Transcript 1818 ACC Summer Pre

1818 ACC SUMMER PRE-SERVICE
MEETING
Dr. Anne Stiles
Department of English
Saint Louis University
July 26 & 31, 2012
Meeting Agenda
• Resources for 1818 instructors
• 7 goals of college English courses
• Explication handout
• Q&A
Resources for 1818 instructors
• SLU tuition credit:
• 1818 instructors can enroll in up to 6 credit hours at SLU each
calendar year, tuition free.
• These credits can be used towards an M.A. degree in English for
those instructors with provisional approval.
• If you see a graduate course you’d like to take, please write to the
instructor for permission, and let them know that you’re an 1818
adjunct instructor.
Library resources
• For students:
• Books
• 1818 students may check out 3 books at a time from SLU libraries for 3
weeks apiece (with the option to renew).
• Electronic Database Access
• Students have access to journal databases (JSTOR, Project Muse, etc.)
while at SLU libraries, but no off-campus access.
Library Resources
• For instructors:
• Electronic Database Access.
• As a 1818 instructor, you have on- and off-campus access to these electronic journal
databases, and can print out relevant articles for students if need be.
• Class Field Trips to SLU Libraries.
• You may also schedule a class field trip for your students to SLU library. This can be
especially helpful when they are writing a research paper! Librarian Martha Allen can
brief students on resources available to them at SLU.
• Remember, students must have a SLU ID card in order to visit the library,
check out books, etc. This applies for class field trips, too. Sometimes you can
schedule group visits to Parking and Card services right before a class field trip
to the library. Contact Mary Hammett for details ([email protected] )
Web resources for 1818 instructors
• SLU 1818 ACC website: http://www.slu.edu/x15948.xml
• Go here for course descriptions of English 190, 230, and other
1818 offerings: http://www.slu.edu/1818-advanced-college-creditprogram-home/course-descriptions
• Go here for more high school instructor resources:
• http://www.slu.edu/1818-advanced-college-credit-program-
home/high-school-instructors
Web resources for 1818 instructors
• 1818 English website: http://1818english.com/
• Go here for:
• sample syllabi for various 1818 courses
• presentations and worksheets from past 1818 Colloquiums
• Only 1818 English instructors have access to this site
• Logon: use your email address
• Password: 1818english
1818 English website
• Calendar of 1818 events:
• http://1818english.com/1818english/calendar.asp
• List of useful links (to SLU libraries, departmental
websites, and useful web resources for teachers):
• http://1818english.com/1818english/links.asp
• To view past colloquium talks & sample syllabi:
• http://1818english.com/1818english/documents.asp
• Today’s PowerPoint presentation will be available here, as will
those from the 2011 fall Colloquium.
7 Goals of College English Courses*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Teach students how to make a sustained written argument
supported by evidence
Encourage independent thinking
Emphasize personal responsibility
Incorporate editing, revision, and multiple drafts of essays
Ask open-ended questions (with no “right” answers) & get
students to pose such questions
Enable students to voice their opinions.
Teach students to close read passages of text and/or
analyze cultural artifacts (films, advertisements, etc.)
* Based on my experience teaching composition and
introductory literature classes at 3 different universities, and
talking to other instructors who teach such classes.
Goal #1: Sustained Written Argument
• A college-level English paper should have the following
characteristics:
• Sustained argument
• Signposting (referring back to argument in topic sentences of paragraphs)
• Analysis of text and/or cultural artifacts (films, advertisements, etc.) used to
support or further the argument
• Introduction and conclusion that are focused and not overly general (“since the
beginning of time” etc.)
• Variable # of paragraphs (not always 5, but as many as needed to develop the
argument).
• Thorough documentation of sources using MLA or Chicago style
• see Purdue’s OWL website for a free online guide to these styles:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Goal #1: Sustained Written Argument
• Things to avoid or wean students off of:
• 5 pgh essay : it’s a great stepping stone to college writing, but no 8-
10 page paper should have only 5 paragraphs!
• AP essay format : a variation on the 5 paragraph essay in which
the thesis statement lists 3 literary techniques or terms.
• For example “This essay will show that Virginia Woolf uses imagery,
diction, and hyperbole in Mrs. Dalloway.”
• An essay with this thesis statement, no matter how well written, would
be lucky to get a C!
