Megan Fowler, Instructor
Chloe Lane, Instructor
University Writing Program
“Composing the Selfie”
Building strong criteria is one of the pillars of effective argumentative writing. As young writers,
students often struggle to build criteria that effectively connects an essay’s argument and closelyread evidence. The intuitive nature of critical thinking can make introducing this idea to students
in a clear, concrete manner challenging. Often instructors find themselves constantly repeating,
“Remember to make clear connections!” in the abstract without modeling an easy to understand
application of these skills.
To demystify this process, we advocate having students close read an object that is accessible
and familiar to them. For this introductory composition course [ENC 1101], students had to write
definition arguments about fame. Therefore, we had students analyze the famous form of the
selfie. Students uploaded a selfie to a class discussion post. The students and instructor examined
the selfies as a class, listing details and specifics the photos had in common. From this list the
class collectively created a list of criteria to define what types of photographs qualify as selfies.
The use of students’ personal selfie helped to create a humorous and relaxed classroom
atmosphere that effectively engaged and sustained students’ attention during the activity.
Students’ familiarity with the selfie helped simplify the concept of building criteria in support of
a definition and provided a memorable example to refer to in later class periods.
ENC 1101-Expository and Argumentative Writing
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Freshman level composition course
Theme: fame
The Assignment-Definition Essay
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Second major assignment for the course
Prompt: Construct an argument that defines a term related to fame
Essay components:
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Identify term
Establish criteria
Close read at least 2 examples
Test and prove criteria through argument
Engaging with Students
Goal: Close reading examples to build criteria to create a definition
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Accessible and familiar to students
Utilized social media
Simple use of technology
New way of approaching “fame”
Revealed definitions are socially constructed
Success
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Incorporation of technology
Easy to implement in the classroom
Humor
Memorable point of reference for further lessons
Another potential function: icebreaker
Impact
As teachers:
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Student-centered teaching
Flexibility
For students:
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Repetition
Helped students engage with visual rhetoric
Improved thesis statements and general writing quality
Overview
● ENC 1101: Expository and Argumentative Writing/freshman comp
● Definition Essay Assignment
○ 2nd major assignment (Week 5-8)
○ Prompt: Construct an argument that defines a term related to fame & infamy
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○ Goal: Close reading examples to build criteria to create a definition
Essay components:
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○ Identify term
○ Establish criteria
○ Close read at least 2 examples
○ Test and prove criteria through argument
Examples: child star, diva, infamous, celebrity
How we got to this lesson
● Class struggles
○ Engaging with content of course
○ Reluctant to participate
○ Disconnect between course, teachers, and students
● Constantly looking for new ways to teach
● Needed to reiterate lessons in new ways
● With this assignment, students struggled:
○ To build criteria to support definition
○ Make connections
○ Leaps in logic, logical fallacies
○ Not proving their arguments
● Students sneaking looks at phone, playing with laptops
○ Tried to engage with them via a medium--social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.--they
were familiar with
● Theme of the class was fame
○ Wanted to talk about fame in new ways
○ Selfie as a famous form
3. Lesson Process
1. Student selfies uploaded to discussion board on Sakai
2. Examined individual selfies
3. Examined photographs as pieces of evidence (Powerpoint begins)
a. Question: “What about this photograph indicates to you that it is a selfie?”
4. Created list of shared traits as a class
5. Formed criteria from these shared traits
6. Formed a definition for “selfie” (Powerpoint ends)
-Critieria slide
-Definitions are socially constructed.
4. Lesson success
● Technology
● Icebreaker
● Easy to implement
● Memorable point of reference/Repetition
● Humor
● Visual rhetoric
5. Impact as New Teachers
● Adaptability of lesson plans
● Student-centered teaching
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