Writing 340 // Summer 2020
Our schedule for this semester is going to evolve, mutate, and remain an alive document. I have plans and expectations, but I need your help (class) to make sure each assignment, each workshop, and each due date is going to ensure you create the most VALUABLE and MEANINGFUL writing.
We have about 11.5 weeks together. I’ll start to fill this in with a few admin things you need to get done in weeks 1 and 2, but also readings we can start before you start to add to the class ENGAGEMENT schedule and folder.
We’ll talk about this on day one:
WEEK 1
5/21/2020:
Let’s talk about the course and all the bits-and-pieces involved. Ask your questions. Voice your concerns. Add to the curriculum.
Reading:
Over the weekend, I want you to read the article “Should Writers Use They Own English?” by Vershawn Ashanti Young. This should give you a lot to think about and write about.
I also want you to try and get through as much as you can of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. You’ll find both these readings in the class Google Drive.
Posting:
Get those ideas MOVING! Think about what you’ve ENGAGED in these two readings. What interested you? What angered you? What confused you? Are there quotes that need SPACE to marinate online? Build a post that ENGAGES IDEAS, that specific set of HOWs and WHYs. Format is up to you. Style is up to you. Your Medium publication is YOUR space, now’s the time to begin CULTIVATING that VOICE.
Try to have it up before our next class on 5/26/2020.
WEEK 2
5/26/2020:
Let’s talk about those readings and read some of your responses! I think some small groups will work where you can start to break these ideas down, get questions together, and read responses while leaving feedback.
Also, it’s time to discuss WP1 and what that’s gonna be.
WP1 Work:
Start to get your ideas going for the first project. You can begin to post your “drafts” in the folder for our first workshop session. Remember, this “draft” doesn’t have to follow a specific format. You need to trust your writing process, how you develop and cultivate ideas, and go with that.
Reading:
For our “reading” I want you to listen to the first episode of the podcast I’m cohosting Writing Remix. You can listen to it here:
Or you can find us on Spotify, Apple Pod, or Stitcher. Are there ideas here that connect to Freire, Young, your questions about identity, writing etc…? Then, start to draft that new post for Medium.
Posting:
Start drafting your next post for Medium. You can post about anything, and you can definitely use the readings to help develop your next post. Remember, this Medium space is YOUR space to CULTIVATE a creative and AUTHENTIC intellectual VOICE. Also, don’t discount videos, images, etc. to make those posts layered. So, get to it.
WP1:
Post your draft of WP1 in the Google Folder. On Thursday we’ll be working in either a full-class group or smaller groups to work through your initial ideas/drafts.
5/28/2020:
Do you want to move into small groups or do this workshop together? Let’s talk about that first, okay?
In-class ENGAGEMENT, WRITING, and DISCUSSION.
WP1:
Keep it going on the next draft. We’ll have a more detailed session next week. If you need to talk to me make an appointment and we’ll do that. Remember, you want to DIG BENEATH the IDEAS. It’s not about presenting a BUNCH OF STUFF. You want to make something specific SHINE!
Reading:
I want you to read “Claiming an Education” by Adrienne Rich. Also, start that second chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It’s really amazing, I promise.
Posting:
Look, I want you to WANT to post on Medium, but by the end of this week make sure to write something for either one of these readings OR find a way that these two relate to each other. Focus on something SMALL, something SPECIFIC.
Think about having about 3 posts by the start of next week on Medium. Next week you’ll choose one of those pieces to post to the class publication. Don’t worry, we’ll go over this in class.
WEEK 3
6/2/2020:
Small group work on WP1. Read each other’s work. Leave feedback. Plan your next draft.
OR
Let’s do a full-class workshop on paragraphs from WP1 that you’ve drafted so far.
We definitely need to talk about “Claiming an Education.” Share some of your posts so far. Plan that first submission to the class publication. You should have about 3 or more posts to your Medium page. You’re gonna want to choose your best from this section, edit, and then submit that to the class publication. We’ll go over the process OR we can do the posting in class. We’ll talk.
Last thing is we need to talk about the WP1 conferences. Set up some time and let's talk about where you’re at with WP1.
Engage:
I want you to read some posts from other people in the class, leave comments, questions, and such. Then, answer feedback on your posts.
WP1:
Look, just keep drafting. Make time to talk to me. Get a draft ready for the weekend work.
Posting:
Edit and submit that piece to the class publication. Keep writing and posting to your own space too.
6/4/2020:
Today we’re making sure everyone posted their work to the class publication. So, I’m putting you in small groups to do two things:
- Revise and post to the class publication.
- We need to think about the WP1 Rubric. We’ve read 2 chapters of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “Claiming an Education,” and “Should Writers Use They Own English,” plus whatever else we listened to, read, watched, talked about, etc… Use all this to, on a Google Doc (I’ll share it) to come up with HOW and WHY you want your WP1 to be assessed.