Goal #2: Encourage Independent
Thinking
• Students should be able to read secondary criticism and
intervene in critical debates.
• Students learn how to form an educated opinion on a
topic and voice that opinion appropriately in class
discussion and in their writing.
Goal #3: Emphasize Personal
Responsibility
• Teach students to respect deadlines – no excuses!
• College instructors generally don’t give extensions or make
exceptions to rules for individual students, especially in larger
classes.
• Scaffolding of assignments: nesting smaller assignments within
a larger one so that students make gradual progress towards a
major goal.
• Examples:
• Have students write daily journal entries on a future paper topic.
• Have students turn in thesis statements or introductory paragraphs as they
work on their paper draft.
• Assign multiple drafts of essays to promote rewriting and a better final
product.
Goal #4: Incorporate Editing, Revision,
and Multiple Drafts of Essays.
• Students should become used to revising their own work
and peer-reviewing the work of others.
• Students should generally write at least 2 drafts of each
longer paper they turn in. The second draft should contain
more than cosmetic revisions.
• Design of peer-review sessions is a topic I’d like to see
addressed at the fall colloquium.
Goal #5: Ask Open-Ended Questions
• In math and science classes, there is generally a “right” or
“wrong” answer.
• In English classes, aside from grammar and vocabulary
exercises, there often is no “right” answer – and students
should get comfortable with this idea!
• Open-ended questions invite students to share their opinions
without fear of being “right” or “wrong” – though some opinions
may be better supported or more cogently argued than others.
• Examples of open-ended questions:
• “What do you think Macbeth should have done in this situation instead of
what he actually did?”
• “Do you think the principles outlined in [insert literary text] still apply in
modern society? If so, how?”
• “How would you solve the problem of world hunger?”
Goal #6: Enable Students to Voice Their
Opinions
• Ask open-ended questions that do not have a single “right” or
“wrong” answer.
• “Fishing” for a correct answer can make students clam up.
• Create a non-judgmental classroom environment where
students feel comfortable saying what they think.
• Motivate students to voice their opinions through incentives
(grade boosts for good participation, etc.)
• Design classroom activities in which students state their
opinion on a topic and/or intervene in an ongoing critical
debate.
Goal #7: Teach Students to Close-Read Passages of
Text and Cultural Artifacts (films, advertisements, etc.).
• Students should get in the habit of close reading or explicating literary
passages. This means looking for at the following aspects of a
passage:
• Form of the passage (for instance, sentence and paragraph structure in prose
writing; stanza form in poetry)
• Narration (1st vs. 3rd person); if it’s a poem, who is the speaker?
• Content of passage: themes, conflicts, authorial intent, etc.
• Useful handout on explication (to be distributed)
• Students should learn to treat films, advertisements, and other
cultural artifacts with similar analytical rigor (especially in the context
of a rhetoric and composition course where students don’t read as
many literary texts).
• Close-reading is a good skill to reinforce in exams and quizzes (I
often give quizzes that ask students to explicate a single passage
from a work we just read).
Q&A
• How do you emphasize the above goals in your 1818
English courses?
• What are the challenges involved in doing so?
• Are there any other goals you think should be added to
this list?
7 Goals of College English Courses*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Teach students how to make a sustained written argument
supported by evidence
Encourage independent thinking
Emphasize personal responsibility
Incorporate editing, revision, and multiple drafts of essays
Ask open-ended questions (with no “right” answers) & get
students to pose such questions
Enable students to voice their opinions.
Teach students to close read passages of text and/or
analyze cultural artifacts (films, advertisements, etc.)
* Based on my experience teaching composition and
introductory literature classes at 3 different universities, and
talking to other instructors who teach such classes.
Literary Explication Handout
• I use this handout (or some variation thereof) in every
literature class I teach.
• It will be particularly useful for teachers of 200-level
English courses, though I think it could be adapted for an
English 190 course, too.
• The handout gets students to break down the explication
process into smaller steps so it doesn’t seem
overwhelming or confusing.
Sample passage of poetry
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
Sample passage of poetry
• Context:
• Genre:
• Content:
Sample passage of poetry
• Narration and audience:
• Form:
Sample passage of poetry:
• What sticks out in terms of form and content? What does
not fit in?
• From observation to analysis: can you craft a tentative
argument about the passage based on what you know
about it?