English 391: Composition for English Teachers

Professor Janet Alsup

Fall 2004

MWF 11:30-12:20

Heavilon Hall 126

Office: 436 Heavilon Hall

494-3777

Office hours: M, W 2-3:30 and by appointment

Course Description:

Welcome! Composition for English Teachers relies on “experiential,” “constructivist,” and “critical” theories of learning. Researchers and theorists such as John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Janet Emig believe that we construct meaning by actively using and immersing ourselves in language and other symbols—not only reading or hearing lectures about them. The theorists of English Education that we will read and discuss in this course express ideas consistent with these influential scholars and teachers. They write about the history of the teaching of composition and the most effective methods for teaching writing in the middle and high school.

In English 391 we will explore how thought and language are dialectical processes: they each affect each other. In other words, when a student writes it affects his or her thinking, which in turn changes his or her writing. The very act of writing, whether it is pen on paper or fingers on a keyboard, makes the writer think in new and different ways. By the end of this class, you will have a comprehensive knowledge of various approaches to teaching composition in the secondary school and will have explored related issues such as evaluation, peer conferencing, creating effective assignments, and using technology in the writing classroom.

Course Goals:

  • To understand the nature of the writing process and how it can be taught effectively to secondary students.
  • To understand and practice critical analysis when reading and responding to student and peer texts.
  • To understand the history of the teaching of writing in American public schools and how it has evolved to its present state.
  • To understand and be able to effectively apply recent (and theoretically sound) approaches and philosophies when teaching writing.
  • To develop skills in teaching writing in one-to-one or conference situations.
  • To understand how teachers can address issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity through writing in the classroom.

Required Texts and Readings. All are available at the campus bookstores:

  • Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools: Theory, Research, and Practice by Margot Iris Soven. Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
  • Grammar Alive!: A Guide for Teachers by Haussamen, Benjamin, Kolln, and Wheeler. NCTE, 2003.
  • Selected readings from additional textbooks, trade books, or journals as necessary. These readings will be handed out in class.

Course Requirements:

  1. Attendance and participation. Class discussion is an important part of this course, so it essential that you be present. Please notify me in advance if you are unable to attend. If you miss more than three days of class, your grade may be lowered.
  1. List-serv responses. Two per week posted on “ one post the first week. The first couple of weeks I will give you a prompt to respond to. After we settle into class and become more engaged in issues and discussion, you will post about any item of interest related to the teaching of writing. These posts can be a response to/elaboration of a peer’s posting. There will be a total of at least 31 posts for full credit at the end of the semester.
  1. Mini-lesson and microteaching. For this project, you and a partner will choose an issue or area of interest related to the teaching of writing in secondary schools (middle or high school). Examples include pre-writing, revision/reformulation, language and “sentence skills,” writing about/in response to literature, essay writing, research writing, fiction/poetry writing, etc.

A more detailed assignment sheet will be provided in plenty of time before your teaching presentation, but in essence, you will team-teach a thirty minute lesson concerning your chosen issue or skill to our class (we will pretend we are middle or high schoolers for a little while!). You should incorporate sound theory and methods that we have read about and discussed in class. In addition to your teaching presentation, you will give each of us a “packet” containing your lesson plan, why you chose the issue you did, related teaching ideas or extensions, and an annotated bibliography of 4-5 articles or books that you consulted in preparation for your teaching.

  1. Assignment creation and response. An important part of teaching writing is creating effective assignments for students to respond to. For this project, you will work in a small group with two or three of your peers and will create a writing assignment and associated scoring guide or rubric. Then, you will “trade” with another group and “write” their assignment, and they will write yours. This way, you can find out (in a safe environment) how effectively your assignment works.
  1. Revision of above assignment and rubric based on “student” response.
  1. Multigenre project about some aspect of teaching writing. Examples include teaching grammar, the writing process, electronic writing, research writing, poetry writing, teaching language/linguistics, etc.

A multigenre paper “arises from research, experience, and imagination. It is not an interrupted, expository monolog nor a seamless narrative nor a collection of poems. A multigenre paper is composed of many genres and subgenres, each piece self-contained, making a point of its own, yet connected by theme or topic and sometimes by language, images, and content. In addition to many genres, a multigenre paper may also contain many voices, not just the author’s” (Tom Romano, 2000).

