My pedagogy-- teaching style-- is based on educational research which has found that we retain 25% of what we read, 50% of what we write about, and 75% of what we speak about. With that in mind, here are the activities we will undertake this semester:
READING:
We will be reading a variety of writings about language and about writing itself. We will use these readings to help us generate topics for thinking, discussing, and writing. All assignments should be completed by the day they are scheduled to be discussed. Begin now developing your active reading skills by reading with pen in hand-- be ready to mark up a text with questions and reactions or keep a reading journal with these responses as you read.
WRITING:
Prewriting
We will do a great deal of writing in this class, but it won't all be formal academic writing. Much of the time we will be writing in preparation for formal writing-- this is called prewriting. Our prewriting will include
active reading
brainstorming
questioning
summarizing
drafting
Because each of you will create a Final Portfolio of writing at the end of the semester, you need to keep all of this prewriting material throughout the semester in order to show how your ideas and writing developed.
Initial Portfolio Drafts
These 750-1000 word typed writings are the beginnings of the final essays that will be in your portfolio. In these writings, you will think and write about some of the questions and ideas that we have discussed in class and developed from our readings. These drafts turn a question or idea into a thesis statement around which you will gather quotes and other evidence to support your thesis' claim and offer an admittedly provisional interpretation of the central component of something we have read or an idea we have discussed. You will write at least three of these initial portfolio drafts.
Final Portfolio
The final folder of your work will be graded by a committee of English 900 instructors (but not me) who will determine whether or not you pass 900 and are ready to move on to English 1110. It will include the following items:
1) Two revisions of the initial portfolio drafts in which you will push your thinking and your own writing as far as you can go. These final revisions should have detailed and interesting introductions, clear and focused thesis statements, abundant evidence from the reading that is quoted and punctuated correctly, clear transitions among paragraphs, a convincing and complete conclusion, and sentence structure and word choice that reflect careful attention and intelligence.
2) All drafts as well as peer and instructor feedback on these drafts to show how you have utilized reader feedback and how your writing has developed from first to final draft.
3) A reflective letter that will discuss the essays in your portfolio. The letter will explain how your essays changed and how your understanding of your own college writing has developed, noting your strengths and goals for the future improvement of your academic writing.
SPEAKING:
Peer Group Discussion and Writing Workshops
Because the faculty of speech is so central to working out complex thought and to retaining information, we will talk a great deal in class. It is key that you talk with others-- not just the instructor-- to expand your ideas and improve your writing. To facilitate this work, you will participate in small groups with your peers. Some of the meetings will be focused on assigned readings, while the majority of the meetings will focus on each other’s writing. For writing workshops you will make copies of rough drafts and initial portfolio drafts to share with your small peer groups, and I will provide different ways for you to help each other develop your ideas and writing. These small groups can be the best part of the course (and often are) or the most excruciating waste of time, depending on the group members’ preparation and participation. Your participation and preparation will inspire similar habits in your peers – if not, we will reconfigure groups to keep time-wasting to a minimum.