Charles Woods & Devon Ralston
Assignments & Activities Archive
Assignment Description
Instructors who maintain a robust definition of text “connect our students so much more with the real world of writing. We prepare them for the world […] so that they can participate in that conversation” (Marchetti & O’Dell). Podcasts represent a digital genre that embodies “ways of knowing, being, and acting” (Bawarshi & Reiff 78). Instructors can utilize podcasts to engage students with thinking about the research process—including invention. Moreover, implementing podcasts into writing classrooms provides students with the opportunity to examine the multiple modes and media used to deliver credible information. The following assignment directs “attention to both writing and aurality, and other composing modalities” to provoke “thoughtful understanding of a whole range of modalities” (Selfe 618). This assignment demonstrates how instructors can take up podcasts in writing classrooms to further engage students with the process of invention. After constructing a collaborative list of podcasts together as a class, this assignment asks students to choose a podcast on a particular topic and listen to a few episodes to form a research question. Ultimately, students will produce an annotated bibliography composed of the texts mentioned in their podcast and a number of outside sources which contribute to their research question.