English 322 Elizabeth
Chiseri-Strater
Tue/Thur 12:30-1:45 Office McIver 114
email: E_chiser@uncg.edu
TEACHING WRITING
“Writing is not
life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.” Stephen King
“Writing, more
than any other task, brings one face to face with important human
responsibilities.” John
Gage
Required Texts:
Gaines, Earnest. A Lesson Before Dying
Kutz, Eleanor and Hephzibah Roskelly.
An Unquiet Pedagogy: Transforming
Practice in the English Classroom.
Murray, Don, The Craft of Revision
Every student is required to have an email
account for this course.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is
specifically designed for future teachers of English at the secondary level.
The course focuses
on how to teach writing to secondary schools students by introducing future
English teachers to a range of theories and practices of using writing and
reading in language arts classrooms.
The overall course goal is for participants to develop a coherent
philosophy of literacy instruction based on the range of course readings,
researched topics, fieldwork experiences, and self-reflections about writing,
reading, and learning.
A number of
assumptions inform and give shape to the ability to become a teacher, what
Donald Schon calls the “reflective practitioner”–someone who learns her art and
trade through the process of doing it. Our course will model the kinds of
activities and responses that might take place in a secondary school language
arts setting so that we can experience these for ourselves: writing in multiple
genres, practicing informal and formal writing, learning about teacher
response, integrating media and technology, and designing curriculum. Since teachers of writing need to write
themselves, we will organize a reading/writing community where we will practice
the stages of the writing process by writing together, responding to each
other’s drafts, revising, and compiling writing portfolios. The philosophy behind forming this community
is that reading, writing, listening and speaking are essentially social acts
that gain meaning through dialogue and conversation with others. Language arts teachers need to model their
own communication skills in their classrooms by adapting their curriculum for a
range of student learning styles and diverse cultural backgrounds.
Nulla dies sine linea
(Never a day without a line) Horace
The learning goals
for this course can be more explicitly stated as the following skills:
A. Understand the
relationships between the theories of writing and teaching writing to classroom
practices of students and teachers in a variety of context, including student
diversity and learning abilities.
B. Explore
methods of combining areas of literacy (reading, writing, speaking) into a coherent
program of instruction
C. Reflect in
writing on their reading, writing, and learning practices, their potential
students, and their realizations about education and language instruction
across the course
D. Learn and
practice the stages of process writing (invention, drafting, revising, editing
and publishing)
E. Learn the
differences between small groups and collaboration, and practice strategies for
both, particularly in writing groups, in group presentations, and in class
activities
F. Write in a range
of genres and for various purposes (journal writing, freewritng, essays, case
studies, lesson plans, evaluative responses, letters/email to instructor,
creative writing genres, writing about literature, and writing portfolios)
G. Learn and
practice multiple forms of informal writing along with their purposes and
benefits (reading responses, dialectical journals, listing, free writing,
brainstorming, mapping, one minute writings, etc)
H. Experience and
learn about various forms of teacher response to writing and writing assessment
I.. Experience
and learn about various forms of teacher research (observation, ethnography,
interviewing, educational studies and reports, case studies, and theory-practice
articles etc.)
J. Account for
various media and technology options, student learning styles, and student
language and cultural diversity when discussing and planning teaching methods
K. Design reading
and writing activities for the high school English classroom (including
literature) that reflect the NC Standard Course of Study
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COURSE RITUALS: ROUTINES AND RULES
Attendance/
Participation: This class is
totally dependent upon participation, involvement, and immersion. You are expected to be ON TIME and
be prepared to contribute to the ongoing class discussion, and to be engaged
with the class writing and peer response activities. You are expected to
know everyone’s names and use them–a skill you will need when you become a
teacher yourself.
“A day in which I don’t write leaves the taste of ashes.” Simone de Beauvoir
“To be a writer is to sit down at one’s
desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write.” John Hersey
Reading/Writing
Notebook: You are asked to
keep a journal/notebook, learning log for this class to be used for a variety
of purposes. Your journal will include
some in-class writing exercises and notes from your peer response groups but
will be used primarily to react to the wide range of readings you will encounter
in the course. Each time you read a
chapter or article, you will write about it in your journal. These responses should not be “summaries” of
the readings but show an attempt to weave connections between your own ideas
and the readings.
I will expect two
pages of handwritten response to each day’s readings, sometimes on an assigned
journal topic. You may respond in
dialogue, double entry journal, fiction or nonfiction prose style. Your writing should be legible or on a
computer and you should leave some room for me to respond. For your first entry, explore the following
questions: Why do you write? Why should
we teach writing in schools? What do
you think should be the focus of writing instruction in schools?
Evaluation/grades Since as a teacher you will be involved in
the process of evaluation yourself and you will be asked to evaluate student
writing on the Praxis exams, we will practice may different types of evaluative
criteria in this course. Your
evaluation will be based on ungraded informal writing, formal papers and a
writing portfolio. Your journal will be
collected several times and accounts for a portion of your final grade as does
a collaborative project. Your writing
portfolio, which will include several papers that will go through the processes
of peer review, conferencing and revision, will be a major part of your final
grade. For your portfolio you will be
asked to reflect on and evaluate the work you have done for the course by considering
your own class participation, the quality of your written work, and your
overall understanding and commitment to the ideas and materials of the
course. Your self evaluation and
philosophy of teaching writing statement will accompany your portfolio.