What else? Let me know.
Reading:
“Your Average N-word” by Vershawn Ashanti Young
Posting:
I mean, make sure you have at least 3 posts on your Medium space AND one piece submitted to the class publication.
You can keep writing though, this is the LEAST you need. But you get better by writing more and more, believe me.
WEEK 4
6/9/2020:
Get back in your group and talk to each other about what you read this weekend. Give VALUABLE feedback. It’s not about grammar, it’s all about CONTENT, IDEAS, and VALUE. You’re the audience. Let the writer know what’s up.
Now, what do you need from me? Questions about WP1? Questions about readings? If not, Let’s do some in-class ENGAGEMENT, DISCOURSE, and WRITING.
There’s one more class before WP1 is due on 6/14/2020. Let’s plan that class. Tell me what I can do to help.
Workshop:
TBD
Reading:
TBD
Writing:
WP1, that’s all.
Posting:
You’ll all be posting one more piece to your Medium space before the end of this cycle that’ll be the reflection on WP1.
6/11/2020:
Well, today is the last class before the first writing project is due. I want this to be a useful and MEANINGFUL session so it’s up to you if you want to do a workshop.
One thing that might be helpful is to have a workshop where we look at your piece in a drafted version on Medium to see how it looks and works.
The other thing is just doing some specific paragraph workshops with the full class.
We can do a normal workshop.
OR
We can skip the workshop and talk about a reading, a student piece, and do some in-class writing and work
Writing:
WP1 is due on June 14th, 2020 by 11:59 pm. I want you to submit it to the class publication and use the tag TheWhatOfItAll. This will make sure all the projects are archived in the WP1 space on the class site.
You’ll also be submitting a version to Blackboard’s Turn It In. This is so I can grade the work.
Engage:
Going into WP2, we’ll be engaging a lot of MULTIMEDIA and MULTIMODAL material. So, this weekend we’re going to start that with The Allegory by Royce Da 5'9". I also want you to TRY and read The Allegory of the Cave by Plato. Think about the links between the album and the text. What do we learn from this sort of MULTIMODAL relationship?
For those of you not familiar with or into listening to Hip-Hop you can use the Genius website to help with the DEPTH of the lyrics.
Writing:
Let’s get that first response up this week. You can pull inspiration from the album. You can pull inspiration from something else. You can even make your response visual, or auditory, or a playlist, or or or… Use your skills.
WP2:
By the start of next week WP2 will be up and ready for us to discuss it.
WEEK 5
6/16/2020:
Here we are. WP1 is over and the journey to get WP2 finished begins. Remember, you might want to treat WP1, 2, & 3 as a TRILOGY of work. So this is that second part of that trilogy, sort of where things become a bit more RAW and HONEST and IDEAS are uncovered that you might’ve never thought would be uncovered. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sure, this might be a little dramatic, but writing can disturb our “safety” or feelings of “comfort.” And they can definitely do the same for your audience. We have to let it in order to get to the ROOT of IDEAS.
In fact, WP2 will be treated like a BRIDGE to WP3, so in essence, we’ll be working on WP2 in order to GET TO WP3. It’s a whole thing. Don’t worry. ALl will be revealed.
I want to talk about The Allegory and The Allegory of the Cave. What happens when we smash together two very different MODES of learning and ENGAGEMENT? HOW does that uncover deeper more relevant ideas and questions? Etc…
What is up with WP2? Let’s talk about it.
Questions?
For this section of the course, I’m going to want you to write at least 4 posts for Medium, and then submit a separate post to the class publication. So, in total that’s 5 posts this cycle.
These posts can be a lot of things because WP2 can be a lot of things. You can do something visual with a small writing component. You can develop an audio experience with a small writing component. You can do a photo essay. You can do strictly writing. You can illustrate. You can do interviews. You can do a series of podcast episodes.
You can basically do whatever you want to develop your ideas in this part of the trilogy and then create a WP2 in the same way.
Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about it.
Engage:
TBD
Posting/Writing:
Start to create your Medium posts.
WP2:
Let’s get a small proposal together that explains the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of this project.
6/18/2020
Let’s get that conversation going about WP2 and HOW and WHY you’ll be pursuing that project and HOW it’s going to BRIDGE towards WP3. You want to think about the work you do in WP2 informing WP3. So, if you’re doing interviews, or a podcast, or a photo essay, or building playlists, or or or that the work deepens your understanding of the content for WP3.
Maybe you want to build an annotated bibliography that you’ll use in WP3. Whatever you do in WP2, allow it to help you get deeper into your AUTOETHNOGRAPHY project for WP3.
We had something to ENGAGE for today. Let’s talk about it.
