Accessing the Writing Classroom: Conversations around Online Writing Instruction and Antiracist Pedagogy

In this exceptional year, our fully online PWR September Sessions will be focusing our energies around exploring issues at the intersections of “Online Writing Instruction” and “Antiracist Pedagogy.”  We will particularly consider the congruence of online writing instruction and antiracist writing pedagogy under a more expansively framed notion of “access.” 

In addition to core readings around these themes, we will have a set of readings for participants to attend Zoom “Choose your own Adventure” (CYOA) sessions. As this is PWR, our understanding and discussions will be grounded in how these dialogues from the field shape and impact our pedagogy and classroom practice. These are conversations we will continue and build on during the year to come in pop-up reading groups, program meetings, and (zoom) hallway-conversations.

We're also inviting people to engage in social annotations as they read, using hypothes.is -- a tool available to all of us for our classes.  While not required, using hypothes.is will allow you to begin your conversations about the texts even before our real-time COYA sessions.

Core Readings (Everyone Reads) 

Deana M. Blackwell, “Sidelines and Separate Spaces: Making Education Anti‐Racist for Students of Color.” Race Ethnicity and Education, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 473-494, 2010.  (Click here for the hypothes.is-ready version of the reading; click here for hypothes.is instructions; click here if you just want to access the reading itself).

Oswal and Melancon, “Saying No to the Checklist: Shifting from an Ideology of Normalcy to an Ideology of Inclusion in Online Writing Instruction.”  WPA: Writing Program Administration, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 61-77, 2017.  (Click here for the hypothes.is-ready version of the reading; click here for hypothes.is instructions; click here if you just want to access the reading itself)

Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) Readings (Just Pick One)

Rasha Diab, Beth Godbee, and Thomas Ferrel, “Making Commitments to Racial Justice Actionable,” Performing Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication, 2017.

Asao Inoue, "Designing Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies,” Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future, 2015.

Aja Martinez, "Derrick Bell and Counterstory as Fantasy/Allegory,” Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory, 2020.

Michael Greer and Heidi Skurat Harris, “User-Centered Design as a Foundation for Effective Online Writing Instruction,” 2018.

Connie Snyder Mick and Geoffrey Middlebrook, “Asynchronous and Synchronous Modalities” (Chapter 3 in Foundational Practices in Online Writing Instruction), 2015.

Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle, “Accessible” from Personal, Accessible, Responsive, Strategic: Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors, 2019.

So, What's Your Hypothes.is?

As a key example of directing our discussions toward developing and scaffolding teaching practices, we will be encouraging the use of a collaborative annotation tool called hypothes.is on the readings. This “test run” of hypothes.is will not only go toward our reading-apart-but-together ahead of September Sessions but also serve as a model for a tool we can use in our classrooms.  Jenae's wonderful instructions offer you step-by-step details not only on how to use hypothes.is for September Sessions, but also how to set it up for your own students, if you'd like.  Be sure to use the links above for the core readings to try it out for yourself.

At-A-Glance: September Sessions Readings

Color key

• Periwinkle: Core Readings (everyone reads)
• Goldenrod: Antiracist Pedagogy “choose-your-own-adventure” (CYOA)   readings
• Sage: Accessibility and Equity in Online Writing Instruction (OWI) “choose-your-own-adventure” (CYOA) readings