. Why We Fight!(4 your right to write, argue & analyze well) • The ability to interpret arguments, locate claims and evidence, analyze moves and strategies, and evaluate arguments are crucial skills. • They are central to business, law, professional life, and to academic study (including graduate school). • Students tested for these skills in the WPA, the LSAT, GMAT, and GRE – all the gateways to professional life. • Consider the GRE…

7. Analytical Writing Tasks • Present Your Views on an Issue (45 minutes, choice of 2 topics) • Analyze an Argument (30 minutes) • Each essay is scored on a 0-6 scale using holistic scoring • Two scores for each essay • GRE Website presents directions, actual topics, scoring guide, and sample essays for both the Issue and Argument tasks (www.gre.org/gentest.html)

8. Rhetorical self-consciousness & understanding of moves = academic literacy • We aim to improve academic literacy – equip students with transferable skills that will help them in the disciplinary communities they are part of; help students become more rhetorically sophisticated and self reflective producers and consumers of texts, help students become critical, engaged writers. • We want to help students read and interpret texts rhetorically, to develop rhetorical self consciousness – to look “at” as well as through language. So we also focus on moves, strategies and choices – what the author is doing with words, how she is doing it, and why. • Revealing the rhetorical moves that writers make is an important part of achieving academic literacy, and of acculturation into disciplinary communities. When you recognize the moves, you not only understand the disciplinary conversation better, you are better equipped to join it.

9. You will (not) be assimilated… • This is, of course, just one way to design a writing course – many others are possible (genre, critical literacy, cultural studies, personal reflection, literary texts, etc.) • Writing programs often serve many masters, since general education programs are collaborative enterprises. Had we world enough and time (and money and control) I like the idea of a hybrid WID-based approach. • In any case, your experience in this program will be valuable as a) it’s an influential model, b) the trend seems to be toward aligning k-12 and higher ed. around argument, and c) SDSU’s program is regionally influential. • In other words, in the future, you may go on to teach writing in an entirely different way – and that’s great. But it will be useful to have familiarity with a program like this, which is very large, multi-leveled, comprehensive and tightly designed. Many other TAs will work in programs where there is one semester of freshman comp, and that’s it.

10. Expectations • ITC = an important part of your work. You are expected to attend. You get credit for it • More importantly, it’s part of collaboration, professional development, and networking. The dialogue matters. • Modest home work is assigned but it’s all to prepare for your class. • Your contribution is important and most welcome. We provide a lot of support, but you are welcome to adapt & remix, or add your own materials. We encourage you to suggest new ideas/ways of teaching the course

11. Teaching in a time of crisis… • The budget crisis, class size increases, the furloughs etc. have/continue to cause disruption, uncertainty and change • We can't provide quite as much support as usual • You may well have to teach RWS200 next semester, where learning curve is steeper. • So using ITC and your fellow TAs is especially important this semester.

12. Teaching in a time of crisis… • Class sizes will be 32. • Most major academic organizations (including the WPA) have shown that university writing classes should have at most 20 students. • Our pedagogies aren’t really designed for classes this big. We may wish to share coping strategies. • In fact, we may want to “jigsaw” the work of preparing class plans, etc.

13. Meet your audience • Spring semester students are often ‘developmental’ writers. Many will have just completed 92A and 92B. • Some may be quite sophisticated readers and writers, but you’ll be presenting them with a very different way of approaching texts, and they will find this challenging at first. • You may have some ESL/L1.5 students.

14. The “R” in RWS = Rhetoric • Some students will assume they are in an English class, and will bring expectations from high school English. E.g. when you say “claim” or “argument,” they may think “thesis” and/or “opinion.” • You may need to remind them this is a Rhetoric and Writing class so they don't keep reaching for familiar strategies from high school English (usually less of an issue in spring, as they’ve often experienced a semester or 2 or RWS.)

15. Spring 2010 Course theme • Arguments about “language, literacy and the politics of education.” • We’ll read 3 main texts1) Postman’s “Word Weavers”2) Gladwell’s Outliers3) The PBS documentary From First to Worst.

