Competence-based 3 Week Unit Plan

Day 1: Course and Unit Introduction

• introduce syllabus focused on learning objectives (15 minutes)
• sketch out student and teacher expectations (15 minutes)
• discuss course trajectory, what will be covered and why (5 Minutes)
• Beginning brainstorming through quick writes or drawing on how students approach writing an essay, group and class discussion if time
• Homework: Read an article about writing, Murray's "All Writing is Autobiography"

Day 2: Reading about Writing

• Have students free/quick write for five minutes before breaking into small groups (5 minutes)
• Ask students to discuss if they agree or disagree with Murray's ideas (20 minutes)
• After 20 minutes, bring class back together and discuss further (25 minutes)
• Homework: Students find an article about different writing processes (perhaps from an author they enjoy, or from an academic database)

Day 3: Writing about Writing to Other Writers

• Ask students to write a letter to a peer about the article they found, explaining why they chose it, what it says, and if they use similar writing processes (10 minutes)
• Students exchange letters and discuss as pairs, multiple times. (20 minutes)
• Come back together as a class and discuss the letters and the different writing processes, perhaps introducing any processes not covered by the students (20)
• Homework: Students take the letter they wrote and the ideas discussed, and write a letter to the composition teacher about their typical approach to writing a paper

Day 4: Thinking about Writing

• Students turn in letters to the teacher
• In-class discussion of: writing as thinking, thinking as learning, and, therefore, writing as learning. (20 minutes as a class)
• Asking for personal experiences of writing classes, papers, difficulties (small groups-10 min)
• Exploring the purposes for writing: why we write and the forms we use (small groups-10 min)
• Exploring what small groups discussed and contextualizing the importance of academic writing  (20 minutes)

Day 5: The Writing Prompt 

• Discussing the writing assignments objectives: to discuss the student's personal writing process in the context of academic and social writing, using personal examples and academic sources. (10 minutes)
• Coming up with class objectives together while discussing tactics for writing and researching (20 minutes as a group, 20 minutes as a class and creating a rubric)

Day 6: Brainstorming and Resource Gathering

• Start with a quick write about a random topic, then ask students to write on a topic of their own choosing. (5 minutes for each)
• In small groups, students discuss how they brainstormed (writing, outlining, listing, clustering, thinking, etc) and which topic was easier to write on (25 minutes)
• As a class, discuss importance of connecting with your idea, finding personal interests and connections to topics as a way to develop your thoughts (20 min)

Day 7: Drafting and Revising

• Return student letters with comments and questions and suggestions for their writing process, asking them to consider if they will change or use the same approach to writing this assignment (10 minutes, reading and then a small reflection for their own thinking)
• Discuss drafting, organizing, how revising can be a continuous process and should focus on structure and content--not proofreading (40 min)

Day 8: Editing

• Last step of editing (10 min)
• Peer-editing practice (30 min)
• Self-editing strategies (10 min)

Day 9: Reflection on the Prompt

• Papers are due
• Ask students to spend 20 minutes reflecting on their writing process of this paper, considering the letter and class discussions
• Attach letter to the paper
• Begin discussing next unit for the remainder of class