Spring 2002

This information effective for Spring 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Humanities

[HUMN 203 ]

203. Teaching Writing 1

Spring 2002
Instructors: Virginia Draper, Elizabeth Abrams
M 2:00–5:00 p.m.
Cowell 113

Virginia Draper
Office: Stevenson 275
Phone: 9-2827
E-mail: vdraper@cats

Elizabeth Abrams
Office: Porter D116
Phone: 9-4188
E-mail: esabrams@cats

This course prepares graduate students to teach undergraduate writing courses by introducing them to current approaches to teaching writing, and to practical strategies that apply not only in composition courses but also throughout the curriculum. This course is required for graduate students who wish to be eligible to teach Writing 1, Composition and Rhetoric at UCSC.

Probable Texts:
Nuts and Bolts, ed. by Thomas Newkirk NB
Everyone Can Write, Peter Elbow ECW
Writing and Learning: A Handbook for UCSC Faculty, Virginia Draper WL
Readings on Writing, Humanities 203 Reader Rdgs
(All texts available at Bay Tree Bookstore)

The readings provide both theoretical contexts and practical advice. They may or may not be discussed in our class meetings. You should skim over everything in a week’s assignments, in order to choose what you will read carefully now and what you will come back to later. Some readings you can think of as reference materials to use as needed when you are teaching writing. Some of the more theoretical readings will help construct a way of thinking about the enterprise now, and will have increased relevance later as you think more about teaching—and perhaps when you interview for a teaching job and want to brush up.

Probable Requirements:
Participation in nine seminar meetings, scheduled conferences with the instructors, and completion of the following:

An ongoing Reading Notebook with responses to course reading and reflections on topics/issues that come up
Facilitation of discussion, or other activity in class
A Writer’s Autobiography (informal writing), due Meeting 2
Oral review of a Writing textbook with 2-page written synopsis and critique (copies for the class), due Meeting 3
Oral critique of a writing assignment from another course with 1–2 pages of informal written comment, due Meeting 4
Written responses to student writing, as assigned for Meeting 6
Class observations: Two visits to a Writing 1 class by week 6 and an informal interview with the teacher; an oral reflection on your observations in light of course reading and discussions, with 2–3 pages of informal written comment, due Meeting 7
Syllabus Project: You will design a Writing 1 Syllabus and write a rationale, noting what you want your students to achieve, and what activities you plan to help them achieve these goals. Describe and present a rationale for your assignments and their sequence, explaining why you choose the readings and what relationships you see between the readings and the writing you will ask students to do. The rationale should draw upon course readings, and discussions as appropriate, to explain your choices.
The Syllabus Project will be due in stages:
- Description and rationale for a possible writing assignment and activity sequence involving reading and writing (3-4 pages): Locate this assignment in the context of your course and describe the activities you will assign and/or do in class to engage students in the reading/writing processes at this point in the course. Explain the relationships between the readings, activities and the writing assignment, and note the assumptions or theories that guided your choices. (Your explanations could be a cover page, an end page, or inserted throughout in a different font.) Due Meeting 5.
- Draft syllabus and rationale due Meeting 8.
- Final project due Meeting 9

Spring 2001 Schedule

PLEASE NOTE: This schedule and the assigned readings may be changed for Spring 2002.

Meeting 1, April 2

Introductions: to each other, to the course, to the field of teaching writing.
Why teach writing? What is teaching Writing? Composition and Rhetoric?
Writing 1 at UCSC: what it is, its relation to the university

Reading
Irmscher, "Why Teach Writing Anyway?"

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Meeting 2, April 9

What we bring to our classrooms, and what students bring to our classrooms
Designing a writing course; sample syllabi
Textbooks: rhetorics, anthologies, handbooks, style manual

Writer’s autobiography

Reading
What students bring to our classrooms

WL	Introduction and Ch. 1 “What Students Bring to Our Classrooms”
Rdgs	Rose, “The Politics of Remediation”
	Trimble, “Superstitions”

Perspectives on the enterprise; course design

NB	Introduction: “Locating Freshman English” Ch. 1 “Charting a Course in First-Year English”
ECW	Ch. 2 “A Map of Writing in Terms of Audience and Response”
WL	Ch. 13 “Writing Requirements and Courses at UCSC”
Rdgs	Irmscher, “What Do We Do When We Teach Writing?” and “Acknowledging Intuition” Lindemann, “Designing Writing Courses”

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Meeting 3, April 16

Concepts of the writing process; assisting students during the writing process
Designing assignments and assignment sequences
Reading and writing, connections; the roles of reading in a writing class

Text review

Reading

NB	Ch. 4 “Using Reading in the Writing Classroom”
ECW	Ch. 13 “The War Between Reading and Writing—and How to End It” Ch. 16 “High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing”
WL	Ch. 2 “Getting Involved in the Process” Ch. 3 “Writing and Thinking: Engaging Students in Learning Through Writing” Ch. 4 “Designing Assignments”
Rdgs	Lindemann, “Developing Writing Assignments” Slevin, “Some Suggestions for Devising Writing Assignments” Gottschalk, “Preparing Essay Assignments”

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Meeting 4, April 23

Assignment design, continued—kinds of writing students do in Writing 1
Genres: exposition, argument, critical analysis; research-based investigatory papers;
personal, reflective, interpretive, expository essays, etc.

