When (and how) does public writing happen in your FYC class?

[adriennejankens]

Short description:

While FYC is often a place where instructors want students to research and write texts to “authentic” “public” audiences, this public composition often comes before students have understood key components of rhetoric and its implications, not to mention the topics they are writing about. In this discussion and “do” session, participants will identify moments of public writing in their FYC classes, and will mark places where this public writing can be first practiced in conversation groups within the classroom, as students listen to and learn from each other about multiple perspectives on topics, research, composing, and presentation.

Phase II description:

Together, we will sketch out timelines of our classes to identify moments of public writing and places beyond rough draft workshops where students can work together to listen to each other’s perspectives and craft their writing. I will describe strategies I am presently using in my FYC class, and will reflect on strategies discussed in the RSA workshop on Rhetoric and Civic Life I attended in May. It may be helpful for participants to have course schedules with them (on paper or digitally), though this activity can be done from memory. I’ll have big paper and writing utensils available for sketching out ideas. If participants conceive of these listening moments as things they can still integrate into their already happening classes this semester, we can have an energizing discussion! Ideally, this work can also inspire planning for future semesters.