assignments ENGL301 Writing & The Teaching of Writing: Book Club
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu www.leetorda.com |
Summer 2020
All Summer Session I classes have been moved online due to the Covid-19 emergency. Online Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday evening, 7:00-8:00 PM and by appointment (email me at ltorda@bridgew.edu to set up an a time). |
OVERVIEW: This project will span nearly the entire five weeks of class and will, hopefully, begin to answer the question most often asked by new reading/writing teachers: how do I teach writing while I'm trying to teach all the other stuff I'm supposed to be doing in ELA? Book club is also a moment, in a class filled with theories and practices of writing, to understand theories of reading and the intimate connection between the two.
Because this is a summer course, rather than have you select and read an entire novel, we will, each week, be reading a selection of fiction or poetry. In an effort to give you some experience with your future students reading experience in the classroom, some of the selections will test your skill as a reader. The selections are available each week on our course syllabus.
The book club project is almost entirely an in-class assignment. You will need to do the reading outside of class, but we will do the journaling and the discussion part in class. We will use book clubs to delve in to the important connections between reading and writing. We will also consider the role conversation plays as well. You'll experience a variety of kinds of prompts from specific to wide-open and consider which are most useful. You'll consider the affects of having a book club online.
As part of your final portfolio for this class, you will write, as an individual, a journal cover letter where you analyze the journal you've kept to see how you made meaning in the text, and how it felt to work with other readers (group work) to make meaning in the text, and to put into words your ideas of the connections between reading and writing. To help you in this, you will have read some material on Reading Theory during the course of the book club.
Finally, you will think about how being a good reader translates into being a good teacher of reading and the role writing plays in teaching reading.
WHAT TO DO DURING EACH BOOK CLUB
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT BOOK CLUB FOR YOUR FINAL PORTFOLIO IN WEEK FIVE: BOOK CLUB FINAL REFLECTION
When we are finished, you will write a 750 word, typed, reflection that analyzes the following:
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED FOR BOOK CLUB
Book Club is worth 15% of you final grade for this class. In order to earn a "B" for that 15% you must:
In order to earn an "A" for the 15% of your grade that is book club, you must:
If you do not meet the requirements for a "C" grade in book club, you will earn an "F" for the 15% of your final grade that book club represents.
Because this is a summer course, rather than have you select and read an entire novel, we will, each week, be reading a selection of fiction or poetry. In an effort to give you some experience with your future students reading experience in the classroom, some of the selections will test your skill as a reader. The selections are available each week on our course syllabus.
The book club project is almost entirely an in-class assignment. You will need to do the reading outside of class, but we will do the journaling and the discussion part in class. We will use book clubs to delve in to the important connections between reading and writing. We will also consider the role conversation plays as well. You'll experience a variety of kinds of prompts from specific to wide-open and consider which are most useful. You'll consider the affects of having a book club online.
As part of your final portfolio for this class, you will write, as an individual, a journal cover letter where you analyze the journal you've kept to see how you made meaning in the text, and how it felt to work with other readers (group work) to make meaning in the text, and to put into words your ideas of the connections between reading and writing. To help you in this, you will have read some material on Reading Theory during the course of the book club.
Finally, you will think about how being a good reader translates into being a good teacher of reading and the role writing plays in teaching reading.
WHAT TO DO DURING EACH BOOK CLUB
- Write your book club journal. At the start of each book club , you will write a short reflection/journal that will chronicle your process of making meaning as you read the book. We'll keep these journals in a google doc set up specifically for you each class meeting and made available in the class chat. You'll have the chance to read your classmates journals as well because it will all be in one google doc each week.
- Just plain talk about the book. Without me constantly interrupting, you use between 20 and 30 minutes of our in class time to talk with your group mates about what you have read/written about. Figure out what you don’t understand. Try to come to a group consensus about what you think the book is all about. Find proof in the text to support it. Argue a little, in a spirited but civil kind of way. Try to enjoy yourselves
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT BOOK CLUB FOR YOUR FINAL PORTFOLIO IN WEEK FIVE: BOOK CLUB FINAL REFLECTION
When we are finished, you will write a 750 word, typed, reflection that analyzes the following:
- what you noticed about your own set of reading practices, again, considering the supplementary reading we’ll have discussed;
- what role writing played in the above;
- what you noticed about conversation and your group experience and your understanding of the text.
- what you noticed about how doing this work online (using google.docs, talking in Zoom) had an affect on the experience.
- what you noticed about the way the prompts shaped how you came to understand the text.
- what does this make you think about as someone who is going to teach in an ELA classroom?
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED FOR BOOK CLUB
Book Club is worth 15% of you final grade for this class. In order to earn a "B" for that 15% you must:
- Attend and participate in all of the book club meetings scheduled (there will be four).
- Complete all of the book club journals required for each book club meeting in ways that demonstrates that you've read the selected texts and that you are thinking about the text the way an advanced English major would.
- Produce a book club final reflection (see above) that meets the requirements of the final book club reflection described above
In order to earn an "A" for the 15% of your grade that is book club, you must:
- Do all of the things outlined in "B"
- Demonstrate in your book club journals that you understand what the class readings on reading theory tell you about how we make meaning (and help people make meaning) in a text.
- Demonstrate in your final book club reflection what you understand about the application of reading theory to helping students be better readers thoughtfully and with some depth.
- Attend all but one of the book club meetings scheduled on the syllabus.
- Produce a book club final reflection that meets the requirements of the final book club reflection described above.
If you do not meet the requirements for a "C" grade in book club, you will earn an "F" for the 15% of your final grade that book club represents.