WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS, English 221, Fall 2011 Last revised: 17 November, 2011 03:42:33 PM.
[The most frequently referenced journal title abbreviations used below: CE (College English), CCC (College Composition and Communication), and RTE (Research in the Teaching of English). Articles available online can be read from journals indexed in JSTOR by means of hyperlinks from the syllabus's parenthetical bibliographic information, like this: (available via JSTOR, from CCC, 1981). You will have to use EbscoHost, yourself, to access Genesee ("Brain Research") in ERIC for Week 5.]
Week 1
Thursday, 9/1: As soon as you can, buy the anthologies edited by Perl and Podis & Podis; get the packet of photocopied articles from the stack outside VM G57; read Faerm, "Tutoring Anne" (photocopy ex-WLN, 1992) and Emig, "The Composing Process: Review of the Literature" (In Perl, 1-22). Think about how strange "language" is, how it is linked to seeing and hearing and speaking, to the rest of our senses, and to memory. Also, if you have not already done so, learn how to navigate Blackboard and this web site, and make sure you can send and receive emails with attached files. These will be useful techniques, and are more easily learned early in the semester than when they're absolutely needed.
In the writing due for this week, we will be introducing ourselves to each other by describing how we write before the class meets. Post your "How Do I Write" description to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's "Weekly Reading Responses" discussion forum by two days before our first class. After you have read your colleagues' descriptions of their composing processes, if you have time, talk to some other members of the class (see "Who we are 2010"). In class, we will divide our time between talking about the similarities and differences you observed in your colleagues' "How do I write?" essays, the varieties of approaches to researching writing which Emig describes, and the tutoring experience you will encounter in Faerm's article.
Week 2: What do we do when we write?--What do tutors do when performing tuition?
Thursday, 9/8, Read Graves, "An Examination of the Writing Processes of Seven-Year-Old Children" (In Perl, 23-38). "Introduction"; Gilmartin, "Working at the Drop-In Center"; Turk, "'Tutoring' Beyond the Writing Center: Peer Consulting in the Classroom" (In Podis & Podis, 13-32). If you're wondering what I think about these readings, click here for some guidance. This will give you some idea where I would take a discussion, but the more important question is where you want to take the discussion. Web page for today's class. In the "what goes around comes around" department, check this out: Thomas Newkirk, Professor of English, was selected as the 2010 recipient of the Lindberg Award, the highest award in the College of Liberal Arts. He will deliver the 2011 Lindberg Lecture: "Tale of the Tape: Donald Graves and the Revolution in Children's Writing." This link will take you to the talk, itself. If you skip the Dean's congratulatory blah-blah, it's around 50 minutes, and includes raw footage (about 5 minutes) of one of Graves' young research subjects learning to write, including an example of "scaffolding" in action. A thousand thanks to Tom Newkirk for: 1) remembering who I was after 31 years!; and 2) rapidly responding with the link to the video of his talk. (Comp researchers are often this supportive of each other's work.) As readers of my latest "How I Write" essay will guess, the lecture series and award are named for Gary Lindberg, the teacher who re-taught me how to write in 1977. Bless you Gary, and Tom, too, for carrying on the great work.
Writing Due: on Wednesday, to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's "Weekly Reading Responses" discussion forum, a 1- to 2-page analytical response to the "how do I write?" papers, drawing upon this week's readings when you see connections. See the "Required Texts and Graded Work" page or talk to me for advice about the responses.
Week 3: Minds/Brains/Symbols--Cognitive process theory and emotion.
Thursday, 9/15, Flower and Hayes, "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing" (available via JSTOR from CCC, 1981); Koundakjian, "Speaking the Written Voice" (in Podis & Podis, 33-38); and Brand, "The Why of Cognition: Emotion and the Writing Process" (available via JSTOR, from CCC, 1987). Useful background reading if you want to pursue this further: Antonio Damasio, Decartes' Error.
Writing Due: Wednesday, to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's "Weekly Reading Responses" discussion forum, response to readings and first annotated bibliography entry to the to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's "Annotated Bibliographies" discussion forum. See the "What Makes a Bibliographic Annotation Useful" page or talk to me for advice about how to structure your annotation.
Writing Center In-Service Tutor Training Begins (1-HOUR/WEEK): First, just visit the Writing Center to talk with tutors about their work and writing (if there are no tutoring sessions scheduled) or to observe tutoring sessions. Watch the tutor-writer interaction as if it were a business negotiation, a courtship, an interrogation, a therapy session, or a friendly conversation. What is going on at the surface level (body language, who holds the paper?, who leads the conversation?) and beneath the surface (are the participants comfortable or uncomfortable and why?; what long-term writing process functions seem to be at issue in the writer's process?; how does the tutor "play" the session?; what issues does this raise for the readings so far and in the future?). Feel free to refer to these sessions in your weekly responses and to let them guide your remaining bibliographic annotations. Please refer to the tutors and writers anonymously (e.g., as "the tutor" or "the writer" vs. "Arnie" and "Raskolnikov"). After Mid-Semester Break, you should be ready to try tutoring yourself, with an experienced tutor observing the session to help you better understand what happened. These sessions are crucial to the development of your thinking about the course.
