Syllabus ENGL 102 Writing Rhetorically with Sources
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
Winter Intercession Office Hours
M-Th 10:00 PM-11:00 PM And by appointment Use this link to attend zoom office hours: https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/3806648927 |
TENTATIVE SYLLABUS
WEEK ONE 26 MAY 2020
Tuesday
Introduction to the Course. NOTE: for this first day, please post materials no later than 5:00 on Thursday, 28 May 2026 (rather than midnight).
WEEK ONE 26 MAY 2020
Tuesday
Introduction to the Course. NOTE: for this first day, please post materials no later than 5:00 on Thursday, 28 May 2026 (rather than midnight).
- Fill out the availability survey.
- Read the policies and syllabus for this class and send me an acknowledgement that you’ve done so as explained at the end of this email.
- Send me a 200-300 word bio. I’ve included a sample (mine) in the email I sent out to introduce the class. Please note that, besides me, your classmates will read these, and, on the very, very outside chance that someone happens upon my class website, some total stranger might read it. In your bio, let us know the basics (where from, year in school, etc), and some cool and interesting thing about you (and stop yourself from saying there is nothing cool or interesting about you). Include a picture that you are comfortable with the above audience seeing as well.
- Post to the ALL-CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD a response to this question: recall a best or worst class experience. It can be from K-12 or college. You can include both a best and a worst or you can focus on one or the other. Roughly 200 words. I will include a sample post. After posting, read through a few of your classmate’s posts. Respond in roughly 100 words with what you see these experiences have in common with each other--either in good or bad ways. Complete details about what to post are available on the Discussion Board.
- Locate and read ANY ARTICLE written in the past year on any aspect of teaching or learning. It doesn't have to be some fancy scholarly article--it could be from Time or the Globe or wherever. I will include a sample post. Bonus points if it is an article about teaching reading and writing. Post a summary of the article, roughly 200 words, on the ALL-CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD. Read through your classmate’s posts. Respond in roughly 100 words with what you see as what the state of teaching and learning--both te joy of it and the difficulty of it. The Complete details about what to post are available on the Discussion Board.
- Finally, post one question you have about the syllabus, policies, or assignments you’ve been able to read about on our class website to our ALL CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD. I will try to answer all of them by the following Tuesday (2 June 2020).
- Now that you’ve read through taken a look at our class website, send me the following information in an email.
- Send me an email at [email protected], CC me at [email protected]
- In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
- In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
- Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the website to find out information about assignments, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations, and to post my own writing to the class website in fulfillment of written assignments."
- Include a meme that describes how you are feeling about things at the start of Summer Session I.
- Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email.
Thursday (posts due by Tuesday, 2 June 2020 @ midnight)
READ: the (embedded right below) short article "Why Johnny Can't Write". Read, also, information on Posting to the Class Discussion Board and Reading Journals.
READ: the (embedded right below) short article "Why Johnny Can't Write". Read, also, information on Posting to the Class Discussion Board and Reading Journals.
| why_johnny_cant_write__newsweek_1975_.pdf |
POST TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: What is your reaction to this short piece? Respond to the reactions of your classmates. Complete details are included on the Class Discussion Board. LOCATE: another "Why Johnny (or Jane) can't" article. It's an easy google search. It doesn't have to be about writing. It can be "why Johnny or Jane can't do math, or code, or read, or write, etc.". The key is to locate something written with that kind of a title. After reading it, compare it to the original "Why Johnny Can't Write" article from Newsweek that we read and posted about.
LOTB is not a hard read, but it is nearly 300 pages. This will be the focus of much of our time over the next week. First synchronous Small Group Meeting. You'll get a zoom invite sent to your BSU email Thursday AM with a half hour time slot that you indicated you would be available to meet. This is a first meet and greet. Your chief job is just to show up.
WEEK TWO 2 JUNE 2020
READ: the first half of Lives on the Boundary. Due to the fact that a number of folks reached out to me to say that they had not received their copy of LOTB, I'm moving the discussion of this text until next week. See the Class Discussion Board for specific details on what to write and Week Three below for what you'll need to do to prepare for out Thursday hour.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION ON THURSDAY: What are the tropes of a "Why Johnny Can't" article? When you read the posts of your classmates, what do you notice about how and why these kinds of articles are written? And, ultimately, what does that say to you about teaching and learning? Respond in the Discussion Board. NOTE: This assignment should not take you that long. Please use the rest of the time to start in on Lives on the Boundary.
To help move things along, I'm attaching pdfs of the first chapters of LOTB so that folks can get started before their books arrive.
LOTB is not a hard read, but it is nearly 300 pages. This will be the focus of much of our time over the next week. First synchronous Small Group Meeting. You'll get a zoom invite sent to your BSU email Thursday AM with a half hour time slot that you indicated you would be available to meet. This is a first meet and greet. Your chief job is just to show up.
