Teaching Composition (Fall 2009)

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GOALS

The primary goal of this course is to provide you with a theoretical foundation for your teaching of writing. But, whether you will be teaching composition, literature, creative writing,  or another class, you will find that research in composition studies offers approaches that are multidisciplinary and useful in any classroom.

Composition studies is a quickly growing field, and it will be impossible to cover its entire history or any one pedagogy in any depth. So we are taking a genre-studies approach that will allow us to be flexible in thinking about writing practices in our classrooms.

Finally, this particular semester the ENG 402 class has a special role: to discuss and consider the future goals of the writing program here at ISU.  Because the program will be undergoing substantive change throughout this year, both the course readings and your course work can serve as catalysts for discussions about program-building goals and plans.

TEXTS

The texts for this course will be made available to you through an online reserve.  They consist of articles & book chapters from disciplinary texts.  Additional materials may be required that will be either available online or presented in class.

EQUIPMENT

We will be using some specialized audio-visual equipment that we will provide you as part of your class enrollment, at no extra charge. You are responsible for this equipment when using it. If you break it, lose it, or have it stolen while under your care, you are responsible for replacing it by semester’s end.

NEEDS & ACCOMMODATIONS
Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TTY) by the start of the second week of class.

WHAT WE EXPECT and VALUE

You are here because you want to be in this program. So are we. We embrace the English studies model of this program, which means that we value how all aspects of an English department come together to form our understanding of the fields in which we learn and work. Whether you find your major interests in creative writing, literature, children’s literature, rhetoric, composition, technical writing, publishing, TESOL, English education, linguistics, or some combination thereof (as we do with digital media & writing research), together we gladly learn and teach while here at Illinois State!

We have several expectations for you while in this class. You should:

• come to every class,
• make time to read everything assigned,
• be open to pursuing a topic of interest to you in more depth,
• complete your assignments on time and with creativity and care,
• provide thoughtful discussion in and out of class,
• conduct yourself in ways suitable to your class colleagues and myself, and
• do excellent work, because there are too many English graduates trying to get jobs for you to bother with anything less than excellence.

We value

• thought-out (or at least informed) questions rather than off-the-cuff opinions, although you will have a place to do both in this class,
• your bringing connections to light between classroom discussions and your prior experiences and theoretical understandings,
• risk and creativity and multidisciplinarity and self-learning and helpfulness, and
• aha moments, which can turn into great discussions, projects, or (later) internships, theses, and dissertations.

Overall, we expect you to push yourselves to learn, a process which can take many forms.

From us, you should expect:

• an interest in your scholarly work in this class and its connections to other classes you are taking,
• an enthusiasm for teaching about the field of composition, which includes history, theory, praxis, professional development, and other areas of import to English studies,
• a personalized approach to teaching,
• an ability to go with the flow and to create learning scenarios that may sometimes seem quirky (what we call a Happenings pedagogy), and
• a desire to help you connect with composition studies in a way that suits you.

GRADING

Participants will not receive grading percentages for the various projects. Instead, we plan to use the following guidelines in assessing your work:

• Participants who attend class, participate (with respect for others and respect for the disciplinary knowledge being discussed), and complete all the work with clear attention to quality should expect to receive an A grade for the course.
• Participants whose work (or attendance or participation) indicates some lack of focus, or an unwillingness to give a full measure of attention to the subject matter, might expect to receive a B grade for the course.  At any time throughout the semester, if we feel your work is suffering or lacking in quality, we’ll be in touch with you to discuss it.  Therefore, if you haven’t heard from one of us that there’s a problem — then there isn’t one.
• Participants who have some kind of emergency situation during the semester, and who therefore cannot complete the work of the class (but who have been participating and working at an acceptable level otherwise) could potentially receive an Incomplete grade for the course.  However, this is an emergency measure only, and these individuals would be expected to finish their work well before the close of the spring semester.
• Participants who fail to do the work of the course could receive a failing grade.

QUESTIONS & PROBLEMS

If at any time you have a question about or problem with the course material, our teaching methods, or the activities and projects, we encourage you to come and discuss these issues with us.  We will both be available for face-to-face and online meetings (Joyce prefers email and google chat for online interactions; while Cheryl prefers email and iChat, but prefers f2f over iChat cuz she is usually wearing pajamas when not at school).