Week 4: Cognitive Process Theory and Its Critics
Thursday, 9/22 [Saturday, 9/24, is National Punctuation Day!] Lester Faigley, "Competing Theories of Process" (available via JSTOR, from CE, 1986). Peter Elbow, "Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience" (available via JSTOR, from CE, 1987). Schambelan, "Defining a Persona" (P&P, 263-8). For an additional reading about theory and semantics by C. S. Lewis, click here!
Writing Due: Wednesday, response to readings and second annotated bibliography entry to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's discussion forums.
Week 5 :Function and Dysfunction at the Junction: the Writer's Brain
Thursday, 9/29: "Brain Structures and their Functions." Start with the Bryn Mawr web page linked to "Brain Structures" (left) and teach yourself a little functional anatomy so that you can understand how reading and writing, and their sub-skills, seeing, hearing, speaking and touch, are distributed. How much of the brain and which parts are typically devoted to spoken/heard language, and how much of it and which parts are typically devoted to written/read language? What does this tell us about the relationship between spoken and written language, and what might it mean for writers, tutors, and teachers? Then see what Krulwich, Hudson et al., Brueggemann et al., and Wewers can tell us about how to help writers whose brains are atypically organized. Robert Krulwich, "The Writer Who Couldn't Read" (NPR Morning Edition, 21 June 2010) [because this is a radio story which also was turned into an animated short film, you have the choice to listen to it, read it, watch and listen to the video, or all three--your choice will change your sense of what it means to use language]; Hudson, Roxanne F.; High, Leslie; Al Otaiba, Stephanie. "Dyslexia and the Brain: What Does Current Research Tell Us?," Reading Teacher, Mar2007, 60:6, 506-515 (available from EbscoHost at http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24286603&site=ehost-live; Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Linda Feldmeier White, Patricia A. Dunn, Barbara A. Heifferon and Johnson Cheu, "Becoming Visible: Lessons in Disability," College Composition and Communication, 52: 3 (Feb., 2001) 368-398 (available from JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/358624); Ryan, "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the Writing Process" (P&P, 289-300). The Krulwich artlcle for NPR may lead some of you to the Orton-Gillingham Institute for Multisensory Education, which is mentioned in several of the online listeners' comments at the bottom of the story. Web pages for today's discussion.
Writing Due: Wednesday, collaborative response to readings--BIB. Holiday, no annotation due. Click on the hyperlink for advice about how to create a collaborative reading response.
Week 6 : Skilled and Unskilled Processes; Authority and Dialect
Thursday, 10/6: Perl, "Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers" (Perl 39-61) and Sommers, "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers" (Perl 75-84 and available via JSTOR, from CCC, 1980); Harris, "Composing Behaviors of One- and Multi-Draft Writers" (available via JSTOR, from CE, 1989). Web page for today's class.
Writing Due: Wednesday, collaborative response to readings; BIB. Holiday, no annotation due.
Friday 10/7-Sunday 10/9: Mid-Semester Holiday--think deep thoughts about what you might research for your final project, and perhaps read ahead in North, McCarthy, and Pryor. They are extraordinarily good. The bibliography project also restarts next week, so you might try getting ahead of that one and drilling down deeper into your own interests.
Week 7: Why the Writing Center Matters, Part 1
Thursday, 10/13: North, "The Idea of the Writing Center" (available via JSTOR from CE, 1984); McCarthy, "A Stranger in Strange Lands" (available from GoucherLearn "Documents" from RTE, 1987); Pryor, "Writing in Academia" (P&P, 221-27). Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching ("The Way and its Power"), Chapter LXXVII. Web page for today.
Writing Due: Wednesday, response to readings--and third annotated bibliography entry to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's discussion forums. Please do not turn in the last two bibliographies late unless you have a serious academic or personal conflict. These last two are crucial for your increasing focus as we begin to form research groups.
Week 8: Grammar, Syntax, and Usage; Writers' Isolation & Two Styles of Composing--Beginning this week, your one-hour visits to the Writing Center should include some practice tutoring with an experienced tutor's assistance.
