Language Affirming Practices in Spaces Where Writing Happens

In the last community of practice workshop lead by Zulema and Luke, many folks there–Aaron, JahB, Megen, Tyrone, and Jose–shared about teaching reading practices that start with texts and language “from everyday life,” that value linguistic diversity, and that even facilitate a healing process within one’s own literacy history. Cool bell hooks moves. If you missed the convo, catch the recording.  

At one point (right around 40:00), Tyrone shares an early semester assignment in which he asks students, “What’s the last thing you read?”Often, he receives the response, “Well, I don’t really read books.” At the ready, Tyrone replies in his awesome, encouraging, teacherly way, “That’s not what I asked you. What is the last anything you read.” In this, I see Tyrone intentionally and intrusively disrupting, demystifing, and destigmatizing the “Englishy” constraints his students are expecting in order to open space for students to reflect on the texts they decide have value. 

Listening to Tyrone and our colleagues talk about inclusive, equity-minded reading practices, makes me immediately think about my own classes and the Englishy constraints I intentionally and often unintentionally design there:

  • Does my rubric for a fun discussion activity also measure for “right” and “wrong” language”? 
  • Does my prompt for an activity that is intended for brainstorming and resource sharing also require paragraph structures? 
  • Do the expectations for replies to discussion posts actually make writing that reply feel intimidating? 

Of course, if those constraints are there, they are designs that come from good intentions: I want my asynch students to practice the conventions and processes of effective writing we’re studying. But should every space where writing happens in my class reinforce expectations on language and structure? 

Andrea Castellano in a recent Cult of Pedagogy begins her classes first by acknowledging, “we in this class speak many languages and think in many languages.” And she defines “multilingualism” as speaking many languages, dialects, discourses, and gestures, and code-switching as the agency/necessity to pivot within and across those languages. Her post, “Words Matter: Language Affirming Classrooms for Code-Switching Students,” has me thinking a lot about ways I can open space for writing: 

“We should want better for our students. The fact is, code-switching is not a sign of linguistic incompetence, but a normal occurrence for a multilingual brain. (Yuhas, 2021). Rather than attempt to micromanage how they use their language, we can guide students to the realization that they can decide for themselves when and how they code-switch.”

Below is a convenient info-graphic of her major points. Here is space for us to affirm or critique those ideas, today (or whenever):

This is a [Discussion] Where Writing Can Happen

And here’s another space for us to collaborate in real-time later this week:

This is a [space] Where Writing Happens

A Letters Community of Practice Workshop, facilitated by WritingwithMachines

Thursday, October 13th, 2:30-3:30pm in the Zooms

More info, coming soon

The Material Affordances of [spaces] Where Writing Happens

My asynch ENGL 202 students are submitting their final draft of their first major project today…well, this evening.

We’ve been working on it since Week 3. It started out as Journal Notes responding to articles and Ted Talks, writing that happened in individual spaces. Then it evolved in discussion posts, writing that happened in shared space. Then it merged into more rigorous structures and positions in drafts, writing that happened in formalized spaces.

So, I’m thinking about these different, asynchronous spaces, and I’d like to invite you to join me. Here’s one place my brain is this morning:

We make when we write. Our writing is thing-like. Ideas and voices become artifacts we can touch and pass around with others. Our material thoughts-on-surfaces gain a kind of gravity when we scatter them around the desk and post them online; they become magnets to more ideas, more voices, more structures…you know, the reading/thinking/collaboration/writing process. 

And so, of course, writing involves more than “the human brain and its internal processes” but also our “bodies, behaviors, spaces and tools” all of which are the “constitutive elements of [writing] activity.” 

Those quotes above are from Mathew Overstreet from a recent Computers and Composition article. Here’s another favorite passage:

…discursive forms (sentences, genres, etc.) are best conceived not “as abstractions, but as material vehicles” (Menary 629). As material vehicles, shared forms have generative power. When writing a poem, for instance, it is often the material properties of the words used, such as their structure and cadence, that help determine the poem’s content. Other elements within writing ecologies are similarly generative. Seen in this way, the content of a text is an emergent property of work in physical space. More specifically, writing is a process of integration and supplementation. Brain, text and tools all have different material affordances. Writing is the act of marshaling these disparate resources (and many others) to achieve wholes bigger than the sum of the parts.

So, how do we think about that materiality–of bodies, behaviors, brains, and tools–within asynchronous spaces where writing happens?

Here’s one space for us to jump in today (or whenever):

This is a [Doc] Where Writing Happens

And here’s another space for us to collaborate in real-time later this week:

This is a [space] Where Writing Happens 

A Letters Community of Practice Workshop, facilitated by WritingwithMachine

Thursday, October 7th, 2:30-3:30pm in the Zooms

More info, coming soon,


Communicating in Community Weeks 0 – 3

What classroom community goals do you set for Weeks 0 – 3? What assignments/activities help you know who your students are and which help your students know who you are?

Watch or listen to The Ways We Make First Impressions Through Fourth Impressions at the beginning of the semester, a WritingwithMachines Discussion.

Then add your own plans for Pre-semester through Week 3 communications to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is our fifth and final of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

Thank you for the awesome convos, colleagues!

