English 3020-01: Introduction to Composition Studies
Spring 2007
TR 11:30
Office Hours: 10:30-11:30 and by appt.
howellbe@mail.armstrong.edu
www.llp.armstrong.edu/howells
Office: 108b Gamble Hall, 927-5218, Mailbox: 108A
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Dr. Elizabeth Howells English 3020-01: Introduction to Composition Studies Spring 2007 TR 11:30 Office Hours: 10:30-11:30 and by appt. howellbe@mail.armstrong.edu www.llp.armstrong.edu/howells Office: 108b Gamble Hall, 927-5218, Mailbox: 108A |
Composition studies distinguishes itself from other disciplines, whose focus
is invariably on a body of knowledge or a set of texts, by its central concern
with an activity, the act of writing. The major concern of most composition
specialists is teaching writing well. To do this work effectively, they also
attempt to answer broader questions about literacy by studying composing
from historical, social, psychological, political, and academic perspectives,
often borrowing useful concepts and methods from other disciplines. As members
of an emerging discipline, composition specialists also encounter problems...
--Lindemann and Tate
Poor Composition Studies... You know how middle children, stepchildren, or generic brands often get treated: overlooked, undervalued, or dismissed as cheap or easy to come by-well as a field, composition often receives that same abuse. Looked down upon by her Rhetoric brethren and patronized by the Literature devotees, Composition becomes indistinguishable from the freshmen who populate 1101 classes-this is something students and teachers suffer through until something better comes along. This class will strive to earn the misunderstood discipline some respect and reclaim some of the nobility of the study.
You see, while literature is the study of reading, composition is the study of writing, and writing is often how English majors become English majors and how Stephen King became Stephen King and how knowledge is produced. As any of you who have taken my courses know, I believe these acts, these functions, go hand in hand-see that triangle! Reading, writing, and thinking work dialogically through reflection to create knowledge, awareness, consciousness, power and all sorts of magical things. In this course we will study composition in four ways through four units:
" UNIT I: REFLECTING ON YOURSELF AS A WRITER; REVISIONING YOUR LITERACY
" UNIT II: THE HISTORY OF COMPOSITION AS A DISCIPLINE
" UNIT III: THEORY OF COMPOSITION CURRENTLY
" UNIT IV: DEVELOPING A PERSONAL THEORY OF COMPOSITION
In each of these four units, we will read, write, and reflect on issues in composition and our own issues as students, (future) teachers, and/or literate beings. Furthermore, we will enact composition current composition theory through practicing in various and distinct ways in our own 3020 classroom.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books. 038548001.
Glenn, Goldthwaite, and Connors. The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing.
5th Edition. 0312404174
Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper, Kurt Schick. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Oxford
UP.
Book Club Selections
bell hooks. Teaching to Transgress. Routledge. 0415908086
Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Academic Literacies. Heineman. 0867092734
Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum Books. 0826412769
Mike Rose. Lives on the Boundary. Penguin Books. 0140124039
Victor Villanueva. Bootstraps. NCTE. 0814103774
REQUIREMENTS
1. Informal Writing: Reading Responses and Quizzes.
I try to balance the reading load by giving you time to respond to the reading
in class. In order to encourage you to keep up with the reading and to ensure
your preparedness to participate in class discussions, you should expect
to be asked to respond to your reading (textbooks or handouts) in class every
day. These in-class reading responses will sometimes take the form of quizzes,
sometimes they will be a written response to a particular prompt, and sometimes
they may be more creative or experimental. They will require that you read
the assigned texts in order to be successful. As opposed to reading journals,
these responses will become a record of your thinking about your reading
and classwork and will become an occasion for you to reflect and make connections.
Informal Writing will be worth 15% of your final grade.
2. Unit I: Personal Literacy: Literacy Portfolio and Literacy History
Your position in this class will be based on the assumption that you are
a writer. Your reading of Anne Lamott will assume so. Therefore, your first
assignment will be to chronicle and discuss how you became one. This project
will be made up of two parts with the first inspiring the second. For the
first, you will collect artifacts that represent you as a literate person.
This literacy portfolio will describe your evolution as a literate person,
a student, and/or a future teacher. The second part of this will be to write
about significant moments in your literacy history. How did you personally
learn to be a writer, to be a reader, to be a thinker, to be literate? What
were stepping stones, turning points, or obstacles? You will try to organize
a purposeful, compelling narrative written with style, perhaps, inspired
by Ms. Lamott. These projects will be worth 15% of your final grade.
