Week 5, Post 1: Five Units of TOPC

Following the program laid out in TDOC by Kutz, Groden and Zamel, what follows is an attempt at imagining a 15-week curriculum of theirs unfolding in a classroom with 3 hours of class per week.


Unit 1.  Weeks 1-3.  Personal Narratives

Objectives: Students will learn how to conduct ethnographic interviews and transcriptions; students will discuss and write about their findings, noting the functions and rules of written and spoken language.

Students conduct interviews in the community and transcribe them.  Classroom discussion revolves around the interviewing and transcription processes, and around comparing oral and written versions of a story. 

Student texts include a) their own transcriptions, b) peer transcriptions and c) other ethnographic transcriptions from the field.  In small groups, students discuss each others’ papers, noting differences and similarities between peer papers, and between student papers and professional ethnographers.  These comparisons include content, vocabulary, syntax, sentence structure, paragraph structure and tone. 

Students write one 4-page paper due the third week.  Students can choose from one of the following prompts or develop their own (subject to teacher approval): What have you learned about the similarities or differences in spoken and written language in your research project?  What are the different purposes of spoken and written language?  What are the different rules for spoken vs. written language? 


Unit 2. Weeks 4-6.  Advertising

Objectives: Students will learn how analyze the spoken and written word in advertisements.   
Project A: In small groups, students create their own ad campaigns.

Students watch and listen to pre-recorded videos of TV advertisements.  Class discussions revolve around content and persuasive techniques used in ads.  Students research and record TV, radio and Web ads using ethnographic methods, then transcribe the ads. 

Student texts include a) their own transcriptions, b) peer transcriptions and c) print ads and other published analysis of advertising.  In small groups, students discuss each others’ papers, noting differences and similarities between peer papers, and between student papers and professional analysts.  These comparisons include content, vocabulary, syntax, sentence structure, paragraph structure and tone.

Students write one 4-page paper due the sixth week.  Students can choose from the following one of the following prompts or develop their own (subject to teacher approval): What are the various advertising techniques?  What have you learned about the power of advertising techniques?  What are the pros and cons of advertising?

Project A: in small groups, students create their own ad campaigns, followed by a 2-page report explaining their choice of advertising techniques.


Unit 3. Weeks 7-9.  News Articles

Objectives: Students will learn to analyze the spoken and written word in news media.

Students watch and listen to news reports from TV, radio and the Web; they read news articles from newspapers, magazines and the Web.  Class discussions consider content and reporting techniques in the media.  Students research and record TV, radio and Web ads using ethnographic methods, then transcribe the ads. 

Student texts include a) their own transcriptions, b) peer transcriptions, c) print news stories and d) analysis of the news from published sources.

Students write one 4-page paper due the sixth week.  Students can choose one of the following prompts or develop their own (subject to teacher approval): “What are the various techniques journalists use to report the news?  Who decides what’s newsworthy?  What impact do news media wield today?”


Unit 4.  Weeks 10-12.  Songs, Poetry and Fiction

Objectives: Students will learn to analyze the spoken and written word in poetry, popular songs and short fiction.  Project B: students write one original short story.

Students listen to songs and read poetry and short fiction.  Class discussion centers on the message and techniques used in songs, poetry and fiction.  Students research and find songs, poetry and short story as well as published critiques of songs, poetry and short stories. 

Student texts include a) songs, poetry and short stories, both in class, and those found in their research.

Students write one 4-page paper analyzing two short stories; the paper is due the twelfth week.  Students can choose from the following prompts or develop their own (subject to teacher approval): Compare and contrast the poetic devices in the two short stories.  How do you think these devices made the stories stronger or weaker?

Project B: students write one original short story (3-7 pages), incorporating poetic techniques discussed in class, followed by a 2-page paper explaining why their use of poetic devices strengthens the short story.

Unit 5.  Weeks 13-15.  Scholarly Articles

Objectives: Students will learn to analyze the spoken and written word in college-level scholarly discourse.

Students will listen to college lectures.  Class discussion centers on the message and language incorporated into college lectures.  Students research and and record college lectures, then transcribe them following the ethnographic approach. 

Student texts include a) transcriptions of lectures, b) transcriptions of peers, c) scholarly articles.

Students will write one 4-page paper discussing two scholarly articles, analyzing the ways scholarly discourse differs from Standard English in general conversation.  The following prompts should be responded to in this paper: How do the authors present their thesis statements?  What are their main points?  For each paper, discuss the connecting devices.  What have you learned from these articles that could benefit your own writing in the future?