Thursday, 10/20: Read Hartwell, "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar" (available via JSTOR from College English, 1985) and
Dilin Liu, “Making Grammar Instruction More Empowering: An Exploratory Case Study of Corpus Use in the Learning/Teaching of Grammar.” Research in the Teaching of English 45:4 (May 2011) 353-77 (available via ProQuest from RTE at http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2345983061&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=42889&RQT=309&VName=PQD). Web addresses to help you explore Liu's suggested "corpora" for grammar and usage rule testing are linked to this sentence. These two articles will prepare you for The Grammar, Syntax, Spelling, and Style Encounter Group during the first half of the seminar. Get ready to bare your soul about what you know, don't know, love, hate, fear, and wonder about the English language. Bring a handbook, a hard-cover dictionary of recent vintage, and a generous spirit. We want to make sure all of us leave class feeling like competent users of formal grammar for practical purposes, able to explain sentence structure and spelling conventions, and equipped with an enhanced sensitivity to style. Refreshments will be served. For some historical background on how punctuation evolved to its current exalted state, click here. For links to online grammar tutorial sites, click here.Writing Due: Nothing formal or graded is due this week, but by Wednesday morning, send me an email containing any and all questions you have about grammar, i.e., syntax (word order), usage (word choice), document format, or any other "technical" things you are worried that you do not know. The Bibliography Project is on holiday. Take advantage of the break in writing to re-read some of your colleagues' annotated bibliography entries and postings to the public folder. Look for people with interests you share already or who can help you discover an interest you didn't know you had. Those people might be good to work with on your collaborative research project. Click here for "Tips for Getting Started in Collaborative Research."
Week 9: Why the Writing Center Matters, Part 2
Thusday, 10/27: Brufee, "Peer Tutoring and the Conversation of Mankind" (photocopy, ex-Murphy & Law, eds. & Olson, ed., 1984); Dyehouse, "Peer Tutors and Institutional Authority" (P&P, 53-57); Howey, "No Answers: Interrogating 'Truth' in Writing" (P&P, 117-221); Axel-Lute, "Consciousness, Frustration, and Power" (P&P, 151-68).
Writing Due: Wednesday, collaborative response to readings and fourth annotated bibliography entry to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's discussion forums. (You can take until Friday or the weekend to do the bibliographic annotation, but please do not delay it beyond Sunday.) THIS IS THE END OF THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENTS. BY THIS TIME, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEGUN TO FORM FINAL PROJECT GROUPS (USUALLY 2-3 PERSONS PER GROUP), AND PLAN PROJECTS (proposal due 11/19, written project reports due 12/13). Click here for "Tips for Getting Started in Collaborative Research."
Week 10: Writing in the new digital era / Research Group Formation--.N.B. for 11/3/2011--Class today will end shortly before 6:30 to allow Arnie and other interested students to attend this year's Schrodel Lecture on material culture by Will Noel, Walters Art Museum curator of rare books and manuscripts, and Abigail Quandt, Senior Conservator of Books and Manuscripts. (Kelley Lecture Hall, 6:30-8:00) Their topic will be the restoration, recovery, and interpretation of an unique medieval manuscript book that contains previously undiscovered mathematical theorems by Archimedes and orations by the Athenian, Hyperides. This is not as bizarre a relationship to 221 as it might seem at first. Says a scholar on the Archimedes Palimpsest project: "Archimedes thought in diagrams." Can this be applied to tutoring writers? Alas, we probably will not need to outfit the Writing Center with X-Ray fluorescence imaging equipment like that used to recover Archimedes' text, but think what worlds can be made and changed with pen and paper, and by typing in a text file.
Because we have two other important things to discuss, namely the influence of new writing media on Goucher students' writing processes and the formation of potential research project groups, you will need to arrive ready to get right to work. We will spend roughly one hour on each of those topics. Note that next week there is no seminar meeting. Instead, your group will meet with me to discuss your project. Let's get smart!
Thursday, 11/3: Christina Haas and Pamela Takayoshi, with Brandon Carr, Kimberly Hudson, and Ross Pollock. “Young People’s Everyday Literacies: The Language Features of Instant Messaging.” Research in the Teaching of English 45:4 (May 2011) 378-404. Available
on the GoucherLearn "Documents" section below McCarthy's article near the bottom of the list. How many of the features Hass et al. tag as "IM English" do you see occuring in Goucher students' academic prose? Do you see additional examples of these features when texting or Tweeting, and has anything new been introduced? Would you like to study the slow infiltration of these features into the prose we see in Writing Placement Essays? What other changes will we see in students' prose writing as a result of the new digital literacy replacing print? Click here for excerpts and paraphrased findings from Jane Agee and Jeanette Altarriba, "Changing Conceptions and Use of Computer Technologies in the Everyday Literacy Practices of Sixth and Seventh Graders," Research in Teaching English 43:4 (May 2009) 363-96.For contrast, check out a major cursive handwriting system taught in American K-12 schools until the late twentieth century: http://palmermethod.com/introductory
After we have talked about IM English and its descendents, our attention will turn to collaborative research strategies. I will describe some ways to organize collaborative research and problem solving techniques that have proven useful to previous groups. I will pay special attention to inventive ways to divide the workload, and to stage your research process, so that the remaining three weeks of the course produce the maximum productivity from your group, and as little wasted time as possible. If you have questions before we meet and if you have not already consulted "A Few Words About Collaborative Research," please read that web page. By the end of class, you should have some idea of which groups you might be involved with, and by next week, you will know for sure.