3. Unit II: Composition Studies: Midterm Exam
This requirement will demonstrate another way to assess knowledge: through
a test. We will develop an understanding of the discipline of composition
studies and you will illustrate your understanding in exam format at midterm.
You will be successful on this exam if you read consistently and thoroughly,
reflect intensely, and make engaged connections during class discussions.
This exam will be worth 15% of your final grade.
4. Unit III: Composition Theory: Book Club Participation and Group Presentations
In this unit, we will produce and perform knowledge in another way-not through
a single-authored essay or exam-but through group work. You will examine
contemporary composition theory in large group discussions of a few overview
essays and then in small groups as a "book club" delve into a book
examining a particular aspect of composition theory. You will have the opportunity
to select one text to read in this unit which will decide your book club
groups. You and your group will read and reflect on the arguments this text
is making about the study of composition. You will share what you discover
and create what you now know. You will decide how to spend class sessions
processing the text and then determine how you will share your new knowledge
with the rest of the class. This will be a chance for you to discover theory
and compose knowledge. Your reflection on this process and group presentation
will comprise 15% of your final grade.
5. Unit IV: Developing a Theory of Composition: Final Portfolio
This last unit will be the most significant in terms of time, percentage
valued, and effort; therefore, this may be something you will want to work
on ahead of time. Instead of a single paper or exam, you will reflect and
create a series of documents illustrating your understanding. You will have
an opportunity to explore a topic in composition studies of interest to you.
Perhaps you will exam the idea of writing as a process, collaborative learning,
the teaching of grammar, strategies for assessment, conducting research,
technology in the classroom, teaching ESL or basic writing, writing for audience,
writing in disciplines or across disciplines, reflection, revision, peer
review, portfolios, or using reading to teach writing. Take a look at your
text The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing for ideas. You will do three
projects about this topic that will become a part of your final portfolio.
Your portfolio, worth 40% of your final grade, will also be comprised of
these documents which support its preface, your teaching philosophy. In other
words, your portfolio will include the following:
I. Philosophy of Teaching Composition or Creating Literacy: In reflecting
on your experience in this class, what are two or three things you know to
be true about successful teaching? Why? How? In this three-page document
you will make a case for successful teaching practice(s) when teaching composition
and the theory(s) that support them. The philosophy itself should be at least
3 pages-double-spaced in Times New Roman 11 pt. or other professional font.
(5%)
II. Annotated Bibliography. You will choose a topic in the field of composition
of interest to you. It may be one of the ones listed above or one you discover
on your own. It may be one of the ideas which arose as you considered your
teaching philosophy or it may inspire you to focus your philosophy. You will
develop an extensive annotated bibliography summarizing the key texts available
on this topic. You will want 8-12 excellent resources-not whatever you find-just
the best. It will take at least 4 pages. (10%)
III. Workshop, Assignment Sequence, or Lesson Plan. After studying the theories
on this topic or reading how your annotated bibliography topic is explored
in the classroom, you will want to develop some sort of lesson on this topic.
You should include an introduction to the practice, a possible reading assignment,
writing assignments, classroom activities, and forms of assessment. This
project should be at least 5 pages in length. (15%)
IV. Webpage Article. You will write a brief article for students (or faculty)
on your topic-summarizing its history, significance, and the how to. This
article should be publishable quality-in other words, you should think back
to the writing issues we explored early on with Lamott-because it will be
published for use by LLP faculty and students at the Writing Program webpage
now under development: www.llp.armstrong.edu/writingprogram You will use
your expertise as a student of composition to advise other students or faculty
how to approach this topic. You may elect to work with a partner and produce
your document collaboratively. You will submit a version of your article-and
IT MUST BE PERFECT-printed out in your portfolio and to me on disk or via
email. This project should be at least 3 pages in length. (10%)
This final portfolio, in other words, which we will take a month of class
time to develop, will be 15-20 pages and worth 40% of your final project.
It should be bound and professional, something of use for the job market
or graduate school-as an example of a publication-or teaching-as useful documents.
You will receive formal assignment sheets with instructions on how to successfully
complete each project. These projects must be turned in on time. Failure
to complete one of these projects will constitute failure of the course.
