Supporting Students’ Own Languages in the Writing Classroom: Adaptable Writing Assignments for Enacting Linguistic Justice in Local Contexts

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Contents

Introduction

Theoretical Framework

Instructional Context and Assignment Descriptions

Assignment Goals and Learning Outcomes

Reflections on Implementing Our Assignments

Imagining Expansive Pedagogical Futures Towards Linguistic Justice

References

Appendix

About the Authors

Instructional Context and Assignment Descriptions

To contextualize our pedagogical reflection, here we offer a brief overview of each author’s instructional context at the time of writing and their assignment or activity (for full assignment guidelines, see Appendix).

Keli designed her Language and Literacy Narrative assignment at a midwestern PWI (Primarily White Institution). The assignment prompts students to reflect on their experiences as writers while thinking critically about how their linguistic histories have shaped their literate practices. The assignment also provides students with the opportunity to employ their own ways of languaging as they reflect on their linguistic backgrounds and writerly voices. While this assignment was initially developed in the context of a tutor education course to prepare peer writing tutors, it could also be implemented in first-year or intermediate writing courses or in courses with an explicit focus on language practices or community writing.

Kelsey teaches first-year writing at a midwestern PWI. Her Linguistic Observation and Analysis project tasks students with examining the relationship between language and power within the communities to which they belong. This assignment, adapted from Wardle and Downs’ Writing About Writing, 4th edition, requires students to first perform observations of two communities that they are a part of, then use the data they obtained from their observations to examine how different language practices exercise authority in various communities.

Sasha designed her Community Influencer Profile essay for first-year composition classes at a Western PWI. The assignment encourages students to think about how language helps members of a community influence others and how language impacts their own goals. Students begin by interviewing a member of a different linguistic community to explore how people with influence think of and use language to impact others, and then compose a profile essay sharing their findings.

Sophia teaches at a Western Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander-serving institution. She has created a Language Diversity Reflection activity that she assigns in her first-year and developmental writing classes. The activity, which includes reflective freewriting, allows students to experiment with translanguaging in a low-stakes context and apply their developing CLA creatively and personally.