What else can I do to help?
Engage:
Over the weekend, read the third chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Writing:
I would say always get another post up on Medium, and work on WP2.
Also, there’s going to be a shared Google Doc. On there I want you to add at least three quotes from Chapter 3 you found resonated with you, and then provide at least one MULTIMEDIA piece to further provide access to those ideas.
Lastly, draft up a WHAT, HOW, and WHY (3 paragraphs) for your WP2 Archive and submit it to a shared Google Folder. This isn’t about perfection. I just want you to be clear with yourself (and so I know how I can help you) about the PURPOSE of WP2.
WP2:
Work it, and we’ll be talking about how to do a workshop.
WEEK 6
6/23/2020
Sometimes a song just hits the right way. I’ve been thinking about the different ways we DIALOGUE, not just with each other, but with histories, power dynamics, those told and untold stories, and and and…
Freire really gets in those spaces that we might be afraid to acknowledge, that when LOVE is used to create the dialogic space, that moment when people come together and realize that collective HUMANITY no matter where we come from, when we come from, how we speak, etc…
And there’s this song by Jim Jones from his album Wasted Talent:
So let’s talk. Let’s meet in that space.
WP2, sure. let’s talk about it. Small groups? Large groups?
Engage:
Any ideas? I want to hear them.
Write:
Post on Medium. Create. Build. Prepare your submission.
WP2:
Let’s prepare for a workshop of your projects.
6/25/2020:
Today we’ll start with opening the discussion again about effective writing techniques by looking at each other’s work. Let’s talk about: OPENING SENTENCES, IDEA DRIVEN WRITING, PURPOSE, SOURCE INTEGRATION, and CONCISENESS/DIRECTNESS.
We’re gonna use time to make weekend accountability groups for WP2. You need to make a big push to develop your WP2 this weekend.
Also, I want you to think about the direction and do some rewriting for WP3.
I want to also start to fill in the rest of the semester with you. Think about what you need, what sort of engaging readings, music, videos, etc, you want to talk about, and anything else you find will be helpful and MEANINGFUL to do. How can I make sure you get the most out of this course? What do you need from me? How can I help?
Anything else you want to say about Chapter 3 of Freire?
Engage:
If there are no other ideas, I would like you all to watch these three episodes of No Passport Required:
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/hs9vaa/alma991043347601103731
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/hs9vaa/alma991043347601003731
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/hs9vaa/alma991043347600903731
And be prepared to talk about them. Think about Freire. Think about your writing. Think about your WP1, 2, & 3. Think about the things you’re reminded of, questions, and sources you can bring to unpack these ideas further.
Writing:
You know by now you have 6 Medium posts to create before July 27th, but I want you to consider writing a piece in response to a post by one of your peers. Make sure to link that post in your piece.
WP2:
One-on-One conferences are coming. Start to think about how WP2 is going to get you to WP3. Let’s get a workshop in next week for WP3. Stay in touch with your accountability group and be prepared to talk with them on Tuesday.
WEEK 7
6/30/2020
IT HAPPENED!
7/2/2020
Today we have small group workshops for your WP2 Archive. This assignment is due on Sunday, July 5th by 11:59 pm. I’ll have all the links prepared for that, and then we can talk about a day when we’ll do a discussion/presentation(s) of the Archives.
We also need to work on the Rubric for this project. Much like WP1, I want to see HOW and WHY you want to be assessed for this project. One thing, because this is a more active project and less a traditional paper, I want to see more reasoning and possibly some support for your ideas for assessment. Talk about this in your workshop groups. I’ll share the document.
Lastly, I’ll be sending the Doodle link. Sign up for a meeting and let’s talk about your project. We can also talk about WP3, which is coming up.
Engage:
For the weekend, you’ll be reading the first chapter of Stuart Hall’s book The Fateful Triangle: Race, Ethnicity, Nation called “Race — The Sliding Signifier.”
You can find the book through the USC library. It’s online. In fact, this link should be good: https://hup.degruyter.com/view/title/540826?tab_body=toc#.Xv5F37dMopg.link
As a complement to this reading, you’ll listen to M.I.A.’s album Kala.
Writing
I’m going to open a Google Doc for this ENGAGEMENT, and this document will be where for the rest of the summer we’ll be creating a cumulative SPACE for quotes, ideas, links to other sources, and analysis of our ENGAGEMENT. But, the keyword is CUMULATIVE: everything that we ENGAGE from here on in you will be tasked with finding the INTERSECTIONAL and ANALYTICAl RELATIONSHIPS with.
I plan on making this Google Doc public as well, so let’s really put some energy into it.
WP2:
Finish it. The project is due on Sunday, July 5th by 11:59 pm, with a reflection (just like WP1).