Workshop Participation, Group Work, Class Participation
This course also demands collaboration and group work: we are working on
creating a learning community. I will insist you participate in class. At
times, this may mean listening intently, taking notes diligently, discussing
intelligently, or writing thoughtfully. I will take notice and notify you
if you are not participating appropriately. This course depends on your participation.
Learning only happens when you choose for it to happen. It only happens when
you are engaged and active. Therefore, you must participate.
Feedback and Assessment
As we experiment with different ways to demonstrate understanding and process
knowledge, I will offer different forms of assessment. Your reading responses
will be evaluated quantitatively with brief comments and a grade between
a 1 and a 5 with a 5 representing an excellent thoughtful engaged detailed
response which makes connections among texts and ideas in the class and a
0 representing a lame response which demonstrates a lack in the above areas.
Your literacy portfolio and history, book club projects, and portfolios will
be evaluated with a number grade explained qualititatively with a letter
from me describing where your project is and what I like and where it should
go. You should consider bringing any project to me for workshopping to develop
revision plans before you submit the final draft. Your exam will be graded
with brief comments and a number grade. You will also be required to see
me at least once during the semester in conference to discuss an individual
project you are working on or to get general feedback. You will give yourself
feedback or will reflect through meta-writing or reflective writing on your
work.
Attendance.
Obviously, almost all of your informal writing is done in-class and cannot
be made up, as is group work and class discussion; therefore, you must be
here in order to be successful in this course. You are allowed four absences.
No excuses. No penalties. After four your grade will be dropped a letter
per absence; you will be dropped from the course with seven absences.
FINAL GRADES will be based on the following scale:
A=90-100
B=80-89
C=70-79
D=60-69
F=GRADES BELOW 59
WRITING CENTER
The Writing Center located in 109 Gamble Hall can be a good resource for
revising your essays if you would like a little extra help with your writing.
It is a free service. Please consider taking advantage of it.
PLAGIARISM
All students at AASU must agree to abide by the Honor Code and Code of Conduct
found in the appendix to the catalog. Be aware that plagiarism can result
in dismissal from the university, failure of the course, or failure of an
assignment. Cite any sources you use at any time in this class whether you
are quoting directly or paraphrasing. See me or consult the Armstrong Atlantic
State University Handbook if you are ever uncertain about the issue. Plagiarism
will not be tolerated.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, AASU provides appropriate and reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Documentation and services are available at the Office of Disability Services located in Student Affairs in the MCC.
WORKING SCHEDULE (subject to change at the instructor's discretion):
1.9 Introduction to Course
1.11 Letter to me due
1.16 Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, Part One
1.18 Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, Parts Two-Four
1.23 LITERACY PORTFOLIO DUE
1.25 LITERACY HISTORY DUE; History of Composition lecture
1.30 "Process Pedagogy" in Composition Studies, 1-16 (15)
2.1 "Expressive Pedagogy" in Composition Studies, 19-33 (14)
2.6 "Rhetorical Pedagogy" in Composition Studies, 36-49 (13)
2.8 "Collaborative Pedagogy" in Composition Studies, 54-67 (13)
2.13 "Cultural Studies and Composition" in Composition Studies, 71-87
(16)
2.15 "Critical Pedagogy" in Composition Studies, 92-109 (17)
2.20 "Feminist Pedagogy"in Composition Studies, 113-126 (13)
2.22 "Community-Service Pedagogy"in Composition Studies, 132-145
(13)
2.27 "The Pedagogy of Writing Across the Curriculum" in Composition
Studies, 149-162 (13)
3.1 "Writing Center Pedagogy" in Composition Studies, 165-178 (13)
3.6 "Basic Writing Pedagogy"in Composition Studies, 183-198 (15)
OR
"Technology and the Teaching of Writing"in Composition Studies,
203-220 (17)
3.8 MIDTERM EXAM
3.12-3.16 SPRING BREAK
3.20 BOOK CLUB MEETING 1; read 1/4th of your book
3.22 BOOK CLUB MEETING 2
3.27 BOOK CLUB MEETING 3; PORTFOLIO TOPIC PROPOSAL DUE
3.29 BOOK CLUB MEETING 4
4.3 Book Club Presentations
4.5 Book Club Presentations
4.10 Portfolio Workshops Begin; Topics decided, research begun
4.12 Assignment Sequence draft
4.17 Annotated Bibliography draft
4.19 Webpage Article draft
4.24 Philosophy draft
4.26 PORTFOLIO DUE
EXAM PERIOD: PORTFOLIO RETURN TBA