Lessons

  • Jason Reynolds’ Graduation Speech

    This brilliant speech offers excellent examples of rhetorical technique. For starters, it is a counternarrative with a “yes, but…” or “agree, but with a difference” multi-layered thesis. Reynolds begins by identifying the standard “spread your wings,” trope of graduation speeches, affirms it, then makes it clear what it overlooks. Here is his “three-story thesis”:  First…

  • Ursula LeGuin’s “The Carrier Bag Theory” 

    LeGuin’s “The Carrier Bag Theory” is not only super interesting and pertinent for a writing studies course, but it’s the only short and relatively accessible narrative I could find that tackles the overall purpose and use of stories. However, the text is dense and far more “writerly” than my freshman are comfortable reading. If I…

  • ChatGPT vs. Anne Lamott

    For this lesson, I do a side-by-side comparison of Anne Lamott’s “Shitty 1st Drafts” and a text generated by ChatGPT, from a prompt that matches Lamott’s thesis. I don’t tell the students the second piece was written by A.I.—only that it essentially says the same thing as Lamott’s piece, only differently. The first time I…

  • The Rhetorical Situation

    You may pair this with the handout “Questions to Ask When Conducting a Rhetorical Analysis.”

  • Freewriting with Peter Elbow

    I like to have students return to previous freewrites, particularly freewrites in which they believe they exhausted what they had to say. They are often surprised to discover that given a fresh start on a different day, they can marshal a whole host of new ideas. These slides will help you introduce the freewriting concept.…

  • Visual Analysis

    I was in graduate school before I read a rationale for literary analysis: that we “read the word” in order to “read the world” (Paulo Freire). When you master one form of analysis, whether it’s visual, textual, or auditory, you increase your ability to analyze in other modes as well.  I accompany the first lesson…

  • Doubting & Believing Games

    Peter Elbow introduced the “doubting” and “believing games” in the 1970s to make critical thought conscious and easily practicable. As Elbow described it in his 2008 address to the CCCC, the doubting game is “the disciplined practice of trying to be as skeptical and analytic as possible with every idea we encounter. By trying hard…

  • “Accents” by Denice Frohman

    A native New Yorker and former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, Denice Frohman writes about the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. This poem, “Accents,” is a beautiful ode to her mother’s Puerto Rican accent. Not only does this performance pair well with resources that discuss language prejudice, but it can also serve…

  • “The Language in Question” by Benjamin Garcia

    Written by young Mexican-American poet Benjamin Garcia, “The Language in Question” is the perfect poem to open discussion on language prejudice. The poem’s political commentary begins with its title; the “language in question” is English because, as the speaker goes on to suggest, no matter the context, English is never not in question. English is, as the…

  • Finding & Writing from a New Lead

    One of the most important insights from “Shitty 1st Drafts” by Anne Lamott is the generative potential of experimenting with new leads. Students will be able to locate several potential leads in this student draft and see how writing with a different focus adds richness to the material.