We are almost done our first Learning Module!

Going to set up our Writing Groups and then write some brief initial ideas for your Literacy Narrative first draft.

So, as talked about on the first day of class and on the syllabus, we are going to split up the class into 4 writing groups of 3-4. Your writing groups are going to give you other writers to work with, primarily to get friendly readers of your work, but also to hold you accountable to stay on task for your writing goals.

Here are the three roles (adapted from Chris Campbell’s course):

a. Activity Accountant: Your Activity Accountant makes sure that the group is clear on any assignments or deadlines approaching in the coming week. Ideally the Activity Accountant will provide an update to their group each Sunday or Monday declaring what needs to be done in the coming days. While I will send reminder emails, too, the Activity Accountant emphasizes these deadlines as a double reminder at times. The Activity Accountant can also serve as a liaison between me and your group, receiving answers to questions that your group might have about group-related functions over the course of the semester.

b. Community Builder: Your Community Builder facilitates group discussions and conversations that need not necessarily have something to do with assignments. What are some funny memes or videos you’ve come across recently? What sorts of chat-window activities could provide some momentary relief from your group’s workload? A game? A chat? The Community Builder will typically provide comic or conversational relief at the end of each week.

c. Group Historian: Your Group Historian keeps track of decisions made by your group. This is best done in a single Google Doc or Microsoft Word document, where you date each entry. Keeping track of the conversations and decisions made within your group will help in future situations when your group needs recourse to that information. For instance: when/if you will have Zoom writing  sessions, deadlines to get feedback to each other, criteria for feedback. Additionally, the Group Historian alerts me of any changes in group roles, subtopic choices, and other group-related decision-making processes.

d. Group DJ: Your Group DJ will provide songs and playlists that they think could be good for reading, writing, revising, and other aspects of work for this class (and for other classes). The Group DJ should first ask both the kinds of music other group members like and also get a feel for what types of songs they all think might be good for different kinds of work (reading vs. writing vs. brainstorming vs. revising). You might also do “sounds” rather than music (e.g., sounds of a coffee shop, outdoors sounds). The Group DJ should have a selection of songs or playlists roughly each week. Experiment! Don’t just stick to what you all know and like–see if other genres of music, types of songs, collections of sounds, etc. might provide a boost.

*If you have a group of 4, you can choose to have either have the Community Builder or the Group DJ–you MUST have both the Activity Accountant and the Group Historian.

**If people are unhappy with roles at start, you should decide on points in which you will shift roles

Finally, all of you will play the role of Peer Responder. That means, you will all be reading drafts of each other’s writing and providing feedback for 2 other members of your group.

Before continuing the module do 2 things:

1. Below, comment on your preferred role of the above 4 roles in the groups. I will try to take this into account when assigning you to a Writing Group.
2. Go to our Slack, and as a way to get a bit more practice (since you will be coordinating you writing group by Slack messages between members of your group). Choose a channel other than the one we used earlier in the module (#writing-practice-and-process) and post something relevant to that channel. For example, a song really stuck in your head in the #music channel. You might also suggest another relevant channel in the #general channel. Or, ask questions for me or others in the #general channel.

After commenting with your preferred role on this page and then sending a Slack message on another channel, click the button below to continue.