We Speak to Students Through Our Design Decisions

What do we communicate to students from page to page, assignment to assignment? Why? How?

Watch or listen to The Voice, Verbs, and Grammars of our Courses, a WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your own exploration of Course Design Choices to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is the fourth of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

We will continue this series of professional conversations with one final conversation

First Impressions, Fourth Impressions: Communicating in Community Weeks 0-3, Thursday May 12th 3:30-5:00pm in Zoom

See you then!!

Feedback on Writing Can Be a Conversation

How do you establish a culture of conversation in your class? How can your feedback on drafts sustain that conversation with each of your students?

Watch or listen to Dialoging in End Comments, A WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your own exploration of Feedback-style Convos to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is the third of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

We will continue this series of professional conversations with

Verbs, Voice, and Grammar (of Canvas): Speaking to Students Through Course Design Decisions, Monday April 11th 1:00-2:30pm in Zoom

First Impressions, Fourth Impressions: Communicating in Community Weeks 0-3, Thursday May 12th 3:30-5:00pm in Zoom

See you then!!

WritingwithMachines in Spring 2022

This semester, we continue our professional learning series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

Our Principle for Communication with students encourages many practices: from communicating effectively in weekly announcements to maintaining open, dynamic 3rd spaces. This semester, we explore:

Dialoging in End Comments: Feedback on Writing Can Be a Conversation, Monday March 14h 1:00-2:30pm in Zoom

Verbs, Voice, and Grammar (of Canvas): Speaking to Students Through Course Design Decisions, Monday April 11th 1:00-2:30pm in Zoom

First Impressions, Fourth Impressions: Communicating in Community Weeks 0-3, Thursday May 12th 3:30-5:00pm in Zoom

These discussions are interactive with opportunities to explore your own teaching, share ideas, and build plans in a collaborative space. We pause for quiet and deliberate hands-on application, so even if you interact with the video or podcast later, you can still access our Google Docs and contribute your communication practices (listening is FLEX eligible; Letters faculty who contribute to the Doc may claim remuneration).

Hope to see you there!

Communication in 3rd Spaces

How do open, curated spaces encourage our students to lead, self-advocate, and belong within a community of readers and writers?

Watch or listen to Communication in 3rd Spaces, A WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your exploration of 3rd spaces to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is the second of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

We will continue this series of professional conversations next semester exploring instructor feedback, Canvas course design, and pre-semester outreach as sites for rich and effective communications. See you then!!

Explode the Weekly Announcement

How can simple weekly announcements be designed as effective expressions that engage students in discovery and decision making within the dynamics of our courses?

Watch or listen to Explode the Weekly Announcement, A WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your Exploded Announcement to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.


This discussion is the first of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

Our next discussion will take place December 1st, 12:30-2:00pm, in Zoom. We will review different 3rd spaces–platforms like Discord, Pronto, and cafe style office hours–that involve students in the culture of our courses: how cultivated 3rd spaces encourage students to lead, self-advocate, and shape a community of readers and writers.

Thanks for contributing, colleagues!

Meaningful Collaboration

My Hallway Conversation group met for the final time today, and we ended the meeting by making plans to stay in touch and continue collaborating. For me, this has been a refreshing experience connecting with colleagues. We shared our experiences teaching in this time-warp where some of us actually feel more connected to our classes because we’re spending less time driving on the freeway and more time texting and meeting with students. We discussed what the new normal might look like–what it should look like–when we return to campuses. And we focused on how to make collaboration meaningful and not simply requisite in our courses. 

One salient take-away I’m mulling is the importance of being present and not just productive in collaborative spaces. My colleagues reminded me of the importance of allowing students time and space to establish rapport with one another and to honor them as decision-makers in the process of project-based, group-oriented learning. The question remains, how do we do collaboration like this online, asynchronously? 

My group and I talked a lot about open, optional spaces, like Pronto in Canvas–or Discord–as well as student hour Zoom sessions, which may or may not be recorded and shared later. We talked about the value of affective assignments, like those collected by the Equity Unbound and OneHE group and like those my colleagues in Letters ->ahem-Jade<- ->ahem-Chad<- ->ahem-Tyrone<- have modeled for me for years now. 

The open space I’m tinkering with in my asynchronous class isn’t optional, but it is flexible. I call this space a Discussion Lead assignment.

Students have two weeks to contribute to this space before we workshop a major project. I ask students to 1) start something interesting, 2) share something interesting, and 3) respond to something interesting. Maybe they ask a question about the prompt. Maybe they ask a question about a concept. Maybe they share their thesis. Maybe they share their edgy title and a risky source. Participation here feels meaningful here, I think, because we all share a common feeling (of dread or joy, not sure sometimes) about our current drafts and the upcoming workshop, there’s intrinsic value posting in this space, reading in this space, and responding in this space. At least, I think so.

There is room to tweak and to think about how to fine-tune the context for each unique project and moment in the semester. The this-class-is-rad honeymoon period of Week 5 is way different than the what?-ENGL-is-still-happening? mindset of week 12, which is also way different from the we’re-in-this-together!!!! feelings of week 16. Thanks to my amazing colleagues, I have lots of ideas to think about, and a group I can reach out to share and hear feedback going forward. Thanks Scott, Dailyn, Liza, and Jose!