Date Published: 2026
Context
This is the major project assignment for an English 102 (research-based composition) course at the University of Arizona. English 102 is half of a two-part writing course sequence, which we call Foundations Writing. After a few smaller projects, students spend the majority of the semester working on this project. It is a research project that incorporates student’s family stories, interviews, archival research and research in the university library through the databases using journal articles and at least one academic book.
Because of the scope of this project, I scaffold assignments. Some of the smaller assignments include:
- Creating a list of 10 possible topics to explore in their family history.
- Creating a list of 10 interview questions and 2 possible family members to interview.
- Creating multiple possible introductions from interviews, focusing on how to use voice and sensory details.
- Creating a list of 10 search queries, playing around with key terms and search for sources together in order to learn how to use the databases. We also use google and A.I. to help refine search terms.
- Students find a book by broadening their search, then we visit the library and/or archives and talk with a research librarian. Students check out a book to use. We also discuss using chapters in anthologies or just finding the right chapter(s) in their books. We practice skimming.
- Students create a research journal, which helps them to read discursively. The project uses a braid of voices: their interviews, their own voice, and the voice of experts. The research journal helps them to weave these voices together in a deliberate way. They connect their sources and reflect on the information. This is the most difficult part of this project and students appreciate guidance.
- Students create a mind-map of the story and draw the connections between smaller sub-topics, impact and research.
- Students create a draft and workshop it. In this workshop, peer reviewers color code the three voices (interview, personal, research) which helps the writer see what they are missing, and helps student readers to think about how to define each type of voice.
- Then, we have one-on-one conferences and troubleshoot.
- Students create a reverse outline to work on organization.
- Finally, after completing follow up interviews, or doing more research, students workshop a final draft, where their peer-reviewers focus on transitions and integrating research, as well as organization.
- They turn in their revision after receiving feedback and I give them comments.
- They work on polishing their writing for the final portfolio. I give them multiple revision exercises and time in class to work on this writing.
Reflection
I teach this project using culturally sustaining pedagogy and counterstory as epistemological guides. My goal is to help students see that everyone’s story is important. By finding their family story represented in the university’s holdings (archives, databases, stacks) students see that they are part of the conversation, when they may not have felt represented previously. By sharing their research through their family stories in workshops and as a class presentation, students learn about each other and continue to develop a community that tends to respect and cultivate cultural sustenance. In a typical FYW course, students may not realize the depth of difference represented. I have found that some of the deepest stories come from unexpected places. Students learn to share and feel proud of their stories and this is often a type of counterstory because many of these students believe they don’t have a story to tell, have never shared their stories or felt like they mattered. After teaching this assignment for several years and studying a section of students via IRB approved research, I’ve come to believe that students find this project very engaging, they learn a lot about voice and research, but most importantly they learn that their stories matter and how storytelling can create community.
