Course description	Syllabus	Meeting time,  date, location.
The Writing	The Texts	Partners in learning
Due Dates	Grades	Related Links

Meeting tine, date, location:

Home:(908) 757-1051 (please call between 10am and 10pm only!)

Course description:

Requirements:

Please obtain the following texts (see notes below):

• Sharon Crowley, Composition in the University: Historical & Polemical Essays. U. of Pittsburgh P., 1998.
• Lester Faigley, Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity & the Subject of Composition. U. of Pittsburgh P., 1992.
• George Hillocks, Ways of Thinking: Ways of Teaching. New York: Teachers College Press, 1999.
• Elizabeth Rankin Seeing Yourself as a Teacher: Conversations with Five New Teachers in a University Writing Program. Urbana: NCTE, 1994.
• Chris Anson et al. Scenarios for Teaching Writing: Contexts for Discussion and Reflective Practice.Urbana: NCTE, 1993.
• Rebecca Moore Howard & Sandra Jamieson, The Bedford Guide to Teaching Writing in the Disciplines. Boston: Bedford, 1995.
• Package of readings (available from me).
• Chris Anson & Robert Schwegler, The Longman Handbook for Readers and Writers, Instructors Annotated Second Ed. Addison-Wesley/Longman, 2000 (available from me).

 

note 2: If you join NCTE you will be get a subscription to the journals College English and College Composition and Communication, and also a discount (up to 30%) on books published by NCTE when you purchase from their website (or through their regular mailings). A special program called "Teach 2000/Project Access" (http://www.ncte.org/teach2000/enroll.html) offers first time members free membership (and two free journal subscriptions). This is a great opportunity--I think you'd be a fool not to take them up on it!!!

Class participation--a partnership in learning:

Class participation is also your opportunity to enter the academic community.  Academics talk to each other at conferences, on listservs, and through books and articles, and thoughtful class participation helps to prepare you for that.  Academics also share their ideas and texts as they are in development, and the dialog that follows enriches our work (and our lives). For this reason English 850 is a seminar; however, a seminar is only as strong as its weakest member.  If you are to make this class a partnership in learning you need to be prepared for class, you need to participate thoughtfully, and you need to respect the other students in the class. 

Writing:

The position paper
Position papers follow a fairly rigid formula. They begin with a brief overview of the topic under consideration, or a paraphrase of the thesis of the text/each text and a brief summary of its argument.  This is followed by a brief summary of the positions one might adopt in response to the reading(s). All of this should take no more than one page. You should spend most of your time developing a position on the subject based on the reading. You can discuss how what you have read helps us understand or rethink the teaching of writing or the texts we have already read, or you can discuss the extent to which you found the reading insightful or helpful. Alternately, you might critique the topic or the ways these writers respond to it. (Warning: do not respond as if you are the expert and the author is a fool--these texts were all written by scholars and reviewed by many of their peers. You might disagree with them, but you should avoid diatribe.) A good position paper provides information and stimulates thought and discussion: a great presentation inspires your audience to reread the material and may make some of them totally change their perspective on the text--aim high!

Most of the position papers will respond directly to the material read in preparation for class, with the following exceptions:
Position paper #8 (April 5)

Briefly summarize what you have learned about the writing process. You already have some sense of process theory from our earlier readings, but now it is time to revisit theory and apply it to pedagogy. Should we teach writing as a process? How does revision fit into this system? Look at the example of a staged assignment in the reading from Anson et al. (35-43). Do you think it would be effective? Try to formulate a position about what kinds of comments and suggestions will help student writers. Finally, to exemplify the theory you have developed here, write comments designed to help the authors of "Nineties Racing Challenge" (Scenarios, page 72-3) and "Scheduling my Time" (page 75) revise these pieces. You may suggest that they refer to the Longman Handbook for Readers and Writers if necessary. Assume that this is the first draft and the finished paper is due in one week. When you have written your comments, summarize briefly how they connect with your paper. (You might find it helpful to imagine the marked up papers as handouts at a conference or workshop.)

