Incorporating Wildcat Writers into your Curriculum
The structure of Wildcat Writers partnerships differ on the basis of the teachers’ needs. This is why initial communication among teachers is key to the success of this program. Once teachers understand the objectives of each other’s classes, they can begin to craft assignments that serve the goals of the class while still encouraging a collaborative and friendly relationship among student partners.
Tom Deans, a scholar who specializes in community-university writing partnerships, has designated three kinds of writing projects that can happen in these partnerships: writing for, writing about, and writing with. These categories may prove useful as you think about what types of assignments you would like to include in your class. The three types of projects and the sample assignments below are designed to work as starting points for you. Please mix and rewrite these ideas to suit your own partnership.
Tom Deans, a scholar who specializes in community-university writing partnerships, has designated three kinds of writing projects that can happen in these partnerships: writing for, writing about, and writing with. These categories may prove useful as you think about what types of assignments you would like to include in your class. The three types of projects and the sample assignments below are designed to work as starting points for you. Please mix and rewrite these ideas to suit your own partnership.
1. Writing For Projects
In this type of assignment, students write for their partners as audience. This is especially useful in providing students with a real audience for their work, teaching students how to adapt their writing to the rhetorical needs of a particular audience, and allowing the students who read the work to learn from the writer.
Here are a few examples of writing for projects.
A. Autobiographies, memoirs, or personal essays. In this assignment, students write about themselves for their partners. This serves to create rapport between partners, and it also allows students to engage in reflection on their own experience. One class may share these with the other, or both classes may choose to write and exchange personal essays.
Maria Elena Wakamatsu asked her students to send bios and creative writing to their partners at the beginning of the partnership. You can download sample student work from Maria Elena's high school class.
Faith Kurtyka invited her students to write personal essays to send to their partners as an introduction, focusing on helping her students craft engaging and detailed writing. Download her assignment sheet.
Jenna Vinson guided her students in writing a short autobiography for their partners. You can download her assignment sheet.
Kelly Myers and her partner teacher built personal writing into a final unit with their students, teaching the craft of memoir and narrative. The students exchanged writing and workshopped papers. You can download Kelly's unit schedule.
Several teachers have linked a unit on personal writing to college personal statements. You can download a rubric for personal statements, a peer review guide, tips on personal statements for high school students, and a personal statement workbook.
B. Feedback Letters. One popular way to link courses is to invite students to write feedback to each other on their writing. This is useful because as students gain skill in critiquing others’ writing, they become better equipped to revise their own work. Sometimes teachers will pair a writing for assignment to write feedback letters to the partner with a writing about assignment to write a rhetorical analysis essay or response essay on the partner’s work.
Jenna Vinson assigned her students to complete a rhetorical analysis of their partners' work, along with a letter of constructive criticism. You can download her assignment sheet.
Aja Martinez asked students to write a feedback letter on their partners' personal statements, along with a discussion of the rhetorical strategies in their own personal statements as a final exam. You can download her assignment sheet.
C. Public Argument. Another option is to invite students to tailor a research essay or other assignment toward the partner class as audience. Students can create traditional essays, visual arguments or digital arguments to try to communicate something to their partner class. (For college teachers working with the 102 curriculum, this option can work well as a unit directly following the controversy analysis research essay). Partners can respond to the argument by writing their own thoughts, and potentially even complete their own research on the subject.
Rachael Wendler asked her students to create a visual argument tailored to their high school partner class. You can download her assignment sheet and rubric, or link to a sample student website.
D. Advice. A final option is to allow students to write advice for one another, an option that works particularly well in classes where many students have come from a similar background as their partners.
Aja Martinez assigned a sequence of journals where students reflected on their own barriers coming to college, discussed the barriers common to many students, read their partners' writing about barriers, and then wrote a letter of advice.
Here are a few examples of writing for projects.
A. Autobiographies, memoirs, or personal essays. In this assignment, students write about themselves for their partners. This serves to create rapport between partners, and it also allows students to engage in reflection on their own experience. One class may share these with the other, or both classes may choose to write and exchange personal essays.
