You’ll notice some patterns as you read the syllabi, and that’s not an accident. All sections of ENG 110 share a common logic by design.
WRITING
English 110 is structured around the writing assignments. We begin with our essays and work back from there, asking: What do we have to do as instructors to prepare our students to succeed at this, and this, and this?
[SIDENOTE/VOCAB: The term for this approach to writing pedagogy is scaffolding. Our assignments are scaffolded, so our students can work up to their big assignments with a lot of small ones.]
With that question in mind, we create lesson plans that train our students in the myriad of small processes– evaluating a source, for example, analyzing a source, and referring to it in a meaningful way– that add up to a college-level essay.
More concretely, we ask our students to write:
- Three formal essays focused on analysis, argumentation and rhetoric;
- At least one research-based project;
- Pre-draft writing, drafts, and revisions (with peer review and instructor feedback); and
- Ungraded informal writing
[SIDENOTE/VOCAB: The term for those last two categories is low-stakes writing. As the counterpart to the high-stakes writing in the first two categories, it is essential to scaffolding.]
READING
The reading exists in the syllabus to support the writing. We keep the quantity of reading small in ENG 110, at about 10-15 pages per week, because the purpose of the reading is less to convey content than to prompt student writing. The readings are chosen carefully with that in mind. They should work together to establish a scholarly conversation that every student can enter in their own way. Our job is to help them find their way.
The readings include:
- Topical sources;
- Texts on rhetoric and writing;
- Scholarly sources;
- Credible non-scholarly sources; and
- Models of writing;
W H I C H T O P I C D O Y O U W A N T T O T E A C H?
It’s time to choose, at least in a preliminary way. Tell us in the comments below, also raising any hesitations or indecisions that you want to discuss. And as read the syllabus for the topic you’ve chosen, ask yourself: What do you hope we’ll discuss at the orientation?
You might want to talk in greater detail about:
- scaffolding;
- high/low-stakes writing;
- how the reading supports the writing;
- why the writing assignments look the way they do;
- how the research component works;
- how the syllabus works toward the goals of ENG 110, or the “learning outcomes”; or
- more precisely, what any of this looks like in practice
We want to know.
I would be keen to teach the “Food” syllabus! I am interested in tactics others have employed to connect the readings to the teaching goals for each day…. I’m not sure what else to say beyond that at this moment, but will give it a think.
I’ll second Nicole in thinking about “Food”. I’d like to know, though, what the latitude in terms of interdisciplinary work is at QC and in this introductory course. In a course I taught at Baruch, for example, for one assignment we looked at texts on the use of pesticides / international labor law / Chiquita banana / the Colombian civil war / the history of US imperialism in Latin America as a cluster of texts…and then students acted as marketing consultants to Chiquita who were tasked with coming up with a strategy to mitigate the fallout from revelations about their appalling human rights record…(they could also choose to decline the contract, with justification).
That said, it seems like the expectations re: reading are a bit lower than at, again, Baruch where about 40-50ish pages a week is seen as reasonable. Wondering with a lower reading load what the overall expectations are in terms of working at topics in greater depth…
I’m interested in two of the syllabi: cultural identity and memory. I really love the intricacy of cultural identity but I am also intrigued by how memory functions on an individual and cultural level. I think my indecision stems from the readings; I am more drawn to the readings in the cultural identity syllabi, particularly the global one. I’m wondering how much leeway we have with the syllabi, if any. Can we swap any of the topical texts for other relevant texts? Could I use some of the topical texts from each of the cultural identity syllabi?
Great questions! I’m torn too!
I’m most interested in teaching the food syllabus as well, particularly because I have worked a bit in food studies when I was an undergrad. My question is kind of at the intersection of Nicole and Daniella’s; I was wondering if you have advice on how to select readings for specific learning goals? The food syllabus spurred me to recall a couple of good food related poems and short stories that I might want to add to the course or substitute for some of the existing readings, so any advice on how to select the best texts for this is welcome. Also, this is something of an aside, but reading the syllabi I encountered the issue of “self-plagiarism” in the academic integrity section. I was curious as to if someone could speak to this a bit. I remember students asking about it in my undergraduate classes almost every semester, but I never fully understood the logic behind it. In anticipation of that sort of question, do you have any specific advice on how to communicate and/or qualify course policies if they are called into question?
