So that you have the opportunity to explore something about literacy that we haven’t covered in class—and so you can become more knowledgeable about a topic of interest to you—we’ll spend some time over the next few weeks preparing in-class Help-Us-Learn-Something-More-About-Literacy-and-Maybe-Make-Something Presentations for the final weeks of WRD 205.

MONDAY MARCH 7

WEDNESDAY MARCH 9

MONDAY MARCH 14

Theresa B

Sarah S

Michael R

Alexandria R

Lindsay E

Howard M

Kyla P

Joanie H

Michelle C

Dustin M

Theresa M

Ashley D

Dan M

Shaquawnna V

Christian A

SIGN UP FOR AN INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCE

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This assignment allows you to reflect on our work thus far this quarter, define a “question” or “problem” you’ve encountered in our reading, your thinking, or writing, and use a particular method and/or practice to learn more about your question or problem.

You should absolutely focus on an issue that interests you and is something you think other 05ers might benefit from knowing more about as well. Past presentations have focused on questions like what effect has Sesame Street had on literacy development?, does text messaging negatively impact one’s writing in other writing contexts?, and how have new media platforms like podcasting been used to promote literacy?

What You Need to Do Overall

  • Define a “question” you have or “problem” you’ve encountered this quarter related to the study of, teaching of, practice of, or definition of literacy. We’ll work on this in class, but you need to have a clear sense of what you’re going to research and/or make and present on and make a case for why it’s important to know more about or offer a solution for (obviously complicated question and problems have many potential solutions).
  • Prepare a presentation to last pretty much exactly 20 minutes. You are required to meet with me once outside of class for 30 minutes to conference about your presentation. This will give me an opportunity to make sure you’re focused, to help you find useful resources, and to offer support in making sense of the sources you find for your presentation.

The Four Things You Need to Do In Your Actual Presentation

  1. State your question or problem and make the case for it in two ways: (a) its relevance to the study of literacy and (b) your own reasons for being interested in the topic.
  2. Present what you made and/or the relevant scholarly research you’ve found, offering a summary of what practitioners and/or researchers have said about your topic, and, if relevant, a sense of who some of the key figures are that address your topic. You need to find at least three quality scholarly sources, from peer-reviewed journals, edited collections, or academic books.
  3. Offer implications and/or suggestions for how your project and/or research has helped answer your question or begin to the solve the problem you’ve articulated.
  4. Engage your audience in some reflection on your presentation topic, in the form of a question for whole-class discussion, a task for small-group work, a short reflective writing piece, or some other way that seems appropriate/ useful.

Presentations will take place March 7, 9, and 14th. I will be ruthless about keeping your presentations to 20 minutes, so make sure to practice and time your presentation.