1. Using the Textbook Writing Teachers Workshop 2016
Stay tuned for next year’s WTW:
Crafting engaging titles 

2. Goals for 121 & Goals for using text
Encourage students to become rhetorically savvy ~ various situations
Teach concepts, skills, tools that can transfer
Critical thinking = seeing and working through complexity of issues
Use the text to reflect on course design
Not just what we do – why we do it
Make the textbook purchase meaningful for students
Use 75% of the text
Pay attention to course objectives; creatively link text to assignments that help students achieve them

3. Presentation Points:
Today:
Not today:
Highlighting what the text does not (appear to) do
Embrace the strengths of the textbook –rhetorical awareness = choices writers make
Why I love “Academic Arguments” chapter
External Support & Sources
Discuss/Brainstorm: sequencing assignments & using text
What I learned about logos
Why the style and presenting arguments chapters ROCK
Teaching critical thinking and information literacy w/EAA

4. What the textbook doesn’t (appear to) do
Teach the “basics”
No “The Writing Process” chapter
No specific section on Thesis Statement, Intro/Conclusions, Paragraph Strategies
Limited “introduction” to rhetorical situation
Chapter on Reading Strategies
Explicit discussion on Reflection

5. Options: Teach the “basics”
Supplement students’ needs w/external sources
Printouts of web sources
6th Paragraph; transitions
Juliette’s Composition Teaching Resources page
Read and discuss content in “Writing Guides” (yellow pages in core chapters)
Create lessons out of examples
Mystified by thesis statements = (Thesis Activity)
“It’s not long enough!” = review samples

6. Options: Critical, close reading skills
“Evaluating Sources” + RA + “Using Sources”
Teach annotation, evaluation of author’s purpose, previewing texts…
Synthesizing info – examines how sources inform research
“Using Sources” section– on ways research will serve students’ writing
New chapter 16 “Multimedia Arguments”
On difference between print/online content
Relationship bet. content/audience
Analyzing online content

7. Options: Reflection + Metacognition
Supplement (multiple online sources)
Writing Spaces: “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?” by Giles
Require reflection as part of course:
Require students to respond to your feedback + evaluation
Require students to articulate their process(es)
Grade these reflections critically
Embed reflection into your course:
Tell me and I forget
Show me and I remember
Involve me and I understand – proverb

8. What our textbook does do:
Teaching Choices

9. Everything is argument?
“Argument (1) a spoken, written, or visual text that expresses a point of view; (2) the use of evidence and reason to discover some version of the truth, as distinct from persuasion, the attempt to change someone else’s point of view”
Dual purpose: truth seeking + communicating

10. Choices: process of inquiry into communication (argument)
Stasis questions + types of argument
Starting with a question/idea
Researching to learn
Considering writer’s goals + readers’ needs
= critical thinking
Stasis Questions at Work
Pg. 20
Uses topic of global warming to see application of stasis questions:
Demonstrates multiple ways to examine an issue
Fosters critical thinking
Helps students see process of idea generation and honing a topic

11. So: What the textbook does (really) well
Presents components of texts as choices writers make
Repeatedly demonstrates (or asks students to consider) relationship between writer + audience

12. Rhetorical awareness Appeals – readers’ attention, trust, etc.
Structure chapter – readers’ needs + writer’s goals
Sample arguments (annotated) address rhetorical moves
Core chapters – consider readers’ expectations, background knowledge, positions/perspectives
Present readers as potentially skeptical, sympathetic, uninformed, cautious
Style, Visuals, Presentations
Multiple instances of need for consideration of audience
Research chapters

13. The Rhetorical Situation Context/ Culture Purpose Subject/ Topic
Speaker or Writer
Genre
Genre
Purpose
Subject/
Topic
Audience
or Reader
Genre

14. So what?
If we take advantage of this & “speak the same language” as our text, students see:
They have to make decisions
Decisions are based on unique factors of each writing task
Each task requires consideration, understanding + action
They’re learning what questions to ask when composition teacher isn’t there

15. Why I  “Academic Arguments” chapter
Introduces academic writing as “academic” writing
A range of writing styles/containers with some key characteristics among varied conventions
“13 Steps”
Example paragraphs = evidence of synthesis!!
Formal/Informal
Examples in paragraphs
Activities on pages

16. External Support EAA teacher guide (may need to create account)
Writing Spaces
Norton Writing Toolbox
Juliette’s Comp Resource Site
See multiple links here!
OWLs
Purdue Online Writing Lab
UNC:

17. Assignment Sequence: Rhetorical analysis Of an article
Analyzes and evaluates use of appeals, style, organization.
Article assignment
Persuasive – uses appeals
Arg. of fact (or) Definition arg.
Style—heavy use of quotes; shorter paragraphs
Research project
Finding
Evaluating
Synthesizing
“Academic” Proposal
Requires all 10 competencies
Reflection Essay
Demonstrates learning
Discusses development
Cites own work

18. Discussing assignments
Rhetorical Analysis
Etc.
Argument of Fact or Definition Argument
Focus on finding and honing topic
Research
Consider audience, purpose, etc.
Causal Argument
Challenging critical thinking assignment
More research
Consider audience…
Proposal Argument
Requires all 10 competencies

19. Discussing assignments
...
Could Do This
ALL
Day

20. Discuss. How have you used the text effectively?
Consider:
Assignment Ideas
How have you used the text effectively?
What, if any, major hiccups/problems do you have w/EAA
Sequencing
Assignments that don’t “fit” with text?
Questions?
Plans?