Meetings

2009-2010

Note: All meetings will be held at the common meeting time 12:30-1:45PM

Monday, August 17, Library Room 241

  1. Access!: English 1101 instructions from librarian Gary Austin
    1. Before visiting the library in their 1101 class, students should take the Access! English 1101 tutorial and quiz. Advise your students to click the GRADE button at the bottom of the quiz and print the quiz for you. Note that the quiz cannot be completed from the dorms, anywhere by the dorms.
    2. Schedule an assignment around library day and let the librarian know what topics she should prepare to help your students research.
    3. To schedule a visit, call Gary Austin at 0987 or fill out the form.
  2. Neither the Chair nor I could find this policy written down in the Academic Affairs handbook, but tradition says student papers must be saved for one semester, so spring semester papers may be discarded at the end of summer semester.

Wednesday, September 9, A&S 315

  1. university email
  2. observations, peer observations
  3. assignment in common: pair Fellows in the spring so they can plan syllabi accordingly
  4. EasyWriter feedback
  5. Textbook Adoption Committee: 1 first year Teaching Fellow (Rachel Marsom elected), 1 second year Teaching Fellow (Nathan Tucker elected); decide if want to stay with current 1101/1102 textbooks or select new. Must choose 1102 writing about literature textbook.
  6. Textbook Fairs
    • Cengage Meet & Greet & Pizza on 30 September 2009: Alex ask Publishing Sales Representative Rachael P. Wisner about creative writing textbooks, bundling contemporary novels, plays, or poetry books with literature anthologies, and vegetarian pizza option.
    • Bedford/St. Martin's tentatively on or around 7 October 2009
    • Paragraph long textbook review or recommendation due Wednesday, 21 October 2009
  7. Book Orders Due Thursday, 15 October 2009
    • 4 first year Fellows use required texts
    • 8 experienced Fellows select own but run by Alex. Don't forget about Textbook Library and Recommendations.
    • All may supplement with outside novel or play or book of poetry after running choice by Alex.
  8. "Honors Options can only be supervised by tenure-track faculty" (Honors Director Steve Elliott Gower, 27 August 2008)
  9. Share highs and lows of first month.
  10. Discuss strategies regarding students who want to write about something very personal and are afraid to share, yet the class operates on peer revision.
  11. Discuss strategies regarding students who monopolize the conversation and/or are confrontational and disruptive.

Wednesday, September 30, A&S 315

  1. Reminders
    1. Observations
      • for Coordinator Observation: copy and save sample graded papers (one A, one B, one C, one D)
      • for Peer Observation: observers should debrief and write memo to observed, then inform Coordinator of observation date
    2. Assignment in Common
      • inform Coordinator about the assignment and the grading in common completion date
    3. Book Orders Due Thursday, 15 October 2009
  2. Composition vs Creative Writing (10-15 minute discussion)
    1. Remind students why composition 1101 commences with the personal narrative before moving onto other analytical and rhetorical modes.
    2. Contextualize and frame assignments so students understand how they fit composition 1101 goals.
  3. move to A&S 349 for Cengage Textbook Fair
    1. Since there was a mix up with the books, I ask that only those who obtained an examination copy of a potential 1101 or 1102 book write a brief review of that book for the Teaching Fellows website, due Wednesday, October 21 via email.

Wednesday, October 21, A&S 315

  1. Assignment in Common
  2. Peer Observations
  3. Regents' Test
  4. Ethics Training & Certification

Wednesday, November 11, A&S 315

  1. Assignment in Common
    1. Be prepared to do an Assignment in Common for the first major paper in 1102. (If final 1101 grades remain excessively high, you will do an Assignment in Common).
  2. Peer Observations
  3. English 1102
    • Following these three documents when designing your syllabus
    • Look at the syllabus and assignment banks for ideas.
    • Consider 1102 a composition course first and foremost, but using literature as the subject of papers instead of 1101's personal reflection and composition anthology essays.
    • Whereas the dual goals of 1101 are to practice the writing process and appreciate ideas, the two goals of 1102 are to practice the writing process and appreciate literature. Thus, half roughly your class should be devoted to academic writing, specifically writing about literature, and half to analyzing and appreciating literature.
    • Spend roughly equal amounts of time on each of the three major genres──fiction, poetry, and drama──and teach the basic elements of each. It’s also a good idea to diversify authors in terms of gender, race, and time period.
      • 1102 may also introduce a fourth genre such as film or the creative non-fiction essay.
    • Experienced Teaching Fellows have organized their syllabi thematically (for instance, doing a unit on relationships that includes work from the three genres, then a unit on family that includes the three genres, and so forth) while others have structured it by genre (for example, spending one-third of the class on fiction, then one-third on drama, then one-third on poetry). Many instructors have invested their students in the course by allowing them to choose texts or perform scenes from plays.
    • According to the Aim and Scope Statement, "Students are expected to write about six essays (three to six pages in length) during the semester, one researched essay (six to eight pages), and ungraded writing equal to about 25% of the writing total for the course. These requirements equal about 9,000 words of student writing, including rough drafts and in-class work."
    • More specifically (and perhaps realistically), Teaching Fellows are required to assign at least four papers, two of which must be revised and peer reviewed (just as in 1101), and one of which must be a research paper.
    • Here's a sample assignment distribution
      • 3000-3000 words 10 one page informal/ungraded writing
      • 900-1200 words 1 three-four page formal/graded paper
      • 1200-1500 words 1 four-five page formal/graded paper
      • 1500-1800 words 1 five-six page formal/graded paper
      • 1800-2400 words 1 six-eight page formal/graded research paper
      • 8400-9900 words total
    • Assignments may include informal responses to literary elements of the genres, a reading journal, a personal relevance paper, a close reading, a comparison/contrast paper, an interpretive debate paper, and whatever assignments you can think of that will help students practice academic writing based in appreciation of literary texts.
    • You should submit your syllabi to me electronically, and Melina Martin electronically or in print.

