Intentional Writing, Attentive Reading, Purposeful Living

 Intentional Writing, Attentive Reading, Purposeful Living (blunter title: the NOMO/STFU curriculum)

THEME: Identity and Belonging in the 21st Century (blunter: You are special! And you are also not the only snowflake in the sky! // Your experience is part of a larger web of meaning)

Threshold Concepts

  • We are all writers (and readers) // We are enveloped by written language (and other multimedia compositions)
  • Language use is diverse // Using language well involves knowing your options within contexts.
  • Composing is a process // Composing processes are diverse.
  • Composing is part of a social conversation // Writing allows humans to travel across time and space.
  • Writing is an opportunity for exploration and learning. // Writing (class) is a laboratory for knowledge-making. 
  • Language is rhetorical, not literal; meaning can be contested.
  • Written composition is always material and increasingly digitally mediated.
  • Writing products are only a part of writing as activity; writing is greater than its products.

KEY COMPONENTS
Set-up work (1 week?) Orientation to the class; pre-course survey; AI policy acknowledgment
    Readings about: Concerns about AI/distraction/brain rot (The Stupid Era, Science vs., NOMO, AI addiction/dependence)

Unit 1: Voice and Identity (5 weeks)
    Opening video by...?
    Readings about: codemeshing; AI+linguistic flattening; style; discourse community; "text"
    Writings: short and easy starters; extended non-fiction piece (tentative: audio essay)
        Prompt possibilities that can lead to fuller stories (build this out based on GA ideas)
            Who do you owe for your identity?
            What is something you embrace about yourself? what's something you hope to change?
            What's a concept, word, or text that means a lot to you?
            What is the best one hour of time you've ever spent? 
            What about the future scares you? excites you?
    Other activities: +1 research activity (w/library intro?), unit reflection (for letter to self?)

Unit 2: Curiosity, Conventions, Process
    Opening video by...?
    Readings about: writing process; student survey responses; distraction/attention; writing to learn.
    Writing: i-search or exploratory essay? self-study report; academic conventions (essay-text literacy); rhetoric; recommendation memo? // "The research prospectus in first-year writing(and beyond)"
    Other activities: library research support; peer review; unit reflection (for letter to self); intention/attention tracking activity?

Wrap-up work (2 weeks?): Revised "showcase" piece (with AI ok); post-course survey; letter to self: what will I take with me?
    Readings about: AI prompt writing (with samples); the future of writing; English major at UW (video?)

Questions
  • Is it possible to teach rhetorical analysis without a capital-R, capital-A analysis assignment?
  • If the approach tries to lean into a NOMO view of learning, how to avoid creep/the desire to embed "just one more thing"? (And how to defend/talk about our choices to campus?)
  • If the approach tries to help students acquire writing by engaging students in interesting reading and writing tasks, how to integrate effective teaching without letting it overtake the acquisition model? (One answer: very good guided exploration of very good samples?)
  • Where can opportunities for intentional GA modification be integrated (selection among readings, daily writing tasks, ...)?
  • How do we transition Inside 1010 to new samples/focus/purpose?
Parking lot: Some reading ideas
Science vs: "How to Stop Scrolling" (April 1, 2026)
Codeswitch: Tradwives and the pressures of modern motherhood (May 2, 2026); How your vote became your identity (April 11, 2026); 'Mar-a-Lago face': MAGA's aesthetic loyalty test (April 1, 2026)
Sword, Stylish Academic Writing intro
Sword, Air + Light + Space + Time intro
Student writings from WaW textbook that demonstrate self-study or small-scale research? (see Emerging Scholars piece in zotero)
Pew Research reports?
Reader Come Home or other texts about shifts in our reading brains
"Beyond the 'Improvement Imperative': Writing to Change Oneself and the World in First Year Composition" (Comp Studies 52.1)











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