WP3:
Start drafting this as well. Next week we’ll start to workshop that paper. I’m thinking of a full class workshop of ideas and paragraphs.
Finally:
I need more work for us to ENGAGE. Send that along so I can build out the rest of the schedule.
WEEK 8
7/7/2020
It happened and it was great. Good work class!
7/9/2020
Today we’re talking about WP3, looking at the prompt/assignment, and then working on a starting point. Ask all the questions you have.
I also want to look at sample WP3 papers so we get an idea of what you can actually do. Remember, you want WP3 to be for a more “academic” audience, but keeping in the Autoethnography style. Using your experiences, yourself, and your personal perspectives will be key to this project.
We’ll also do some in-class writing and engaging to try and stir up some ideas.
Engage:
I want you to engage a few things here and add to the document we were using for Stuart Hall. Engage as much of this as possible. The reading are super short.
“The Wrong Body” from Gender Outlaws (It’s in the readings folder)
The selection of Aimee Herman poems (It’s in the readings folder).
Watch these videos by Mykki Blanco:
This video about Rob Halford (lead singer of Judas Priest coming out as an openly gay man)
Writing:
WP3 drafting for the workshop.
WEEK 9
7/14/2020
We discussed the amazing work of Mykki Blanco, the video on Rob Halford, Aimee Herman’s poetry, and the essay “The Wrong Body.”
Everyone prepped for the workshop on 7/16/2020.
7/16/2020
It happened and was awesome. We had a WP3 workshop and a discussion on writing strategies by using prof. d’s writing as an example.
Engage:
For the weekend you’ll be reading and engaging with the following work. If you have to choose to do some of it and not all of it, start with the first piece and then work your way around the list. But try to get to everything.
Use the same Google Doc from the Stuart Hall reading to develop ideas, share other resources, and develop interconnected analysis:
…and this list could keep going. So, if you have other sources you’d like to add here, put them on the Google Doc and we’ll talk about them on Tuesday.
Writing:
Keep posting your Medium work. Make sure you also think about the 2 posts you’ll be submitting to the class site.
Work on that WP3 and make sure you get your work updated in the WP3 Google Folder.
WEEK 10 — WEEK 11
7/21/2020
Today is the second to last workshop before you hand in WP3. Use it wisely! We’ll also be talking about the readings from the weekend, so be prepared to discuss those.
OKAY! Get into your groups and talk about your work.
Writing:
Prep a new draft for the last WP3 workshop. Also, if you want a paragraph or two workshopped by the entire class, send that along and we’ll get into that after the small group workshops.
7/23/2020
This is it, people. The last workshop for WP3. Get to it! If you want something workshopped by the class I set up a Google Folder. Upload it and we’ll take a look.
Writing:
WP3 is due between July 26th and July 27th (by 11:59 pm). Make sure to submit your WP3 and tag it Wp3 so it gets categorized correctly.
On Blackboard, post your 2 paragraph reflection on the writing process.
WP2 Archives:
Email me if you want your archive discussed on Tuesday, July 28th or Thursday, July 30th.
Revisions:
If you haven’t already started, get moving on WP1 revisions so you’re ready for the WP3 revision.
7/28/2020
Let’s get into those WP2 archives. We’re breaking into groups for some small group Q&A and then we’ll return to the big group for a larger discussion.
Let’s talk REVISIONS!!
That’s right! WP1 and WP3 are about to go through some changes because the writing process is just that: A PROCESS! If you want a paragraph or two that you’ve revised workshopped by the group, prepare a “before-and-after” experience and upload it to the shared Google Folder.
7/30/2020
This is our last official day of class. So, let’s make it count. Do you need a Revision Workshop? Let me know.
We definitely have to get in those second rounds of WP2 archives, so we’re getting into those small groups first right away. Be prepared.
Portfolio:
This is how we’re gonna deal with the portfolio. Because all of the projects are on Medium, your revisions are going to be done on Medium. You don’t have to resubmit your work. What you’ll do is, on a word doc or pdf, submit your links to the pieces on Blackboard with a 2 paragraph reflection on the revision process. This is due on August 4th by 5 pm. If you ‘re done earlier, the Turn it in link will be open for you so you can submit whenever you want.
What About WP4?
Great question!
So, by August 9th, I want you to submit one more post to the class site. That’s your WP4.
Final Words:
I just want to thank you for being brave this summer. It might sound cliche, but you all seriously showed up, wrote, and participated fearlessly. It wasn’t easy. This wasn’t the “normal” Writing 340 experience, but what's normal anyway, especially now.
I’m humbled by everyone's work, everyone’s ideas, and the way you all cultivated these Medium spaces. You should all be proud of the work you did, and I hope you all continue to write. Defy the gatekeepers! Provide value for your audience. And most importantly write because there's no one out there that can say what you want to say better than you.
