mrs. Alison VanOverbeke
Writing & Rhetoric
for
College Freshmen
In 2010, I was accepted into the first Graduate Nonfiction Program at Columbia College Chicago, as well as the competitive Adjunct Teaching Program at Columbia College Chicago. After a semester of courses, I was given the opportunity to instruct Writing and Rhetoric I, an introductory writing course intended for first year Undergraduate students.
Columbia College Chicago is a particularly interesting institute of higher learning. As a private art school, it was/is not as interested in high school grades or standardized test scores as it was/is students' artistic portfolios. As such, my students came from a range of academic backgrounds from around the globe. My job was to expose them to relevant texts, to teach them how to read and analyze them at a deeper level, and finally how to communicate those thoughts through writing.
I created a semester course titled, "Think Local, Be Global" and taught it over two different semesters. On this page, you will find most of the documents shared with the class including the syllabus, calendar,three major papers, and two projects.
Course Documents
Assigned Projects
After learning and reading about Genocide, My classes participated in the One Million Bones Project. Click the link below to learn more about the project. Watch the first and third videos to learn more. Watch the second video to see my college students hard at work and contributing to the cause.
#2 Creative Translation Project
Since my students came to my class from a wide range of artistic majors, the final project for the class was to translate one of their previously written class essays into something creative. For example, some students translated their essays into music, song, one act plays, videos, clothes, and so on.
The minimum requirement was a Prezi presentation. Click the video below to see my short Prezi on video essays, an option for this project I pushed as Columbia College is the largest film school in the country (and arguably one of the best).