Schedule for English 6625.001

Introduction to Class
Discuss Syllabus

Activity: Inquiry Questions about Writing/Teaching Writing

Homework: Read the Preface and first 3 chapters of Dickson's It's Not Like That Here (up to page 74).

What Happens in a Writing Class? Where Do We Begin?

Readings
Dickson, It's Not Like That Here (Chs 1 - 3)

Activity: Group work on Inquiry Questions: Taxonomies
Activity: Design schedule design based on taxonomies and questions

What Happens in a Writing Class? Where Do We Begin?

Readings
Dickson, It's Not Like That Here (Chs 4 - 6)

Discussion: How do we design a curriculum?

• What does Dickson mean by the "distanced/personal"?
• How would you select a theme for a course to approach in this way?
• In what ways does Dickson's pedagogy represent a constructive/scaffolded experience for students?
  

What's Comp?

Readings (on Drupal)
Rose, "Language of Exclusion"
Bartholomae, "Inventing the University"
Knoblauch, "Rhetorical Constructions"
WPA Outcomes Statement

Activities
"I believe" statements about "writing" & the teaching of writing
"Conducting a Classroom Observataion"

Discussion: What role does "language" and "literacy" play in students' lives and in the culture of schooling? Who gets to learn and what are we really teaching them? What does that mean to composition/teaching writing?

• For Rose, what do we teach students about inclusion and exclusion through our classes?
• What suggestions, if any, does Rose offer for reconsidering the work we do with writing?
• What does Bartholomae mean when he suggests that the student "must invent the university" each time he/she sits down to write?
• What do students "invent," according to Bartholomae? Why? What problems might this cause first-year students in a writing classroom (or a writing-intensive classroom, for that matter)?
• Knoblauch creates four different "epistemologies" (ways of making meaning or thinking) that he sees as being the intellectual bases for the teaching of writing/literacy for at least the last 2000 years. What do these categories suggest about the teaching of writing, its history and current state?
• What impact might these categories have on students in a writing classroom? If, for example, a student comes to a dialectical/socio-epistemic classroom expecting a positivist approach, how might this ideological mismatch create genuine conflict in teaching and learning?

What's Comp? Histories ...

Readings
Crowley, "The Invention of Freshman English"
Crowley, "How the Outside Gets Inside" & "How the Inside Gets Outside" from Methodical Memory
Connors, "Introduction" to Composition-Rhetoric
Connors, "Rise & Fall of the Modes of Discourse"

Discussion: Epistemology continued (bring your "I believe . . ." statements from the previous class, as well as a copy of the English 1100 common syllabus[Word doc])

Activities

Discussion: What can we learn from our history? What's the same, what's changed about writing and the teaching of writing?

• How does Connors redefine "current-traditional" rhetoric? Why?
• What are the various "tenets" that Connors (and others) highlight as being central to composition-rhetoric?
• Crowley focuses a great deal on concepts like taste, character, and discipline. How do these terms/concepts function in the composition-rhetoric period? Do they continue to be important in our thoughts about teaching at the university?
• Why does Crowley focus so much on social class? How is that concept connected to "protecting pure English" and examinations?
• Why might both Crowley and Connors attribute the major change from rhetoric to "English" in large part to the importation of the "German model"? What does this mean for students coming from high school into college?
• Connors, as per usual, takes through a historial account of those classic "modes of discourse" (narration, description, exposition, argument). What conclusion does he reach? And what effect does this "fall" have on teachers of writing (if any)?

DUE: English 1100 Syllabus Draft (Peer Review)

Teaching Writing: Designing Assignments, Methods

Readings
Murray, "Teaching Writing as a Process"
Emig, "Writing as a Mode of Learning"
Zebroski, "Creating the Intro Comp Course"
Freire, "Banking Concept of Education"
Gardner, "Designing Writing Assignments"

Activities
Designing Assignments: From Outcomes to Assignment Sheet
Complete MBTI Personality Inventory. Print out results and bring to next class.

Discussion: What does it mean to write? to learn to write? and who decides? How do we approach assignment designs? Why? To what end?

• Murray's essay is a sort of free-form injunction against then-current practice. What's he reacting to? What's he suggesting we do instead? And, ultimately, what "right" and "wrong" with his suggestions? For whom do they work and for whom might they not work?
• Emig and Zebroski both seem influenced by the psychological theories of Lev Vygotsky. How does attention to cognitive processes/procedures affect our thinking about writing as a process? learning as a process? And what role does the teacher play in such a processual pedagogy?
• This cutting from Freire's influenctial Pedagogy of the Oppressed will seem more explicitly political/politicized than the other readings we've done so far (except, perhaps, for Berlin's essay). What might be transferrable from Freire's Brazil to U.S. grade schools and colleges? In what ways does language-learning always-already oppress the "learner"? How does a discipline serve to "control" or "limit" those who work within it? Why? How does this apply to Freire's notions of education for U.S. students?

DUE: English 1100 Syllabus (Instructor Review)

Reading & Rhetoric: What Role in the Writing Class?

Readings
CompPile Wiki: "What is the 'content' of composition?"
Lindemann, "Freshman Composition: No Place for Literature"
Tate, "A Place for Literature in Freshman Comp"
Berthoff, "Is Teaching Still Possible?" (CT)
Ede & Lunsford, "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked
Banks, "Short Handbook of Rhetorical Analysis" (web)
"13 Sentence" (Writing Process in Action)

Discussion: What do we mean by "reading" in a writing class? What is "rhetoric" and how does it affect "composition"? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? And which is tastier when eaten?

