|
There are several informal assignments within this unit. These
informal projects include:
The Place Game
(informal assignment for participation grade)
- In this game, student groups will develop and perform the same skit
within different ‘environments’
- Typically, I have several student groups ask for money from their
grandparents (in their grandparents house), from their parents (in their
dorm room or apartment), and from a friend in a bar.
- Note: This is a fun exercise for students. It
offers an opportunity to think about how place affects requests, discourses,
etc.
Reading Responses
- Reading responses range from one paragraph to one page.
- These responses should offer analysis that takes into account the
assigned readings or informal assignments for the day.
Speech Workshop (informal
assignment for daily participation)
- I have students team up and evaluate another pair's speech.
- This includes "grading" the other team's outline.
Further, I have the pairs deliver their introductions and conclusions
for another team.
Essay Workshop (informal assignment
for daily participation)
- I have students pair up and write written evaluations of another person's
paper.
- These evaluations include writing on the paper itself and filling
out a 1-2 page evaluation form (included with this unit).
Designing a Mall (informal
assignment for participation grade)
- Materials Needed: one piece of paper per group
- This activity has students get into groups. Students then design
a mall for a particular audience. The group should determine the
audience age group, income-level, interests etc. The groups should
draw out their design and goals. The first part of this project should
take approximately 20-25 minutes.
- Student groups will design their mall with a theme or premise in mind
and be able to explain the audience and theme to the rest of the class.
- After student groups have
designed their mall, groups should trade designs with another group.
The new group should use rhetorical terms to analyze the design of another
group's mall. Groups should think about the assumptions evident in the
design, what activities are privileged and the consumer aspects of the
mall. Each group should present their findings. The second half
of this project should take approximately 20-25 minutes.
- Note: This is an excellent activity to push students to question
a strictly linear relationship between rhetor and audience. Mall
designs typically have multiple "rhetors" through multiple
stores and different usage spaces. Additionally, students seem to enjoy
this activity and are quite energetic about it. Further,
this activity is excellent for having students move beyond a deterministic
rhetorical model of space. In other words, there is more to the
rhetoric of space than simple construction, other players are also important.
Synthesis Day (informal
assignment for participation grade)
- During a synthesis day I typically structure a debate between the
various authors the class has read.
- First I divide the class into teams. Then each team is to select
an author from the readings assigned.
- Each group is to begin by diagramming the article using the rhetorical
triangle. (This should be very familiar as I typically do this
at the start of many class discussions.)
- Next, I write a set of questions on the board:
- How does this author think or use the idea of space?
- What is the audience asked to believe through this piece?
- What types of arguments would this author use to redesign this
classroom (or building, or campus, etc.)?
- I give each group approximately 15 minutes to think about these questions.
Then they must present a brief speech on what the author would suggest
about changing the environment of the classroom based on his or her
article. (This activity might be more or less difficult depending on
the authors used, but with some prodding, most groups proceed easily)
- Next, the other groups must
counter the ideas of the others by proving their solution as the best.
- Finally, we vote on which solution seems the best.
- Note: While you may never achieve a plurality in the final vote,
this is good for bringing students back to the authors we have read,
as well has making sure they have the rhetorical dimensions of these
articles "hammered out." Additionally, this activity is great
for introducing variant opinions about spaces that will lead into a
controversy. Finally, this activity is great for having
students engage with what "space" might mean throughout these
readings.
Building Fieldtrip
(2 day assignment; informal participation grade)
- For this field trip I invite students to meet for class at a building
on campus. This might be the Museum of Natural History, the Art
Museum, the library, the Jefferson Building, Old Capitol, etc.
- Tour guides will lead students through the building. If no tour
guides are available, I will lead students through the space.
- On the second day of this
assignment I have students complete a 15-20 minute in-class writing
response to the building. Next, we discuss the rhetorical elements
of this space including arrangement, placement on campus, size, posturing,
etc.
- Students are not too fond of wandering through buildings. Yet,
if you give them "insider" information, they tend to be more
excited. Also, I think that they are able to perform a rhetorical
analysis better once they've physically visited a space.
Deconstructing an Online Museum and/or Website
(informal assignment for participation grade)
- During this exercise I take the students through an online tour of
either a museum website or another website. I recommend
the MUVA El Pais museum
website or the Smithsonian Institution
website. However, many websites would work including Nike,
FBI website, etc.
- The second day of this informal assignment I quickly go through the
website again. Then, I have students write for 15-20 minutes informally
about the rhetorical impact of the website. Afterward, we discuss
the rhetorical tools employed and how the class might analyze the website.
We also discuss how rhetorical terms may or may not be ill-equipped
to deal with websites.
- I collect the writings and grade them as part of the assignment.
- Note: Students usually do really well with this activity.
They think of elements to analyze that I would never dream of.
Often, they will bring in examples of other websites after this exercise
is over.
|