READING AND WRITING OUTLINE
8/20 Introductions to the course and each
other
8/22 Discussion
of memorable teachers
Journal writing: Why Write? Why teach writing? What do you teach when you
Teach writing?
8/27 Getting
Started: Invention
Writing: List of 15 possible topics for learning/literacy paper
Reading: Murray: Craft of Revision, Prefaces and
first chapter.
8/29 Writing
as Composing
Reading: Chapter 6, Unquiet Pedagogy
Writing : Two pages of response about what is important in this
chapter.
The writing generates writing.”
E.L. Doctorow
9/3 Writing
Workshop: Establishing Writing Communities
Writing: Short literacy/ learning moment paper
9/6 Drafting
and Revising
Reading: Murray: Chapters 2-3.
Journal Writing: Make a plan for revising your literacy/learning paper
Conferences will be scheduled the week of 9/10 to discuss first papers
Bring journals with you to your conference
9/10 Writing
about Literature
Reading: First half of A Lesson Before Dying
Journal Writing: Description of artifact or quote in the book
9/12 Reading
and Meaning
Writing: Design an informal assignment for A Lesson Before Dying
for your own future students which integrates some aspect of
technology.
9/17 Reading
and Meaning
Chapter 7, Unquiet Pedagogy
Journal Writing: Write about yourself as a reader, your history,
tastes, favorite reading memories.
9/19 Writing
about Literature
Reading: Finish A Lesson Before Dying
Journal Writing: Write about what literacy means in this novel from at
least three perspectives–write an entry from one perspective not included in
the novel.
9/24 Writing
to Learn
Writing: Design a formal assignment in
response to the novel, A Lesson Before
Dying.
9/26 Writing
about Literature
Writing: Complete your classmate’s formal writing assignment and write
about the experience of doing it.
10/1 The
Culture of The Classroom
Reading: Chapter 1, Introduction, Unquiet Pedagogy
Journal Writing: Write about a specific film or media image about the
culture of school and how that affects both students and teachers.
“If you keep working, inspiration comes.” Alexander Calder
10/3 Observations
and Fieldnotes
Reading: “Ethnographic Inquiry (325-329) Unquiet Pedagogy and
handout
on fieldnotes from Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein.
Journal Writing: Write one descriptive paragraph about some natural
object that involves close ethnographic observation
10/8 Language
and Literacy
Reading: Chapter 3, Unquiet Pedagogy
Journal Writing: Respond to an idea that struck you in this chapter
about what you learned from your family as opposed to school.
10/10 Writing
Workshop
Writing: Share “Hanging out” papers
Name of teacher, student, or learning context you plan to observe due
today.
Friday October 11 is the last day to drop a course without academic
penalty.
10/15 NO
CLASS, FALL BREAK
10/17 Creative
Writing
Reading: Handouts by Rule and Wheeler
Writing: Try out some dialogue to make a point or argument
10/22 Creative
Writing Exercises
Reading: Wheeler and Rule handouts
Writing: Time Expansion exercise due in writing group.
10/24 Writing
Workshop
Writing: Observation paper due
Reading: Craft of Revision, Chapters 4,5
10/29 Teacher
Response
Reading: Student essays, pp. 274-278, Unquiet Pedagogy, Praxis
exam questions
Journal Writing: Write a response to one student essay
11/5 Teacher Evaluation
Reading: pp. 279-285, Unquiet Pedagogy and article by Lape and
Glenn
Journal writing: Write about a grade on a paper that you remember well.
“ Writing was the
only work I did that was for myself and by myself. In the process, one exercises sovereignty in a special way. All sensibilities are engaged, sometimes
simultaneously, sometimes sequentially.
While I am writing, all of experience is vital and useful and possibly
important.” Toni Morrison
11/7 Collaboration
Reading, pp. 259-267, Unquiet Pedagogy, online article by
Roskelly
Journal Writing: Write about a successful or unsuccessful collaboration
11/12 Group
Work
1/14 Group
Work
11/19 Group
Presentations
11/21 Group
Presentations
11/26 NCTE,
NO CLASS
11/28 Thanksgiving Holiday, No Class
12/3 Revision
Workshop
Reading: Finish Murray, Craft of Revision
12/5 Last
Class
Writing: Portfolios due in class
Portfolios will
be returned during the scheduled exam time period when each student will read excerpts from
her portfolio for five to ten minutes.
Portfolio
Outline:
Select 15 pages of
your formal and informal writing from
this class to be handed in for evaluation. This may come from journal writing,
in class exercises, your more formal papers such as the Literacy Moment,
Hanging Out, Learning Observation, Lesson Plans on Gaines’s novel, or Creative
Writing Exercises. In addition to these revisions, you will write a 2-3 paged
case study of yourself as a writer and a reflective letter introducing the portfolio
which will include your philosophy of teaching writing.
“In teaching
writing we are tacitly teaching a version of reality. We are not simply offering training in a useful technical skill
that is meant as a simple complement to the more important studies of other
areas. We are teaching a way of
experiencing the world, a way of ordering and making sense of it.” James Berlin