Summer 2007 Syllabus: assignments and course grade

Assigned Work

Assignments include, but are not limited to, scheduled reading and responses, style and punctuation work, peer editing, pen pal letters, planning for Alcott’s visit, revising, researching, and the like. Assigned readings should be complete prior to the beginning of scheduled class. Readings may be given from course texts, reserve readings, newspaper, and other media. The instructor reserves the right to add readings not listed in the itinerary, so make sure you keep good records of assignment updates.

Reading Workshop: On scheduled days, students will read and respond to an assigned essay for a Reading Workshop with small peer groups. In addition to his or her written response, each student should bring a list of five questions about the assigned reading to be addressed in class. If necessary, the instructors will schedule additional analysis time for specific pieces.

Drafts and Writing Workshops: Students will prepare typed drafts of assignments and be prepared to share their writing and offer feedback to classmates on Writing Workshop days.

Style Exercises: Students will be expected to complete assigned punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and other style related exercises and assignments.

Reading Quizzes: Quizzes will be given each Tuesday. Quizzes may be based on material covered in syllabus, readings, and lectures. Quizzes cannot be made-up. If a student misses a quiz, a zero will be assigned for that quiz.

Blogging: You will need to check my blog regularly and respond weekly to one of my posts. You will You will maintain an academic blog that will serve as both a filter-style blog about reading, writing, and researching as well as a research notebook for your final researched position paper. You will post no less than three times per weeks, and you are required to read/comment no less than one time per week on the course blog and your groups’ blogs. What this means: 1. Each week, you will find four texts online that discuss topics relevant to our studies (reading, writing, grammar, research, technology, blogging, privacy, etc.), link them, and write/post a response. 2. You will read my blog and reply one time per week 3. You will read several classmates’ blogs and reply in the comments no less than two times per week on each. Groups of 4-5 students will be created the first day of class.

Assignments graded on the 4.0 scale: (3) Summaries and (3) Essays. Assignment sheets defining process, strategy, format, and timetable will be posted on the course blog for each of the following written assignments:

Summary. Each student will summarize three (3) short selections, chosen from a list of assigned chapters or essays. Each student will complete a practice run and the class will discuss summarizing strategies and the characteristics of abstracts, the particular kind of summary we will write.

Essay #1. In this assignment, you will develop a 3-page “case study” of an effective teacher. Instead of developing a caricature, however, you will examine the life and work of a real person and teacher—a teacher who has had you in his/her classroom. Discuss a teacher you have worked with during your primary or secondary education. Include detailed description of her/his character traits, actions, and assignments as you believe are relevant to his/her success as a teacher. Ask yourself, why did s/he reach me? Compare this teacher to those who did not motivate you or who could not keep you awake, etc. Each trait or part of your definition must be developed with examples of this teacher in action. Recreate interactions between students and teacher. Remember, words like “good,” “effective,” “well-meaning,” and “bad,” are empty without examples of what they mean to you. Because language is not transparent—speakers and hearers often misunderstand our use of even “simple” words—examples of our labels in context are essential. The reader needs to be able to develop a portrait in his/her mind. Think, label, and show. Graded on 4.0 scale.

Essay #2. Collage is an art form you may already be familiar with in it visual form; collage in writing carries similar ideas into language. In this essay, you may be asked to describe your appearance, explain the purpose of your college education, create a personal literacy narrative, and connect other topics discussed during the semester. The content parameters and grade criteria will be discussed as a class. This essay has no specific assigned length, yet, other than to say, “It needs to be long enough to complete the job, at least seven paragraphs.” Graded on 4.0 scale.

Essay #3. Now that you have read and discussed a variety of assessments, criticisms and proposals, it is time for you to contribute your informed opinion to the discussion by sharing your definition of the purpose of college. This essay will be a source-based text between 4 and 5 pages, not including the Works Cited page. More will be determined as the semester progresses and the interests of your section emerge. Graded on 4.0 scale.

Community Service
Pen Pal Project: We will partner with the leadership of Alcott Elementary School in Pontiac and become pen pals with their students. We will share our academic careers, aspirations, etc., and offer the students encouragement in their work and lives. There may be a semester long connection with a single classroom, or Alcott administrators may choose to distribute the letters to all faculty for use in their classes. I reserve the right to remove any messages that are inappropriate or display more than one or two small errors in style/grammar. This project allows us the opportunity to work on writing issues such as audience, voice and tone. This is a fun and simple way to become involved in our community and encourage children in their early school years.

A Day at College for Alcott’s Fifth Grade: As a class, you will design and acquire all permissions for Alcott’s fifth graders to come to Oakland University to learn about college life. You will need to decide what they should see, invite leaders to participate, coordinate their schedule, and write the grant to pay for their bus ride. This is a way to practice writing with various audiences for various purposes. Your audiences will include University administrators and faculty committees, Alcott staff, and fifth graders.

Grading
RHT 102 is assessed credit on a S/U basis. A final grade of satisfactory/unsatisfactory will be based on the following distribution:

Reading quizzes 20%
Blog and in-class writing 30%
Essays/Summaries 50%

Your final grade must amount to a 2.0 or better to advance to RHT 150.