Syllabus

TEXTS Course packet available on wiki

Course Description:
This course is designed to help those who want to work with writing from the non-writer’s perspective: teachers, editors, and writing center tutors to name a few. It also provides extra help for those who simply wish to improve their own writing. Because of the diversity of needs in this course, all work will be flexible enough to suit everyone, while we still deal primarily with texts. This course covers writing theory, creating student-centered assignments, assessment and grading, commenting and conferencing, and dealing with surface error.

Course Goals:
- To help you learn to view writing from a new, more analytical perspective - To help you learn to work with texts from your own age-group interest - To prepare you to design well-crafted, student-centered approaches to assignments - To help you learn to make well-crafted and useful rubric and assessment tools - To guide you in responding to drafts and to work with students/writers one on one - To give you confidence in editing for error

Texts to Work With:
Each of you will be coming into this course with varying goals. To be sure that this course helps you specifically more than generally, you each will be responsible for finding and collecting texts to work with for units four and five. This means that if you will be teaching fifth grade, you need to get a hold of several fifth grade writing samples. If you will be working in the writing center, you need to get a hold of several college writing samples. If you are going into editing, you need to get a hold of drafts submitted for publication. If you aren’t sure, it will be your choice to determine what level of writing you wish to work with, but it is still your responsibility to find texts. Those of you who work in the writing center will also need copies of assignments. All will need copies of rubrics as well. You may go about collecting these items in any way you would like. You may contact the Alma public school system and find an English teacher who would have a few samples. You may also feel more comfortable asking an old English teacher from High School for help. If you don’t have a specific grade but rather are thinking broadly as a primary or secondary educator, be sure to get samples from varying grade levels; for example, if you are in secondary ed but don’t know if you’ll be teaching middle school or high school, then be sure to get samples of both levels, preferably as far apart as possible. The more thorough you are and the more papers, assignments, and rubrics you collect, the more it will benefit you. As a minimum, you will need two assignments, two rubrics (they can be the rubrics for the assignments—this is actually preferable), and four student papers. These are MINIMUMS, and more than this will make your work much easier. Because of the nature of this work, it is beneficial for these to overlap: to have the assignment, the rubric, and the samples all from the same assignment. Get as much as you can, and don’t put this off. This may be one of the more challenging things you do this semester.

Projects:
This is a short course—only seven weeks—and it will go by quickly. I have assigned five papers/projects, each worth 100 points for a total of 500 points for the semester. The first is informal journaling about the theories we read, the second a designing/redesigning of a writing assignment, the third a rubric/assessment too, the fourth a response exam, the fifth a grammar exam. For all papers, exams, and projects you will be able to use notes and texts, but time is an essential factor in this business, so the more you have committed to memory, the more successful you will be. Each project will be explained in detail in a separate handout. Semester Points: Project 1 – 100 points Project 2 – 100 points Project 3 – 100 points Project 4 – 100 points Project 5 – 100 points Total 500 points

Moodle and the Course Wiki:
I use Moodle as a place for you to turn in your work electronically, which I require. When papers are due, you will submit them on Moodle by clicking on the “Drop (Whatever) Paper Here” link and following instructions. It is imperative that your papers be saved as .docs or .rtfs.

I use the course wiki for everything else (http://wendtenglish210f07.wikispaces.com). Here you will be able to see what work you have missed, know what is due the following class period, access any handouts you may have lost, and a host of other things. We will spend some time familiarizing ourselves with this wiki so you are comfortable using it. On the homepage of the wiki is a link to a short tutorial clip describing how to make your own wiki page: be sure to check this out and make your page.

Plagiarism:
It is a crime, literally, to say you wrote something when you didn’t. Plagiarism means using someone else’s words and calling them yours. And you would be surprised how easy it is to plagiarize without realizing it. If you get something off the Internet or from a book, or write what someone else said, you must cite the source. In this course, it will be particularly tempting to “steal” from other websites. We’ll talk about this issue, but remember that any time you use something—even a little icon—from some other website, you must keep the URL and cite this. It is also plagiarism if you take someone’s words and shuffle them around or change them a little and call them yours. Paraphrasing without citing the source is still plagiarism. We will work on this to avoid it. And you’ll want to avoid it, because plagiarism can result in an F on a project, failing the course, or expulsion from school. (For details on AC’s academic integrity policy, see page 30 of the Academic Catalog). Plagiarism is a serious issue. Don’t do it.

Late Work:
For many reasons, it is important for you to turn your work in on time. If you won’t be able to come to class the day a Writing Assignment is due, let me know and we’ll make arrangements for you to turn it in on time in another way. If there are extenuating circumstances, these should be communicated to me well in advance; it isn’t an extenuating circumstance, for example, if you put off the paper until the night before and then don’t get it done. For every day a paper is late, it will lose 5% of its total. And that means every day, not just every day we have class, Saturdays and Sundays included. For instance, if your paper got an 83 (B) but was due on a Friday and you didn’t turn it in until the following Monday, you would lose 5% per day (15%) of that B, or 13 points, making your paper then only worth 70—a C/D. It will make a huge difference.

Conferences:
Conferencing means either you coming in to talk to me or you going to the Writing Center. The Writing Center is located in the library. You may email me at any time to schedule an appointment. Some form of conferencing may be required, and your grade will automatically be reduced 5% if you do not go when required.

Attendance:
It is very difficult to succeed in this course without regular attendance. So I’ll give you 2 freebees—you don’t need to tell me anything at all. Let me make this clear: illness is NOT an excused absence. I expect you all to have a day or two that you don’t feel well. The freebees are for these sick days, so be sure not to use them right away or take them lightly. Because for every absence beyond two, I will lower your grade by one-half letter grade: e.g. If your course grade is a “B” and you have 3 total absences (2 freebees plus 1 more), your final grade will be reduced by one-half letter grade to a “B/C”; five absences would make it a “C”, etc.) Please contact me promptly if you are having problems and cannot attend class. If you know you will be absent on a particular day, please see me at least one week in advance to make arrangements. Only pre-arranged absences or issues discussed with me prior to the absence will be excused.

The Writing Center:
Additional help is available at the Writing Center. The Writing Center is located on the first floor of the library back by the computer lab. You may call the Writing Center (7097), stop by and sign up, or e-mail us (writingcenter@alma.edu) at any time to schedule an appointment. You will greatly benefit from this resource, so be sure to take advantage of it.