Welcome

English 79000: Seminar in the Teaching of English Composition / Fall 2014
Professors:  Dr. Cheryl Smith and Dr. Lisa Blankenship, Department of English
Class Time & Location:  Tuesdays, 12:30-2:15pm, English Dept Seminar Room, 7-238
Contact:  [email protected] / [email protected]

Course Description and Objectives

This seminar focuses on the history, theory, and practice of teaching college-level writing.  Our emphasis is on the pedagogical choices we make and how our choices may be informed by theories on teaching and learning to write, our experiences in school (as both students and teachers), and our beliefs about education, writing, and reading. We will use our classroom experiences during the semester to talk about the complex dynamics of teaching and learning and develop informed approaches to syllabus construction, classroom management, assignment design, and commenting and grading.

We will also explore larger questions informing the teaching of college writing and English studies more broadly. These will be determined by our common interests and may include: multi-lingual writers; digital media and multi-modal composition; visual rhetoric; the politics of access and remediation; the history of open admissions at CUNY and Mina Shaughnessy; Writing across the Curriculum; critical pedagogy; feminist rhetorical practices; the future of English departments, and other relevant issues to the field of English studies. Seminar participants will develop their individualized approaches to and theories on teaching first-year composition and represent them in a final teaching portfolio suitable for use on the job market.