Project 2

Your second writing project asks you to use the work of Walker Percy (and Paulo Freire as applicable) to analyze education at WCU.  Your writing project must, at its core, work to propose some practice/concept that positively impacts the university and its students. Your project must address one of the following topics.

Topics

  1. Education beyond the major.  You’re getting a degree in something, but mostly you’re not:  majors have between 40 and 60 credits within the field, leaving most of the degree spent elsewhere.  How does education beyond the major work for students who are focused on (x) but taking (y)? Identify the problem and then use the work of Percy (and Freire as desired) to assert (at least) four ways in which education beyond the major supports significant, necessary learning at WCU.  Each of your  ideas must be supported by critical ideas from the work of Percy.
  2. Learning outside the classroom. Although it’s a cliche to say that what goes on outside the classroom is as important as what goes on inside each class, do the math. Each 3-credit class you take involves 37.5 hours of class-time across 15 weeks, or about 2.5 hours a week. For a full load of 5 classes, that’s only 12.5-14 hours of class time a week, far short of what should be expected in a work situation (40 hours) or what you did last year in highschool (30 hours). How should students at WCU, and the institution itself, leverage that time for transformative learning?  Identify the problem and then use the work of Percy (and Freire if desired) to assert (at least) four ways in which learning beyond the classroom supports, or could support, something at the core of the student experience at WCU. Your ideas must be supported by four critical ideas from the work of Percy.
  3. The campus and the community. We go to town for yogurt (no! have some acai instead) or whatever, but most of us don’t really have a  sense of community beyond the campus at WCU.  We can do better. We must do better. How should students at WCU, and the institution itself, interact with the community beyond the campus in order to achieve the goals for transformative learning?  Identify the problem and then use the work of Percy and Freire to assert (at least) four ways in which WCU could use our non-campus community to support something at the core of the student experience at WCU.  Your ideas must be supported by four critical ideas from the work of  Percy (and Freire if desired).
  4. Teaching without teaching. What should good teaching be, especially at a college designed to train future leaders?  Percy and Freire both value the role of the teacher even as they caution against the act of teaching.  What can professors do if learning, for Percy, is “avoiding the educator’s direct presentation of the the object as a lesson to be learned” (5), or for Freire, if learning requires that “the people subjected to domination must fight for their emancipation” (6). How should professors structure learning at WCU in order to allow this to happen?  Outline a productive teaching practice using the work of Percy and Freire to assert (at least) four ways in which professors could support real student learning, not as following but as leading, at the core of the student experience at WCU. Your ideas must be supported by four critical ideas from the work of both Freire and Percy (at least 1 each).
  5. Choose your own adventure. Alternately, for students who are confident of their selection, you may propose a topic that allows you to address issues of concern that facilitate a discussion of ideas from Percy & Freire.  Warning: if you choose this, you should talk with me in advance, and be aware that I’ll approach your thesis defense as an intervention. Prepare to meet the same guidelines: Identify a problem and then use the work of Percy and Freire to assert (at least) four ways of addressing your problem. WCU must be integral to your project. Your ideas must be supported by four critical ideas from the work of both Freire and Percy (at least 1 each).  

Format

You may produce a traditional written document (submitted as a Google Doc) or a less paper-based project that achieves the goals of the project and conforms to the overall guidelines.  You may work alone or on a team of up to 3 individuals. If you produce a written document, your finished project must contain at least 1200 words and no more than 1800 words. If you produce a project with mixed visual and word-based media, your word count should be substantially less. If your work is almost exclusively visual, you must create a vision statement that explains your theory and connects what is seen by the viewer to the prompt of the assignment.  

Components

  1. An introduction that sets up the context, texts, identifies the  problem and proposes the solution as a thesis.
  2. If needed, a more-or-less factual and objective overview paragraph,  identifying the critical issue(s) at stake in the formulation of your project. This section, if needed, provides context & significance, describing the existing issues and why they must be addressed (not argumentative but rather foundational)
  3. The body should provide analytical exposition of your proposed solution(s), with adequate time to explain your ideas in detail, link them to authoritative support, and explain your rationale
  4. As a conclusion, you may choose to detail the anticipated results or outcomes, what you believe your project will result in.

Timeline

  1. Topic Proposal, containing a topic selection, a team selection, a working thesis with at least two of your sub-points identified, and 2 supporting ideas (from Percy), as a google doc (NOT WORD DOC) shared in the folder and on our weekly blogs, no later than 1159 pm 10/28 (5%)
  2. Defense of topic proposal in conference with me no later than 11/1 (5%)
  3. Comments (three things to say: 1 praise, 1 constructive, 1 on use of Percy) on two other proposals (as comments on the google doc, copied EACH as a post on the weekly blogs), on or before 10/31 (5%);
  4. An initial draft of (500 words), with at least 2 sub-points detailed and paragraphed, as a google doc (NOT WORD DOC) shared in the folder and on our weekly blogs no later than 11/3 (5%)
  5. Comments (three things to say: 1 praise, 1 constructive, 1 on use of Percy) on two other writing projects (as comments on the google doc, copied EACH as a post on the weekly blogs), on or before 11/7 (5%);
  6. A draft conference with me, on or before 11/8 (5%)
  7. A revised and extended draft, of at least ⅔ (800 words), with at least 3 subpoints detailed, as a google doc (NOT WORD DOC) shared in the folder and on our weekly blogs no later than 11/10 (5%)
  8. Comments (three things to say: 1 praise, 1 constructive, 1 on use of Percy) on two other writing projects (as comments on the google doc, copied EACH as a post on the weekly blogs), on or before 11/12 (5%);
  9. The quality of the finished project, due 11/14 (60%)

Your project can be a written document, produced and submitted via Google Docs, or a mixed media digital project like a presentation, a website, or some other digital artifact. Whatever format, your document has to meet the project guidelines and contain the necessary components. Text documents should be between 1200 and 1800 words. Digital projects should be mixed media and a similar length of time to “read.”  Please feel free to consult me regarding appropriate format. If your work is almost exclusively visual, you must create a vision statement that explains your theory and connects what is seen by the viewer to the prompt of the assignment, which will be graded qualitatively alongside your visual piece.

For peer review, we will use a spreadsheet to facilitate reviewers.  Teams MUST delete the names of individual students and replace with (a) the name of the individual making the document available in the shared folder (the same individual MUST make the post on the blogs) and (b) add the word TEAM after the individual names.  For peer review purposes, each individual on a team has to review the SAME document, but each person leaves individual comments.

Writing involves the relationship of thought to communicated expression. In terms of ideas, you will be graded on your expert interpretation/application of your source texts, Percy’s “Loss of the Creature” and Freire’s “Banking Concept of Education;” the strength and clarity of your research question/problem; the clarity of your proposed thesis/solution and its 4 sub points; and the strength of your explication of your ideas.  In terms of writing, you will be graded on your ability to interact with the ideas of others (Percy and Freire) and express ideas clearly to others via writing. An A level project will demonstrate an expert familiarity with Percy and Freire and an insightful proposal for implementation. A B level project will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of Percy and Freire and a detailed implementation proposal. A C level project will demonstrate an adequate understanding of Percy and Freire and a workable implementation. Failing projects will have issues with competency in Freire’s ideas, implementing them, or both.

You must have your team identified by 10/29. Your work will be submitted into the shared folder on google drive no later than 1159 pm on 11/14. Late work loses 5 points per day.

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