WEEK TWO 2 JUNE 2020
READ: the first half of Lives on the Boundary. Due to the fact that a number of folks reached out to me to say that they had not received their copy of LOTB, I'm moving the discussion of this text until next week. See the Class Discussion Board for specific details on what to write and Week Three below for what you'll need to do to prepare for out Thursday hour.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION ON THURSDAY: What are the tropes of a "Why Johnny Can't" article? When you read the posts of your classmates, what do you notice about how and why these kinds of articles are written? And, ultimately, what does that say to you about teaching and learning? Respond in the Discussion Board. NOTE: This assignment should not take you that long. Please use the rest of the time to start in on Lives on the Boundary.
To help move things along, I'm attaching pdfs of the first chapters of LOTB so that folks can get started before their books arrive.
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FOR CLASS ON THURSDAY: A discussion of book club in greater detail, and an in-class exercise. For this exercise, you'll need to download This Text By Gertrude Stein:
| from_gertrude_stein’s_tender_buttons.docx |
You will also want to download and preferably print out this .pdf of sample student writing. You'll want to hold on to this packet because we will be using it all summer.
| sample.student.writing.pdf |
Finally, using the Class Profiles Page, complete the Class Profile Scavenger Assignment. You can locate the details for this assignment in the update email I sent out on 3 June 2020, or on the Class Update Page.
WEEK THREE 9 JUNE 2020
READ: The rest of Lives on the Boundary. If you don't have the book, please see the .pdfs of the text in week two. We can't afford to push this any further into the summer. We need to be able to talk about the text this coming week. Read, also, this selection from Victor Villanueva's Bootstraps.
READ: The rest of Lives on the Boundary. If you don't have the book, please see the .pdfs of the text in week two. We can't afford to push this any further into the summer. We need to be able to talk about the text this coming week. Read, also, this selection from Victor Villanueva's Bootstraps.
| victor.villanueva.maybe_a_colony.pdf |
POST TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Post #1: In a reading journal, identify 5 to 7 takeaways from Lives on the Boundary. In your response to your classmates, consider the ways that the short excerpt we read from Villanueva's text compares or contrasts to the narrative Lives constructs. Please read the entire prompt prior to posting for complete details. Post#2: Circling back to Week One, read through your Discussion Board posts from Week One. Post a response to these questions: What you notice about what do good classroom experiences seem to have in common? What do bad classroom experiences seem to have in common? Try to respond as a class rather than individuals. In other words, I'm not looking for 13 separate lists of what a good classroom experience has in common, but one list that the class can agree on.
FOR CLASS ON THURSDAY: First Official Book Club. Read, the following essays on teaching Reading by Louise Rosenblatt & on the physical work our brain does when we read by Frank Smith.
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Also, responding to student writing. In order to participate in Thursday's class, you'll need to collection of sample student writing from WEEK TWO (you can locate it above or in the WEEK TWO Zoom invite email). You don't need to read it ahead of time. It might be most useful if you print it out. In order to participate, you will also need to read the following essay, Mixed Blood Stew that the student samples are based on. To make all your lives easier, we'll use the essay Mixed Blood Stew as our book club selection for the day.
| mixed.blood.stew.pdf |
WEEK FOUR 16 JUNE 2020
NOTE: BECAUSE THIS MATERIAL WAS NOT AVAILABLE ON THIS WEBSITE UNTIL 15 JUNE 2020, YOU CAN HAVE UNTIL NOON ON TUESDAY, 23 JUNE 2020 TO COMPLETE THE DISCUSSION BOARD WORK, BUT COME TO THURSDAY'S CLASS READY FOR BOOK CLUB.
READ: CLASS UPDATE. Read, also: Parts 1, 2, 3 & 6 in Kittle's Write Beside Them. Read, also, the introduction from this selection from Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children.
NOTE: BECAUSE THIS MATERIAL WAS NOT AVAILABLE ON THIS WEBSITE UNTIL 15 JUNE 2020, YOU CAN HAVE UNTIL NOON ON TUESDAY, 23 JUNE 2020 TO COMPLETE THE DISCUSSION BOARD WORK, BUT COME TO THURSDAY'S CLASS READY FOR BOOK CLUB.
READ: CLASS UPDATE. Read, also: Parts 1, 2, 3 & 6 in Kittle's Write Beside Them. Read, also, the introduction from this selection from Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children.
| other.peoples.children.pdf |
POST TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Compare and Contrast what Kittle and Delpit are telling us about how we bring students into the world of literacy. As we did for Week Three, please respond specifically and directly to the person who posts before you. If you are the first person to post, please respond to the last person, who posts (there are 12 people in our class). Once everyone has posted, you can feel free to respond to any of your classmates. Please see the specific discussion board prompt before responding. POST, Also, TO THE CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: After reading Kittle & Delpit, and reading carefully the assignment, indicate whether the rest of reading journals in the packet of student writing on Mixed Blood Stew are acceptable or unacceptable, and why. What comments would you give to each student? Post your decisions and your rational on our discussion board. Read and respond to your classmates decisions at least once. Be sure to read the entire Discussion Board Prompt before posting.