Maria Elena Wakamatsu asked her students to send bios and creative writing to their partners at the beginning of the partnership. You can download sample student work from Maria Elena's high school class.
Faith Kurtyka invited her students to write personal essays to send to their partners as an introduction, focusing on helping her students craft engaging and detailed writing. Download her assignment sheet.
Jenna Vinson guided her students in writing a short autobiography for their partners. You can download her assignment sheet.
Kelly Myers and her partner teacher built personal writing into a final unit with their students, teaching the craft of memoir and narrative. The students exchanged writing and workshopped papers. You can download Kelly's unit schedule.
Several teachers have linked a unit on personal writing to college personal statements. You can download a rubric for personal statements, a peer review guide, tips on personal statements for high school students, and a personal statement workbook.
B. Feedback Letters. One popular way to link courses is to invite students to write feedback to each other on their writing. This is useful because as students gain skill in critiquing others’ writing, they become better equipped to revise their own work. Sometimes teachers will pair a writing for assignment to write feedback letters to the partner with a writing about assignment to write a rhetorical analysis essay or response essay on the partner’s work.
Jenna Vinson assigned her students to complete a rhetorical analysis of their partners' work, along with a letter of constructive criticism. You can download her assignment sheet.
Aja Martinez asked students to write a feedback letter on their partners' personal statements, along with a discussion of the rhetorical strategies in their own personal statements as a final exam. You can download her assignment sheet.
C. Public Argument. Another option is to invite students to tailor a research essay or other assignment toward the partner class as audience. Students can create traditional essays, visual arguments or digital arguments to try to communicate something to their partner class. (For college teachers working with the 102 curriculum, this option can work well as a unit directly following the controversy analysis research essay). Partners can respond to the argument by writing their own thoughts, and potentially even complete their own research on the subject.
Rachael Wendler asked her students to create a visual argument tailored to their high school partner class. You can download her assignment sheet and rubric, or link to a sample student website.
D. Advice. A final option is to allow students to write advice for one another, an option that works particularly well in classes where many students have come from a similar background as their partners.
Aja Martinez assigned a sequence of journals where students reflected on their own barriers coming to college, discussed the barriers common to many students, read their partners' writing about barriers, and then wrote a letter of advice.
2. Writing About Projects
In this type of assignment, students write about their partners or about some aspect of their relationship with their partners. In other words, the partner is now the subject of the essay, which is written for a primary audience other than the partner (such as the teacher).
Here are some examples of writing about projects:
A. Reflection essays or journals. This type of writing calls for students to examine what they have learned (or are learning) from their Wildcat Writers experience. For example, high school students may write about what they have learned about college, college students may put their partnership in the context of course readings on education, and both may reflect on the meaning of community or civic engagement. Reflective writing typically includes both observation and analysis. In other words, the partnership experience functions as a text that can be analyzed, theorized, or responded to personally in an essay. The reflection may be assigned as a single essay, or as regular journal entries.
Aja Martinez created a series of journal prompts that asked students to reflect on their visits to their partners' school and to discuss their partnership in the context of class readings.
Anna Varley asked her students to write an essay reflecting on the Wildcat Writers partnership through the lens of culture. You can download her assignment sheet.
B. Analysis papers on the partner's writing. In addition to writing about the partnership itself, instructors may choose to have students write about their partners' writing. In a unit on rhetorical analysis, students could write a classical rhetorical analysis or genre analysis of their partner's work. Or in an effort to teach academic discourse, students could write about how the essay exemplifies (or does not exemplify) academic writing at the college level. Writing about assignments such as these are often paired with a writing for assignment to write a feedback essay to the partner.
Jenna Vinson used this approach with her class, as described in the writing for section. You can download her full assignment sheet and rubric.
C. Essays that include the partner as a source. In this kind of assignment, students quote their partner or their partner's writing, treating the partner as they would any other source used for a paper. For example, a student writing about gender in school sports may wish to interview his or her partner to get the partner's perspective for the essay. Or a student writing about a story that both classes have read may wish to quote something from his or her partner's blog entry on the story, to practice entering academic conversations around texts.
