Instructor: Dr. William P. Banks, Professor of English
Phone: 252.328.6674
Email: banksw@ecu.edu
Class Time: T, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Class Location: Joyner 1014 (University Writing Center Digital Studio)
Office Hours: T/R, 12:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Office Location: 1009 Joyner Library (University Writing Center)

 

Teaching Composition: Theory and Practice
English 6625 | Fall 2019

Introduction

For the last 150 years, no course has been so pervasive, so fundamentally wanted by college faculty and staff, and perhaps so fundamentally hated by first-year college students, and yet so absolutely remembered by college graduates, as the ubiquitous first-year composition course, often known as “English 101” or “Freshman Comp.” The course, as we know it, began in the mid-1800s at Harvard as a direct response to the perception some faculty had that students entering college could not write, even though they had gone to elite private schools and had been extensively trained for entering college. Interestingly, although we have taught college composition as a required course at almost every college or university, and despite the fact that we’ve done so for over a century, we continue to hear one constant refrain: college students cant write. Ask any professor on campus and you’re likely to hear that.

So why do we keep teaching this course? Do we have some desire to see ourselves as martyrs for an abstract (and seemingly hopeless) cause? Do we really think we’re teaching students to be better writers (even if they don’t always produce better writing in every situation)? Certainly, the university and the community invest in this course, as does an entire discipline of scholars and researchers. There are a host of different reasons and rationales for teaching composition, many of which we’ll explore during the semester through readings, class visits, and discussions.

This course exists to help graduate students in English Studies to understand the complexities surrounding the teaching of writing so that they might offer their future students the most pedagogically sound and rewarding experience with writing that they can.

Goals of English 6625

Upon completing English 6625, graduate students should be able to

• understand some historical elements of how composition instruction became part of the university and what that history means to how we have taught and continue to teach writing;
• recognize and articulate the primary epistemologies at work in various methods of teaching writing at the college level;
• differentiate between “rhetoric” and “composition” and recognize the role each concept plays in a first-year writing class;
• demonstrate a working knowledge of the primary issues facing the composition instructor (assessment and evaluation, the “grammar debate,” critical thinking, rhetoric, language acquisition, cultural issues in teaching, teaching as performance, teaching and writing in digital environments, etc.) and begin to develop methods for addressing these issues in their future courses;
• understand their own biases and prejudices regarding language, literacy, and writing, and thus begin to develop methods for working in, around, and through them to be better writing instructors;
• and develop an understanding of the roles various computer technologies play both in the act(s) of writing or composing and in the teaching of writing in a digital age.

To meet these goals, graduate students will generally read between 80 and 100 pages per week, take part in online discussion boards, post responses to readings on individual student blogs (Reading Responses), and engage in other projects listed below.

Texts

• Bain, Ken. What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004. ISBN: 0674013255
• Shipka, Jody. Toward a Composition Made Whole. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh Pr, 2011. ISBN: 0822961504
• Selected Readings Based on Inquiry Questions (primarily, these will be PDFs available from links on the course schedule and/or assignments links; other times, they will be available as photocopies)
• Internet-based websites/articles as listed on the course schedule

Instructor Expectations

Obviously, I expect a great deal of commitment from graduate students. By choosing to tackle graduate school, you have plunged yourselves further into the world of the “scholar.” I hope you will enjoy that work and take advantage of this time to read, write, and think about issues and ideas you haven’t considered before, or to go further than you have in the past. “Reading” in graduate school (especially for doctoral students) is an exhausting activity. While I expect graduate students to “read” everything I assign/we choose to read, I hope that you will also learn quickly how to “skim and save.” In a course like this, where the readings are primarily research articles, do NOT try to read all these texts like you would poems or novels, pouring over each sentence looking for nuances of meaning. Try to get the big picture, isolate the key arguments/points of the text, and keep it archived for future reference. Become adept at taking notes on texts! Some texts, I expect you to devour; others may not hold your interest. Often, we’ll read multiple articles/chapters that focus on the same topic, so one article may be interesting while the other isn’t. That’s normal. Regardless, I expect you always to have a passing acquaintance with ALL our readings and an engaged friendship with selected others. Obviously, I expect that we’ll have tremendous fun as we work hard together this semester.

