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ENG 6023
ENL 6023-001 (Spring 2008)
E-Composition Theory and Pedagogy
Prof. Sue Hum
Office: MB 2.462
Phone: (210) 458 7883E-mail: **
Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 11:00-12:15, Tues 2:00-3:00, and by appointment
** For a prompt response, please use this email address rather than the WebCT email.
/ Course Description
Explores the impact of computers and cyber-technology on composition theory and pedagogy on two fronts. First, working from a post-process framework, this course focuses on the following areas: (a) network theories (activity systems, complex systems, and cybernetics); (b) space/place and cyberecologies; (c) subjectivity and cyberidentitypositions; and (d) literacy and cyberliteracy. Second, this course cultivates skill in teaching with technology, including using programs such as WebCT, PowerPoint, Excel, FrontPage, and Publisher (prior experience with these programs is helpful but not necessary). Encourages students to construct their own theories and pedagogies of e-composition by entering into a collaborative cultural and intellectual process. Since post-process cyber-praxis is contextual, students are encouraged to take an active role in articulating what issues they would like addressed as well as teaching and learning from each other.
Course Texts
1. Lanham, Richard. The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006.
2. Lockard, Joe, and Mark Pegrum, ed. Brave New Classrooms: Democratic Education and the Internet. New York: Peter Lang, 2006.
3. McComiskey, Bruce. Teaching Composition as a Social Process. Logan: Utah State UP, 2000.
4. Sidler, Michelle, Richard Morris, and Elizabeth Overman Smith, ed. Computers in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
5. About $50 for photocopies of reserve articles, computer disks, folders, poster board, etc.
6. Own e-mail account & regular, daily internet access from home
7. The online group for this course is http://groups.google.com/group/e-composition
Course Objectives
1. Gaining factual knowledge (terminology, classifications, methods, trends)—distinguishing among the different theories and approaches of e-composition;
2. Developing skill in expressing oneself orally or in writing—compiling a writing portfolio that study and experiment with the different heuristics provided by e-composition; and
3. Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view—revising, evaluating, and reflecting on your own writing portfolio and your classmates' writing/ideas.
Grading CriteriaSemester Project…………………………….….………....25%
Book Review & Discussion………...………………..……20%
Web-Chats………………………….……………...... ……20%
Bibliographic Annotations...... ………………....15%
Final Exam………………………….………………..……..20%
Grades
Your grade will be determined by a percentage of the total number of possible points: A=90-100%, B=80-89%, C=70-79%, D=60-69%, and F=59% or less. /
Semester Project & Presentation:
If you choose a Teaching Portfolio, you will need 3 parts:
1. The development of writing assignments for half a semester (you decide the targeted audience). Along with the writing assignments comes the foundational work necessary to help students understand the concept, theory, etc., assigned readings, and even small writing assignments (that scaffold into the large assignments). A unit spans about 8 weeks.
2. The oral presentation of this assignment to the class. You will need a PowerPoint presentation for your Teaching Portfolio. Your presentation should be about 15 minutes long and no more than 10 slides.
3. The detailed write-up of your writing assignment unit(s). In this write-up, you should contextualize the writing assignment unit within a detailed description of the theory, goals, purposes, and evaluation mechanisms.
OR, you may write a well-researched synthesis paper that targets a specific journal for publication. Your synthesis paper should be 28 pages, excluding the Works Cited page. At the end of the semester, you will be presenting your essay to your classmates so you will need a 15- minute PowerPoint presentation (10 slides or less) that includes a summary, outline, relevant abstracts, and “Works Cited” page.The proposal for your semester project is due at week 11 and you are expected to adhere to the proposal from then on, although minor changes are acceptable. The software program supported by UTSA is Office 2003. If you are using any other software, please make sure it is compatible with the software and hardware of the ECP Computer lab (MB 1.206). You are responsible for ensuring a smooth and seamless presentation with minor hiccups only. /
Late projects submitted without a medical excuse will be penalized up to one letter grade for every 24 hours. If your project late and not submitted in class, do make sure a department staff member stamps your essay, indicating the time and date. Because I am very particular about due dates, I advise that you work ahead of time. It also means you are responsible for any unforeseen circumstances--for example, if your dog ate your paper, if your friend's printer ran out of ribbon, etc. Please save all drafts, pre-writing, brainstorming, and drafts that show your work-in-progress.
