ENGS 345: Practicum in Teaching Writing

Usually, when I ask students to write reflective pieces to accompany their portfolios, I ask them to reflect on their work and to think about the way their writing demonstrates (or doesn’t!) their skills and weaknesses as writers. This lets us chart a course moving forward through the rest of the semester.

Because of the nature of the work we’ve been doing in this practicum, though, that’s not going to work very well for us.

So, instead, I want you to focus on your teaching journal, your observation, and your research plan.

• What patterns do you see emerging from your journal? Patterns in student behavior, in your behavior as a teacher, and in the way(s) you respond to students and to their writing?
• What are the points your observer made in their observation of your class?
• How do these points relate to what you see yourself in your teaching journal?
• What points did you make in your own observation report? How do these relate to your classroom?
• How do you see your research plan (the topic you’re researching for your research project) connecting with, and improving, your teaching practice? (This may be more about what you hope the research project will bring to your teaching, and that’s okay at this point.)

Here’s what’s going in your portfolio:

• Project 1 (with my comments)
• Project 2 1-pager, which I will give you on Thursday
• Your research plan (in whatever stage it finds itself on Thursday)
• Your teaching journal, through Wednesday
• Your observation writeup
• (If you are Jennifer and Colin: your reflection on your workshop demo)

And, as you know from getting portfolios in your sections of English 1, it helps if you can put all of this in a folder.

Here’s the checklist for items for your research plan:

• What is your topic? (Everyone must have at least this much.)
• Do you have a guiding thesis or question? If so, what is it?
• Have you identified major figures related to your topic? If so, who are they? Have you identified scholarly works that are likely to be important to your research project? If so, what are they?
• Do you have a rough outline of your project?

As we discussed, the more you can include in your research plan, the better able I will be to offer you guidance and support.

Hi all,

As promised, here are the Nancy Sommers readings for Thursday:

• Sommers, Nancy. “Revision Strategies for Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers.” College Composition and Communication 31.4 (Dec. 1980): 378-388. (Available on JSTOR)
• Sommers, Nancy. “Responding to Student Writing.” College Composition and Communication 33.2 (May 1982): 148-156. (Available on JSTOR)

Here’s the updated reading schedule for the rest of the semester. I’ve updated the Course Calendar with these readings on these days, and other small changes, so be sure to check it out!

10/21 Thursday

• Ilona Leki: “The Preferences of ESL Students for Error Correction in College-Level Writing Classes” (Foreign Language Annals 24.3 1991)
• Robert E. Land & Catherine Whitley: “Evaluating Second Language Essays in Regular Composition Classes: Toward a Pluralistic U.S. Rhetoric” (Richness in Writing ed. Donna M. Johnson &Duane H. Roen)

10/28 Thursday

• Sommers, Nancy. “Revision Strategies for Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers.” College Composition and Communication 31.4 (Dec. 1980): 378-388. (Available on JSTOR)
• Sommers, Nancy. “Responding to Student Writing.” College Composition and Communication 33.2 (May 1982): 148-156. (Available on JSTOR)

11/4 Thursday

• Nancy Welch: “Sideshadowing Teacher Response” (College English April 1998) (JSTOR)

11/9 Tuesday

• Jui-Chuan Chang: “Talking About My Omelet: Why and How?” (The Writing Lab Newsletter September 2003)

11/16 Tuesday

• Patrick Hartwell “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar” (College English 47.2 February 1985)

12/2 Thursday

• Fan Shen: “The Classroom and the Wider Culture” (Signs of Life in the U.S.A.)

12/7 Tuesday

• Mary Louise Pratt: “Arts of the Contact Zone” (Profession 1991)