NOTE: I'll be online on 16 June 2020 to talk about and provide help locating articles for your Research in Teaching Diverse Populations Assignment. Look to your email for a Zoom invite to those help sessions.
NOTE: I'll be online on 16 June 2020 to talk about and provide help locating articles for your Research in Teaching Diverse Populations Assignment. Look to your email for a Zoom invite to those help sessions.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION ON THURSDAY:
Remember that we will begin our Teacher Interviews today. READ, For Book Club: (link is live) Emma Cline's White Noise. READ, ALSO: The following article by Wolfgang Iser. WATCH: This 6 minute video (by me) the highlights significant ideas between Iser and our other writers.
Remember that we will begin our Teacher Interviews today. READ, For Book Club: (link is live) Emma Cline's White Noise. READ, ALSO: The following article by Wolfgang Iser. WATCH: This 6 minute video (by me) the highlights significant ideas between Iser and our other writers.
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WEEK FIVE 23 JUNE 2020
READ: CLASS UPDATE. Read, also, The Introduction to Asao Inoue's Anti-Racist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching & Assessing Writing For A Socially Just Future. Additionally, consult the chart below to see what one other chapter you are reading.
Chapter 1: Kylie, Ali, Paige
Chapter 2: Alexa, Lindsay
Chapter 3: Lydia, Megan
Chapter 4:Hannah, Fiona
Chapter 5: Maddie, Kaylee, Bri
READ, also, Part 5 in Kittle's Write Beside Them. READ, also, Chapter Two in Constance Weaver's Teaching Grammar in Context and Charity Hudley & Malinson's We Do Language
READ: CLASS UPDATE. Read, also, The Introduction to Asao Inoue's Anti-Racist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching & Assessing Writing For A Socially Just Future. Additionally, consult the chart below to see what one other chapter you are reading.
Chapter 1: Kylie, Ali, Paige
Chapter 2: Alexa, Lindsay
Chapter 3: Lydia, Megan
Chapter 4:Hannah, Fiona
Chapter 5: Maddie, Kaylee, Bri
READ, also, Part 5 in Kittle's Write Beside Them. READ, also, Chapter Two in Constance Weaver's Teaching Grammar in Context and Charity Hudley & Malinson's We Do Language
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POST TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Construct an extended summary of Anti-Racist Writing Assessment Ecologies. To do this, locate, on our discussion board page, the link to a google doc For your chapter. You can also access the google.doc by clicking here. Join with your colleague or colleagues to produce a summary of the most important takeaways from your chapter. Once everyone has posted, read through the collective summaries of the various chapters. Finally, read the following piece of student writing, post to the discussion board how you would assess this piece of writing, situate it as best you can in a larger "assessment ecology". POST TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Reread the sample student essay. Consider how Kittle, Weaver, and Charity-Hudley and Malinson talk about language use and instruction in and out of the classroom. How would you help this student to improve as a writer on the micro-level, so, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, rhetorical choices? Reference this week's readings to provide support for your ideas.
NOTE: I will be online on Tuesday, 23 June 2020 for help with the analysis part of your Research in Teaching Diverse Populations project. Look in your email for an invite for those times.
ADDITIONALLY: If you would like a small group conference to workshop your assignment design project, click here for a google.doc sign up.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION ON THURSDAY:
Teacher Interviews continue. READ, for Book Club (link is live) Scholastique Mukasonga's Grief.
Monday, 29 June 2020 is the last day of Summer Session I classes. Email me your portfolio or a link to your google.doc. by Midnight, 29 June 2020. If you need an extension, be in touch and we can identify a new deadline, and I will issue an incomplete--but only after we've established a deadline and put it in writing. Incompletes can be great, but they can also cause a lot of anxiety. I know many of you over-booked yourselves this summer. I want this to be a successful class for you, and I want it to not be something that haunts you all summer long.
NOTE: I will be online on Tuesday, 23 June 2020 for help with the analysis part of your Research in Teaching Diverse Populations project. Look in your email for an invite for those times.
ADDITIONALLY: If you would like a small group conference to workshop your assignment design project, click here for a google.doc sign up.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION ON THURSDAY:
Teacher Interviews continue. READ, for Book Club (link is live) Scholastique Mukasonga's Grief.
Monday, 29 June 2020 is the last day of Summer Session I classes. Email me your portfolio or a link to your google.doc. by Midnight, 29 June 2020. If you need an extension, be in touch and we can identify a new deadline, and I will issue an incomplete--but only after we've established a deadline and put it in writing. Incompletes can be great, but they can also cause a lot of anxiety. I know many of you over-booked yourselves this summer. I want this to be a successful class for you, and I want it to not be something that haunts you all summer long.