Topic, thesis, purpose; audience.

Critique of writing assignment from another class

Reading

Ch. 5 “Teaching the Research Paper”

ECW

Ch. 11 “Reflections on Academic Discourse”
Ch. 17 “Breathing Life into the Text”

Rdgs

Excerpts from Textbooks:

Klooster and Bloem, “Summaries: Gist, Outline and Abstract”
Packer and Timpane, “Critical Reading”
Axelrod and Cooper, “A Guide to Writing Position Papers”
Rottenberg, “Understanding Argument”

Sontag, Introduction to The Best American Essays 1992
Williams, “Crimes Without Passion”

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Meeting 5, April 30

Class activities (sequenced to make assignments succeed)
Journals, heuristics, freewriting, rewriting

Writing assignment with reading/writing activity sequence

Reading

NB	Ch. 3 “Exercises for Discovery, Experiment, Skills and Play”
ECW	Ch. 5 “Closing My Eyes as I Speak” Ch. 6 “Toward a Phenomenology of Freewriting” Ch. 18 “Using the Collage for Collaborative Writing”
Rdgs	Ponsot and Deen, “Working With Writing in Class” and “Rewriting” Howard and Jamieson, “Assigning and Evaluating Journals”

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Meeting 6, May 7

Peer response and writing groups
Responding to papers in writing and in conferences

Responses to student papers

Reading
Peer Writing Groups

WL	Ch. 7 “Peer Responders and Writing Groups”
Rdgs	Strang, “Product and Process: The Author-led Workshop” George, “Working with Peer Groups in the Composition Classroom” Draper, “Writing Response Groups: From Power Trips to Empowerment”

Responding to papers

NB	Ch. 2 “Conferences and Workshops: Conversations on Writing in Process” Ch. 7 “Evaluation as Acts of Reading, Response and Reflection”
WL	Ch. 5 “Responding to and Evaluating Students’ Papers”
Rdgs	Bolker, “Reflections on Reading Student Writing” Lindemann, “Responding to Student Writing” Elbow and Belanoff, “Summary of Ways of Responding” Freedman, “The Impromptu Conference”

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Meeting 7, May 14

Language use: grammar, usage, style
Generating, shaping, fixing up language; drafting, revising, editing, proofreading
Learning disabilities and writing; dysgraphia, dyslexia

Reports on class visits

Reading

NB	Ch. 6 “Editing: The Last Step in the Process”
ECW	Ch. 15 “Inviting the Mother Tongue”
Rdgs	Delpit, “The Silenced Dialogue” Smith, “Students' Goals, Gatekeeping, and Some Questions of Ethics” Trimble, “Readability” Williams, “Understanding Style” and “Correctness” Dawkins, “Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool”

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Meeting 8. May 21

Dealing with language, continued—ESL/Bilingual issues
Culture, race, class, gender; learning styles

Draft syllabus and rationale

Reading

WL	Ch. 6 “How to Help Students for Whom English is a Second or Third Language”
Rdgs	Harris and Silva, “Tutoring ESL Students: Issues and Options” Leki, “Responding to ESL Writers” Zamel, “Strangers in Academia: The Experiences of Faculty and ESL Students Across the Curriculum” Hooks, “Confronting Class in the Classroom” Gale, “‘The Stranger’ in Communication: Race, Class and Conflict in a Basic Writing Class” Hjortshoj, “Being There”

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(no class May 28)

May 23–May 28

Group conferences on draft of syllabus.

Reading (Read before your conference)

Rdgs

Roemer et al., “Reframing the Great Debate on First-Year Writing”
Herzberg, “Composition and the Politics of the Curriculum”
and the drafts of syllabi by others in your group.

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Meeting 9, June

Concerns and ongoing debates

Final syllabus and rationale

Reading

Rdgs

Bartholomae, “Inventing the University”
Wall and Coles, “Reading Basic Writing: Alternatives to a Pedagogy of Accommodation”
Newkirk, “The Politics of Composition Research: The Conspiracy Against Experience”

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