English 7960: Methods of Teaching English in the Two-Year College
| Dr. William P. Banks Professor of English Phone: 252.328.6674 Email: banksw [at] ecu [dot] edu |
Office: Joyner 1009 Office Hours: TBA Online Hours: TBA |
Introduction
Many graduate students in English Studies will find their first teaching jobs after graduate school in one of the thousands of community/two-year colleges around North Carolina or the country. As such, English 7960 offers master’s and doctoral degree seeking students an opportunity to study and reflect on the types of teaching experiences that are typical of the two-year college experience, although those interested in teaching introductory writing, literature, and language courses at four-year colleges and universities will also find the course productive for bu9ilding a pedagogy appropriate for students in their first two years of college.
Rarely in graduate school (if ever) are graduate students in English Studies given a chance to reflect on what it means to teach “English” — why do we bother? To what end(s) are we teaching? What difference does it make if an English course is required or elective, taken by students as part of the “general education” curriculum or by “majors” in the discipline? What does it mean to teach writing at the college level, how is that different from teaching writing in K-12 settings? What does it mean to teach writing and reading in a literature or film course? Why even teach literature or film or writing? And how? And how might answers to these questions help new teachers to construct their syllabuses, teaching philosophies, assignment sequences, etc?
English 7960 investigates the types of courses that are open to teachers at the two-year college, courses ranging from basic writing and first-year writing to introductory literature and language courses, rhetoric and technical/business writing courses, film and theater courses, creative writing courses, grammar courses, and even special topics courses that teachers can construct based on their own expertise and values. In English 7960, we will explore the politics implicit in teaching English to early undergraduates and confront the problems that are specific to two-year college students and faculty.
However, it is not possible, in a graduate courses, to teach pre-service teachers how to teach. What we can accomplish, however, is to examine the complex issues that surround teaching at the first- and second-year levels; we can take a “critical pedagogies” stance toward those issues and questions; and we can explore together the types of teaching we might do in the context of the “reflective practitioner.” Invariably, the most successful teachers are those who think critically about teaching and about the different situations that occur during practice; this course is ideal for preparing you to be that sort of flexile and engaged teacher.
Goals of English 7960
Upon completing English 7960, graduate students should be able to
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Required Texts
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Other Required Materials
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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 off 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 may not have considered in such length or detail before, and to go further than you have in the past. While I expect graduate students to “read” everything I assign, I hope that you will learn quickly how to “skim and save.” Do NOT try to read all these texts as you would poems or novels, pouring over each sentence to find nuances of meaning. Try to get the big picture, isolate the key arguments/points of the text, and keep it archived for future reference. Develop coding strategies for helping you to read the text now but which will also be useful in a year or two when you need to return to the text for ideas or remember what you were thinking when you first read it. Some texts, I expect you to devour; others may not hold your interest. That’s normal. Regardless, I expect you always to have a passing acquaintance with ALL our readings and an engaged friendship with selected others. And, of course, we’ll all have tremendous fun a we read and write and work together.
Projects
The following brief annotations will provide some context for the sorts of projects that this course will require of you this semester. More thorough explanations, where necessary, will become available over the core of the semester through the “Schedule” and “Assignments” links found elsewhere on this course site.
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Grades, Assessments, Evaluations, and Responses
Graduate students do not need grades; I would like to think that they have out-grown them, gotten beyond the need for the simplistic and reductive response that a grade represents, and have become capable of reading feedback from professors so that they know if they are engaged with the course and its materials at an “exceptional” level or not. Therefore, students in this course will not receive “grades” from me, not until the university forces my hand on the matter and requires that I assign you a “grade” for the course at the end of the semester. Instead, students will receive constant feedback from me in the form of “responses” and “evaluations.” Should students be worried about their final grades/outcomes in the course, they may email me or arrange an online chat for an impromptu “assessment” of their performance in the course. In short, what this means is that everyone has an “A” unless I tell them otherwise. I hope students will trust me when I say, “I won’t let any student falter all semester without indicating that they are not performing at the A or B level.”
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 response to a reading, or other short piece of writing, though if you think you’ll be later than a day, please let me know so that I can make any adjustment necessary. Remember, though, that other students rely on your timeliness in responding so that they can be part of the conversation in a timely fashion, as well. Seminar Projects, however, should not be turned late; in order to participate in successful peer review, it is important that you work hard to meet the deadlines for drafts of this major project.
Conferences
Because this is an online class, I encourage students who do not understand any ideas or who are uncertain about my comments on their work to set up a conference with me by phone/Skype/Google Hangout so that we can clear up any misunderstandings.
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 C, at best, in the course, most likely), 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.” While graduate students often work on the same topics/projects across multiple courses, they cannot simply turn in the same work for multiple classes. If students are working on projects in this class that overlap projects in other classes, please let me know ASAP so that we (the student, me, and the other professor) can all agree that the work is appropriate for more than one context. I’m always open to this sort of thing, but not all teachers are, and being up-front about such projects is important for maintaining academic integrity.
Accommodations for Students with Special Needs
East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodation based on disability must be registered with the Department for Disability Support Services located in Slay 138 ([252] 737-1016 [voice/TTY]).