Using Contact Zone Concepts to Teach Critical Autoethnography to Multilingual Writers in Foundational Composition

Appendix

Appendix A: Original Assignment Prompt – Narrative Memoir Essay

Worth 20% of total class grade
Approximately 1000 words

Assignment:
Write a memoir essay that tells a focused story with some kind of significance. The memoir should focus on a specific, limited time period so that you are only telling one story and not your whole autobiography.

At the end of your essay, include a separate one-paragraph reflection that does the following: explains how this paper changed from the initial brainstorming stages to the final draft, mentions what kind of activities or feedback were most helpful in composing this assignment, and discusses the biggest challenge and biggest success you had in this assignment.

Your narrative should do the following:

• Organize your story effectively
• Convey the significance of the story
• Included vivid detail and scenes
• Use the style and tone best suited to your particular story and point
• Include a one-paragraph reflection in a separate section at the end of the paper

Audience and Purpose:
Your teacher and classmates will be the audience for this essay.

This narrative is your chance to expand the world of your audience. Let them see your perspective.

Format:
Follow MLA format – paper should be typed, double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman font or other similar font, standard 1” or 1.25” margins.

Appendix B: New Assignment Prompt – Critical Autoethnography

A critical autoethnography is a text that you can use to describe yourself and your experiences.

For this assignment, you will design a critical autoethnography focusing on a story that is in some way meaningful to you and you feel is reflective of your identity. The autoethnography should focus primarily on a single story, but you may include details like background information or information regarding what happened after the main story to help explain the story and/or its significance. You may choose any aspect of your identity to express, such as student, son/daughter/child, spouse, foodie, thrill-seeker, mountain climber, server, etc.

This project should be creative and multimodal. This includes using various methods of presentation, like video, speech, or artwork, and selecting a genre that will best support your story. After you create your autoethnography, you will create a written discussion of why you chose the identity and story you selected as well as a description of the design choices you made and discussion of their relevance to your identity and storytelling. Your project may feature other languages but must also have an English translation as English is our class’ common language.

Critical autoethnographies can be challenging to share, so please speak with me if you are unsure of a story to tell or encounter difficulties in designing your project. We will be workshopping and presenting our autoethnographies in class. Keep this in mind as you select a story.

Your critical autoethnography should do the following:

• Share a story that impacted your identity
• Include vivid detail and scenes
• Use the style and tone best suited to your particular story and point
• Have an accompanying written discussion of your choices for topic and design

Audience and Purpose:
Your classmates and I are your main audience, but hopefully, you will create an assignment that can also be meaningful outside of this course. Your critical autoethnography is an opportunity to expand the world of your audience. Let them see your perspective.

Format:
Your story should be shared in a multimodal, creative format that supports your rhetorical purpose.

Your written description should follow MLA or APA format – paper should be typed, double spaced, 12pt Times New Roman font, and standard 1” margins.