Wednesday, January 20, A&S 315

  1. Class Observations and Office Hours
  2. Teaching Evaluations
    • Response Rate
    • Data: see handout
    • Discursive: see Melinda Martin
  3. Self-Evaluations
    • What did you do well in 1101 that you wish to continue in 1102?
    • What didn't work out that you want to revise in 1102?
  4. Textbook Evaluation
    • Would you use your 1101 textbook again, and why?
  5. Grade Distribution
    • Big Picture: inflation from 2006 to 2009
    • Improvement: from 2008 to 2009
    • Evaluation: Assignment in Common not work, so what are your ideas for getting returning to more appropriate grade distribution and learning to become better graders?
  6. Sample Assignments

Wednesday, February 10, A&S 315

  1. Class Observations
    • Ashley, Marie, and Nathan
  2. Fall Textbooks
    • Those who this year had to use the books adopted by committee will be able to select reader and rhetoric of own choosing.
    • Keep or change reader (Acting Out Culture), rhetoric (Writing and Revising), and/or handbook (EasyWriter)?
    • There may be a Bedford/St. Martin's Book Fair in March.
  3. 2006 General Education Curriculum Proposal
    • Teaching Fellow feedback will be passed along to the Department Chair, who sits on the Core Curriculum Task Force
    • ENGL 1101 and RHET 1101 cluster
    • Second-year thematic seminars

Wednesday, March 10, A&S 315

  1. Incompletes
    • Academic Policies: Indicates that a student was doing satisfactory work, but for non-academic reasons beyond the student's control was unable to meet the full requirements of the course. An I grade must be satisfactorily removed during the next semester of enrollment or by the end of one calendar year if not enrolled, whichever comes first, or the symbol I will be changed to the grade of F. Note: registering in a subsequent semester for a course in which an I has been received will not remove the incomplete but will result in the grade of F.
  2. Book Fair
    • Wednesday, March 31 for 1) Textbook Adoption Committee (Alex, Rachel, Nathan) and 2) Teaching Fellows (Evan, Rachel, Josh) picking their fall 2010 readers and rhetorics. The rest of the Teaching Fellows do not have to attend.
  3. Peer Response
    1. Ashley asks individual students to complete a peer response rubric on clarity, validity, and detail of argument that corresponds with her own grading rubric.
    2. John gives small groups a collaborative peer sheet to be written on each member's papers, asks the groups to restate the thesis in five words or less, and has students practice peer response on an sample paper submitted in a previous semester.
    3. Nathan gives a peer response rubric that mirrors his grading rubric.

Wednesday, March 31, A&S 349

  1. Bedford/St. Martin's Book Fair

Wednesday, April 21, A&S 315

  1. Fall Book Orders due April 15
    • Evan Allgood and Zach Burkhart still need to tell the Coordinator their selection of essay reader and rhetoric of the writing process.
    • All Teaching Fellows will be using the handbook chosen by the Textbook Adoption Committee
      • Lunsford, Andrea A. EasyWriter: A Pocket Reference. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2009.  ISBN-13: 978-0-312-55425-5.
    • New 1101 instructors (Ashley Emmert, Rebecca Hazelwood, Abby Hogelin, Matt Jurak, Stephan McCormick, Roger Sollenberger, Jonathan Torres, Valerie Wayson) will be teaching the textbooks chosen by the Textbook Adoption Committee
      • Miller, James S. Acting out Culture: Reading and Writing. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin’s, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0-312-45416-6 [Note that instructors do not have to teach every essay. A good rule of thumb is 3-4 thematic units of 3-4 essays per week]
      • Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F. Muth. Writing and Revising: A Portable Guide. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-312-45458-6
    • Alex will order and distribute desk copies over the summer. If you need your desk copies
  2. Training & Compliance due Thursday, April 29 to Coordinator of the Teaching Fellows
  3. Student Opinion Surveys due Sunday, May 2
  4. Reflect on this year
  5. What would you like from these meetings? from Teaching Fellows coordination?
  6. Current Teaching Fellows advice to incoming Teaching Fellows
  7. Suggested summer tasks for incoming Teaching Fellows

 

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