Read the scenario "I Prefer Not To" (pages 84-87 of Scenarios for Teaching Writing). What would you do in that situation? Now read "The Good Family" (page 66-67) and consider the questions following it. Write comments on Nahomae’s paper (use a Xeroxed and enlarged version) so that she could revise it and begin to learn some of the grammatical structures she needs to learn. Finally, write a brief analysis of your response, explaining the position you adopt in regard to writing responses in general and to ESOL and developmental students in particular. You may use Rhea Sorkon’s experience with Binh Cho in your discussion if it seems relevant.

This position paper will be more speculative than the others and is really an opportunity for you to explore your feelings so far. 
• New teachers: Based on your reaction to these readings, what kinds of problems do you imagine encountering as a first-time college writing teacher (or a teacher in another environment)? How will you handle them? Which of the scenarios would you find it most difficult to deal with? Why? What do you learn from this fear? How do the readings we have done and the theories we have discussed so far this semester make you feel about teaching? What general pitfalls do you imagine? What delights? What makes you the most nervous? What makes you the most excited? Consider all of these questions and answer whichever ones you feel like answering!
• Experienced teachers: To what extent do these readings reflect your experiences? What kinds of problems did you encounter as a first-time writing teacher? How did you handle them? Which of the scenarios would you find it most difficult to deal with? Why? What do you learn from this fear? What advice would you give to those experiencing them? How do the readings we have done and the theories we have discussed so far this semester make you feel about your teaching experience? What general pitfalls do you imagine as you plan your classes every day? What delights? What makes you the most nervous? What makes you the most excited? Consider all of these questions and answer whichever ones you feel like answering!

The Annotated Bibliography
The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), which is the professional body of composition, produces an annual annotated bibliography of composition sources. Several journals also produce annotated bibliographies of composition topics (including College Composition and Communication, College English,and Teaching English in Two-Year Colleges). Most compositionists keep annotated bibliographies, at least for areas of particular interest. To help you develop this habit, I would like you to prepare an annotated bibliography of every composition text you read this semester. The Bedford Guide to Teaching Writing in the Disciplines (Howard & Jamieson) contains a partially annotated bibliography at the end of each chapter, and you can use these annotations as models. 

The final project
Your final paper gives you the opportunity to explore the theoretical positions we have discussed in this course in more detail. By the end of the course you should have an idea of which methodology feels most comfortable to you--and how it meets your goals as a teacher. Your assignment is to describe that methodology and why it makes sense, then locate your pedagogy within it by designing a course drawing on it. The paper has three parts, a discussion of the theoretical position you have adopted (you may lift material from position papers for this--don’t forget to cite yourself though); a discussion of how that methodology may be translated into practice; and finally a syllabus. The first half should be in the form of a paper, while the syllabus should look just like a syllabus (with a statement of purpose, a description of the course, texts, and assignments for every week). If you will be teaching next semester, you are welcome to design a syllabus that meets the goals of the program in which you will be teaching, but you should discuss this with me first.

Think about what kind of class you'd like to teach. Will you use textbooks? What kind? Will you use computer technology? Multimedia? Begin thinking about your ideal class and mapping out how you'd teach it right now so that the readings from the course develop into a dialogue between your initial ideas and your evolving understanding of the discipline. For your final project, you may design a Tuesday/Thursday sequence in which classes meet for 75 minutes or a Monday/Wednesday/Friday sequence in which classes meet for 50 minutes. Assume a 12 week semester. You may design a developmental/ESOL class (called English 1-A at Drew), a first year college class (called English 1 at Drew, 101 at some other schools), or an advanced writing class (you need to identify what audience it is aimed at, though.  Some options include "Writing in your Major," "Research Writing," "Advanced Writing" aimed at Juniors, etc.).

Due Dates:

when I will review drafts and discuss ideas. You may come talk to me as many times     as you like while you work on this!) 

Grade Breakdown:

Internet Locations of interest:

• General composition-related information sites
• Composition & Writing Organizations
• NCTE, CCCC & WPA resolutions about composition
• Journals & other on-line publications
• Listserves 
• Links to textbook publishers
• Recent & upcoming composition conferences
• Computers in the classroom
• Links to consider adding to on-line writing syllabus
• Drew Univeristy Composition Program
• Drew University Guidelines for Writing Instructors
• Useful links for student writers
• College of Liberal Arts Academic Integrity Policy
• Links to scare you . . .

Last updated, January 24, 2000 Sandra Jamieson Drew University, Madison NJ 07940