English 101Week 1Class session 2

AgendaPicture sharing activity.

Opening a blog account

Accessing digital reserve

Digital Reserve All the articles are located at the English digital reserve.

The PDF formatted articles are maintained in my English 101 Folder.

Here are the directions if you have not done this before:

1. Click on http://english.illinoisstate.edu/courses/digitalreserve.shtml

(or directly go to http://english.illinoisstate.edu/)

2. You will need to log in with your ULID, and find English department from the drop-down menu

3. To find readings for my course, select my name and then English 101

4. Don’t forget to print out the readings!

Picture sharing Exchange your picture with your your classmate. Before

reading the his/her letter, view the classmate’s picture and write a 150-200 word letter to that classmate describing the partner’s image in objective, concrete language and explaining what feelings the image evokes and why they think the image is important to the classmate.

The partners exchange their step 2 letters. Each partner reads their thoughts and discusses specific points that were interesting and ways in which their perceptions about the image were similar and different.

The students meet, each reading the partner’s original letter (step 1). They compare the descriptions and reactions. Together they write a letter to the entire class in which they highlight similar and differing reactions to the pictures and discuss the reasons.

As you write your letters for your partner’s picture, think about these questions:

What place is captured in the picture? Where is it? Why do you think it is important?

Describe the physical aspects of the place.

Describe your emotions.

Who do you think took the photograph? Who, if anyone, is in the photograph?

The purpose…To learn how to contextualize details

To strengthen your observation skills

To improve your skills in communicating what you observe

To be able to read scenes

Letter as a genre1. How do you think you learnt how to write a

letter?

2. Have you read letters written by other writers? What/who influenced you in your letter writing?

3. Do you feel more confident in writing letters than writing essays? Why? Why not?

Discussing writing strengths and weaknesses In your groups, discuss your writing

experiences. You may use a metaphor as you describe your writing strengths and challenges.

Agenda for 8/30Discussion of different genres.

Discussion of Just “CHATting” by Joyce Walker

Sharing of Writing Maps.

Blogging, free writing about what you learnt about CHAT and genre-based approaches to writing.

Homework/Reminders

Learning “Genres” We use the term “genre” to define what we study as

writers and researchers.

We study specific kinds of texts that are produced in specific locations, in response to specific conditions.

Any textual production can be studied as a genre, through working to understand the boundaries within which it can be produced, distributed, and used.

The idea of genre can help us to be more specific in the kinds of writing we study, the care with which we examine different writing situations, and how we explain.

Quick discussionWhat are some of the identifiers of “email” as a

genre?

What are some of the differences you see within “email” as a genre?

In what situations do you produce different emails?

Remember that even genres that seem clean and easy to define at first sight can be transformed in time.

Genre-based writing: Recognizing scenesWhen you pick up a book, you know what genre the book is: mystery, romance, textbook

Your knowledge of the genre provides you with a mental framework for how to read it; it gives you a set of guidelines—some specifications.

You already know about scenes and situations in which the text was constructed (e.g. sales letter)

You not only read the words, but also interpret the situation.—You act differently as you read different genres (e.g. textbook vs sales letter)

Sometime we misread the scenes (e.g. student not following an assignment) or we may be unfamiliar with the scene.

Genres contain:CLUES ABOUT HOW WE CAN COMMUNICATE

AND ACT EFFECTIVELY IN DIFFERENT SCENES!

Learning how to analyze a genre helps us read unfamiliar scenes as well as to think consiously about familiar scenes.

Pair-workList 10 genres that you read in everyday life

(both school and non-school related!)

Pick three of these genres and write a paragraph describing how differently you read each of them.

E.G. How does your reading a cereal box differ form your reading a textbook?

CHAT CULTURAL

HISTORICAL

ACTIVITY

THEORY

Teaches you the ability to understand genres.

Teaches you how people, institutions, and artifacts are made in history.

Teaches you the ability to understand how people appropriate cultural resources for their particular purposes.

Genres are connectedAny act of writing is complicated.

Emailing—texting—letter-writing—speaking

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/795294/idk_my_bff_rose_new_at_t_ad/

Even a simple act of pushing the buttons shapes how we text in important ways

Texting—telegrams: genres that value short messages and abbreviations.

THINK ABOUT…WHAT

HOW

WHEN

WHY

WE WRITE IN A GIVEN SITUATION

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMPLICATED FACTORS THAT IMPACT WHAT, HOW, WHEN.WHY WE WRITE?

Production: Thinking about the production of a specific text. You are trying to uncover how individuals and groups create a text.

Representation: The way people produce texts. How do they speak about the text? Do they have meetings? Do they create maps and outlines?—How we understand what we are doing when we produce a text?

Distribution: Who is a text given to? For what purposes? Where is the text displayed?

Reception: How is a text used by others.

Socialization: The interaction of people and institutions as they produce and distribute the texts.

Activity: the actual practices that people engage in as they create texts.

Writing as a complicated activity You are making complicated choices when you write

We ARE already writing researchers

Observe your own research process.

We are all researchers, but we are not aware of it.

Learning to uncover what we already know and what we need to know in order to understand the complicated nuances of writing in different situations.

FIRST STEP: OBSERVE YOUR OWN WRITING PRACTICES

Mapping your writing process This is an actual map that each student will make in order for them

to know what their own writing process is. You will create TWO maps, one for an academic paper you write for a class and another one for a non-school writing. Non-school genre could be any kind of writing that requires you to think about the audience, purpose and the writing situation (e.g. texting to a friend, facebook status writing, writing an email to a friend, writing thank you notes)

The map is something that will show all the steps that each student goes through from the moment that they start to write the paper till the time that it is completed.

The map should include the times that they get distracted, stop writing, start writing again, what they do when they decide to take a break, and what they do when they finally finish the paper.

This project will be turned into the instructor, it will be kept till the end of the semester when they have to do a second mapping process, and it will be graded.

Blogging, free-writingWhat did you learn from today’s class about

writing? What strikes you as interesting in today’s discussion?

Assignments/Reminders Homework: Read “Reading as a writer of genres” by

Jordana Hall and “Exercises in Genre” by Erin Frost

Blogging at home: Write three new ideas that you learnt from these two readings and why they are important for every writer.

Our main class blog is: http://english101seloni.blogspot.com /

Make sure that your blog is listed in the main class blog. If not, email me ASAP.

Blogging from last week: Post your letters about your pictures.