English 101: Course Materials
Week 3 PowerPoint & Week 9 PowerPoint
While attempting to navigate my first semester of teaching experience remotely, I experimented with a variety of different delivery methods. However, PowerPoints like the ones attached above ended up proving to be the most effective and engaging for students. Each week, I would put together a comprehensive slideshow with all of the information that students might need in order to be successful and more—including additional notes and activities that might help inform further interests within the field. These slides would typically be posted on Sunday afternoon, which would allow students to preview the information prior to attending class. I found that providing students with the information early allowed for deeper discussion and improved participation, especially during more difficult units. Additionally, creating a multimodal experience enabled me to better reach different types of learners. After posting the PowerPoint, I would also send out an email to all students, notifying them of newly uploaded material and providing a link to the information. When teaching synchronously via Zoom, I would often reference these slides and encourage students to have their own versions pulled up on their computer. Typically, students would take additional notes on their slides and follow along with activities. The example slides are from Weeks 3 & 9 of ENGL 101.
Downloads
Please see the PowerPoints below for a sample of weekly activities and course review from English 101:
Week 3
The slides for Week 3 represent three days of instruction: Monday (synchronous via Zoom), Wednesday (synchronous via Zoom), and Friday (asynchronous via Blackboard). Each day of synchronous class begins with a title slide that reminds students of the learning goal for the day or week, as well as a review of the reading from the previous night and a reminder about the topics of last class. Due to an issue with ordering textbooks, these reviews were particularly helpful for students and acted as a guide for struggling students during course discussion. Being able to refer back to the notes allowed students to be more confident in their answers, which in turn generated a feeling of comfort and community within the classroom. Because this unit was earlier in the semester, establishing this type of environment was particularly important. While Wednesday’s Micro-Presentation Activity is fairly straightforward and works to engage students through traditional team building and “problem posing”, Monday’s activity on Context was designed to give students a new, transferable experience through realistic examples of rhetorical situations.
Week 9
The slides for Week 9 also represent three days of instruction: Monday (synchronous via Zoom), Wednesday (synchronous via Zoom), and Friday (asynchronous via Blackboard). As with the slides for Week 3, each day of synchronous class begins with a title slide that reminds students of the learning goal for the day or week. However, Week 9 was different in that it introduced Writing Project 3. While Friday’s asynchronous slides offer a review of the previous evening’s readings and offer students an opportunity to ask questions about the previous class periods, Monday’s class time was primarily consumed by the introduction of the Writing Project and Wednesday was mainly dominated by a special presentation and group activity. This presentation, done by KU’s Study Abroad offices, was a unique opportunity for students to engage with the opportunities presented by the university. After the presentation, I provided personal anecdotes about my own study abroad experience as an undergraduate and discussed how my program was influenced by my own appreciation for rhetoric and composition studies.
Graded Writing Projects 1 & 2
Although ENGL 101 was my first experience with grading, I had already spent several years providing writing feedback as an Undergraduate and Graduate Writing Center Consultant. In these roles, I gained plenty of first-hand knowledge and countless hours of practice about global and sentence-level revision. When grading, I offer two different types of feedback: specific, marginal comments that appear commonly across each draft, and a more generalized cover letter that focuses on global strengths and areas for improvement. As a rule, I try to leave no more than a single paragraph for the cover letter and no more than seven marginal comments per page. I believe that any more than this can be overwhelming for students. If an individual student would like more extensive feedback, I ask that they schedule an appointment or attend my office hours so we can go over the draft together. This allows each student to get what they feel is an optimal amount of advice.
Downloads
Please see the Word Documents below for a sample of graded student papers (Writing Projects 1 & 2) from English 101:
The three projects provided above are written for two separate projects—Writing Project 1: Rhetoric of Self-Presentation and Writing Project 2: Rhetorical Analysis. The following are brief descriptions of the projects as written by the department:
“Writing Project 1 Rhetoric of Self-Presentation: This project asks students to describe and analyze their own experience with rhetoric and with presenting themselves rhetorically, drawing on their own experiences as communicators.
Note: This project aims to give students foundational skills in rhetorical analysis by drawing on their own communicative experience and starting with what they know and have authority on before moving to analysis of more distant rhetorical situations and texts in Writing Project 2.
Writing Project 2 Rhetorical Analysis: This project asks students to analyze the elements of a text and its rhetorical effect—with a focus on analyzing how the rhetorical situation (communicators, message, audience) and context, exigence, purpose, and means of communication shapes appeals (to ethos, logos, pathos), content, structure, and language.
Note: This project aims to give students foundational skills in rhetorical analysis and rhetorical reading of a text and to expand their repertoires for rhetorical analysis of a written, visual, or multimodal text and for thinking rhetorically about the means of communication (medium, modality, genre, circulation) and how that affects communicators, audiences, and messages.”
When providing student feedback, I begin by highlighting the positive attributes of each project. These are typically global strengths that are addressed within the criteria provided for the assignment. In doing so, I attempt to calm the nerves of the student reading the feedback and acknowledge the many things that they have done well. Moving forward from a positive place creates a safer space for the writer, while also allowing them to be more open or susceptible to suggestions for improvement. As a rule, I provide several global concerns but then also focus in on a specific instance or section that could be reviewed as an example. These concerns are addressed in terms of goals or objectives for the next upcoming project.