16. Assignment Sequence • 1. produce an account and analysis of a single argument (Postman)2. gather sources, situate an argument within a field of other texts, map out and analyze relationships between them (extend, complicate, illustrate, etc.) (Gladwell)3. identify, analyze and evaluate rhetorical strategies (From First to Worst) 4. a “lens” assignment, group assignment, orflexible “portfolio” assignment

17. Managing the Final Paper • Section 4: Portfolio/Lens/Student Writing Assignments • For the final assignment,you can select from a number of options. • We recommend one of the following, although you are welcome to • suggest alternatives: • 1. Lens paper: if you would like to stick to “traditional” way in the 4th assignment has been taught, you can use the “lens assignment” (see past 100 syllabi, assignments, materials etc. for details. This paper involves taking one of the texts we’ve read and using it as a “lens” through which to analyze another text or a contemporary issue. The student can present an original argument, interpretation or analysis. • 2. Group projects/presentations where students get to make an argument that draws from one of the issues raised in the class, or which focuses on one of the texts covered. If you choose this option, we suggest you construct a group assignment with clearly defined roles for each student, so that individual grades can be assigned and you minimize “free riding” and conflict.

18. Managing the Final Paper • 3. Portfolio: Students have done small writing assignments over the semester. You can assign further short writing assignments in the final part of the course, and give students an aggregate grade for the completed portfolio. • 4. Reflection essay – have students write a paper that asks them to reflect on the writing work they have done, what they have learned, the way they approach writing, the things they still need to work on, etc.

19. The Readings • Custom reader • You should have Raimes and They Say/I Say (if not, can get a loaner from bookstore). • Raimes comes with Eduspace – online resources for teaching writing (perhaps not that useful if don’t have a lab)

20. Main Texts • Short texts, incl. Bleich and Rifkin, and any you select • Postman, “The Word Weavers” • Gladwell, Outliers • From First to Worst PBS documentary • Various short texts for strategies and lens section (E.g. you may wish to consider Parry’s “The Art of Branding a Condition,” Daily Show materials, or texts related to education/budget crisis) BUT - in a sense the “central” text in the class = the students’ texts. (Your fabulous teaching performance vs. their written performance) You may want to be brilliant, and may be tempted to model your teaching on the last class you took (a grad class). New teachers tend to prepare to teach the classes they’ve just been in, just as armies prepare to fight the last war. Try to resist this. ]

21. Supplementary texts • For the 4th assignment, you can assign no text, select your own text, or let students choose a text(s), but you’ll need to work with them and provide guidance.

22. Overview of RWS100 • Sample syllabi, schedules and assignment sequences are on the wiki (and will be on Blackboard very soon). • We’ll talk more about syllabi later today and tomorrow.

23. 11.00 The First Week(s): • Introducing rhetoric, the course, • and working with short texts

24. Common Class Activities & Patterns [See p. 3 of handout] • Pre-reading and “pre-discussion” work (questionnaires to get at assumptions, surveys, etc) • “Jig saw” work (students share researching key parts of text and share in class) • Class discussion, group work • Critical reading/rhetorical reading – posing questions, interrogating assumptions, reading actively and critically (modeling qns to ask) • Charting – what is the text doing; what/how/why moves are made • PACES (project, argument, claims, evidence, strategies) • Pre-writing exercises • Templates, rhetorical precis, metadiscourse, transitions, mechanics • Drafting, peer review, student “read alouds,” conferencing • Assessment and response • Analysis (single argument, relationship between texts, strategies, “lens” work) and presentation of student argument • Reflection and reflective practice (applying concepts to students own writing – e.g. charting, analyzing students’ moves and strategies, etc.)

25. Example: pre-reading exercises • 1. In Class test • “Careful, you might run out of planet: SUVs and the exploitation of the • American myth,” by David Goewey. • Questions: • Is Goewey critical or complimentary of SUVs? • Does the author believe that there is time to make a change? • Does the author put more emphasis on car quality or social issues in assessing the value of SUVs? • Is the author likely to be a supporter of major oil companies? • Was this essay written in 1979, 1989, or 1999? 2. Examining Titles Carefully: Chua - Chua’s article “A World on the edge” became part of her book World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. - Postman’s article is part of a book called The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School 3. Headings you can find out a lot by going through the section and chapter headings in Gladwell and First to Worst. E.g. Gladwell – book divided into 2 parts, Opportunity, Legacies, and within each part, aspects of the these concepts are explored

26. Survey/discussion questions before reading Pinker • Our moral sense is best described as coming from a) our upbringing, b) society, c) religious texts and teachings, d) other. • Moral laws are universalStrongly Disagree Moderately Disagree Moderately Agree Strongly Agree • What are the most important moral laws – and where do they come from? • Morality is a product of our evolutionary pre-history:Strongly Disagree Moderately Disagree Moderately Agree Strongly Agree • To what extent is our moral sense shared by other animals?

