Post date: Aug 20, 2013 3:11:55 AM
For the past few days, I've been working on putting together the syllabi and schedules for my fall freshman comp courses. As this is a ground up redesign of the course I've taught in the past, this has been a bit of a time crunch, but I'm happy to say that it is at least moving forward. Right now, I'm hashing out the final plans for the first project. Here's the general layout of my assignment structure from my syllabus:
Project One – Videogame Rhetorical Analysis
This project will function to introduce students to the foundational academic genre of analysis. They will be required to select a videogame and break down how it works. Work leading up to this project will include: readings in rhetoric and critical games studies, reviews of sample game analyses, in class group analyses, and a rough draft workshop.
Project Two – Discourse Community Analysis and Genre Critique Portfolio
This project will ask students to critique a particular genre used by the gaming discourse community. In order to do this, students will first produce a short discourse community analysis by researching the community and/or interviewing members of the community. Using this knowledge of audience, students will then turn to a single genre used by the community and locate several examples of the genre. They will then compose an argument on the success and failures of the genre for the discourse community. Finally, students will also be asked to create an example of the genre that represents how their proposed improvements will function. Work leading up to this project will include: readings in genre theory, reviews of sample genre critiques, in class critiques of brief genres, a rough draft workshop, and a brief, informal presentation of the revised genre example.
Project Three – Stasis Argument
This project will ask students to produce an evaluation or proposal argument. Ideally, this argument will be related to discourse community concerns surrounding gaming and/or new media more generally that we’ve returned to throughout the semester. Work leading up to this project will include: readings on academic arguments, reviews of sample stasis arguments, in class argument practice, and a rough draft workshop.
Project Four – Reflective Argument and Digital Revision
This project will help students to consider their work during the semester as discussed above. In addition, students will be taking project three and revising it into a multimodal digital text. The goal of this revision is to carefully consider the many forms a text can take in relation to our focus on videogames throughout the semester. Work leading up to this project will include: readings on metacognition and portfolio assessment, practice work with various digital media authoring programs, and a rough draft workshop.
Part of the struggle with putting together this assignment sequence was balancing the requirements of the Composition Program with my own desire to integrate gaming into these classes. I feel like the early versions I have here will work, but I'm also still a bit dissatisfied. The first two projects are basically in line with what I want to teach the students, but the exact nature of how one leads into the next is still a little hazy even to me. (My basic concept is that we will be slowly zooming out throughout the semester, starting with a particular text, then moving to the community that is actively engaged with that text, and finally moving to more general concerns of the community.)
My biggest problem with the assignment sequence is the third assignment. On one hand, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't help the students with academic arguments, but I've also hit a bit of a block at how to fluidly relate this all to games without feeling like it is too restrictive. In a way, this seems similar to the discussion I had with Becca Tarsa at the GLS Conference earlier this summer. She was relating her own struggles at balancing the necessary work of a composition class with more specific game related work. My goal is to move this beyond a "themed" class (something I've never particularly liked anyways) and toward a place where the games become a necessary part of understanding the elusive texts and rapidly changing digital discourse communities of our modern world.
Well, enough of my rambling for now. Hopefully more updates soon!