Workshops
What's Good? / Writing Advice
Rhetoric and Writing
This course is grounded in the rhetorical analysis of "controversies," broadly defined. It is divided into three units, each one requiring some sort of outside research. The first two units are devoted to rhetorical analysis; they are mostly descriptive and allow students to become familiar with what is being said and how. The third unit is devoted to advocacy; having become familiar with the controversy, students now take a position within it and produce an informed argument for that position.
Identifying successful writing
After students have turned in a major essay, but before they attempt the required revision, this in-class activity gives them concrete examples of successful writing from student essays (especially elements with which many other students struggled). They identify what other students have done well in their writing, and translate that information into writing advice for themselves and each other.
one computer per student, class wiki or blog, projector and screen
For this in-class activity, the instructor must read all student essays and (1) note elements of writing that many students struggled with and (2) find some examples of student writing that are successful in terms of the same elements. In my case, for example, many students failed to write topic sentences which focused their paragraphs, so I found a few examples from student essays of paragraphs with well-written topic sentences.
The examples must be grouped by category. Each category of examples should include roughly the same amount of text (whether one paragraph from an essay or several sentences from various essays). And there should be enough categories for groups of 2-4 students to each work on a unique category.
The instructor explains that students will work in groups with examples of successful student writing. It will be their task to decide “what’s good” about the example they are given, and to convert that observation into a piece of writing advice for themselves and their classmates. This advice will be collected and distributed for everyone to use as a checklist when revising.
Students are split into groups of 2-4 people, and each group is directed to a unique wiki page with examples.
Each group has three tasks: (1) write down or mark up what is successful about the writing in the example (2) translate that observation into an imperative sentence as a piece of writing advice, (3) discuss HOW the student has accomplished what they advised.
Task (1) is completed individually, while the remaining tasks are done together in the group after some consensus is reached.
Each group ends up with something like this: (1) The writer uses transitions to relate this paragraph to the previous one. (2) Use transitions to connect your paragraphs and to state the relationship between them. (3) This student begins the first sentence of the paragraph with a clause that relates to the paragraph before.
After each group has finished, they all report to the class, while the instructor shows the examples on the projector screen. Each group notes what the writer did well, states how they translated this into advice, and explains how the writer acheived this.
The instructor can collect parts (2) and (3) from each group’s wiki page, and compile this information in a document of writing advice, complete with at least one suggestion on how to successfully implement each piece of advice.
The instructor can monitor each group’s progress by going around the room and asking questions, checking that each group understands the instructions and is using any extra time to explain HOW the writer has accomplished the specific writing goal. Once a group has completed steps 1-3 with their example(s), the instructor can encourage them to find some other, unrelated element of the example that is successful and begin the steps again.
When the groups report at the end of class, the instructor can note which advice is particularly well stated.
Evaluation is not necessary. The students have contributed to a document they can use to help themselves.
The DWRL and Job Market Materials: Wisdom from Those Who have Lived to Tell the Tale
Images by SocialisBetter
by Lauren Mitchell Nahas
Flash Workshop
When:
Fri, Sep 24th, 2010, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
Last week, Scott showed us how to use some of Flash's basic tools for drawing. This week, he will cover the basics of movie clips and graphic symbols, and how to nest them to create animations. If you weren't able to make it last week, no problem, as no prior knowledge is necessary for this week's workshop.
Don't miss this opportunity to make your pretty pictures move!
Gaming Workshop
When:
Fri, Oct 1st, 2010, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
Matt King will be offering a workshop on gaming in the writing classroom. This workshop will address some of the theoretical underpinnings of rhetorical gaming, and it will also offer more practical suggestions for incorporating games into your classes. Matt’s presentation will draw on his experience with the DWRL’s own Rhetorical Peaks as well as his experience at this summer’s Humanities Gaming Institute at the University of South Carolina. Not a gamer? Not a problem. You don’t need to have a female half-elf avatar named “Bead-Bead” to consider how gaming informs the work we do as rhetoricians and how it can contribute to our pedagogy.
Remixing Ringtones: A Sound Writing Workshop
When:
Fri, Sep 10th, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.Fac 9
The DWRL is bringing DJ Spooky to UT. Remixing is all the rage. But how do you incorporate remixing into the classroom? Come to this workshop to find out. We'll show you how to remix samples of literary and rhetorical texts to your favorite music. Then, we’ll cut those mixes down to ringtones. We’ll demo remixing ringtones lesson plans for your classes. And we’ll kick off a special contest wherein the best student-made ringtone wins a prize. (The winner will be announced at DJ Spooky's rip-mix-burn event on Oct. 12.) You are also a great candidate for this workshop if you:
* need a fun lesson plan to get over the mid-semester slump
* have a pal who is just too peculiar for a default ringtone
* are afraid to make remixes that are longer than 30 seconds
* like to combine things ill-advisedly
* like silly contests
Flyer Workshop
When:
Fri, Apr 9th, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.Join the DWRL Design Specialist for this unique event in Fac 9.
Are you teaching a course in the Fall on the Rhetoric of French Horror Films Dubbed in Japanese? Would you like to get word out for a conference or workshop you're organizing? Are you interested in letting interested parties know that these unique and titillating events exist? Then you need a poster. Come to the DWRL's workshop on poster design on Friday, April 9 in FAC 9 at 1 pm. The workshop will cover using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to import images, create new images, manipulate text, format best printing quality, and design classy, yet unignorable posters that are sure to fill your classes and pack your events in minutes. With Summer and Fall registration just around the corner and end-of-semester and summer events just weeks away, this workshop will give you the skills you need to get the attendance you want!
