Deborah Holland
English 1000
Thoughts behind the course structure of English 1000, version 2
Upon reflection, I decided not to require texts for my section of English 1000. Since I’m using the writing workshop model, students will be focused on writing three complete essays, with very little time for extra work and reading. I plan to pull from compose.design.advocate as need, once I’m more familiar with my students/writing groups. Any readings I believe they would benefit from will be posted on the ning, or on eres.
I used the example syllabus as a partial source/ guide for the skeleton of my plan. Taking the offer to use the information therin, I copied what was permitted, then modified it to suit my purposes. I’ve used some of my blog postings below, plus attributed, modified postings to explain the Difficulty Paper and the Big Idea Project. I’ve also included a verbatim copy from the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition
I like the idea of centering the first paper on an exploration of the student’s life prior to English 1000. The course guide states that the typical 19 year old Freshman is egocentric, and so they should find writing about themselves quite pleasurable, even as it challenges their media assemblage, information gathering, and expository writing skills. An auto-ethnography should provide a smooth entry into the world of academic writing. I’d start with the “Where I’m From” poem to lure them into beginning the larger assignment--and at the end of introductions, would confide that they’ve already finished one element of this assignment! Students like to believe that their work has a purpose, so this should get the writing ball rolling. The text: compose, design, advocate will be a valuable resource in this process and throughout the rest of the course.
Since I also know about Ohio State’s Digital Archive for Literacy Narrative, I’d ask students to structure their work so that it could be shared, if they wish, with others on this network. (Information pasted below this text.) Info below is from Ohio State's Digital Archive for Literacy Narratives, retrieved from (DALN) site: http://daln.osu.edu/ What is a Literacy Narrative? A literacy narrative is simply a collection of items that describe how you learned to read, write, and compose. This collection might include a story about learning to read cereal boxes and a story about learning to write plays. Some people will want to record their memories about the bedtime stories their parents read to them, the comics they looked at in the newspaper, or their first library card. Others will want to tell a story about writing a memorable letter, leaning how to write on a computer or taking a photograph; reading the Bible, publishing a 'zine', or sending an e-mail message. Your literacy narrative can have many smaller parts, but they will all be identified with your name. For instance, you might want to provide a story about learning to read a as a child, a digitized image of one of your old
report cards, a story about writing a letter as a teenager, a photograph of you as a young child; a song you learned when you were in school).
Step 1: Compose/Tell your story Decide what stories you want to tell and what items you want to include in your literacy narrative. You can tell these stories in many forms: words, images, videos, audio clips, photographs. You can include as many of these items as you’d like in your literacy narrative. They will all appear under your name. Some of the following prompts may remind you of stories you want to tell: Early experiences at home * Tell a story about how you first learned to read when you were a child. * Tell a story about how you first learned to write when you were a child. * Tell about the kinds of reading and writing that were done around your hose when you were little or when you were growing up. Were there books in your house? Comics? Music? * Tell a story about what your parents/grandparents read (example:
newspapers, books, religious materials, computer games, etc.). * Tell a story about what your parents/grandparents wrote (example: newspapers, books, religious materials, computer games, etc.). * What kinds of stories did your parents/grandparents tell you about how they learned to read and write? * Tell a story about how you first learned to use a computer. Who helped? Where was it? What did you use it for? (examples: chatrooms, email, gaming) Experiences during your school years * Tell a story about reading in elementary/secondary school. * Tell a story about writing in elementary/secondary school. * Tell a story about using a computer for reading or writing of any kind (examples: chatrooms, email, gaming, writing papers, creating music) * Tell a story about using other kinds of technology for reading and writing and communicating when you were in school (examples: cell phones, hearing aids, computers, PDAs). Why dis you use each device? How often? In what circumstances? Later experiences: * Tell a story about reading as an adult. What kinds of things do you
read for work? For fun? For education? With friends or family? * Tell a story about writing as an adult. What kinds of things do you read for work? For fun? For education? With friends or family? * Tell a story about using a computer for reading or writing of any kind (examples: chatrooms, email, gaming, writing papers, creating music). * Tell a story about the kinds of technology you unow se for reading and writing and communicating as an adult (examples: cell phones, hearing aids, computers, PDAs). Why do you use each device? How often? In what circumstances? Additional Materials We also encourage you to add as many other items as you’d like to your literacy narrative. Each item you submit should help illustrate or explain your literacy narrative: * scanned photographs of you as a child or your family, or snapshots you have taken; * scanned images of old report cards, maps you made, drawings you have created; * recorded music you have composed or sounds you have recorded * digitized clips from home movies that show your literacy practices; * short stories, letters, or other materials you have written. * essays, 'zines', newsletters, e-mail messages you have written or
contributed to; I’d help students focus on the details of this assignment through a series of mini-lessons, as a large group, then I’ll divide them into writing groups and turn them loose, using the once/week model to keep track of their progress.