• The Lindemann-Tate debate on the place of "literature" in FYC is by now rather famous. What are the points of disagreement in the two texts here (originally given at a conference)? Where do they agree? Who do you think is right? Or, which is "right" depending on what particular "outcomes" from FYC?
• What is the "content" of a composition course? What should it be? Should it be writing? reading? rhetoric? revision? peer review? themes? academic discourses?
• Murray suggests that "[w]e are coaches, encouragers, developers, creators of environments [for learning to write]" (5). How does Berthoff's "pedagogy of knowing" (as opposed to a "pedagogy of exhortation") blend with and critique Murray's ideas? In what ways does Berthoff's "thinking about thinking" reflect a later version of Emig's ideas from last week? How does Berthoff take Vygotsky (and Richards) further than our previous readings? Does it?
• Ede and Lunsford's now-classic essay on audience suggests that the writer is often conflicted about audience in very important ways. How do the concepts of an "invoked" and "addressed" audience differ? What impact might this have on how we teach audience awareness to students? Does it? What does it mean for "reading" and for "revision"?
• In as many places (and as publicly) as possible, mock and belittle Banks's pathetic attempt at explaining some of the "basics" of rhetoric . . .

DUE: Two-week Unit Plan w/ Assignments (Draft for Peer Review)

Spring Break - No Class

Revision: What Role in the Writing Class?

Readings
Rose, "Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans"
Daly, "Writing Apprehension"
Sommers, "Revision Strategies ..."
Yancey, "On Reflection" from Reflection in the Writing Classroom

Discussion

DUE: Two-week Unit Plan w/ Assignments (Draft for Instructor Review)

Form & Function: Issues of Grammar and Style

Readings
Hartwell, "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar"
Smitherman, "Meditations on Language"
Hawhee, "Composition History. . . Harbrace"
Lunsford & Lunsford, "'Mistakes Are a Fact of Life'"

Activities
Begin 20 Questions Interview Project

Discussion

Guest Instructor: Dr. Wendy Sharer, "FYC @ ECU"

Assessment & Evaluation: Concepts, Theories, Approaches

Readings
Knoblauch & Brannon, "The Emporer (Still) Has No Clothes"
Elbow, "Ranking, Evaluating, & Liking"
Holaday, "Writing Students Need Coaches, Not Judges"
Bauman, "What Grades Do for Us"

Discussion

• Why do we "grade" writing? What are "grades"? What assumptions do we make about students and learning through the practices of grading/responding to/evaluating student writing?
• How are "grades," "assessments," and "evaluations" different activities? Why do we distinguish them?
• Can writers grow from positive responses (only)? Why are teachers bound by a desire to offer negative responses to student writers? Why does that make us "happy"?
• What is the point of "response"; why do we "respond" to student writing and how is that practice different from grading or evaluating student writing?

DUE: Essay Evaluations (Draft for Peer Review)

Assessment & Evaluation: Responding to Student Writing

Readings
Gee, "Students' Responses to Teacher Comments"
Straub, "Students' Reactions to Teacher Comments"
Straub, "Teacher Conversations"
Lunsford & Straub, "12 Readers Reading"
Sommers, "Responding to Student Writing"

Discussion

• What do these articles do, if anything, to help you think further about about previous discussions of grammar and correctness and their role(s) in writing (instruction)?
• What does it mean to "respond" to students' writings? Is there any intrinsic value to particular kinds of response? How do we know which kind of response works best? And what does it mean to 'work best'?
• What methods of evaluating writing seem strongest to you in these articles? What rationale do the authors provide? How might these differevent evaluative methods be used in different contexts and for different purposes?
• How would you communicate to students that you have chosen different response/evaluation/assessment/grading methods?
• What role, if any, might students' self-evaluation play in the writing classroom? What about peer evaluation? How would you scaffold this sort of engagement/learning?

DUE: Essay Evaluations (Draft for Instructor Review)

Assessment & Evaluation: Portfolios

Readings
Council of WPA, "WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition" (web)
Anson & Dannels, "Developing Rubrics for Instruction & Evaluation"
Wilson, excerpts from Rethinking Rubrics
Murphy, "Teachers & Students: Reclaiming Assessment Via Portfolios"
Banks, "Preparing Your Writing Portfolio"

Activity: Portfolio Reading/Evaluation

Discussion

• After reading Anson & Dannels, what do think of rubrics as aids to assessment? What do they offer teachers and students? Specifically, how might they help when it comes to the "subjectiveness" of grading?
• When do rubrics cease to be useful or helpful to teachers and students? How does Wilson's critique of rubrics (and Kohn's in the preface to her book) offer us a way to rethink the use of rubrics?
• How do portfolios offer teachers more "valid" assessments than other methods we've discussed? What relationship do portfolios have to the grades or evaluations of individual student-generated projects?
• How do you design a writing course that uses portfolios in ways beyond merely constructing an "archive" of essays? Are portfolios more than merely collections of previously graded work? If so, how?
• What connections, if any, do you see between Yancey's chapter "On Reflection" at the writing portfolio?

DUE: Teaching Statement (Draft for Peer Review)

TBA

DUE: Teaching Statement (Draft for Instructor Review)

Last Day of Class

Discussion: Reflecting on the Semester

Due: