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January 27	February 3	February 10	February 17
February 24	March 3	March 10	March 17
March 24	March 31	April 7-snow date	April 14 - snow revised
April 21	April 28-snow revised	May 5-snow revised	"World lecture hall"

• Purchase the books.  (If you join the National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE], you can purchase books published by them for a significant discount and also receive two journals, College Composition and Communication (CCC) and College English (predominantly literature).  Check out the website at <http://www.ncte.org>
• The Personal literacy narrative is often assigned at the beginning of first year writing classes as a way for the teacher to get to know the students and also as an invitation to the students to think of themselves as writers and to consider the factors that helped to form their academic self-image. To begin this course, I'd like you to write your own literacy narratives, for the same reasons and also as a first step in your process of imagining yourselves as teachers.  Think about your history as a writer, reader, and thinker.  The guidelines below come directly from an undergraduate writing syllabus (ENGL A2E).

(1) As a generative process:  Write out answers to any of the following questions that seem relevant (but consider all of them): when did you learn to write?  who taught you?  when did you learn to read?  who taught you?  how did you feel about reading and writing?  how much do you remember family members reading and writing as you were growing up?  how much do you remember them encouraging (or discouraging) your reading and writing?  what role did school play in your developing literacy? teachers? friends? members of your community, church, extended family, etc.? what setbacks did you encounter? what encouragements? who or what has been the single most important influence on your literacy so far? what is your favorite book? why? who is your favorite book character? why? what advice about writing and reading would you give to a young writer? a writing teacher? the parent of a young child?  Feel free to expand on any of these questions and write about anything else that seems relevant. 
(2) As a reflexive process: Look over your answers paying attention to patterns and connections, and use them to help you organize your narrative.  You may find it most helpful to structure the paper thematically, focusing on specific topics (such as good reading experiences, influential people, bad experiences, etc.), or you may prefer to write your narrative chronologically, describing your evolving literacy over your lifetime.  Use whichever structure most makes sense to you (And, yes, you can use "I" and "me" to write about yourself!)
(3) Please bring this to class on January 27 and be prepared to discuss it with your classmates (you will not be asked to read it or share it with anyone aside form me).

• Course Theme I:  Imagining writers :  Discussion of class members' literacy narratives and the process of writing them.  I will share (with their permission--although names have been changed) some responses to the above prompt written by pre-college level students.  How would you respond to them?  Spend 10-20 minutes writing responses to these students.  We will discuss these narratives and your responses.  What can this teach us as teachers? 
• Courses Theme II:  Imagining ourselves as teachers:  As the course moves forward I would like you to build on your literacy narrative by considering how your attitudes about literacy change (or remain the same) in response to the readings and discussions in this class, and to your experiences teaching or tutoring if you are currently engaged in either of these activities.  As a first step, we will write in class in response to the following prompt:  Describe the teacher who had the greatest impact on you. What did he or she teach you about teaching? How has this person influenced your ideas about teaching and learning? 

Additional essays: 

1. "Teach Writing as a Process not Product," Donald Murray (1972)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 3-6]  Teacher:  Brad Burg
2. "Writing as a Mode of Learning," Janet Emig (1977)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 7-16]  Teacher:  Nicole Martone

Additional essays:

1. "The Writer's Audience is Always a Fiction," Walter Ong (1975)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 55-76]  Teacher:  Stephanie Dalianis
2. "The Language of Exclusion:  Writing Instruction at the University," Mike Rose (1985)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 525-48]  Teacher:  ?????

Additional essays: 

1. "Inventing the University," David Bartholomae (1985)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 589-620]  Teacher:  Laura McGinnis
2. "Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class," James Berlin (1988)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 679-700]  Teacher:  ????

Additional essays: 

1. "Consensus and Difference in Collaborative Learning," John Trimbur  (1989)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 439-56]  Teacher:  Kathleen Svendsen
2. "Considerations for American Freireistas," Victor Villanueva (1991)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 621-38]  Teacher:  Stephanie Dalianis

Additional essays: 

1. "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing," Linda Flower and John Haynes (1981)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 251-276] Teacher:  Tim Esh
2. "Is Teaching Still Possible?  Writing, Meaning, and Higher Order Reasoning," Anne Berthoff (1984) [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 307-322]  Teacher:  Katie McKim
3. "William Perry and Liberal Education," Patricia Bizzell  (1984)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 297-306] Teacher:  Amrita Ghosh
4. "Composing as a Woman,"  Elizabeth Flynn  (1988)   [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 549-64]  Teacher:  Charity Robertson

Additional essays: 

1. "Diversity, Ideology, and the Teaching of Writing," Maxine Hairston  (1992)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 659-76]   Teacher:  Katie McKim
2. "'Contact Zones' and English Studies,"  Patricia Bizzell (1994) [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 735-42]   Teacher:  Kevin Huvane

Additional essays: 

1. "Collaborative Learning and the 'Conversation of Mankind'," Kenneth Bruffee  (1984)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 393-414]    Teacher:  Charity Robertson
2. Discussion of what was interesting, challenging, or otherwise worthy of comment from the CCCC conference last week.   Teacher:  Sandra and any willing contributors!

Additional essays: 

1. "Diving In: An Introduction to Basic Writing,"  Mina Shaughnessy (1976)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 289-296]   Teacher:  Nicole Martone
2. "Cognition, Convention, and Certainty:  What We Need to Know about Writing" Patricia Bizzell (1982)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 365-389]  Teacher:  Brad Burg

Briefly summarize what you have learned about the writing process. You already have some sense of process theory from our earlier readings, but now it is time to revisit theory and apply it to pedagogy. Should we teach writing as a process? How does revision fit into this system? Look at the example of a staged assignment in the reading from Anson et al. (35-43). Do you think it would be effective? Try to formulate a position about what kinds of comments and suggestions will help student writers. Finally, to exemplify the theory you have developed here, write comments designed to help the authors of "Nineties Racing Challenge" (Scenarios, page 72-3) and "Scheduling my Time" (page 75) revise these pieces. You may suggest that they refer to the Longman Writer's Companion if necessary. Assume that this is the first draft and the finished paper is due in one week. When you have written your comments, summarize briefly how they connect with your paper. (You might find it helpful to imagine the marked up papers as handouts at a conference or workshop.)

1. "Cognitive Development and the Basic Writer,"  Andrea Lunsford (1979)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 277-288]   Teacher:  Kevin Huvane
2. "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers,"  Nancy Sommers (1980)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 43-54]  Teacher:  Laura McGinnis
3. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked:  The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy," Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford (1984)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 77-96] Teacher:  Tim Esh

Read the scenario "I Prefer Not To" (pages 84-87 of Scenarios for Teaching Writing). What would you do in that situation? Now read "The Good Family" (page 66-67) and consider the questions following it. Write comments on Nahomae’s paper (use a Xeroxed and enlarged version) so that she could revise it and begin to learn some of the grammatical structures she needs to learn. Finally, write a brief analysis of your response, explaining the position you adopt in regard to writing responses in general and to ESOL and developmental students in particular. You may use Rhea Sorkon’s experience with Binh Cho in your discussion if it seems relevant.

1. "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar,"  Patrick Hartwell (1985)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 183-212]   Teacher:  Kathleen Svendsen
2. "Coherence, Cohesion, and Writing Quality," Stephen Witte and Lester Faigley (1981)  [Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, pp 213-232]   Teacher:  Brad Burg

• "Chill out Gringo Fool" (82-84)
• "Young at Heart" (87-88)
• "A Student Trashes an Office Mate" (88-89)
• "Coco Feels Raped" (90-91)
• "Swearing Up and Down" (91)
• "Collaboration or Collusion?" (92-96)

• New teachers:Based on your reaction to these readings, what kinds of problems do you imagine encountering as a first time college writing teacher (or a teacher in another environment)? How will you handle them? Which of the scenarios would you find it most difficult to deal with? Why? What do you learn from this fear? How do the readings we have done and the theories we have discussed so far this semester make you feel about teaching? What general pitfalls do you imagine? What delights? What makes you the most nervous? What makes you the most excited? Consider all of these questions and answer whichever ones you feel like answering!

Experienced teachers: To what extent do these readings reflect your experiences? What kinds of problems did you encounter as a first time writing teacher? How did you handle them? Which of the scenarios would you find it most difficult to deal with? Why? What do you learn from this fear? What advice would you give to those experiencing them? How do the readings we have done and the theories we have discussed so far this semester make you feel about your teaching experience? What general pitfalls do you imagine as you plan your classes every day? What delights? What makes you the most nervous? What makes you the most excited? Consider all of these questions and answer whichever ones you feel like answering!

Finally, you get to evaluate the course and tell me what I should do next time I teach it!

Last updated, March 29, 2003 Sandra Jamieson Drew University, Madison NJ 07940..............................................................