Professor
Chris
Thaiss
The Teaching of Writing
English
615
Spring
2006
Wednesday 4:30-7:10 PM
Robinson A107
Required
Texts
Course
Schedule
Assignments
Grades
Description and
Objectives
Composition Studies is one of the fastest-growing and most diverse of the disciplines grouped under the term "English studies." This course, the Teaching of Writing, is one of the core seminars in the English Department's M.A. concentration in the Teaching of Writing and Literature. It serves as an introduction to the discipline of Composition Studies: as such, it addresses a range of issues and topics that make up the discipline. But it is also a highly hands-on, practical course for those who already teach writing and for those who wish to teach it.
I intend English 615 to help these teachers and prospective treachers discover specific tactics for reaching specific objectives for specific students. But the course is also speculative, posing and trying to answer basic questions: e.g., what is "writing"? What does it mean to "teach writing"? I want these Wednesday evenings from winter to spring to give us a chance to think, talk, and write about all those ideas and practical concerns that our day-to-day working lives give us little chance to ponder. We'll read and discuss some provocative books and essays by teachers; we'll reflect in writing and conversation on our own growth and experience as writers; we'll consider our own (current or future) teaching of writing and the people we teach; we'll develop new teaching ideas and present them to each other, with the class as our students. During this semester we will encounter a range of sometimes conflicting views on how and why to teach writing and on what to teach; my intent is not to proselytize for a way to teach writing, but to have us imagine, experiment with, and analyze critically many different ways.
In
this seminar, you
will also be visiting a number of websites devoted to composition at
various
places in the U.S., in addition to the site of the National Commission on Writing.
Among local websites of interest are the Northern
Virginia Writing Project, the GMU
Writing Center, the GMU Writing
across
the Curriculum homepage, the GMU
Nonfiction Writing Universe, the English
Composition homepage, and the Virginia
Dept. of Education "Standards of Learning" site.
Of
particular
interest
to students of composition is GMU's own web-based theory journal, Enculturation,
edited by the English Department's Byron Hawk. For background research
for your presentations, I also recommend the CompPile
database (maintained by Richard Haswell and Glenn Blalock).
Further,
if you are
not
already a member of the National
Council
of Teachers of English, I strongly urge you to visit the NCTE
website
and learn about the advantages of and procedures for joining. Students
may do so at a greatly reduced rate.
This schedule is flexible. I
intend the list of class
topics to be provocative, and it may very well be that we will deal
with parts of several topics in more than one discussion. In
addition to the readings I've listed, feel free to recommend (and
to distribute if you wish) to the class other readings you have
found particularly relevant. As such, discussion of readings will
involve only part of our class sessions. After the beginning of
the seminar presentations, this part will become even smaller,
roughly one half of most periods.Required
Texts
Ken Macrorie. The I-Search Paper. Portsmouth,
NH: Boynton/Cook/Heinemann, 1988. (ISP)
Edgar Schuster. Breaking the
Rules: Liberating Writers Through Innovative Grammar
Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003. (BTR)
Tom Romano. Clearing the Way:
Working with Teenage Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1988.
(CTW)
1/25
Introductions, Explanations, Exercises, Lists
Begin First Position Paper and Presentation
Proposal (See Assignments ).
NOTE:
The seminar will meet this afternoon in Innovation Hall 330 to
practice the Townhall discussion
forum, by which we will conduct our weekly exchange on issues of
teaching
and writing. (See Assignments.)
As I will be out of town this week, the session will be conducted
by a member of the staff of the Instructional Resource Center. Details
to follow.
2/8
What Is
Writing? What Does It Mean to "Teach Writing"? A Thumbnail History
Reading to be discussed: Emig and Bartholomae essays from SMG; Chapters 1-3 of ISP; Chapters 1-2 of CTW. Presentation proposals and first position papers due.
2/15
How and Why Do We Write? Models of Composing
Reading
to be discussed: Flower essay from SMG; chapter 7,
"Teaching Composing Processes," from SMG.
Presentation
schedule
will be decided.
2/22
Models
of Composing II: Classroom Applications
Guest
Speaker and Discussion Leader: Professor Terry Myers Zawacki
Reading
to be discussed: Chapter 4 ("Successful Writing Assignments") from SMG;
Chs. 6-7 of ISP
3/1
Teaching Invention: Getting Writers Started
Reading
to be discussed: Ch. 8 ("Teaching Invention") of SMG; ch. 4 of ISP.
Seminar
presentations begin.
3/8
Teaching Arrangement and Form
Reading
to be discussed: Ch. 9 of SMG; chs. 9, 10, 13 of ISP.
Seminar presentations
3/15
Spring
Break
3/22
Teaching Style, the Sentence, and the Paragraph
Reading
to be discussed: Ch. 10 of SMG; chs. 5 and 15 of ISP;
ch. 4 of BTR.
Seminar presentations
3/29
Grammar in Context
Reading
to be discussed: chs. 16, 17, 23 of ISP;
chs. 1-2 of BTR
Seminar
presentations
4/5
More
Grammar in Context
Reading
to be discussed: Chs. 3, 5 of BTR; Rosen essay (handout)
Seminar presentations
4/12
Teaching Writing with New Technologies: Issues and Resources
Reading to be discussed: Selfe essay from SMG and articles/resources TBA
Seminar presentations
4/19
Standardized
Testing vs. Teaching Writing: Can We Do Both?
Reading to be discussed: TBA (handouts) and the Virginia Dept. of Education "Standards of Learning" site.
Seminar presentations
4/26
Managing Writing in the Classroom
Reading
to be discussed: Chs. 3, 6 of SMG; Chs. 5,7,8 of CTW
Seminar
presentations
Final
entries on Townhall Forum this week
5/3
Review and Looking Forward
Seminar
presentations
There
will be no final exam in this course.
Communal 'Blog (30
% of course grade) on Townhall Electronic Forum
From February 1 onward you’ll
take part in a twice-weekly Internet forum
(asynchronous)
based on the topics and readings for that week’s class. I ask you to
write
at least one full screen per week as part of a conversation among the
members
of the seminar.You’ll be responding both to the assigned material and
to
one another’s comments. Hence, I’d like you to log in twice a week, so
you can contribute in the early and more advanced stages of the
conversation.
First entries should be made Thursday through Saturday; second entries
Sunday through Tuesday.
These commentaries should be thoughtful, incisive
reflections on the
topics
in relation to your own teaching (or prospective teaching) and writing.
I’d like the tone of
these
remarks always to remain thoughtful and congenial. It’s fine to
disagree
with a colleague or with me, but I ask you to do so in the spirit of
collegiality.
I'm calling this forum a "'blog," which is short for "web log"; 'blogs
( or just "blogs") are becoming more and more popular in composition
and
other classes, as a variable medium for informal writing. This blog
will
be atypical, since it's not a collection of individual websites that
each
student creates, but a single website to which we all contribute. Feel
free to use your space not only for your written entries, but also to
insert
images, links, etc., pertinent to our discussions.
Townhall
is a web-based discussion program that is used by many GMU teachers to
conduct both real-time (synchronous) and non-concurrent (asynchronous)
forums for students.We will devote part of one class (February 1) to a
real-time
discussion on Townhall and to instruction in how to use the program for
our weekly online conversations.
The presentation/demonstration should include two parts: a very brief overview (no more than 10 minutes) of the issue and summary of several sources (books, articles) you have consulted, and a "hands-on" activity (about 15 minutes) that shows how you'd apply your idea to the classroom. You should leave about 5 minutes for questions. Let me emphasize that these presentations are experimental--first drafts as it were. They are an opportunity for you to share with us techniques that you are thinking of using in current or prospective classes. Choose a topic that will teach you something new about teaching: if you've been teaching, don't give us the lesson you know will work (though we'd love to hear about that elsewhere in the course), but try out the lesson you're thinking of using with your students.
Plan to ask us to read an article (no more than six pages) or give us some other type of homework (e.g., a writing or research exercise) in preparation for the presentation. You'll have to make enough copies of readings for the class, including me.
In preparing the presentation, I'd like you to consult at least five print or online sources closely pertinent to the subject. Your working bibliography of sources must be handed in for my comments at least two weeks prior to the scheduled date of your presentation. The field of composition and rhetoric possesses many fine journals, more than a dozen of which we keep chronologically arranged in the Composition Library (A420) and which you may borrow. Fenwick Library has many more titles from which you may choose. To facilitate your search, I urge you to become familiar with the search tools on the Mason Libraries databases, as well as the CompPile database developed by Rich Haswell and Glenn Blalock of Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
You may work with one other person on this project, if you so choose. If so, the pair of you will have an hour for your presentation, and I'd expect you to consult and include in your bibliography at least nine sources. The additional time will allow you to give a more detailed intro and allow us more time for the "hands-on" exercise. If you do a joint presentation, it must be clear that there has been equal participation by both persons.
At
the time of the presentation, please distribute to the class and to me
a one-page document (as one of your handouts)
that briefly summarizes your lesson and that lists the works you
consulted.
At our next -to-last class (April 26), hand in a
one-page, single-spaced description of your presentation/demonstration
organized in three sections: Background, Description, and Rationale.
I'll explain each section in class, where I will also explain specific
formatting. This document will become part of a class teaching
anthology.
On February 8 and April 26, you will hand in 600- to
750-word
statements of your "position" as teacher of writing: your goals,
your sense of the issues, your sense of the students' needs, your
questions,
your doubts, your joys--anything that helps to define you as a teacher
or prospective teacher at the present moment. The second paper should
take
the first as its starting point and explore changes that have occurred
in your position since the start of the course. I'll read your first
paper
after our third class and your final paper before our last class.
******************************************************
Review of a Professional Book
At
the next to last class (April 26), hand in as part of your folders a
three-page
analysis
(about 750 words) of an additional professional book you have read
during the course.
The book is of your choice. Please use the Composition Library and the
Fenwick collection. Please approve
your choice with me. Write the
analysis
as if you were reviewing the book for a professional journal (e.g., The
English Journal, CCC, Teaching English in the Two-Year College).
Focus on specific
benefits the book would have for other teachers (or students, parents,
policy makers, etc.). What does the book lack that you feel it should
have?
What questions does it raise in your mind? How might you use the book?
If you wish, feel free to submit a discovery draft of your analysis up
to two weeks before it is due, for my comments.
*****************************************************
Seminar
Participation
B = completion of all requirements on time and according to instructions given above; active involvement in class and online discussions of readings and issues; clear, competent writing
A = completion of all requirements on time and according to above instructions, plus clear, consistent evidence of imaginative intellectual engagement in writing, discussion, and presentation;
C = completion of less than all requirements on time and according to instructions.
Plusses and minuses will be given according to GMU policy.