Schedule

Th, Aug 27: Getting Started

Reading/HW: St. Martin’s Guide, chapter 1, “Preparing for the Course” and chapter 2, “The First Few Days of Classes”; Michelle LaFrance and Stephen J. Corbett, “A 21-st Century Attendance Policy”; Stephanie Resee Mason, “Late Again”; create your digital portfolio/website for the course using Blogs@Baruch (directions)

Activities: First day discussion, housekeeping, and questions

Th, Sept 3: Course Design and Daily Lesson Plans

Readings/HW: St. Martin’s Guide, Chapter 3, “Everyday Activities”; Erika Lindemann, A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, 2nd ed, Chapter 14, “Designing Writing Courses”; respond to readings on our course website (weekly reading responses should be approximately 300 words for all readings for the week and should include a brief response and questions the texts raise for you)

Activities: Discuss readings; workshop possible topics for discussion lead (Cheryl and Lisa will can help with sources, readings, and day’s activities; formal proposal due for your topic and sign up for dates on Sept 17)

Possible topics:

  • Students’ Right to Their Own Language (and Identities)
  • Labor Issues in the Teaching of Composition and the University
  • Writing Across the Curriculum, Communication Across the Curriculum
  • Multilingual Writers/Learners
  • Digital Media and Multimodal Composing
  • Visual Rhetoric
  • The Politics of Access and Remediation
  • The History of Open Admissions at CUNY and Mina Shaughnessy
  • Critical Pedagogy
  • Feminist Pedagogical and Rhetorical Practices
  • Using Technology and Course Blogs for Traditional and Hybrid Classrooms
  • The Past and Future of English Departments
  • Defining Writing Studies in the Twenty-first Century
  • Grammar and Style

Th, Sept 10: no class (classes follow a Monday schedule to compensate for Labor Day holiday)

Th, Sept 17: Assignment Design

Readings: Teaching journal entry due on your digital portfolio site (short entry on how the course is going so far/questions for discussion); St. Martin’s Guide, Chapter 4, “Successful Writing Assignments”; “Framework for Success”; Patrick Sullivan, “’A Lifelong Aversion to Writing’: What if Writing Courses Emphasized Motivation?”; “The Meaningful Writing Project” (website and infographic distilling findings; notes from workshop given by Michele Eodice at Baruch College, April 2015: Questions to consider about writing assignments

Post due: Please post your first major assignment for workshopping during class. To do so, click on the “+” at the top navigation bar, type the name of the assignment in the text field, underline it, and choose “Add Media.” You’ll be prompted to select the file and it will be uploaded to the post. Include any issues or questions you want us to address. Include your preference for a discussion lead topic in the same post. Feel free to use the list above for ideas or pose a topic that interests you that may not be on the list.

Activities: Discuss readings; workshop assignments

Th, Sept 24: Low Stakes Writing

Readings/HW: Anson et al on low-stakes writing; examples of LS writing assignments; Elbow, “High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing” and “Benefits of Low Stakes Writing”; Tobin, “Process Writing”; Tarvers, “Approaching Writing from Literary Studies”; Flower and Hayes, “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing”

Activities: Discuss readings; look at examples of low-stakes writing; develop LS writing activities for your class and next major assignment

Th, Oct 1: Multimodal Composition

Readings/HW: Lauer, Claire. “Contending with Terms: ‘Multimodal’ and ‘Multimedia’ in the Academic and Public Spheres.” Computers and Composition 26 (2009) 225–239; Chp. 1 of Palmeri, Remixing Composition; watch Adam Banks’s Chair’s Address at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 2015

Activities: Prof. Jason Palmeri will join our class; look at sample multimodal composing assignments and student work; discuss ways of using multiples modes (images, video, and sound) for low-stakes composing and invention work as well as major assignments 

Th, Oct 8: Responding to Writing: Peer Review and Instructor Feedback and Assessment

Readings/HW: St. Martin’s Guide, Chapter 5 pp 125-160, “”Evaluating Student Essays”; Wendy Bishop, “Helping Peer Writing Groups Succeed” (309 in SMG), and Nancy Sommers, “Responding to Student Writing” (333 in SMG); Walk, “Commenting on Student Writing”; Creating a Rubric; Using Writer’s Reflective Cover Letters

Activities: Discuss peer review; sample peer review handouts; sample writer’s cover letters; grade norming session with sample student papers along a range of grades

Th, Oct 15: Working with Sources in Ethical and Sophisticated Ways

Readings/HW: McClure, Googlepedia (http://writingspaces.org/mcclure–googlepedia); Mark McBeth’s Reflective Annotated Bibliography assignment; teaching journal entry due by class time on your digital portfolio site about how your course is going and questions you have.