D. Ethnographies This type of writing is borrowed from the field of sociology. In an ethnography, the students spend time observing the school and classroom of their partners and take detailed field notes on their visits. They can also conduct interviews. The students then write up these field notes into an ethnographic report. You can download Tom Dean's guide to field notes, taken from his textbook Writing and Community Action (coming soon).
E. Research or writing on a theme that relates to the partner. Instructors can help their students gain a personal, individual view on an issue or topic through the partnership, and then widen out to write about and research that topic on a larger scale. Some college instructors choose to theme their courses or a unit of their courses around topics like education, civic engagement, or youth issues. Research topics that arise from this focus can include defacto school segregation, inequitable funding distribution for schools, high school dropout rates, ethnic studies programs for high school students, english language policies in schools, military recruitment in schools, the negative impact of stereotypes of Latino youth, racism displayed during intra-school sports competitions, or college recruitment efforts. HIgh school students might want to research the college life experience, financial aid programs, sororities and fraternities, Latino student leadership and activism on college campuses, etc. This writing about project may end up with a writing for component, if students share their research.
Anna Varley challenged her students to choose an issue related to the general class focus on education and social justice, but to choose a topic that they had a personal investment in. They were then required to do research and create an argument regarding the topic, within a rhetorical situation that they designed themselves. You can download her assignment sheet.
Aja Martinez created a series of assignments on the issue of education, including a rhetorical analysis on educational issues, a controversy analysis, and a public argument. You can download her assignment sheets.
Aja also crafted journal prompts for her students on issues such as racism and school failure.
Susan Meyers asked her students to research an issue related to education or literacy. You can download her unit schedule and assignment sheet.
Here are some examples of writing about projects:
A. Reflection essays or journals. This type of writing calls for students to examine what they have learned (or are learning) from their Wildcat Writers experience. For example, high school students may write about what they have learned about college, college students may put their partnership in the context of course readings on education, and both may reflect on the meaning of community or civic engagement. Reflective writing typically includes both observation and analysis. In other words, the partnership experience functions as a text that can be analyzed, theorized, or responded to personally in an essay. The reflection may be assigned as a single essay, or as regular journal entries.
Aja Martinez created a series of journal prompts that asked students to reflect on their visits to their partners' school and to discuss their partnership in the context of class readings.
Anna Varley asked her students to write an essay reflecting on the Wildcat Writers partnership through the lens of culture. You can download her assignment sheet.
B. Analysis papers on the partner's writing. In addition to writing about the partnership itself, instructors may choose to have students write about their partners' writing. In a unit on rhetorical analysis, students could write a classical rhetorical analysis or genre analysis of their partner's work. Or in an effort to teach academic discourse, students could write about how the essay exemplifies (or does not exemplify) academic writing at the college level. Writing about assignments such as these are often paired with a writing for assignment to write a feedback essay to the partner.
Jenna Vinson used this approach with her class, as described in the writing for section. You can download her full assignment sheet and rubric.
C. Essays that include the partner as a source. In this kind of assignment, students quote their partner or their partner's writing, treating the partner as they would any other source used for a paper. For example, a student writing about gender in school sports may wish to interview his or her partner to get the partner's perspective for the essay. Or a student writing about a story that both classes have read may wish to quote something from his or her partner's blog entry on the story, to practice entering academic conversations around texts.
D. Ethnographies This type of writing is borrowed from the field of sociology. In an ethnography, the students spend time observing the school and classroom of their partners and take detailed field notes on their visits. They can also conduct interviews. The students then write up these field notes into an ethnographic report. You can download Tom Dean's guide to field notes, taken from his textbook Writing and Community Action (coming soon).