Projects

The following brief annotations will provide some context for the sort of projects that this course will require this semester. More thorough explanations, where necessary, will become available over the course of the semester through the “Schedule” and “Assignment” links on this site. Most of the following items will be compiled into a Digital Course Portfolio to be turned in at the end of the semester:

• Reading Responses • Students will divide into four groups for weekly responses to course readings, so each person will have a response due each week, but a different genre/type. Our goal here is to create conversations about the readings, both online and in-class, that engage different literacy experiences and modalities (written, spoken, visual, tactile). These conversation are intended to provide a basis for class discussion and for you to think through some of the ideas before we discuss them.
• Literacy Autobiography • This project will begin our first night of class and carry throughout the semester as students practices different invention/composition strategies, practice different types of peer review and revision strategies, and explore different genre/modality conventions. This project, much like those often assigned in FYC courses around the country, asks the composer to explore their literacy practices and how they came to exist, what makes them meaningful and why.
• Essay Evaluations • We will practice responding to student writing in various modes and genres during the course; when you finish these, between midterm and the end of the course, you will provide a reflective analysis of your work based in the research on responding, evaluating, and assessing student writing.
• Curation Project • Because the “best teachers,” according to Bain, are those who know the research of their field, your major project this semester will be an inquiry-based exploration of a key issue in the teaching of writing. We will work together in the first few weeks of the course to think through possible topics; from there, you will have almost the entire semester to compile and read a large number of research articles (15-20) on your topic, interview FYC teachers, and ultimately compile a digital resource, the audience of which is yourself and your peers who will be teaching English 1100/2201.

Most of these “texts” will become part of each student’s Course Portfolio, a collection of artifacts that will count for the majority of the course grade (90%). Students will also be held accountable for appropriate “studentship” in the course (10%). Studentship means attending class, engaging fully in face-to-face and online discussions, and meeting assigned deadlines for projects.

Assessment Practices

I do not value grades in any traditional sense; grades are fundamentally classist, racist, sexist, and imperialist in their values, orientations, and practices. However, we all work in a system that requires grades and values the anti-learning frameworks that nearly all grading systems support. As such, we need to have an assessment mechanism in place in this course. Throughout this semester, we will read and compose every week; every week, students will do some sort of visible work that they will share with others in the class. Since this is a class about teaching and writing, we will also read a good bit about assessment, evaluation, and grading toward the end of the semester. In those weeks, will be pick apart the assessment practices in this course and those embedded in other anti-learning frameworks. As a graduate course, this course will most closely following a model that we have come to call a “contract model” of assessment. This model is labor- and dispositions-based and assumes that human beings work as often as possible to their best ability.

Students who wish to receive an A in this course should do the following:

1. Complete all work on time, notifying the instructor in advance if there are any problems that are inhibiting prompt completion of different projects;
2. Reflect deep, engaged thinking in course projects and in classroom conversations, seeking assistance from peers, the professor, or other campus resources when needed;
3. Attend each class meeting on time and participate fully in class-based and out-of-class activities;
4. Demonstrate openness to others’ ideas by listening intently and responding, when appropriate, with generous and thoughtful commentary;
5. Communicate needs and concerns with the professor in a timely and respectful way.

Students who wish to receive a B in this course should do the following:

1. Complete nearly all of their work on time, notifying the instructor in advance if there are any problems that are inhibiting prompt completion of different projects;
2. Engage thoughtfully with course projects and in classroom conversations most of the time, seeking assistance from peers, the professor, or other campus resources when needed;
3. Attend nearly all class meetings prepared to participate in activities, and engage with nearly all out-of-class activities;
4. Demonstrate openness to others’ ideas by listening and responding regularly, with generous and thoughtful commentary;
5. Communicate needs and concerns with the professor in a timely and respectful way.

