Department of English, Foreign Languages, Journalism
School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Dr.
Jane Frick, English Professor, and
Spring - 2008
11-12:20 TTH - JGM 107
Email: frick@missouriwestern.edu
Faculty Web Page: www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/Faculty/frick.asp
Office:
271-4315 (MWSU); 232-3695 (home)
Office Hours: M 2-4; T 9:00-11 and 6-6:30; W 9-12 Th: 9-11
Other Times by Appointment
Course Syllabus for ENG 36501 Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools
Class closed Web site at http://webboard.missouriwestern.edu/: (Spring 08 ENG365)
Password = 365 (until you change it); User Name = Your Last Name and Initial of First Name – ie FrickJ
Catalog Description
ENG 365 Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools (3). Instruction in applying current research on the composing process to the teaching of writing in secondary schools and an examination of problems and issues related to teaching writing in grades 7 - 12.
Course Description
This annual offering is designed for Missouri Western students considering a teaching career and/or substitute teachers who want to turn their classrooms into vibrant and transforming learning communities for themselves and their students. As teachers, how can we make writing and the evaluation of writing a learning experience for our students as well as for ourselves? How can we also prepare our students to demonstrate that they are proficient and/or advanced writers on their Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests? In answering these questions, we will investigate good writing and teaching practices documented by area middle and high school teachers, by the National Writing Project, and by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Basic Assumptions about Writing/Teaching Writing (adopted from the National Writing Project: www.nwp.org)
Writing is pivotal to learning, to academic achievement, and to job success
Writing instruction begins in kindergarten and continues through university
Effective teachers of writing regularly write themselves
Writing is fundamental to learning in all subjects
Course Objectives
(1) To provide training for prospective teachers who will teach writing as a part of their English classes and for those who will teach writing as a teaching/learning device in other content areas in middle or secondary schools.
(2) To build one's own writing fluency by writing and responding to others' writing.
(3) To develop a philosophy of teaching writing which can be applied in middle and secondary schools.
(4) To join the professional community of teachers who write and to begin the process of developing a professional teaching portfolio which includes pieces demonstrating writing competence as well as the ability to teach writing.
(5) To understand the process paradigm as it translates to the teaching of writing as well as problems in teaching via that approach in middle and secondary schools.
(6) To know how to use computer technology to enhance writing instruction and learning.
(7) To develop and implement a philosophy for evaluating student writing (includes peer review, holistic evaluation, analytic evaluation, portfolio assessment, student evaluation, program assessment).
(8) To develop and/or complete writing assignments which demonstrate that writing can be used as a tool for learning and critical inquiry and that writing proficiency is integral for acceptable testing performance (i.e. MAP).
Required Text and Web downloads
Dan Kirby, Dawn Latta Kirby, and Tom Liner. Strategies for Teaching Writing. 3rd ed. Heinemann, 2004.
Communication Arts Grade-Level Expectations. Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Instruction. Nov. 2007. Available at http:// http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/GLE/documents/comm_arts_gle_2.0_1107.pdf
2007 MAP released items and scoring guides at http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/Released_Items/riarchiveindex.html
Professional Memberships
One-year student membership ($20) in The National Council of Teachers of English (www.ncte.org/) and
One-year membership ($5) in the Missouri Western Student Affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (www.missouriwestern.edu/orgs/sncte/)
Class listserv: You will be joined to eng365@list.missouriwestern.edu
Use the [P] Drive. You need to be sure that you have stored all of your writings for this course in a folder in your [P] drive, so that you can access and print them in class as needed and/or post them to our class Web site.
Course Grade Points will be awarded for all projects. At the end of the semester, I will divide your points by the number of possible points and award grades on the basis of the following percentages:
90-99% Course Grade A
80-89% Course Grade B
70-79% Course Grade C
60-69% Course Grade D
Below 60% Course Grade F
I anticipate the following number of possible points for the semester:
Up to 500 possible points for in-class activities and homework assignments (journal writings, critique participation, reading logs, weekly log, quizzes, drafts of major projects, etc.) which will be allocated in 5 - 50 points per activity. No make-ups or late work will be accepted for these activities and assignments.
Part of these points may include your participation in a technology mentor project with area secondary language arts teachers. Prairie Lands Writing Project has been selected by the National Writing Project as one of six, national seed sites to test and disseminate information about what it means to “write, learn, and teach in a digital world.”[1] One of the site’s technology initiative projects has been establishing a cadre of area secondary English teacher technophiles (teachers who employ and/or are not adverse to employing digital tools in their teaching) who have mentored Western’s junior and senior-level secondary English pre-service teachers as they develop lesson plans for language arts classes, grades nine – twelve, involving students’ use of digital tools in their implementation. You will have email contact with one or more of these mentors as you address writing and technology in this course.
Another part of these points will include your participation in and critique of our annual High School Writing Day, to be held Thursday, March 6, 8 am – 2 pm. We are expecting 150-200 high school students and their teachers to be at Western to participate in a day-long series of writing workshops and readings—a great opportunity for you to see some of the area’s best classroom teachers working with talented and motivated students. If you have classes at 8, 11:00, or 12:30 that day, I will inform your professors of your need to miss class in order to participate in HSWD.
250 possible points for Electronic Portfolio Assessment # 1 to be completed in class on Thursday, February 28. (By this date, you must have your mini-lessons assignment and personal narrative writing project (essay, memoir, series of vignettes, travel piece, etc.) ready for publication. During class, you will write a detailed reflection of how you crafted and then revised the personal narrative writing and the mini-lessons.)
