Pat's Questions July 26

1.     Reiff mentions that “the idea is that as students critique genres as sites of rhetorical action and cultural production and reproduction, they also see how genres function as motivated social actions, enabling them to enter into the production of alternatives” (163). Using this as a springboard, and since all of us will eventually teach ENC 2135, how might you have students engage in and produce alternatives?  

2.     Yancey, on page 112, mentions the different ways which composition teachers might use in order to evaluate student portfolios, from grading the portfolio holistically, to averaging the grades of the individual pieces or even including assessment from a group of teachers. If you have had any previous experience with portfolio grading, which assessment method did you (or a previous instructor you may have had) use and why? Or in light of our discussion on Tuesday about assessment, is there a specific assessment method that Yancey mentions or otherwise that you might consider using in your own classroom?