TEACHING COLLEGE ENGLISH:
SHIFTING RHETORICS: ePEDAGOGY FOR A DIGITAL WORLD

English 79000
Teaching College Writing Practicum
Seminar Meeting Times: Mondays--3:30-6:30 p.m.
Dr. J. Elizabeth Clark
E-103 H

Information and contents do not simply move from one private space to another, but they travel along a network. Engagement is intrinsically public, taking places within a circuit of larger connectedness.... Contents... are felt to be evanescent. They can be changed or deleted with the stroke of a key... That pace is rapid, driven by jump-cut increments, and the basic movement is laterally associative rather than vertically cumulative...
(Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies)

When it was announced that the Library contained all books, the first reaction was unbounded joy....that unbridled hopefulness was succeeded, naturally enough, by a similarly disproportionate depression.
(Jorge Luis Borges, “The Library of Babel”)

In the increasing world of digital writing, where undergraduate students enter the university fluent in the world of blogs, wikis, and social software like MySpace and Second Life, composition pedagogy is increasingly stretching to redefine the teaching of writing in the 21st century. However, as proficient as students seem to be in this digital space, a huge divide between academic and informal, social discourse exists. How can a 21st century Composition Studies help to bridge this gap?

This course begins by introducing students to dominant trends in Composition Studies since 1970. Readings for the course will examine landmark essays by composition and pedagogy theorists such as Shaughnessy, Freire, Ohmann, Berlin, Kinneavy, Bruffee, Emig, Perl, Elbow, Rose, Flynn, Sommers, Lunsford, Shor, Selfe, Yancey, and others, to survey the shifting definition of Composition Studies. This course will include overviews of process, social expressivist, social cognitivist, rhetorical, collaborative, cultural studies, critical, and service learning pedagogies. This overview of Composition Studies will be contrasted with emerging digital pedagogies, with a particular emphasis on teaching and learning in a digital age.

This course will mix theory and practice. In addition to the readings, this class will prepare new English Department instructors teaching Composition I. Students will explore different pedagogies in connection with their own goals as new teachers.
 
Required Texts

Glenn, Cheryl, Melissa A. Goldthwaite, and Robert Conners.  The St. Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing.  Fifth Edition.  Boston:  St. Martin’s, 2003.

Tate, Gary, Amy Rupiper, and Kurt Schick. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

**Additional readings will be provided by the instructor.

Assignments

Literature Review

Students will write an annotated literature review of current pedagogical journals, demonstrating a familiarity with the field of Composition Studies. Journals will include:

Assessing Writing, Basic Writing eJournal, College Composition and Communication, College English, Composition Forum, Composition Studies, Computers and Composition, CRWL: Computer Writing and Research Lab (Currents), Enculturation, Inventio, Issues in Writing, JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Journal of Teaching Writing, Kairos, Pre/Text, Queen: A Journal of Rhetoric and Power, Reader, Radical Teacher, Rhetoric Review, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, RTE: Research in the Teaching of English, RhetNet, Rhetoric Review, Rhetorica, Technical Communication Quarterly, WPA: Writing Program Administration, Writing on the Edge, ://English Matters

Students may choose to write an annotated bibliography of current composition textbooks available from major publishers instead of the pedagogical journal review.

Teaching ePortfolio

Increasingly, professional life in the academy requires consistent documentation and self-assessment of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Accordingly, students will produce a beginning digital teaching portfolio, including: a statement of teaching philosophy; a sample syllabus for Composition I; a sample assignment; and a narrative lesson plan.

Researched Pedagogy Paper

Students will prepare a research project (10 pages) on a particular issue, theoretical concern, pedagogical approach, or a comparative pedagogy paper on two of the pedagogical schools discussed in the course.

Course Outline

Recommended Reading

Anson, Chris, Joan Graham, David Jolliffe, Nancy Shapiro, and Carolyn Smith. Scenarios for Teaching Writing. Contexts for Discussion and Reflective Practice. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1993.

Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age.  Boston: Faber and Faber, 1994.

Blair, Kristine and Pamela Takayoshi, eds. Feminist Cyberscapes: Mapping Gendered Academic Spaces. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1999.

Cambridge, B. L., S. Kahn, D. P. Tompkins, and K. B. Yancey. Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning. Washington, DC: AAHE, 2001.

Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. 

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000.

Giroux, Henry. America on the Edge: Henry Giroux on Politics, Culture, and Education. New York: Palgrave, 2006.

Handa, Carolyn. Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

Hawisher, Gail E, and Cynthia L. Selfe, eds. Passions, Pedagogies, and Twenty-first Century Technologies. Logan: Utah UP, 1999.

---. Global Literacies and the World Wide Web. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Katz, James E. and Ronald E. Rice. Social Consequences of Internet Use. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.

Kirsch, Gesa E. and Faye Spencer Maor, Lance Massey, Lee Nickoson-Massey, Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau, eds. Feminism and Composition: A Critical Sourcebook. Urbana, IL: NCTE 2003.

Lee, Amy. Composing Critical Pedagogies: Teaching Writing as Revision. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2000.

Owens, Derek. Composition and Sustainability: Teaching for a Threatened Generation.Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2001.

Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary. New York: Penguin, 1989.

Shor, Ira. Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1992.

Shulman, Lee S. Teaching as Community Property. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Spurlin, William J. Lesbian and Gay Studies and the Teaching of English: Positions, Pedagogies, and Cultural Politics. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2000. 

Villanueva, Victor. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader. Second Edition. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2003.

Wolff, Janice M., ed. Professing in the Contact Zone: Bringing Theory and Practice Together.Urbana, IL: 2002.

Yagelski, Robert P. Literacy Matters: Reading and Writing the Social Self. New York: Teachers College, 2000.