Professor Kate Ryan
English 309
TR 10:00-11:15 oa
216 Hodges
kate.ryan@mail.wvu.edu

Approaches to Teaching Composition
Prerequisite: English 201; Restricted to English Education majors
htip://community.wvu.edu/~kjrO05/English309Syllabus.html

This course focuses on teaching composition to middle and secondary school students by introducing future English teachers to theories and practices of using writing in language arts classrooms and studying literacy in and beyond the classroom. The overall course goal is for participants to develop their knowledge about writing and teaching by studying recent composition theory and by taking on the role of teacher-scholar. A teacher-scholar is a researcher, a writer, a reflective practitioner.

The classroom will be a reading and writing community where we will write, read, and collaborate together. Students will create portfolios based on major and informal written assignments. The philosophy behind forming this community is that reading, writing, and learning are social acts that gain meaning through conversation with others and that portfolio assessment lends itself to an engaged classroom.

Course Goals

Through the readings, assignments, and activities, students will

• Study theories of writing and teaching writing in a variety of contexts

•Design writing assignments and sequences for middle or high school language arts classroom

•Reflect in writing on reading, writing, and learning practices; potential students; and realizations

about writing instruction

•Engage in teacher research on literacy

•Practice collaboration and learn to incorporate collaboration in composition teaching

• Write in a range of genres for a variety of purposes, including informal and formal writing assignments

Course Evaluation
Your success in this class will depend on the following: meeting the requirements; the quality of your written and oral work; your willingness to try new perspectives, to revise and rethink, to take risks.

Your grade will be determined based on the following percentages.

Verbal participation in small/large groups and 15%
Written participation in class 15%
Portfolio 70%

Grade Descriptors

A (91-100 % )
A superior assignment demonstrates originality and initiative that goes beyond the requirements. An assignment at this level is one that shows a clear, connected sense of audience, purpose, genre, and development. It is a well-edited, well-written, well-argued, and well-documented text.

B (81-90 % )
A strong assignment succeeds in meeting its goals in terms of audience, purpose, and genre without the need for further major revisions.

C (71-80 % )
A satisfactory assignment meets the basic requirements, yet would benefit from further revisions of purpose, development, audience or writing style/mechanics (or some combination).

D (61-70 % )
A weak assignment does not fully meet the basic evaluative standards. The text generally requires extensive revision to purpose, development, audience, and/or writing style and mechanics.

F (60 % or below)
An unacceptable assignment exhibits persuasive problems with purpose, development, audience or writing style/mechanics that interfere with meaning. The text may be incomplete or not represent the writer's own, original work.

Assignment Overviews
Multigenre Assignment and Sequence
Using Romano's text, you will create a multigenre assignment and sequence. Required entry in portfolio.

Ethnographic Research Paper
Drawing on ethnographic approaches to research practiced in Just Girls, observe and discuss literacy practices in a home, school or community context. Required entry in portfolio.

Informal Writing
You'll be asked to write informally for a variety of purposes and in a variety of contexts -- in class and at home, alone and in collaboration with others. Questions for Discussion and Writing (QDW) are one kind of informal writing you'll do at home; include 6 of these in your final portfolio.

Portfolio
You'll collect major as well as informal writing assignments in a portfolio throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, you'll be asked select among assignments to be included (you'll have requirements to follow) and write a reflection about what the portfolio demonstrates about your efforts to meet class goals. The two major projects are required entries. Revision for the portfolio is encouraged.

Course Texts
Margot Iris Soven. Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools: Theory, Research, and Practice.
Thomas Romano. Blending Genre, AItering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers.
Finders, Margaret J. Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High.
A selection of electronic articles

Recommended Texts
Elbow, Peter and Pat Belanoff. Sharing and Responding 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
A handbook for grammar, punctuation, and documentation.

Office Hours
My office hours are 12:30-2:00TR and 1:00-3:00W. You may drop in during these times or make an appointment with me to talk about your work. You may also email me at Kate.Ryan@mail.wvu.edu. To reach me by phone during of fice hours call 293-3107 x427. Please make sure that you actively use your mix account both in the event I send an email to the class and in preparation for our WebCT assignment.

Absences and Lateness
Absences will compromise your grade. If you have two absences before midterm, I recommend you drop the class. Four or more absences will result in a failing grade. If you must miss class, you are responsible for obtaining any handouts or assignments for the class from your peers. Lateness to class will also compromise your grade. Late work will not be accepted. If you have a problem with a deadline, talk with me in advance. Deadlines are not negotiable after you've missed them.

Intellectual Property
Because of the value placed on intellectual proper~ in the university community, recognizing and avoiding plagiarism is critical. There is a significant penalty for representing some one else's words or ideas as your own; at WW that penalty is an unforgivable F in the course.

Social Justice
This English 309 course supports WVU's commitment to social justice.

Spring 2003 Class Schedule for English 309

1 1/13 Course Introduction Soven: Ch 1&2 QDW Ch.l, 4

1/15 Intro.Soven's text & briefhistory Soven: Ch 3&4 QDW Ch. 3, 1; Ch 4,

2 1/20 Teaching process writing & teaching about sentences Soven: Ch. 5 QDW Ch. 5, 2&3

1/22 Evaluation and response Soven: Ch. 6&8 QDW Ch. 6,

3 1/27 Designing assignments, units and curricula Soven: Ch. 9&10 QDW Ch. 9, 5; Ch. 1O, 2

1/29 Teacher as researcher and professional; Intro. Literacy Papers Finders: Intro, Ch 1&2

4 2/3 Discuss ethnographic study and literacy Finders: Ch. 3&4

2/5 Discuss literacy, Social Queens and Tough Cookies Finders: Ch 5 QDW: Reflection on the text's content and genre

5 2/10 Discuss conclusions; identify literacy paper topic Gather research

2/12 Research day Gather research

6 2/17 Workshop: observation notes Gather research: interpret and reflect

2/19 Workshop: artifact notes Gather research: interpret and reflect; plan paper

7 2/24 Workshop: from notes to a draft (leave with an outline) Compose rough draft

2/26 Conferences (with outlines and rough drafts) Draft research paper; attend assigned conference prepared

8 3/2 l Conferences (with outlines and rough drafts) Draft research paper; *mid-semester reports due attend assigned conference prepared

3/4 Complete draft workshop: focus on genre Draft research paper

9 3/9 l Draft workshop: focus on delivery, editing Draft research paper

3/11 Literacy project due Read Romano and online Meet in Computer Lab for Web CT practice assignment articles

10 3/16-3/18 l Spring Break Read Romano and online articles; participate in WebCT assianment

11 3/23 | WebCT article assignment Finish Romano

3/25 No class QDW: What is a multigenre paper and why assign it?

*3/26 last day to drop

12 3/30 Introduction to Multigenre Papers: purpose and possibilities Compose 1 genre on teaching English

4/1 Discussion: coherence, genres, planning Invention: designing assignments + sequence

13 4/6 Introduce Multigenre Project Focused invention activities

4/8 Multigenre Project Workshop Draft project

14 4/13 Workshop 1: Multigenre Projects Revise multigenre project; prepare portfolio

4/15 Portfolio preparation: discussion of selection, organization, and reflection Revise multigenre project; prepare portfolio

15 4/20 Optional conferences (either portfolio or multigenre project) Draft reflective introduction

4/22 Workshop: Reflective introduction Complete portfolio

16 4/27 Portfolios due (turn in Multigenre Project in portfolio)

4/29 No class

17 5/3 Portfolios returned 11-1 (our exam slot)