27. Survey/discussion questions before reading Postman • How is the definition of a word arrived at? • In school you probably learned thousands of definitions – did you ever study how definitions are constructed? How are definitions taught in high school? • Who makes definitions? • To what extent are definitions political, reflecting the values, interests and purposes of those who make them? • What are metaphors for? Are they important? Are they mostly decorative? • Do metaphors matter in fields like biology, physics, history, business, English, or the study of argument? • Do metaphors shape the way we see things? • How is technology talked about in our culture? Taught in school? • To what extent do technologies shape how we act, think, communicate, make sense of the world?

28. See page 3 of the handout for a detailed account of each of these major activities. • There are handouts, class exercises, and class plans based on each of these key activities (see wiki or Blackboard).

29. Some Roadmaps for RWS100 • Overview of RWS100Overview of RWS 100, Assignments, Classroom Activities, Coursework, and Detailed Description of First 3 Weeks • Gives you multiple views – broad overview, to detailed description of 4 units, to class-by-class description of first three weeks.

30. Introducing rhetoric • We ask that you tell students that RWS 100 is a rhetoric class. Many will base their expectations on high school English classes – literary texts and writing assignments, etc. You’ll need to emphasize that the interpretation, analysis and production of argument is central, that they will be reading non-fiction texts, and producing a lot of analysis. • You may find “Content is king” - locate, remember and deliver content. You may encounter a “textbook mentality” in the reading practices of many of your students, and an “information processor” model of writing. • Textbooks are often “anti-rhetorical” - presenting knowledge in terms of a decontextualized, disembodied voice of authority, a “view from nowhere,” and of knowledge as “settled,” unified and authoritative • The contested, contingent, contextual, community-centered, argument-driven…in short, the RHETORICAL dimensions of knowledge – of academic discourse, are largely absent.

31. Nudging students toward a rhetorical stance… • We want to move students from a focus on what texts say (content) to what they do and how they do it (rhetoric). Rhetorical self consciousness = achieving a kind of double vision – of looking “at” as well as through language. • Rhetorical self consciousness – understanding what texts do - is an important skill for students. Revealing the rhetorical moves that writers make, the strategies they draw on, is part of achieving academic literacy, and of acculturation into disciplinary communities. When you recognize the moves you not only understand the disciplinary conversation better, you are better equipped to join it. • In the first week of class we’d like you to introduce key conceptsthrough the analysis of some short texts. There is a folder on Blackboard to help you with this. • Focusing on strategies and what texts do = good ways of introducing rhetoric.

32. Basic Rhetorical Strategies • How do texts position readers? • What point of view do they adopt? • From what perspective do they invite us to view the world?Consider these chewing gum ads:

36. Rhetoric Is “Everywhere” & an “Everyday” Thing • When a politician tries to get you to vote for them, they are using rhetoric. • When a lawyer tries to move a jury, they are using rhetoric. • When a government produces propaganda, they are using rhetoric. • When an advertisement tries to get you to buy something, it is using rhetoric. • When the president gives a speech, he is using rhetoric. But rhetoric can be much subtler (and quite positive) as well: • When someone writes an office memo, they are using rhetoric. • When a newspaper offers their depiction of what happened last night, they are using rhetoric. • When a scientist presents theories or results, they are using rhetoric. • When you write your mom or dad an email, you are using rhetoric. • Thought itself is rhetorical - when you think, you engage in “inner argument,” or “inner persuasion” in order to reach a decision or act.