500 possible points for Electronic Portfolio Assessment # 2 to be completed during the final exam period on Tuesday, May 6: (By this date you must have the following texts ready for printing and burning to a CD: (1) At least three and no more than six ready-for publication pieces of your choice which you have revised from your electronic journal; (2) Writing Lesson Showcase Project; (3) Personal Narrative Writing Project; (4) I-Search Paper; (5) Mini-Lessons Project. Before or during the exam period, you will write a reflection essay (no more than five hundred words please) of how your perspective about teaching writing has changed as a result of completing this class.)
Document Format Requirements
Unless instructed otherwise, print all documents in 12-point Times New Roman, double spaced. In the upper-right hand header, put your first and last name and page number. Under your name, include the date you print the writing. Add a title, centered, at the top of the first page of text.
Attendance Policy
Come to class. There are no makeup points for work completed in class as this is course requires your participation in a writing community.
Due Dates
Papers and projects are due at the beginning of the hour on the assigned date. Late submissions will be lowered points equivalent to one letter grade per day late. If you miss class because of an emergency or illness, contact me regarding a possible exception regarding imposing the lowered point penalty. Do not schedule doctor’s appointments, job interviews, and/or work during class time. These will not be excused absences which allow you to make up work.
Students with Disabilities
Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents or hinders the completion of class requirements must notify me immediately so that provisions may be made for any assistance which is needed.
Honesty and Due Process Policies
University: Academic honesty is required in all academic endeavors. Violations of academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism, cheating, seeking credit for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic records, or any other fraudulent activity. Violations of academic honesty may result in a failing grade on the assignment, failure in the course, or expulsion from the University. When a student’s grade has been affected, violations of academic honesty will be reported to the Provost or designated representative on the Academic Honesty Violation Report forms. Please see the 2007-08 Student Handbook and Calendar on page 21 for specific activities identified as violations of this policy and the student due process procedure. This handbook is also available online at
For this course: It is expected that all students will submit their own work. Plagiarism or cheating on papers or tests is not acceptable. The first instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade, or 0-60% of possible points, on the assignment. The second instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course.
Course Plan – Changes in reading assignments or due dateswill be announced in class and then changed electronically on this syllabus.
Detailed assignments, handouts and materials
will be available to you for downloading and printing from the O drive: English
folder/Frick folder/ENG 365 folder as well as online in our closed class web
site.
I. Building Fluency: Practicing a Writing Process Paradigm and Philosophy in a Writing Community
T 1/15 Course Introductions
Th 1/17 “Preface” IX-XII
“Thoughts on Becoming an Effective Teacher of Writing” 1-11
T 1/22 Classroom implications: Martin Luther King
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/liberation_curriculum/
http://www.teach-nology.com/themes/holidays/mlk/
http://www.thekingcenter.org/
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/taverna/98/king.htm
http://www.nps.gov/malu/
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/02/lp248-04.shtml
http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonplans/americandream/lesson2.htm
http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/holidays/mlk/
Th 1/24 “The Classroom Environment” 24-41
Sharing photos and captions in class (See “Writing a Caption” assignment in Dr. Elizabeth Sawin’s Fall 2004 ENG 112 syllabus at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/syllabi/2004/fall/ENG112-02.html)
T 1/29 “Notes on Writing Processes” 12-24
Th 1/31 “The “J” 61 – 76
T 2/5 “Getting It Down” 42 – 61
In-class workshop: Mini-Lessons Assignment (Before class: Read about your school at http://dese.mo.gov/directory/ AND Jim Burke’s The Weekly Reader web page at http://www.englishcompanion.com/room82/weeklyreader.html)
Th 2/7
No class: Instructor is a reviewer for National
Writing Project in
“Resources” 256-272
Complete graphic organizer for I-Search paper
T 2/12 Bring to class: Down draft: personal writing project; also be sure that it is saved in your [P] drive before class
“Different Voices, Different Speakers” 76-89
Th 2/14 “Growing Toward a Sense of Audience” 92 -102
T 2/19 Northwest Regional Educational Library. Six Traits of Effective Writing. 16 Jan. 2004 <http:// www.nwrel.org.>.
Interactive Six Traits Writing Process 20 Jan. 2005 <http://senior.billings.k12.mt.us/6traits/>.
Th 2/21 “Revision: The Student as Editor” 131-148
T 2/26 “Responding to Student Writing” 102-114
“What Is Good Writing” 114-131
Th 2/28 Portfolio Review # 1
T 3/4 “Publishing Student Writing With and Without Computers” 241-256
Th 3/6 High School Writing Day
3/11- 3/13 Spring Break (no classes)
II. Developing Integrated Writing Lessons/Units
T 3/18 “Writing Poetry” 148-173
“Writing About Literature” 173-191
“Crafting Essays” 193-215
W 3/19 Mid-term Grades submitted
Th 3/20
T 3/25 “Grading and Evaluating” 215-240
Th 3/27
III: Exploring Burning Issues: External Standards and Assessment (MAP), Grammar, Research Writing, Plagiarism, Technology, Gender, Race, Socioeconomics
T 4/1 I-Search Draft 1 due; peer- critiquing in class
Th 4/3 I-Search Reports (PowerPoint presentations)
T 4/8 I-Search Reports (PowerPoint presentations)
Th 4/10 I-Search Reports (PowerPoint presentations)
T 4/15 Writing Lesson Showcase presentations
Th 4/17 Writing Lesson Showcase presentations
T 4/22 Writing Lesson Showcase presentations
Th 4/24 Portfolio preparations
Final Exam is on Tuesday, May 6: 11:30 – 1:20 pm