The Difficulty Paper
Below please find justification and preliminary notes for the Difficulty Paper assignment. I’ve adapted and amended information posted by Michael Arnzen in Praxis and Theory, retrieved from
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MikeArnzen/010483.html
For your second essay assignment, you will write a "Difficulty Paper" -- a task in writing about the things you find difficult to understand when reading an essay, ranging from vocabulary to turns in an argument to theoretical references -- in response to reading Fahrenheit 451. Although we will use writing group discussions to wrestle with reading and writing difficulties, the experience of recognizing and writing about story elements you find difficult to understand will serve you well in your analysis of future text and other forms of media. The "Difficulty Paper" is an assignment espoused by composition theorists Mariolina Salvatori and Patricia Donahoe in their book, The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty. It comes out of the idea that by grappling with intimidating readings, students can master their anxieties about (and become more confident reading) academic texts, and that -- through writing out their thoughts (e.g., taking a metacognitive approach) they can identify what they already know and what they still need to
find out. This not only trains students in ways of reading in the future, but it also, in turn, can lead to more thoughtful and honest paper assignments. Peter Elbow calls this process "text-wrestling" -- an approach to writing that struggles-yet-embraces difficult discourse, while avoiding the superficial and distant approaches to writing that a student may have picked up in school. It's really a transcript of critical reading and I believe it will help you understand Fahrenheit 451 and then form your own ideas in relation to it, so you will construct your essay, and arguments wisely.
The Big Idea Project: Essay & Multi-Media Project
“Big ideas—broad, important human issues—are characterized by complexity, ambiguity, contradiction, and multiplicity. Whether stated as single terms, phrases, or complete statements, big ideas do not completely explicate an idea but represent a host of the concepts that form the idea. For example, the term conflict may represent a number of concepts, such as power, personal and social values, justice and injustice, and winners and losers. Because they provide artmaking with significance, big ideas are important to the work of professional artists—and of students if student artmaking is to be a meaning-making endeavor rather than simply the crafting of a product. Big ideas are what can expand student artmaking concerns beyond technical concerns. Big ideas can engage students in deeper levels of thinking.” Sydney Walker. Teaching Meaning in Artmaking.
“The principle goal of education is to create (wo)men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done—(wo)men who are creative, inventive, and discoverers.” Jean Piaget (Creativity, 326) (wo)amendment by Deborah Holland
Big Ideas: Themes, Topics, and Issues that Endure: guidelines and justification for the Big Idea Project
Notes in blue by Deborah Holland
Template and annotations in black by Dr. Kathy Unrath
Quotes and notes in green from Rethinking Curriculum in Art by Marilyn Stewart and Sydney Walker
Project Title: Big Ideas: Themes, Topics, and Issues that Endure
Motive: Approaching an area of study through its enduring ideas is a useful strategy because big ideas are universal. This method can be designed to work for any age, in any group, at any time, anywhere, always.
Personal Stake in the Unit/Goals – Big ideas are flexible and can stretch to accommodate multiple modes of learning in a wide spectrum of curricular areas. This malleability and elasticity makes it possible to provide learning opportunities for students of all abilities in their preferred/optimum mode of learning. Meaning may be constructed in an infinite variety of response options. This approach encourages cross-curricular learning.
Big Idea Rationale: “Curriculum design is highly involved with decision making about inclusions and exclusions. Philosophical and conceptual commitments, not always overtly articulated, underlie curriculum design and influence how education is shaped. In our approach, choosing enduring ideas as a foundation for curriculum represents a philosophical commitment to content that exceeds any one subject matter or discipline.” From RethinkingCcurriculum in Art, Stewart & Walker, p. 25)
Key Instructional Concept: Big ideas are worthy of further thought and study.
Essential Questions:
What is the importance of the idea? Is it worth studying?
What is the appropriateness of the idea for study?
How does it relate to their present and future interest and needs?
How does it relate to contemporary culture?
How is the enduring idea represented in the arts?”