Tentative Course Schedule:

Week One (August 23-27):

A short introduction to the writing process

What are reformulation and revision?

Mon. Introduction to class and each other

Wed. Discuss assignments. Read Chapter One in Soven

Fri. Read Chapter Three in Soven and post first list-serv assignment: Introduce yourself

Note: From here on out, topics for list-serv postings will be provided in class or left “open”

Week Two (August 30-September 3):

Sign up for microteaching

What does it mean to be a writing teacher?

Mon. Read Chapter Eight in Soven

Wed. Read Chapter Nine in Soven

Fri. Exploring personal pedagogy/writing teacher identity

Week Three (September 8-10):

September 6 is Labor Day holiday.

Personal writing

Wed. Expressivist approaches to teaching writing: “voice,” journals, dialogue journals, freewriting, focused freewriting, invisible writing, etc.

Fri. Writing to Learn vs. Writing to display knowledge

Week Four (September 13-17):

Writing about literature

Mon. Read Chapter 7 in Soven

Wed. Writing about prose

Fri. Writing about poetry

Week Five (September 20-24):

Research writing/argumentative writing

Mon. Read “Teaching Writing Through Multigenre Papers” (provided in class Fri.) The multi-genre paper

Wed. The I-Search Paper

Fri. Read “The Fantasy of the Seamless Transition” (provided in class Wed.) Connections/disconnections between high school and college writing

Week Six (September 27-October 1):

“Creative” writing

Mon. “Showing not telling” and “exploding the moment”

Wed. Read “Poetry in the Schools” and “Approaching Poetry” (provided in class Mon.)

Fri. Imaginative response

Week Seven (October 4-8):

Creating writing assignments

Mon. Read Chapter Six in Soven

Wed. Group work on assignment creation

Fri. Group work on assignment creation

Week Eight (October 13-15):

October 11 and 12 are October Break.

Evaluation and grading

Wed. Read Chapter Five in Soven.

Discussion and “trading” of writing assignments. Rubrics and scoring guides.

Fri. Papers due. Bring four copies.

What is the difference between response, evaluation, and grading?

Workshopping, peer review, and peer editing

Week Nine (October 18-22):

Writing conferences

Mon. Read “Strategies for Teaching One to One” by Harris (to be provided in class Fri.)

Wed. Practice one-on-one conferencing

Fri. Read “Portfolio Assessment as an Alternative to Grading Student Writing”

Revision of writing assignment due

Week Ten (October 25-29):

Teaching grammar and language

Mon. Read Chapters One-Three in Grammar Alive! Grammar in context and grammar without terminology

Wed. Read Chapters Four-Five in Grammar Alive!

Teaching language and linguistics

Fri. Microteaching #1

Week Eleven (November 1-5):

Writing about visual media; “writing” visual media

Mon. TV, pictures, film

Wed. Microteaching #2

Fri. No class. Workday for multigenre projects

Week Twelve (November 8-12):

Summary of major composition pedagogies

Mon. Process and Expressive

Wed. Rhetorical and Critical

Fri. Microteaching #3

Week Thirteen (November 15-19):

Teaching writing with technology

Mon. Synchronous communication tools

Wed. Microteaching #4

Fri. No class—workday for multigenre projects

Week Fourteen (November 22):

November 24, 25, and 26 are Thanksgiving break.

Mon. Microteaching #5

Week Fifteen (November 29-December 3):

Writing Across the Curriculum and the National Writing Project

Mon. Read “The Pedagogy of Writing Across the Curriculum” (provided in class Fri.) What is WAC?

Wed.An introduction to the National Writing Project

Fri. Microteaching #6

Week Sixteen (December 6-10):

Mon. Looking back, looking forward

Wed. Microteaching #7

Fri. Microteaching #8 (if needed)

Course evaluations

Multigenre projects due (share in class)

Finals Week (December 13-17):

All list-serv posts should be completed

No final exam

Students with disabilities must be registered with Adaptive Programs in the Office of the Dean of Students before classroom accommodations can be provided. If you have a documented disability that will impact your work in this class, please contact me to discuss your needs.

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