Reading Responses

Reading Responses should be about 500 - 600 words (2 - 3 double-spaced pages if you were word processing them) and should be posted to students' individual blogs. Because we are using an open-source technology (Wordpress) for our blogs, students should keep back-up copies of their responses should the technology break during the course. One recommendation would be to type your responses in Microsoft Word or Notepad and save copies on your computer; then copy and paste the text into your blog posting.

Reading Responses should work as "synthesis" papers, in which the writer attempts to find connections/disconnections between/among the various authors and articles/books that we're reading. On weeks when we read only one author/book, I expect that writers will look for connections to previous readings from the course. Your goal should be to highlight the idea or concept as the writers understand it and then explain how you see these concepts connecting or disconnecting in a productive way.

When readers encounter your Response, they should know the following information: the author(s) and title(s) you're linking or discussing, the primary arguments addressed in the text(s), and what specific issues, arguments, problems, possibilities, etc. you're addressing in your short response paper. Articulate as carefully as possible the stances or arguments of the author(s), and then find a space for writing yourself into the conversation ("standing in the gap").

Curricular Survey of Two-Year College English Programs

Our first significant project of the semester involves getting an understanding of what goes on at the various community colleges around the United States. Toward this end, you should choose a North Carolina community college and one that's in another state for your "survey." Using the websites at these institutions, or catalogs you find in the library, or both, you should look for the following artifacts and information:

• college mission statements
• information on the "English" departments (however configured) based on how they're represented in text; sometimes individual departments have their own mission statements or "outcomes"; also look at the faculty (and their credentials, degrees, etc.), and any statements you can find from faculty about their teaching philosophies or principles
• available courses, paying attention to the "level" of the course, prerequisites, how courses are ordered and if there's any "curriculum" that's articulated for students; you should also try to find any available syllabi for courses as they will give you an idea of how the course "really" looks, as compared to edited catalogue copy

Once you have collected (printed or photocopied) artifacts about your two schools, look through them and see if you can find patterns or "logics" for how the courses as explained meet the community college missions we've discussed or whicih you're encountered in your reading. Look also for disconnections or incongruities. Write a two page analysis of what you've found; this of this "report" as a synthesis of the artifacts you've found. You may not be able to include them all, but you want to give your reader a sense of what this community college does in the "English" department.

Because you'll bring copies of your reports for all class members, try to condense your report to a few important artifacts. You need not include all the artifacts you found or used to make your "survey"; in fact, your written report and a list of the courses that "English" faculty teach will be plenty to bring to class for others. You might want to hold on to other materials you garner for later.

In class, we will look at Pitt Community College in Greenville, NC, as an example.

Check the schedule for specific dates.

The "Issue" Project

Class members will survey the major teaching-related/-oriented journals of the field (College English, CCC, TETYC, Pedagogy, Profession) and isolate a particular 'issue' related to the teaching of English. They will then develop a sythesis paper in which they explore how 8 - 10 articles or book chapters address this particular issue/problem. The goal is find multiple perspectives on this particular issue/problem and tease out the complexities of how various teacher-scholars have addressed (or are beginning to address) this particular problem/issue.

To complete this task successfully, as I noted in class when explaining it, you will probably need around 8 - 10 double spaced pages of text, as well as a Works Cited page. I recommend using MLA format, though if you are more comfortable with APA, you may use that style instead. Successful projects will, likewise, demonstrate a specific knowledge of the article/book authors' main points and then a careful articulation of how those relate to other articles in order to explore your chosen topic.

Check the schedule for specific dates.

The Teaching Portfolio: Documents and Design

Teaching Statement

I hestitate to call this by its more common name, the "Teaching Philosophy," because I do not want you to think you have to wax philosophical about teaching. Yes, your teaching philsophy should be influenced by the theories we've read about all semester, even if your philosophy uses these theories only to explain what you do not do or want to do as a teacher.

Basically, a Teaching Statement is something a teacher constructs him/herself, and they come in various forms and lengths. For the purposes of this class, I would like for you to write 4 - 5 pages that articulate what you think you do or want to do as a teacher in English Studies courses. The first paragraph should be labeled "Summary" and should be 100 - 150 words; it should, as the title suggests, be a short summary of your chief goal as an English teacher. From there, you should write a more extended discussion of what matters to you as a teacher of English Studies courses.

