Here is an exercise Amber Engelson’s uses to learn a little bit more about her students’ writing processes and literacies. This exercise also enables students to recognize all the varies ways that they write.
STEP 1: To generate ideas and some specifics for your Spark response, get out a piece of paper and brainstorm what types of texts you read and write in your lives: from Facebook, to menus, to IM, to persuasive essays, to what languages you speak/read/write/understand. Then, choose a couple of these texts and answer these questions: What do they have in common, or not? What processes do you use to construct the texts (writing multiple drafts, or coming up with ideas on the spot, etc)? When, where, and how did you learn to read and write in these ways--at home, on the job, at school? How do you evaluate the effectiveness of these different texts? This should be about one page, and don't worry about grammar.
STEP 2: Based on in-class “Diversifying Literacy” writing exercise, and the Course Goals explain how your different writing/reading contexts will help you contribute to our writing community and to this course. Using specific examples to prove your point, answer the following questions: What kind of reader/writer will you be? What from your background can you contribute to this writing community? What kind of readers and writers do you want others to be for your own texts? Respond to a peer’s post, comparing and contrasting your own textual experience to his/her’s (at least 2 paragraphs). We’ll be using this in class so be thorough.
SPARK TIP: Give students a deadline for when to post the response and a deadline for when to respond to a post.
