English 630: WAC
ClassTime: 6:30-10pm(T)
ClassRoom: 2S-112
OfficeHours: 1-2pm(Tu/Th)
Office: 2S-230
Phone:718-982-3683
Email:pmuhlhauser@ymail.com
Course Description
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)is an introduction to the principal issues, practical and theoretical, in writing and composing across the curriculum as well as Writing In the Disciplines (WID). Topics for reading and discussion will include: models of the writing process; kinds of writing; writing for learning and writing for testing; and teaching visual rhetoric and information design.
In this course we will examine the research on writing WAC & WID in order to understand the history of this educational reform movement and the roles that writing plays as a tool for learning. That's the THEORY anyway.
This course will move beyond theory into practice. We are going to be active and experiment with theory. We'll accomplish this through class discussion of readings, class activities--peer feedback, experiments with lessons, and though your own teacher/research with your own students. That's the PRAXIS anyway.
Course Goals
Abstract
To become WAC/WID savvy instructors with the ability to apply, accept, and resist its theoretical tenets.
To better your own pedagogical practices.
To improve your students' performance (writing and otherwise) and enhance their potentials to shuttle between discourses.
Concrete
To read and respond to readings on the theory and history informing WAC/WID.
To try-out a variety of WAC and WID exercises in this class and in your own classes.
To critique WAC/WID theory and practice in the major assignments required for this course.
To participate in class discussion and use your peers' experiences in your own work.
Course Readings
Always bring the required reading to class.
1. WAC for the New Millenium, Ed. by Susan McCleod, Eric Miraglia, Margot Soven, and
ss Christopher Thaiss.
2. Writing to Learn: Strategies for Assigning and Responding to Writing across the
ss Disciplines, Ed. by Mary Deane Sorcinelli and Peter Elbow.
3. Engaging Ideas, by John C. Bean.
4. What Video Games Have to Teach us about Learning and Literacy, by James Paul Gee.
5. The Non-Designer's Design Book, 3rd ed. by Robin Williams
6. Print readings from the course Schedule.
Policies
Attendance
Since we will be working collaboratively on many assignments, and since learning is a communal effort, your regular attendance is vital. As university policy stipulates, you are only allowed one absence. If you miss more than one class session, you will recieve a "WU" for the course.
If you are tardy for class, and I or your classmate has begun a lecture or presentation, you will be given an absence. If you are tardy regularly--three or more times, you will be given an absence. Please schedule your tardiness in advance. Finally, wait to enter the classroom when there is a break in discussion.
Participation
This class relies on discussion between you and your colleagues. You are theorists with valuable experiences and insights to contribute in our general class discussion. Your experiences and insights are important in the collaborative group work and individual exercises ya'll will participate in as well.
Late Work
Here is the deal: You can turn in one assignment one week late. This assignment cannot be a presentation and must be an individual project. You must email me on or before the due date and announce to me that this is the assignment you will turn in one week late.
Otherwise, late work is not accepted. The final project is exempt from this policy.
Cellular telephones and Laptops
Cellular phones are banned forthwith from our classroom. Laptops are allowed for taking notes and class discussion related searches. They are not for random surfing; they are for purposeful surfing.
Cellular phone exception: If an iPhone does ring during class, you are exempt from the above rule as long as you allow me to use it for five minutes.
Students with Disabilities
Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. Please visit the Office of Disability Services (ODS) as soon as possible to seek information or to qualify for accommodations. All accommodations MUST be approved through the Office of Disability Services (1P-101). Call 982-2510 to make an appointment with an ODS advisor.
Grades
A 93-100%
A- 90-92%
B+ 87-89%
B 84-86%
B- 80-83%
C+ 77-79%
C 74-76%
C- 70-73%
D+ 67-69%
D 64-66%
D- 60-63%
F 0-59%