Book Review Presentation & Discussion:
By the first week, you will have chosen one book to review. Read it carefully and develop a 1,500 word written overview that includes the following information: historical background & context, major trends & beliefs, chapter summaries, insights/contributions to theories, practices of teaching writing, and a sample writing assignment. Using MS FrontPage, create and upload a website for your review, making it available to your classmates on the day of your presentation. The website will highlight how literacy (reading and writing) alters with the medium (screen vs. paper). An alternative to the website is a brochure (one page, front and back) using MS Publisher. You may present the information on your website/brochure for 15 minutes.
Next, your goal and objective are to encourage and facilitate a lively, enlightening discussion. Conduct/moderate a 30-minute discussion with the class. Do make connections among the ideas of the book you reviewed, the assigned readings for the day, and the issues that have interested the class thus far. Feel free to utilize whatever techniques you may wish to make class interesting. Stay away from verbal hesitations (errs, ums, you knows, I thinks, etc.). Have a well-defined, legible game plan. Please don't read us your notes. Note: if you need clarification, a pep talk, or strategies while preparing for these discussions, see me--preferably not the day of your presentation/discussion.An alternative to reviewing a book is to read a series of 6-8 journal essays on a particular topic. This option is available until the second week of the semester. /
Finally, you are responsible for creating a prompt for the web-chat, to be posted on WebCT no later than 11:59 p.m. the Thursday a week before your presentation. This open-ended prompt should encourage students to connect the assigned readings the day of your presentation with the discussion from the prior week.
For a discussion of what a book review entails, check book reviews at the Composition Studies: http://www.compositionstudies.tcu.edu/bookreviews.html. Also, within one week of your presentation, send your review to Glenn Blalock (glennblalock.phd AT gmail DOT com) to be posted on the CompPile Book Review page. http://comppile.tamucc.edu/recentbooks/index.php
Web-chats:
Discussion of some assigned readings and issues raised in the course will also take place through the WebCT chat rooms. There will be questions and directions; use them as prompts for your ideas. You need not address every issue as they are intended to get you started writing and responding. Realize that you have an audience for these writings beside yourself. You can always write more than the word limit should you be inspired to do so. Web-chats are due on Thursdays, 11:59 p.m.
Your WebCT chats around 250 words responding to the prompts. And, you need to write short interactive responses to at least 3 other postings (at least 80 words per posting) and 1 concluding statement (or rejoinder) to any responses you might have received to your 250-word initial posting. You have one week to post the 250 word “chat” and one week to respond to the three other students. If you post after the deadline, your entry will be marked "late," and this will affect your response grade. Note that all postings have a mid-semester and end-semester cut off. You are responsible for any unforeseen circumstances and only medical exceptions (with written documentation) will be made for missed deadlines. Please work ahead of the deadline to be safe.
The grade for your WebCT chats assumes that your total number of entries occurs within the deadline and all responses to postings are completed. If some of your chats are late or you miss replies, this will pull your score down by 50%. Moreover, the lengths stated above do matter, so if you are short of words on some, be long on others. 50% of the scoring of your WebCT chats is based on quantity: A = 10 entries; B = 8 entries; C = 7 entries; D = 6 entries; F = 5 or fewer entries. 50% is based on quality, which may include (a) synthesizing various perspectives (c) responding to issues raised (d) extending or complicating issues raised (e) raising new questions (f) reflecting on and critiquing the issues.
6 Bibliographic Annotations
In conjunction with each week’s topic, you will read one essay in addition to the assigned reading. This outside reading will derive from the bibliography of the assigned reading.
(a) Write up one annotation of about 150 words, summarizing the essay’s thesis, main points, and insights/contributions to the topic. (b) Follow that with an 80 word discussion that juxtaposes the outside reading with the course’s assigned reading. (c) Conclude with one discussion question that connects your outside reading with the assigned reading (you could consider the following: clarifying ambiguous ideas; contending with the issues; discussing new applications or consequences to theory and pedagogy, etc.).