You might do that any number of ways:

• You might divide your statement into discreet sections based on "issues" that matter to you, like "Teaching Language" or "Promoting Diversity" or "Working with Non-Traditional Students."
• You might divide your statement into discreet sections based on areas of English Studies and how you (would) teach differently in each, areas like "Teaching First Year Writing" or "Teaching Literature to Non-Majors."
• You might choose not to divide your statement into sections and prefer, instead, to focus on a particular approach that matters to you and why. For example, if you see yourself as adopting "critical pedagogy," you might focus on what that term means to you and how it affects what you (would) do with students in classrooms, how you'd assign projects, etc. to embrace certain ideas inherent in your understanding of this pedagogy.

Of course, there are other ways to organize your statement, too. These are suggestions based on Teaching Statements I've read and written over the years.

Check the schedule for specific dates.

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Teaching Demonstrations

As noted on the syllabus, class participants should prepare and teach one 45 - 50 minute "demonstration" over the course of the semester. Demonstrations should be focused on a particular set of learning outcomes that are relevant to an "English" class at a two-year college or in the introductory courses of a four-year college. In addition, assignments should meet the following criteria:

• Assignments should involve at least two subdisciplines of English Studies (intradisciplinarity). For example, one might walk students through an awareness of rhetorical concepts as represented in a piece of literature; or literary devices as represented in film; or linguistic markers in children's literature; etc. There are lots of possibilities, of course. The goal here is for teachers to be thinking about how their best assignments connect various aspects of English Studies.
• Assignments should be accompanied by a one-page, single-spaced reflective cover memo which a) explains the assignment in the context of a course for which it has been developed/used, b) demonstrates the learning outcomes/goals of the assignment, c) articulates how the assignment connects to scholarly/pedagogical texts we're reading (or which you've read in other classes, like Eng 6625), and d) suggests other ways of using this assignment in other types of courses/situations. Memos should include a Bibliography of cited or relevant materials.
• Assignments should include any materials students would need in order to complete the activity (e.g., handouts, directions).

After teaching demonstrations, members of the class will fill out response/evaluation forms intended to give the teacher feedback about his/her assignment and activities. A revised version of the project will be due the following week to give the teacher time to reflect on the feedback and make any changes he/she deems necessary or relevant. The assignment packet, including the response forms and a revision memo, should be turned in the following week. The Revision Memo should be a rather personal reflection on a) the experience of teaching the lesson or activity and b) the changes made to the assignment after resposnes OR, in the absence of changes, a reflection on the responses received on the evaluation forms.

Revised versions of the assignment sequence will be posted to the course Drupal site as part of the Assignment Book.

Click here for an example based on Will Banks's demo on "Those Winter Sundays."

Check the schedule for specific dates.

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Syllabuses & Schedules

Class members will create two syllabuses for two different kinds of classes, one for a "typical" course (based on our survey of two-year college curricula) and one for a "special topics" course that the class member develops based on his/her interest. Syllabuses, in this case, will be both "policy statements" (which indicate types of assignments, course goals/objectives, methods of evaluation, required texts, etc.) and a schedule of what happens and when for the semester. Syllabuses and schedules will be accompanied by a reflective statement to contextualize them and explain their relevance/value/connection to the class member's "Teaching Statement."

Check the schedule for specific dates.

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Curriculum Vitae

One of the crucial documents in a teaching portfolio is the curriculum vita ("course of life"). These documents contain several common elements, often arranged depending on what the author wants to do, elements like educational background, professional organizations, teaching experiences, etc. Let me know if you would like other examples or if you want me to look at your vitae individually:

• Sample One (HTML)
• Sample Two (Word)

Check the schedule for specific dates.

Assembling the Teaching/Course Portfolio

Instead of a "final exam," you should prepare your Teaching Portfolio (which will also have a section at the end for course-related materials not normally found in a Teaching Portfolio) using the following layout/design scheme. You can certainly do things differently later, but I want to be able to find the materials you've constructed in a short time so that you can get the grade you have earned for your work in this course.

In the future, when you pull Section 5, you will want to replace it with other sections, like those that demonstrate your service to the profession/students, your teaching evaluations and a reflection on them, courses you've designed or created for a curriculum somewhere, etc. There are so many things that go into your Teaching Portfolio, all useful to keep track of. Once you have your first portfolio, which is the most difficult to construct, you then have a place to add new materials so that you can periodically update your work with less effort. Very good repository for documents as you get them!