Students who regularly miss class, show up to class late, or leave early will not qualify for an A or B in this course. Similarly, while all students are not required to speak every class (there are many ways to demonstrate engagement other time spent talking aloud), students who spend class time hiding behind computer / phone / tablet screens, or refusing to engage with large and small group activities are unlikely to earn an A or B in this course.

Students may ask the professor at any time if they are or are not meeting A/B-level commitments in order to get a sense of how they are doing grade-wise in the course. Similarly, the instructor is committed to notifying students if he believes they are not doing A/B-level work in order to understand any difficulties the student may be having and to suggest methods for improving performance and engagement.

Attendance

Graduate students by default should be at every class meeting. Emergencies and problems arise, so I can overlook your missing a couple of hours of class, especially since individual students can contribute significantly on the course website on the days they miss in order to “make up” for not being physically present. Missing more than six hours of class, however, will dramatically impact a student’s course grade. Graduate classes rely on the students to be successful; as such, your absences will jeopardize learning for others, which isn’t acceptable.

Late Work

We all have very busy, trying lives, and as such, there come times when we have to complete some work late. Each student in this class is allowed an occasional late reading response or other short piece of writing. Neither major projects nor drafts of major projects may be turned in late, as turning the drafts in late would invalidate the reason for drafting in the first place and turning in final projects late would prevent me from reading and evaluating them in time to turn in grades at the end of the semester. Students may always turn projects in early.

Conferences

Students should schedule conferences with me when they do not understand comments I’ve made on their projects or when they become confused about the expectations of this course. Likewise, I may require a certain number of individual and/or group conferences during the semester. Around midterm, I will most likely schedule conferences to discuss curation project ideas and to make sure everyone is making adequate progress on course projects.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to be honest about individual effort and responsible to peer/secondary source materials that are included in their projects. Both plagiarizing and turning in work written partially or completely by someone else are forms of academic dishonesty and carry serious penalties, the least serious of which is a grade of zero on the particular assignment (and thus a D, at best, in the course), but could also result in failure of the class and even expulsion from the university. Students who keep up with their work and consult with their peers and their professor have no reason or need to “cheat.” If students are ever uncertain about what counts as “academic dishonesty” or “plagiarism,” they should contact me to discuss their concerns. Otherwise, I will assume you understand these concepts already. Students are expected to know their ECU rights and responsibilities.

Education in a Digital/Networked Age

We live in an age of ubiquitous computing: most of us carry powerful microcomputers (cell phones) everywhere we go. Beyond that, it is nearly impossible to be truly “off the grid” as WiFI and cellular connections cover all but the most remote locations in Eastern NC. I embrace the use of networked technologies during class for taking notes, conducting research, and sharing work. I do NOT embrace the use of networked technologies during class when it looks like students are focused on the tools and not the conversations and activities of the room. When other students speak, you should be making eye contact with them to show you are paying attention and are interested, as they should do when you’re speaking. To that end, if I see problems with your embodied performance during class and it seems that you’re not present/paying attention during discussions and activities, I will likely email you and ask you to adjust your tech-based behaviors in class. I try as much as possible not to embarrass students by calling them out in class for troubling behaviors.

Likewise, students retain sole responsibility for keeping electronic copies of all their work. Lost or stolen disks, erased disks, computer crashes, printer problems, etc. do NOT excuse you from turning in work or having digital copies of all your work throughout the semester. Remember to make frequent back-up copies of files and keep copies in multiple locations. If you haven’t already, you should immediately invest in a free back-up service like Dropbox/Google Drive so that you never lose important files.

Accommodations

East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a disability must be registered with the Department for Disability Support Services located in Slay 138 (252.737.1016 Voice/TTY). http://www.ecu.edu/accessibility/