E. Research or writing on a theme that relates to the partner. Instructors can help their students gain a personal, individual view on an issue or topic through the partnership, and then widen out to write about and research that topic on a larger scale. Some college instructors choose to theme their courses or a unit of their courses around topics like education, civic engagement, or youth issues. Research topics that arise from this focus can include defacto school segregation, inequitable funding distribution for schools, high school dropout rates, ethnic studies programs for high school students, english language policies in schools, military recruitment in schools, the negative impact of stereotypes of Latino youth, racism displayed during intra-school sports competitions, or college recruitment efforts. HIgh school students might want to research the college life experience, financial aid programs, sororities and fraternities, Latino student leadership and activism on college campuses, etc. This writing about project may end up with a writing for component, if students share their research.
Anna Varley challenged her students to choose an issue related to the general class focus on education and social justice, but to choose a topic that they had a personal investment in. They were then required to do research and create an argument regarding the topic, within a rhetorical situation that they designed themselves. You can download her assignment sheet.
Aja Martinez created a series of assignments on the issue of education, including a rhetorical analysis on educational issues, a controversy analysis, and a public argument. You can download her assignment sheets.
Aja also crafted journal prompts for her students on issues such as racism and school failure.
Susan Meyers asked her students to research an issue related to education or literacy. You can download her unit schedule and assignment sheet.
3. Writing With Projects
This type of project allows student partners to work with each other on a common writing assignment. One great benefit of this approach is that it puts both sides more on equal footing, and can help foster stronger relationships between partners as they work together on a goal.
Here are a few examples of writing with projects:
1. Zines. Zines are a type of self-published magazine that merge visuals and text to convey a message. Students often find them very engaging, and they work well with a unit or argument or visual rhetoric. Because of their often collage-like nature, they also work well as a collaborative project.
Katie Silvester had her students create a draft of a zine in groups, and then students from her partner class offered feedback on the zine and contributed their own writing. The zine was returned to the original authors, who had to respond to the feedback and incorporate parts of the writing from the partner class into the final project. Students found this assignment very engaging, and the two classes used part of their time at the Wildcat Writers Meet and Greet event collaborate on the project. If you are interested, you can download Katie's assignment sheet and schedule, peer review guide, grading rubic, and a sample page of a student zine.
2. Student Publications. Another way to invite students to work together is to have them co-create something that they can publish for an outside audience. Examples might include a newsletter or website to be circulated to one or both schools on important issues that impact students or a collection of personal essays written by both classes.
Linda Flower at the Community Literacy Center (CLC) in Carnegie Mellon has followed a writing with approach to pairing college students with teens from the community. These young authors collaborate to produce proposals, plans, petitions, and newsletters. The CLC website includes many resources for others attempting this type of project.
3. Collaborative Research Papers. In this type of assignment, students work together to research the same issue. For example, students might research the same topic, share sources and discuss the issue, and then write separate essays that they exchange for feedback.
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Here are a few examples of writing with projects:
1. Zines. Zines are a type of self-published magazine that merge visuals and text to convey a message. Students often find them very engaging, and they work well with a unit or argument or visual rhetoric. Because of their often collage-like nature, they also work well as a collaborative project.
Katie Silvester had her students create a draft of a zine in groups, and then students from her partner class offered feedback on the zine and contributed their own writing. The zine was returned to the original authors, who had to respond to the feedback and incorporate parts of the writing from the partner class into the final project. Students found this assignment very engaging, and the two classes used part of their time at the Wildcat Writers Meet and Greet event collaborate on the project. If you are interested, you can download Katie's assignment sheet and schedule, peer review guide, grading rubic, and a sample page of a student zine.
2. Student Publications. Another way to invite students to work together is to have them co-create something that they can publish for an outside audience. Examples might include a newsletter or website to be circulated to one or both schools on important issues that impact students or a collection of personal essays written by both classes.
Linda Flower at the Community Literacy Center (CLC) in Carnegie Mellon has followed a writing with approach to pairing college students with teens from the community. These young authors collaborate to produce proposals, plans, petitions, and newsletters. The CLC website includes many resources for others attempting this type of project.
3. Collaborative Research Papers. In this type of assignment, students work together to research the same issue. For example, students might research the same topic, share sources and discuss the issue, and then write separate essays that they exchange for feedback.
Return to Guide Table of Contents