1. I loved the approach I have learned to take on genre from Dirk's article. While it may be obvious, it was very helpful for Dirk to point out that the research paper genre we teach our students in our ENC2135 classes will not be the same exact form of a research paper they will write for any other class. Genre is situational, contextual. Did anyone else find this nuanced take on genre enlightening?
2. Do you agree with Shipka that "...assignments that predetermine goals and narrowly limit
the materials, methodologies, and technologies that students employ in service
of those goals… perpetuate arhetorical, mechanical, one-sided views of
production" (285) or do you think predetermined goals and rubrics help students form rhetorical situations?
I'll take you up on that second question! Do I think predetermined goals and rubrics help students form rhetorical situations? No. My second time reading that question, it jumped out at me: the predetermined goals and rubrics ARE the rhetorical situation. The exigency is predetermined. The opportunities for success are inherently limited by the student's willingness/ability to perform as instructed. What I like about the Shipka article, that I also find particularly challenging, is how readers/instructors are encouraged to rethink ("re-vision") their approaches to teaching.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important lessons I've learned this summer, concerning the RWC in particular, is the value of keeping the ball in the student's court, so to speak. I think the Shipka article challenges us to consider how to extend this to the classroom. I'm always suspicious when I see an instance of scholarly jargon employed to describe seemingly quotidian behavior, so there were a few times I paused, reading this article, to see if I bought the argument. (To what extent is deciding to put a mirror in a manilla envelope an "assessment of rhetorical contexts?" When is it just putting a mirror in a manilla envelope? This is the same problem I run into with "conceptual art.") In whole, however, I think the article's spot on in encouraging restructuring educational expectations and praxis.