Writing Due: Wednesday, a poem, short anecdote, or short fictional story about digital literacy posted to the "Theories of Composing..." GoucherLearn course's "Weekly Reading Responses" discussion forum. This assignment will not be graded, but will be yet another way to get to know the people you are working with. In addition, you should be discussing possible research groups based on ideas that are mutually interesting and compatible. Please feel free to schedule group or individual conferences with me if you need help getting started, organizing yourselves, finding sources, focusing the project, or anything else that helps. Seek help finding secondary scholarly sources from me, from other relevant Goucher faculty, and from the library's bibliographic research staff. (Ask for Randy Smith or Jim Huff.)
Week 11: Research Project Conferences (In VM G57, project groups): our regularly scheduled seminar meeting is cancelled this week, and in its place, your collaborative research group will meet with me for approximately 1/2 hour to 45 minutes in order to brainstorm your project, locate sources, identify potential difficulties and solutions, smooth out the logistics of your collaboration, etc. (See below.)
By appointment at VM G57 on Tuesday 11/8, Wednesday 11/9, Thursday 11/10, or Friday, 11/11: Research project tutoring sessions. Bring me your ideas, photocopied and original sources, preliminary data, and anything else you would bring to a Writing Center conference for help constructing your project. Our goal is to solve problems in your collaborative distribution of tasks and information, and to help you acquire information and expertise to help your group finish the project on schedule. Be prepared to adjust your project's focus a bit in the interests of practicality, remembering always that English 221 research projects often evolve into Independent Study courses or Senior Honors Theses. You don't have to do it all this semester, and the current project can take the form of a gathering of resources for a proposal to do a bigger project later. See the home page for a link to the schedule.
Week 12: Research Project Proposal Day
Thursday, 11/17: Read for your projects and share what you read with your group, and with groups working on related topics. Writing Due: 3-PAGE PROPOSALS FOR FINAL COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS DUE IN CLASS. Bring enough copies for each class member plus one for me. These should be descriptions of the problem you're trying to understand, with a description of the method you might use to learn about it and a guess as to how you'll divide the work among yourselves. The page count is negotiable--they can be shorter or longer. One member of your group should be designated to read the proposal aloud to help us consider carefully what you are proposing to do. I would be delighted to read and respond to earlier drafts of your proposals before class. Click here for a description of what should be in a well-constructed proposal. Click here for a description of what a well-prepared proposal audience should be doing while listening to the proposals.
Add to your proposal's text your current bibliography or Works Cited list of resources, and be prepared to give us an update on where your project has gone so far, what you are currently doing, and what help you could use. As you listen to other groups, be prepared to offer suggestions, including research strategies or sources you have come across. If your group receives significant assistance from members of another group, please remember to give them credit in an endnote or footnote (depending on which format you choose to follow). In the last class meeting, your group will present a preliminary report of your findings in the last class meeting, and a final report on the project is due after classes are over.
Tuesday, 11/22--arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, decompression, subscapularis repair, with interscalene nerve block and sedation (wheee!). Don't expect any email or phone contact until Monday, 11/28, or later.
Wednesday 11/23 through Sunday 11/27--THANKSGIVING VACATION.
Week 14: Thursday, 12/1: Research Project Group Tutoring. I will match groups together for a first round of tutoring before the break, and then switch tutor-group pairs after break, so that each research group will have had a chance to explain to at least two other groups what they are trying to do, what problems they have encountered, and what assistance they need. Remember that groups whose assistance is acknowledged by another group in a suitably documented form in that group's report will get extra credit on their project.
Week 15: Thursday, 12/8: Research Project Preliminary Reports. In a short presentation, summarize your main conclusions and their implications for our work this semester and/or the Writing Program, the Writing Center, tutoring, writing, teaching and learning at Goucher College. (Have I left anything out?)
Please remember to fill out the online course evaluation for English 221! Thanks.
RESEARCH PROJECT REPORTS DUE Monday, 12/12, or soon thereafter, by negotiated agreement posted to the GoucherLearn course discussion board. Please remember to indicate whether you wish to retain the copyright to your work (which I recommend), and whether you are willing to give me permission to post it to this web site for future English 221 students to read (which I request). Either choice will have no bearing on the grade. Also make clear to me whether you all want to share a cumulative grade or you want to assign credit for separate aspects or parts of the project to individual contributors.