English 615 -- Spring '06

Collaborative Concept Map Project

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Rationale:

There are a number of reasons to engage in a collaborative project in this class.  Certainly collaborative problem-solving is becoming a regular part of both academic and "real world" vocational and avocational settings.  Research in composition and rhetoric today is perhaps most likely of any research done by scholars in English Studies to be undertaken collaboratively, so making our foray into composition research collaborative seems sensible.  

And of course, as you already know, much of composition research suggests that your composition students will benefit from having opportunities for collaborative learning and writing—but they'll benefit more from such assignments if you know enough about the process to design innovative, meaningful, and responsible assignments.  Thus and therefore, you will be assigned to a team of classmates who share some of your interest(s) in a topic for the duration of this assignment.

The assignment, in brief:

Working with two or three partners, develop an area or some linked areas of inquiry concerning the teaching of composition. Conduct some research into your inquiry area(s), with the goal of producing a Collaborative Concept Map (on paper or online) to present to your peers, along with an annotated Concept Bibliography for your peers to take home.  All materials will be due on your presentation day, to be determined at a later point.

Concept Who?  What the…?

In the brainstorming activity known variously as "clustering" or "mapping" or "that thing with the bubbles," writers and thinkers are encouraged to begin with an idea or question in a central bubble, then explore outward creating a network of bubbled-ideas connected by lines to the original idea or cross-connected to one another. 

"Clustering" emphasizes the informal, multiple relationships between ideas, where "brainstorming" emphasizes sheer idea-generation and outlining emphasizes hierarchical structures and linear flow.  One might think of a cluster as representing one constellation of stars in the night sky:  certainly other stars could be included or other lines drawn to make a Lawnmower or a Cell Phone rather than Taurus or a couple of Fish, but the designer of the constellation chooses to look at just this shape, just this interlinked set of lights, for the moment.

For this project, I would like you to do a little additional reading in composition, rhetoric, and/or pedagogy in order to Map out a Concept (or question, or scenario) and some of what your group considers to be its most interesting parts.  Your goal here is to explore a question or a set of related questions, not in order to come to a single solution, but to map out a productive way for (new) writing teachers to go about thinking more deeply/richly about the question/issue. 

Your audience is your peers; your project will be exploratory but contain specific quotations, analyses, and/or suggestions; your purpose is primarily expository but with a persuasive edge:  why should we see a Prius here rather than a Pisces?  what good can come of this?

I suppose there's a rationale here, too…?  Certainly.  A Map requires equal thinking but less exact-deciding than a tightly-organized paper or presentation, which makes it good for a group project.  The Map emphasizes exploration over Right Answers, which is good for teaching and for learning-teaching.  And we live in a Visual Age; we should be able to create texts that participate in that kind of rhetoric without losing sight of word-based communication strategies.

Your final product will include

• a visual representation—on poster board, overhead transparency, website, etc.—that can be viewed by several people at once
• an informal but informed Q&A session with your peers
• an annotated bibliography that, while reduced to linearity, still provides a way for your peers to take home a "souvenir."

The assignments, a step at a time:

The initial individual concept map assignment is your Facebook (≈personal ad, for us old fogeys) for finding a group of like-minded individuals to team up with for this presentation.  Create a 1-page map—bubbles or solar systems or other "map-thing," words-only or with colors/pictures—that includes at least one central text/idea/question and between 4 and 8 secondary/tertiary ideas/questions; indicates visually how they are related; and includes references to (and/or very short quotations from) at least three things we've read as a class and one we haven't.  Please email me to share your central and 1-2 secondary concepts by Monday 3/20.

The bibliography is a good record of your findings, and a guide for your peers' future thinking.  Group-wide, you should expect to locate and read at least 4-5 sources beyond what we read for class together (though all group members need not read all possible source materials).  You will want your bibliography to reflect respected, accessible, and relevant sources.

You should include the following among 5-7 total sources:

• Sources that have differing arguments/views/concepts 
• Sources that represent some range of research venues and time periods
• At least one text already assigned for this class; at least 4 that we have not read together

Your bibliography should use correct MLA format to cite each work.  You should include a 100-150 annotation for each citation—this is less an exact summary than some notes about how and where this work fits into your concept map.  Finally, you should include a concept statement—say, another 100-150 words total—at the start or end of your bibliography to help your readers understand the underlying issue(s) that you chose to map.

Setting a good target date for having all your sources chosen, if not completing the bibliography, will be helpful (usually in English 101 or 302, I set such a date for my students).  At minimum, you should have found most of what you plan to read/include by two weeks before your presentation date.  Although I won't require you, as we require most of our undergraduates, to submit photocopies of the sources you find, you might hang on to the copies in case someone in class gets interested and wants to take a look.

Your final Concept Map should be at least 24" x 36" if it's done on traditional posterboard (supplied as needed), or the equivalent if presented some other (visual) way.  Markers-and-poster board construction is quite sufficient to earn an "A"; you should use additional approaches, venues, materials, modes, sound production, flying gerbils, stencils, original artwork only if (a) doing so brings more pleasure to the group as a whole than pain, and (b) someone in the group already has the skills needed to make this fly. 