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Best Practices for Digital Images Workshop
When:
Fri, Mar 26th, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.Join the Visual Rhetoric project for this unique event.
The workshop will be focused on:
*Becoming familiar with online and institutional databases of images
*Developing standards for citing images and New Media
*Sizing and creating original images using Adobe InDesign
*Incorporating images in the rhetoric and literature classroom
*Uploading and managing images with Drupal
On a daily basis, most of us find ourselves uploading and downloading
images. While we may be proficient, there are ways to potentially
enrich our use of digital images in the classroom by advancing
technical skills, as well as becoming familiar with the best of image
databases. Join Viz. in FAC 9 on March 26 at 1 pm for a workshop
considering best practices for digital images. We'll tour several
private databases of images, such as ARTstor, as well as Creative
Commons images on Flickr and Google. We'll present some practical
skills, such as resizing using Adobe InDesign and html-coding images
for Drupal. The workshop will also involve discussion of intellectual
property and citation for images.
Here are some of the helpful pages referenced during the workshop:
This page lists important online image archives and database
Screencasting Workshop
When:
Fri, Feb 19th, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.Join the Rhetorical Peaks 2.0 project for this unique event.
Screencasting is recording the video and audio output of a computer into a short movie. While many screencasts are used as tutorials for software, there are other pedagogical purposes for this medium as well. Join us in FAC 9 on February 19 at 1 pm for a workshop outlining some of the possible uses for your classes and professional work. We'll be looking at both proprietary and open-source screencasting programs for use on Macs and PCs, and getting some hands-on time with Camtasia, a leading contender in the screencasting software genre.
| Attachment | Size |
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| Screencasting Software.docx | 16.13 KB |
| camtasia wordle.pdf | 184.59 KB |
| Scott Nelson Lesson Plan Spring 2010.pdf | 59.86 KB |
Google Earth Workshop
When:
Fri, Feb 5th, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.
Join the Geo-Everything project for this unique event.
Workshop will focus on:
· Downloading, installing, and navigating in Google Earth
· Making basic and customized placemarks
· Working with data templates
· Embedding text, images, links, video, and audio
· Creating collaborative maps
· Incorporating Google Earth into the rhetoric and literature classroom
Description:
Google Earth is a free and easy-to-use software program for building maps and spatially representing many kinds of data -- text, images, audio, video -- that can be aligned with a geographic location. These maps are three-dimensional and dynamic, and readers can interactively zoom and rotate as well as add layers of information in order to view the mapped locations, called placemarks, from a variety of perspectives, from the local to the global. Within the rhetoric and literature classrooms, the software is useful for many kinds of writing. It facilitates invention, as students visually identify intriguing linkages; acts as a medium for visual writing, as students transform words into images; and encourages collaboration, as students work together to chart and connect meaningful locations, thus organically and/or deliberately synthesizing arguments.
DWRL Google Earth Workshop Handout
Introduction to the Sophie Program
When:
Wed, Nov 18th, 2009, from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM.To help familiarize folks with the basics of the Sophie program, Professor Justin Hodgson will be offering a short introduction/workshop. To find out more, click here to see the promotional video to get aquainted with Sophie.
What is Sophie?
"Sophie 2.0 is open source software for writing, reading and visualizing rich media documents in an interactive, networked environment. The program emerged from the desire to create an easy-to-use application that would allow authors to combine text, images, video, and sound quickly and simply, but with precision and sophistication. Sophie's users are interested in creating robust, elegant, networked, texts and multimedia works without having programming knowledge or training in the use of more complex and costly tools. such as Flash" (www.sophieproject.org).
Workshop on the Learning Record Online
When:
Fri, Nov 20th, 2009, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.To continue the conversation begun at last year's workshop Social Justice & Evidence Based Assessment with the Learning Record led by Professor Peg Syverson, the Communications project will host a workshop on the Learning Record.
Please join us to learn about the LR generally and to hear about the latest developments in the LR Online using PB Wiki.
Workshop on eComma
When:
Fri, Nov 6th, 2009, from 3:15 PM to 4:15 PM.
Join DWRL staffer and UT English PhD student Kate Beutner to learn about eComma.
Created by UT English PhD student Travis Brown, the eCommentary Machine web application ("eComma") enables groups of students, scholars, or general readers to build collaborative commentaries on a text and to search, display, and share those commentaries online.
Read about recent uses of eComma at the Harry Ransom Center.
Time: 3:15 pm
Location: FAC 9
Social Justice & Evidence Based Assessment with the Learning Record
Watch this video in HD on Vimeo.
Dr. Margaret A. Syverson of the University of Texas describes the Learning Record assessment system, an alternative to traditional grading.
Mind Maps for Teaching & Research
Watch this video in HD on Vimeo.
Sean McCarthy and Lauren Mitchell present a workshop on using mind maps and mind mapping software.
Academic Blogging
Watch this video in HD on Vimeo.
Liz Jones-Dilworth discusses how she maintains her blog "Becoming Dr. Jones", including the genesis of the blog, what it has done for her professionally, and how she fashions a topic to make it relevant for her particular audience.
This video was recorded on April 7, 2009, at the DWRL.
