(Their)story is at once informed by the CCC's "Students Right to their Own Language" as well as Greg Ulmer's pedagogical genre, mystory. Mystory is a pedagogical practice that asks students to create a website where they will respond to prompts on the four discourses of Internet invention (family, career, entertainment, and community), and reveal connections between the discourses. Mystory can be adapted to various learning environments, academic disciplines, and fields of studies. Primarily, mystory was invented to further EmerAgency, Ulmer's theory that English studies are practical and applicable to the many issues surfacing in the larger society, especially as they relate to humans and humanity. As such, I present a basic mystory structure that allows students to respond to prompts in such ways that reveals their beliefs and desires.
When I implement mystory in my first-year composition class, I instruct students to respond to the prompts in whichever way feels most appropriate to them. The only formal instructions/guidelines I provide is that students must respond to the prompts by a specific deadline on their website and response must be sufficient enough to spark a response by another student in the class, who must comment on the response. As such, responses can be of any length, and can be written in a myriad of ways. (In the past I indicated a minimum of 250 words per post, but almost immediately realized that this caused many students to only write 250 words, which is sometimes counterproductive and not always conducive to the learning or writing process.) Additionally, I urge students to write their responses in whichever language is most comfortable to them. As implemented in the past, (their)story allows for various languages to be exposed in the classroom, including (though not limited to): Black English, British English, Haitian Creole, Finish, L33t Sp34k/leetspeak, and English txt. Mystory, as I implement it into my class curricula, is not a formal assignment that must be written in Standard American/Academic English. Students have the opportunity to respond to mystory prompts in their own language, thereby fostering individual agency in a discipline that tends to dictate what is considered "appropriate" language.
This practice helps students to foster agency, not only in their education, but also in their own language. (Their)Story also integrates pedagogical theories such as collaborative learning, online learning, and reflective thinking. In addition, the pedagogical practice of (Their)Story affords students the opportunity to enhance their rhetorical prowess, native language, academic discourse, and digital writing skills -- regardless of the language.