/Each entry must be submitted electronically via attachment to my email () by 10:00 a.m. each Thursday before class. Please use MS Word or save your document in RTF (rich text format). I will compile these annotations and have them ready for class that afternoon.
Final Exam: A comprehensive final exam will be conducted on Friday, 9 May, 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. There will be short answer and essay questions. Students may bring to the exam one 8.5 x 11” piece of paper with notes which must be turned in with their final exam. After the final grade is submitted, students may review their graded final exam but cannot take it with them.
Attendance and Participation
Because this is a graduate seminar and because your course grade will be influenced by your in-class participation and preparedness, regular, punctual attendance seems to be the most logical approach. More than one absence will affect your grade; you may also be asked to withdraw from the course.
Daily reading and writing will be assigned. Do complete the assigned reading/writing on the days listed and come prepared to participate in class discussion. The level of your engagement with the materials and in the dialogues of the course, and your addition to the class record. This does not necessarily mean how much you talk in class. It means how you demonstrate your level of engagement with the literature of the profession and how connected you are to the profession’s on–going conversations.
Ethical breaches in your research, tardiness, unexcused absences, and/or lack of commitment to the course and your work will effect your standing is course. Work submitted for this course may not be submitted for credit in any other courses. Late assignments will be accepted with a medical excuse. Please refer to the UTSA Student Code of Conduct: http://www.utsa.edu/ucat/info/conduct
I will ask you to consider signing a permission form to allow me to use your course work (including electronic discussions and posts) as data for future scholarly work.
Note on civility and professionalism: Students are expected to assist in maintaining a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. To ensure all students have the opportunity to gain from the time spent in class, students are prohibited from engaging in any form of distraction. Inappropriate behavior in the classroom shall result, minimally, in a request to leave class. Cell phones should be turned off or set to “vibrate/buzz only” before you come to class. If you must take a call, please step into the hallway to talk.
ENG 6023 -- Semester Syllabus – Spring 2008
Week 1 -- January 17
· Introductions, course expectations, goals, syllabus, assignments
· Topic – Orality literacy, process post-process, digital literacies
· Workshop – Blogs, chats, e-groups, WebCT
Week 2 -- January 24 – Foundations of Computers and Composition
· Reading – Sidler Part 1; Paul Kei Matsuda’s “Process and Post-Process: A Discursive History.” Journal of Second Language Writing 12.1 (2003): 65-83 (read to p74 only) Lecture – Paradigms shifts and seriation charts
· Workshop – Brochures & visual-verbal literacy (MS Publisher)
Week 3 -- January 31 – Digital Literacies
· Reading – Sidler Part 2 (Selfe essay is optional); Lockard ch 3; Coe, Richard “’Rhetoric 2001’ in 2001,” Composition Studies
· Workshop – Presentations (MS PowerPoint)
· Book Review/Discussion – Kress, Multimodality
Week 4 -- February 7 – Teaching with Technology
· Reading – Sidler Part 4 (Palmquist et al, Penrod, and Sidler essays are optional)
· Workshop – Websites & information design (MS FrontPage)
· Book Review/Discussion – Kist, New Literacies in Action
Week 5 -- February 14 – The Rise of Networks
· Reading – Sidler Part 3; David Russell’s “Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction,” (handout)
· Book Review/Discussion – O’Riordan and Phillips, Queer Online
Week 6 -- February 21 – Teaching Writing as a Social Process
· Reading – McComiskey
· Book Review/Discussion – Kostelnick and Hassett, Shaping Information
Week 7 -- February 28 – Dangers of E-Learning
· Reading – Lockard ch 4, 5, 6, 7, 15
· No Annotated Bibliographies due today
· Book Review/Discussion – Takayoshi and Sullivan, Labor, Writing Technologies, and the Shaping of Composition in the Academy
· Attend lecture – Dr. Elizabeth Ammons (TBA; 4:00-5:00 p.m.)