Activities: Discuss approaches to annotated bibs; discuss research-based assignments and look at samples

Th, Oct 22: Style and Grammar: Theoretical and Pedagogical Practice

Readings/HW: BSM Chp 8, “Teaching Style”; Richard Lanham, “Writing for Concision”; Milac, “Theories of Style and Their Implications for the Teaching of Composition”; Micchiche, “Making a Case for Rhetorical Grammar”; post a draft of your research-based major assignment to course blog for workshopping

Activities: Discussion of readings; model and practice style imitation; bring examples of your own writing and/or student writing to discuss

Th, Oct 29: Student Participation, Christina Quintana, discussion leader

Readings/HW: Read and post a response to the blog for the following:  Robert Brooke’s “Underlife and Writing Instruction“; Kerry Dirk’s “‘I Hope It’s Just Attendance’: What Does Participation Mean to Freshman Composition Students and Instructors?“; and Janet Mancini Billson’s “The College Classroom as a Small Group.” Optional: Derek Mueller’s “Digital Underlife in the Networked Writing Classroom.”

Th, Nov 5: The Future of English Departments, Victor Zarour Zarzar, discussion leader

Readings/HW: Read and post a response to the blog for the following: Elaine Scarry, “Beauty and the Scholar’s Duty to Justice” and Richard E. Miller, “On Asking Impertinent Questions.” Suggested Readings: Heather Mac Donald, “The Humanities and Us” and David Sessions, “California English.”

Post a draft of your Research-Based Argument assignment for workshopping with your response to this week’s readings

Th, Nov 12: Feminist Pedagogy, Emily Cementina, discussion leader

Readings/HW: Laura R. Miccichi, “Feminist Pedagogies”; Gwendolyn D. Pough, “‘Each One, Pull One’: Womanist Rhetoric and Black Feminist Pedagogy in the Writing Classroom”; Beth Daniell, “Dissoi Logoi: Women’s Rhetoric and Classroom Practice”; optional: Susan C. Jarratt, “Feminism and Composition: A Case for Conflict”

Th, Nov 19: Visual Rhetoric, Kate Eickmeyer, discussion leader

Readings/HW: David Anderson, “The Low Bridge to High Benefits: Entry-Level Multimedia, Literacies, and Motivation“; Jenny Edbauer Rice, “Rhetoric’s Mechanics: Retooling the Equipment of Writing Production“; Kathleen Blake Yancey, “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key“; Arola, Sheppard, Ball, “Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects”

Th, Nov 26: No class, Thanksgiving

Th, Dec 3: Creative Writing and Composition, Marcos Gonsalez, discussion leader

Readings/HW: Wendy Bishop, “When All Writing is Creative and Student Writing is Literature“; Doug Hesse, “The Place of Creative Writing in Composition Studies“; Clyde Moneyhun, Response to Doug Hesse; M. Thomas Gammarino, “Class Barriers: Creative Writing in Freshman Composition”

Th, Dec 10: Multilingualism, Chelsea Largent, discussion leader (final day of class)

Readings/HW: Lisa Delpit, Chp 3, “No Kinda Sense,” from The Skin We Speak; Suresh Canagarajah, “Multilingual Strategies of Negotiating English: From Conversation to Writing Author(s)“; Paul Kei Matsuda, “Composition Studies and ESL Writing: A Disciplinary Division of Labor.” Optional: Suresh Canagarajah, “Lingua Franca English, Multilingual Communities, and Language Acquisition“; Bruce Horner, Samantha NeCamp, and Christiane Donahue, “Toward a Multilingual Composition Scholarship: From English Only to a Translingual Norm“

By end of finals week, 12/23: Course Portfolio on your Blogs@Baruch site for the practicum with the following items:

  • Teaching journal: We’ll ask that you post your reflections and questions about your teaching experiences over the course of the semester. These entries should appear under your Home tab as “new posts” and will appeal chronologically. The remainder of the contents below should be “new pages.” Your final reflection post, due at the end of finals week, should be your thoughts about your semester: how did the class go, what went well, what would you have done differently, what was helpful about the practicum, not so helpful? 
  • Teaching philosophy: A statement of your beliefs about and approaches to teaching composition (1-2 pgs single spaced).
  • Course syllabus: Post your initial syllabus, and by the end of the final week of classes upload an annotated syllabus as well. On the annotated version, use Word Comment to write about the usefulness of the required texts, the utility of activities (e.g. conferences, quizzes and other in-class work) and assignments, how the course related to student needs and abilities, the effectiveness of the pacing, and other matters you would consider for improving the course next time.
  • Assignments: Post your major course projects/assignments.
  • Peer evaluation: You will be observed and evaluated by a senior member of the faculty in November. You will be contacted, likely via email, by the faculty member to arrange the best day for her/him to visit your class. You should be prepared to share your syllabus, course assignments and context for the day’s visit, the day’s agenda, and a set of 3 student papers along a range of grades with your comments and grade. Within 1-2 weeks after the observation the faculty member will arrange to meet with you to discuss the class. For this page on your portfolio, please write your reflections about the process—what went well, not so well, and what you adjusted based on the feedback you received.
  • Student evaluations: Include any student questionnaires or evaluations you may have given, e.g. midterm evaluations. Add the college end-of-term evaluations when you have them as you may need these on the job market.