Like others, I’m also interested in the Food syllabus, primarily because of my own personal food and food writing interests. I’m also excited to see some of my favorite writers on the syllabus, and I think it would be a joy to teach. i like the looks of the Cultural Identity American Contexts syllabus, too. Is there a limit to the number of us who teach the same syllabus?
I had the same question as Daniella and Mitchell – is there any flexibility for swapping any readings or adding additional things here and there?
Hi, everyone 🙂
I’d be most interested in teaching the “Monsters” class, especially as it overlaps with my work in Trans Studies (Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein” was a foundational Trans Studies text!), Queer Theory, Marxism etc.
Seconding Daniella/Mitchell/Katie’s question about swapping readings in and out!
As a translator, I think about language A LOT, so teaching a course on language and literacy would be very fitting for me. During the orientation, I would love to discuss what we should expect out of the students with their weekly exercises. My assumption is that these exercises serve as the “scaffolding” to the larger essays, so what should we expect from these smaller assignments?
I’m interested in “Memory” or either of the “Cultural Identity” courses as well. I’m wondering how group work/peer reviews would look like in a remote/distant learning setting (blog posts? google doc?), and how in-class discussion would look like if synchronous learning is not accessible to all students (more blogging??).
I am torn between teaching the “Food” or the “Cultural Identity: Global Contexts” syllabus! Realistically, I will probably choose the global cultural identity option because that is more closely related to my own work in postcolonialism, but I am just so intrigued by the Food syllabus as well! I am a bit hesitant about selecting the global cultural identity syllabus because it includes so many readings from the same author, but I like the Food syllabus because it has a variety of readings. As such, I am also wondering if I can swap out or supplement the Hall readings on the global cultural identity syllabus with some other texts of my choosing?
Also, how do students handle reading multiple pieces from the same author? I think it would be really useful in terms of scaffolding, but I am not sure how students feel about it.
In the Food syllabus, I noticed this bit about Content, and I’m wondering how content warnings usually go in FYW classes. Even with this sort of thing in the syllabus, are there usually further notes before specific readings or is that really up to the professor?
“We will occasionally read and view sensitive material. If you object to or are uncomfortable participating in discourse about abuse, violence, race, immigration, various sexual and gender identities, and so on, you should drop the course. Your continued enrollment in this section indicates your commitment to engaging these subjects respectfully.”
I am interested in both the “Monsters” and the “Visual Culture: Film” syllabi. There are also some readings that I would like to add or change, and I wonder how much we can adapt the given syllabi. (Are there “required readings” that we must teach?)
For me, the sequence of assignments looks very familiar to what I’ve been implementing at other CUNY’s.
I initially proposed “Visual Culture: Art,” but am growing more interested in the “Memory” theme more so now. Ideally, I’d love to blend the two–towards a documentary poetics version: collective memory curated through visual culture!
Any feedback from others in practice now regarding how possible some aspects of the “Visual Culture: Art” option are even implementable right now in sheltering in place.. What have people done to shift assignments geared towards a museum type field visit? I tried that myself this term, and it was a bit tricky! Group work also seemed tricky while I have enjoyed group collaborative research work & creative projects.
I’d like to open more discussion on what counts as “low-stakes writing” vs. “participation” grades, especially as we tabulate completion grades online. I’m also familiar that CUNY has a tricky “non-attendance taking” policy.. How does that affect attendance on a normal face-to-face day? How has that affected average class count for virtual sessions?
Generally, more attention to the labor/workflow for the lecturer too! It seems the scaffold & ungraded low stakes work is also in place to aid that.