37. HEADLINES DESCRIBING MEDICAL MARIJUANA DECISION • Salon Magazine “Court rules against pot for sick people”  • New York Times: “High Court Allows Prosecution of Medical Marijuana Users” • USA Today: “MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN UPHELD” • San Diego Union Tribune: “Court OKs Marijuana Crackdown” • L.A. Times: “Justices Give Feds Last Word on Medical Marijuana” • Christian Science Monitor: “US Court Rules Against Pot For Sick People” • Christian News Source: “Medical Marijuana Laws Don't Shield Users From Prosecution”

38. Telemarketing Strategies Script • Pre-introduction: (Ask to speak to the decision-maker) Introduction: (Introduce yourself and the reason for your call) Attention Getter: (Mention the key features of the offer and qualify them for eligibility) Probing Questions: (Always ask for information that will be useful for rebuttals) Offer: (Explain the product/service and terms of commitment) Close: (ALWAYS ASK FOR THE SALE) Rebuttal (deal with objections)Sales Continuation: (Agree, use rebuttals, sell benefits, CLOSE) Up/down/cross-sell: (If there is another product of less-price this is the time to sell it.) Confirmation Close: (Review the terms of the offer to reduce buyer remorse) Final Close: (End on a positive note. Thank the customer and leave a dial free number for customer support)

39. Everyday words, names, definitions, categories – how they are selected or constructed = rhetorical. • Consider: • “War on terror,” vs. “war against Islamic extremists,” vs. “fight against Al Queda” (scope, agents involved, action) • “War on drugs”’ “Axis of Evil”; • “Body bags” vs. “transfer tubes” • “Doctor assisted suicide” vs. “death with dignity” • “Defense of marriage” vs. “marriage equality” • “French Fries/Freedom fries” • “Death Tax/Estate Tax” • “Habit forming” vs. “addictive” • “Erectile dysfunction” vs. “impotence” • “Halitosis” vs. “bad breath” • “Male pattern baldness” vs. “losing your hair” • “Viagra!”

40. The controversial New Yorker cover, “politics of fear.”

41. When ads used a lot of logos

42. Today’s ads often use different appeals

43. WE CAN READ MATERIAL CULTURE RHETORICALLY • “By reading…we mean something more than simply lifting information out of books and articles. To read a text or event is to do something to it, to make sense out of its signals and clues…Reading is thus not something we do to books alone. Or, to put it another way, books and other printed surfaces are not the only texts we read. Rather, a ‘text’ is anything that can be interpreted, that we can make meaning out of or assign value to. In this sense, all culture is a text and all culture can be read.” Joseph Harris and Jay Rosen.

44. Strategies in Sculpture: Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial

45. Why these choices for a memorial – what strategies might they represent? • The Vietnam war memorial is black • It is made of reflective black granite. When a visitor looks at the wall, she will see the engraved names and her own reflection • The monument is built along a pathway that requires people to move along the small corridor of space • Unlike many monuments, it lists all the names of U.S. soldiers who died, and it does so in chronological rather than alphabetic order (Lin has she wanted the wall to read “‘like an epic Greek poem’ and ‘return the vets to the time frame of the war’) • Information about rank, unit, and decorations are not given • The wall is V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers

46. "One of the most common, but mind-numbing, of these deterrents is the [L.A.] Rapid Transit District’s new barrelshaped bus bench that offers a minimal surface for uncomfortable sitting, while making sleeping utterly impossible. Such ‘bumproof’ benches are being widely introduced on the periphery of Skid Row. Another invention...is the aggressive deployment of outdoor sprinklers. Several years ago the city opened a ‘Skid Row Park’ along lower Fifth Street, on a corner of Hell. To ensure that the park was not used for sleeping--that is, to guarantee that it was mainly utilized for drug dealing and prostitution--the city installed an elaborate overhead sprinkler system programmed to drench unsuspecting sleepers at random times during the night. The system was immediately copied by some local businessmen in order to drive the homeless away from adjacent public sidewalks.“Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, p. 233. The rise of the “bum-proof” bench in Los Angeles

47. Why design seats this way? How does this shape/constrain behavior, & whose behavior is targeted?

48. Why design walls & curbs this way?

49. 2003: One of the greatest acts of “political stagecraft” “Going far beyond the foundations in stagecraft set by the Reagan White House, [the Bush administration] is using the powers of television and technology to promote a presidency like never before.” ELISABETH BUMILLER, NYT, 2003. For more on the history of political image making see http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/index.html