From Rethinking Curriculum in Art, Stewart & Walker, p. 32.
How is the big idea represented in Science/Social Studies/Language Arts/Physical Education/Media? What other experiences or information would enhance the study of the enduring idea?
Learning Strategies: One of the advantages of Constructivist learning is that multi-modal forms of response are both necessary and desirable. Students should engage in a wide range of learning/thinking/response behaviors: reading, writing, listening, field trips, art production. Accomodations should be made for Visual/Auditory and Kinesthetic learners.
Opportunities for Personal, Aesthetic and Critical Response: Students need to be encouraged to respond to big ideas in several different modes, and should be given the time and supplies necessary to do so.
Constraints: a resourceful teacher will creatively “wire around” the possible constraints of time and supplies, enabling students to engage in optimal learning experiences.
I will also use the information garnered from the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition to guide my thinking during the course.
Retrieved from: http://wpacouncil.org/book/export/html/8
and copied verbatim
Introduction
This statement describes the common knowledge, skills, and attitudes sought by first-year composition programs in American postsecondary education. To some extent, we seek to regularize what can be expected to be taught in first-year composition; to this end the document is not merely a compilation or summary of what currently takes place. Rather, the following statement articulates what composition teachers nationwide have learned from practice, research, and theory. This document intentionally defines only "outcomes," or types of results, and not "standards," or precise levels of achievement. The setting of standards should be left to specific institutions or specific groups of institutions.
Learning to write is a complex process, both individual and social, that takes place over time with continued practice and informed guidance. Therefore, it is important that teachers, administrators, and a concerned public do not imagine that these outcomes can be taught in reduced or simple ways. Helping students demonstrate these outcomes requires expert understanding of how students actually learn to write. For this reason we expect the primary audience for this document to be well-prepared college writing teachers and college writing program administrators. In some places, we have chosen to write in their professional language. Among such readers, terms such as "rhetorical" and "genre" convey a rich meaning that is not easily simplified. While we have also aimed at writing a document that the general public can understand, in limited cases we have aimed first at communicating effectively with expert writing teachers and writing program administrators.
These statements describe only what we expect to find at the end of first-year composition, at most schools a required general education course or sequence of courses. As writers move beyond first-year composition, their writing abilities do not merely improve. Rather, students' abilities not only diversify along disciplinary and professional lines but also move into whole new levels where expected outcomes expand, multiply, and diverge. For this reason, each statement of outcomes for first-year composition is followed by suggestions for further work that builds on these outcomes.
Rhetorical Knowledge
By the end of first year composition, students should
Focus on a purpose
Respond to the needs of different audiences
Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations
Use conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation
Adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality
Understand how genres shape reading and writing
Write in several genres
Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn
The main features of writing in their fields
The main uses of writing in their fields
The expectations of readers in their fields
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
By the end of first year composition, students should
Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating
Understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources
Integrate their own ideas with those of others
Understand the relationships among language, knowledge, and power
Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn
The uses of writing as a critical thinking method
The interactions among critical thinking, critical reading, and writing
The relationships among language, knowledge, and power in their fields
Processes
By the end of first year composition, students should
Be aware that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text
Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proof-reading
Understand writing as an open process that permits writers to use later invention and re-thinking to revise their work
Understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
Learn to critique their own and others' works
Learn to balance the advantages of relying on others with the responsibility of doing their part
Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences
Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn
To build final results in stages
To review work-in-progress in collaborative peer groups for purposes other than editing
To save extensive editing for later parts of the writing process
To apply the technologies commonly used to research and communicate within their fields
Knowledge of Conventions
By the end of first year composition, students should
Learn common formats for different kinds of texts
Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics
Practice appropriate means of documenting their work
Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn
The conventions of usage, specialized vocabulary, format, and documentation in their fields
Strategies through which better control of conventions can be achieved
Composing in Electronic Environments
As has become clear over the last twenty years, writing in the 21st-century involves the use of digital technologies for several purposes, from drafting to peer reviewing to editing. Therefore, although the kinds of composing processes and texts expected from students vary across programs and institutions, there are nonetheless common expectations.
By the end of first-year composition, students should:
Use electronic environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts
Locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources, including scholarly library databases; other official databases (e.g., federal government databases); and informal electronic networks and internet sources
Understand and exploit the differences in the rhetorical strategies and in the affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts
Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn
How to engage in the electronic research and composing processes common in their fields
How to disseminate texts in both print and electronic forms in their fields
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