Your Concept Map should contain several of the key elements of a written or spoken presentation:  a way to engage the viewing audience, a clear indication of the topic(s), a structure (not necessarily linear), specific examples or quotations, some way to cite outside source information (or link to your bibliography), and an indication of a conclusion—even a concluding question or for-further-thought issue—that viewers can take with them.

You should be prepared to answer questions; indeed, you should try to ensure that questions will be asked.  All team members should have a significant role, in preparing and presenting the Concept Map, though not necessarily a similar or equal role; play to your team's strengths while aiming for inclusivity.

On your presentation day you'll be asked to make a brief opening statement (2-3 minutes max), and to make your bibliography and your Concept Map available for your peers to peruse.  There will then be a 10 minute Q&A session in which all group members should strive to participate.

Note:  You are not required to Solve The Problem Once And For All in your presentation.  Your job is to help us see what kinds of thoughtful questions and approaches we might engage in if we find ourselves considering a similar concept.

Also due at presentation:    

Concept map presentation-day notes (whatever form they take)

A group-written Post Script (please address the question about teaching this asgt.)

Bibliography copies for the class

Individual Final Progress Reports (see below)

Associated Assignments

•  Initial Plan:  Include an initial map and key questions, a paragraph describing your current division of labor and/or leadership, and a schedule with at least 3 intra-group deadlines (in addition to the ones listed below):  "by 4/1, each person will have ___; by 4/15 we will have ___."  Due via print or email by Friday March 31.

•  Early Draft:  Bring four copies of a draft containing (at least) your current concept map ideas, the issues and directions raised so far in your research, and your early ideas for topics & themes to present to your peers.  Due for Workshop, April 4.

•  Early Progress Report.  Each person submits an individual report, for my eyes only, in four sections:  a general description of the progress that has been made so far, a list of each team member's specific contributions so far (including your own), a statement addressing the current labor-division & schedule as compared with what was proposed in the Initial Plan, and a statement about goals and obstacles that lie ahead. 
Due via print or email by Monday April 10.

•  Individual Final Progress Report. Submit an individual report, for my eyes only, in three sections:  a general description of the progress that has been made, a list of each team member's specific contributions (including your own), and a statement about goals and obstacles that were reached and dealt with.  Due on or immediately after your group presentation.

Evaluation/Grading:

The collaborative presentation is worth 10% of your course grade.  Each team member will receive two letter grades for the presentation:  a team grade based on the quality of the final product (and completion of all steps), and an individual grade based on participation (and completion of all steps).  In nearly every case, both grades will be the same.  However, any significant lack of participation will result in a notably lower individual participation grade.  Conversely, any team member who in the end contributes significantly more than average to the project or is instrumental in its completion (as agreed on by his/her team members), without restricting other team members' contributions, may earn a higher individual grade.  Where team and individual grades differ, the individual grade will be weighted at about 1/3, and the team grade about 2/3, of the overall grade.

Note:  Any serious failure to participate, breach of team etiquette, or counterproductive action (such as giving the disk on which the whole team's project is stored to an alien spaceship captain in return for her writing your second Exploration Essay) may result in a significant reduction in an individual's team grade as well as his/her individual grade. 

Some notes on collaborative project development:

Nearly all teams end up with too much information and too broad an issue area.  Try relatively early in the process to narrow a broad topic down, using the preferences of team members, the projected interests of your peer audience, and/or the availability of information as guidelines.  While you may have a single part of your map that leaves the solar-system, try to keep most of it smaller and intricate rather than galaxy-sized.

While it may seem better to go into the project as equals, nearly all collaborative efforts benefit from leadership.  If your group doesn't choose a leader, leadership will still settle onto someone's (often grudging) shoulders.  If you choose a single "round 'em up" leader, you'll want to compensate that person by assigning him/her less research work.  You might choose to rotate leadership by weeks, or divide the leadership:  someone during a research phase, someone else during the drafting, someone else to coordinate the bibliography….

This project will involve a balance of individual and team work.  As a team, you may delegate parts of this assignment to individual members:  completing parts of the research, answering specific questions, drafting parts of the map, etc. Each member must be involved at each stage—topic choice, research, drafting, revision, presentation—for the project to succeed.  However, levels and aspects of involvement may vary somewhat at one time or another according to the strengths and preferences of team members.

Team members have serious responsibilities to their team; any breach of these responsibilities will have equally serious consequences.  Each individual is responsible for doing his/her share of the work, for encouraging other team members to work together, and for letting other team members contribute their own share.  Individuals are responsible for contributing high-quality work, and for making other members feel that their contributions are valuable.  In the context of this class, an "imperfect" final product that represents the contributions of all team members will earn more respect and credit than a "perfect" final product which has erased or is missing one or more team members' contributions.