English 322W-01. The Teaching of Writing. Beale. Wednesday 6:30-9:30 pm

Instructor: Walter H. Beale

Office: 20 F McIver

Telephone: Office: 256-0386; home: 273-0376

Email: whbeale@uncg.edu

Office hours: Mon-Thurs 1:15-2:15

Texts: Erika Lindemann, A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, 4^th ed

John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas: A Professor’s Guide to Integrating

Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom

Andrea Lunsford, The Everyday Writer, 2^nd ed.

Course Description

This course is specifically designed for future teachers of English. We will study the history, theory, goals, and practice of teaching writing and explore various kinds of applications to classroom practice. Principal topics of investigation will include the historical backgrounds of education in language and rhetoric; the rise of English literacy training in English and American schools; modern composition theory and practice; and the relationships among reading, writing, and critical thinking. We will do lots of writing in course—as a way of exploring course topics more intensely; as a way of illustrating and experiencing directly the kinds and uses of writing in school settings; and as an opportunity for reflecting on the nature and predicaments of the writing process.

Learning Goals

Having completed this course, you should

• have a good working knowledge of historical backgrounds, theories, and current issues in the teaching of writing
• be able to access, interpret, evaluate, and respond to the wealth of scholarly and practical resources currently available on the teaching of writing
• have a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the process of composition, of writing as a medium of communication, and writing as a cultural practice
• understand best practices in teaching writing as a process, with special attention to techniques of invention, organization, drafting, and revising
• understand ways to use (and help others use) writing as a tool of learning, reflection, critical thinking, and intellectual and personal growth
• have embarked substantially upon an exploration of the contexts and predicaments of schooling in language arts, and of ways to create reading-writing communities in such contexts

Organization and Method of this Course

In order for this course to succeed, we will have to blend and sequence—somewhat improvisationally--the following activities:

• study and discussion of the disciplines of learning that inform the teaching of writing—rhetoric, discourse theory, composition studies, language and literacy studies
• study, discussion, practice in and simulation of the activities of writing, reading, assignment making, coaching, and community building that writing teachers have found successful
• study and discussion of the testimony and advice of successful secondary teachers
• reflection and introspection on how you were taught writing, on your development as a writer, and on your own practices and predicaments as a writer
• writing and more writing, in accomplishing all of the above

While much of this will be interwoven, in general we will concentrate the first half of the course on the first of these activities and second half on the next two.

Internet/Blackboard Component

The internet/Blackboard component is essential. While this is a course heavily dependent upon discussion, feedback, and multiple writing assignments that need to be shared as a class, it is also a course that meets just once a week. It is everyone’s responsibility to gain internet access and to participate online.

Attendance/Participation

For the reasons mentioned above, attendance at every class meeting and timely participation in all course activities, including the posting of materials to the internet, are essential. No exceptions not related to extreme circumstances and discussion are approved by the instructor.

Terrible Weather

In case of a snowstorm or ice storm which closes the University on a Wednesday night, we will go into a distance-learning mode, utilizing the conferencing and virtual classroom functions of the Blackboard system.

Tests, Papers, Projects

In addition to numerous journal entries and ungraded writing assignments, there will be a final exam (which may have a take-home component) and the following formal papers/projects:

· a literacy autobiography, which draws together life experiences, theories of writing and teaching, and informal reflections and explorations committed to paper throughout the semester

· an essay on an issue, problem, or controversy in composition studies

· a collaborative project which results in a panel discussion and separate written reviews/discussions of a book related to the teaching of writing

Grade in the Course

Much of the work in this course will consist in informal writing and class participation—work that is ungraded but which will count. You will establish a letter grade through the final exam and the projects listed above; class participation can raise or lower this grade by as much as a letter grade; your portfolio of informal writing can also raise or lower this grade by as much as a letter grade. I will provide you individually an informal assessment of this ungraded work about half way through the semester.

Tentative Course Outline and Schedule

As indicated above, the course will involve a somewhat improvisational blending of formal study, group discussion, private reflection, formal and informal writing. The course will proceed generally as follows. Individual reading, writing, and discussion assignments will be issued, discussed and posted weekly.

Weeks 1-2 The field of rhetoric and composition studies; nature, varieties

and functions of written discourse; historical overview of native-language

literacy training

Weeks 3-4 Approaches to composition; issues in the teaching of writing; the fields of

language, literature, cognition

Weeks 5-7 Pre-writing traditions and techniques; approaches to subject matter;

writing to learn

Weeks 8-10 Understanding and teaching form and style in written discourse; issues of

grammar and usage

Weeks 11-12 Developing writing assignments; responding to student writing; active and collaborative learning

Week 13 Writing online; teaching with computers

Weeks 14-15 Contexts and predicaments of secondary schooling