Instructor Linda Bergquist’s Writing Project #2 helps students take a deeper analytical look at “a current trend of [their] choice that [they] know something about,” and then she has her students “sharing and explaining” their projects to the rest of the class using “a visual depiction and brief description.”
This project does a nice job of helping students draw on their existing cultural knowledge and resources while also allowing them to deepen their understanding about their individual trend. Linda scaffolds this project with the example essay, “Borrowing Bling: The Appeal of Hip-hop to Young White Men” by Sean Booker, and she also models this process by drawing on her own experience within the cycling community of RAGBRAI—a 400+ mile community ride.
The ViTA Project 