WA6: Literacies at School

 

Description: Formal essay about the “rules” and expectations governing literate practice in school. While WA6 is, essentially, a revision of WA2, I want you to think much more about how such “rules” and expectations may compare/contrast with those shaping literate practice in spaces beyond school (games, work, something else). What might the “rules” for literacy in spaces associated with leisure activities (“play”) and work have to do with the rules for writing in school?

 

Due for Instructor Review: __________

Pages required for Instructor Review: 5 pages!

 

A. Before you write this essay, answer the following questions in as much detail as possible (in your Dialogue Journal [don’t forget to date the entry]):

 

  1. What did you write about in WA5 (“Literacies at Play”)? What did you say separates “insiders” from “outsiders” in this community of practice? What strategies must one use to be heard, understood, and taken seriously within the rhetorical spaces of this community of practice? What “rules” do literate members of this discourse know and follow? How did you learn them? Where did these rules come from?
  2. What did you write about in WA4 (“Literacies at Work”)? What did you say separates “insiders” from “outsiders” in this community of practice? What strategies must one use to be heard, understood, and taken seriously within the rhetorical spaces of this community of practice? What “rules” do literate members of this discourse know and follow? How did you learn them? Where did these rules come from?
  3. What did you write about in WA3 (“Literacies Beyond the School”)? What did you say separates “insiders” from “outsiders” in this community of practice? What strategies must one use to be heard, understood, and taken seriously within the rhetorical spaces of this community of practice? What “rules” do literate members of this discourse know and follow? How did you learn them? Where did these rules come from?
  4. How might the rules and expectations for literate behavior in school relate to that in other communities of practice, especially those about which you wrote in WA3-WA5?
  5. Are these rules and expectations the same in every class at every level? Why not?
  6. Choose a class and talk about the rules and expectations for literate behavior within that class. How’d you learn these rules? How do they differ from other classes? Why do they differ? How are they the same? Why might they be somewhat similar?
  7. What special knowledge do you have to know in order to meet the rules and expectations of school literacies? Is this knowledge always the same, regardless of for whom you are writing (in school)? Why not?
  8. What special terminology do you have to know in order to meet the rules and expectations of school literacies? Is this knowledge always the same, regardless of for whom you are writing (in school)? Why not?
  9. What tools do literate users know how to use in the communities of practice associated with school?
  10. Choose a class and/or a high-stakes writing situation like TASP/TAAS/TAKS and answer the following questions: What would you say separates “insiders” from “outsiders” in this community of practice? What strategies must one use to be heard, understood, and taken seriously within the rhetorical spaces of this community of practice? What “rules” do literate members of this discourse know and follow? How did you learn them? Where did these rules come from?

B. Before you review your WA2, take a close look at your responses to the above questions. You should have MUCH fodder for WA6 already.

 

C. Review your most recent draft of WA2.  What can you take from this draft and apply to WA6? What instructor feedback did you receive and how can you use it in WA6?

 

Remember: I am going to expect MUCH more of you in WA6 than I did in WA2, and I am going to expect you to be able to apply all that we have learned about literacies in contexts beyond school to rethink what it means to read and write in more traditional school contexts.

 

D. Information WA6 MUST contain: Think about all we’ve done in class thus far and consider what it might have to teach us about the “rules” for writing in school and how they might be established, upheld, and perpetuated. What special terminology is embedded in these rules? How does it change from context to context? How do we learn these rules? What special knowledge do we need to have before we can embark on a new reading/writing project? Why?

 

Your WA6 MUST answer questions like those listed above. When you work with your tutor and/or peer reviewer, show them these questions and ask them if your draft answers them. That’s a major part of what I’ll be looking for when I review your essay.

 

E. Write your essay, using all the information you have generated by responding to the above questions (1-10 and those immediately above this) and anything else you can glean from WA2.

 

F. Get feedback on your essay (from your Writing Group, from someone in the Writing Center, and/or from a peer in this classroom).

 

G. Revise it (deeply) to address what your reader pointed out and anything else you learned about the previous draft from this experience.

 

H. Bring it in for Instructor Review.