English 327 Advanced Composition for Teachers

Dr. Donna J. Hart
225 Hogue Hall
Phone: Office: 664-6805; Home: 664-3863
Office Hours: MWF, 2:30 - 4:30; No office hours on Tuesday or Thursday.
Email: donna.hart@greenville.edu

Course Description:

In this course we are going to explore teaching middle level and high school students to write effectively. Writing is both a means of thinking and a reflection of thinking. It is also quite an artificial means of attempting to communicate--to break out of our isolation and enter into the Human Conversation. Writing is a complex process in and of itself; teaching someone else to write well is even more complex. We are going to do our best to explore issues of composition, techniques of composition, resources for composition, and current scholarly thinking about composition.

As you examine the instructional objectives below and the learning experiences provided by this course, be aware of how they relate to and are a logical outcome of the following three statements of the Teacher Education Program of Greenville College.

Teacher Education Program Mission Statement:

Teacher candidates will create classroom environments that promote cooperation and responsibility, support self-worth, affirm the dignity of all students, and stimulate learning.

Teacher Education Program Theme:

Preparing teachers to serve in a culturally diverse world.

English Language Arts Education Program Statement of Purpose:

The English Language Arts Education Program purposes to help students reach their full potential as human beings and as teachers. The faculty aims at building spiritual and intellectual strength, academic excellence, and pedagogical expertise. We intend to graduate teachers of English who know how to learn and how to help others learn. We intend that our graduates integrate faith with the learning they foster in their classrooms and demonstrate their faith through their humane, compassionate concern for students, through their modeling of personal hope and redemptive servanthood, and through their rigorous teaching and intellectual pursuits. To these ends we have established and continue to develop the English Teacher Education Program.

Required Text:

Parker, Frank, and Kathryn Riley. Grammar for Grammarians. Chicago: Parlay Press, 2005. ISBN: 0-976-71801-4.

Objectives:

Each student will be able to--

1. State ways the composition teacher can help middle level and high school students identify and express individual needs in and through their writing. ELAO 1 (TEO 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7)
2. Demonstrate in his/her own writing effective ways to prepare documents for publication and create instructional planning that enables students to exhibit the same skills. ELAO 1, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16 (TEO 1, 4, 5)
3. Demonstrate effective research skills in both English Language Arts and pedagogy, accompanied by the ability to articulate cogently the resulting conclusions, and create instructional planning that enables students to exhibit the same skills. ELAO 1, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16 (TEO 1, 4, 5)
4. Demonstrate in his/her own writing process effective prewriting, revising, and editing strategies and create instruction that enables students to develop and exhibit the same skills. ELAO 1, 6, 8, 9 (TEO 1, 4, 5)
5. Differentiate between writing that is and writing that is not characterized by clarity, effective organization, adequate and relevant development, appropriateness of tone, and accuracy in mechanics and usage. ELAO 6, 7, 9 (TEO 6)
6. Identify in writing samples the four basic forms of prose: argumentation, description, exposition, narration. ELAO 6, 7, 9 (TEO 6)
7. Identify in writing samples organizational techniques such as chronology, spatial, comparison, contrast, cause-to-effect, and effect-to-cause. ELAO 7, 9 (TEO 6)
8. Identify in writing samples the means of developing ideas, including the use of examples, description, analogy, induction or deduction, classification, definition, narration, analysis of process or cause and effect, and comparison and/or contrast. ELAO 7, 9 (TEO 6)
9. State what would constitute strengths and what would constitute weaknesses in the writing of middle level and high school students. ELAO 6, 7, 9 (TEO 6)
10. Communicate analyses and evaluations of students’ writing effectively. ELAO 7, 9, 19 (TEO 1, 2, 3, 6, 7)
11. Identify and integrate into instructional plans the variety of aids and materials available to composition teachers, including technology. ELAO 1, 16 (TEO 6, 8)
12. Articulate in discussion and demonstrate in planning ways to teach composition so as to encourage and generate maximum personal growth among students. ELAO 1, 5, 7, 19 (TEO 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
13. Articulate in discussion and demonstrate in planning ways to fulfill both the letter and the spirit of inclusion laws in composition classes. ELAO 1, 5, 17 (TEO 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
14. Articulate in discussion and demonstrate in planning ways to take into account student needs and individual and cultural differences among students in composition classes. ELAO 1, 3, 4, 18 (TEO 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
15. Articulate in discussion and demonstrate in planning ways to model hope and teach redemptively in composition classes. ELAO 19, 20 (TEO 3, 5, 6, 10)
16. Produce writing with acceptable strength (as determined by the English Dept.) in the characteristics implicit in objectives 5, 7, and 8. ELAO 6, 7, 9 (TEO 1, 2, 3, 6, 7)

Evaluation of Achievement:

Learning Experiences:

Write several essays; evaluate several sets of composition papers; develop instructional plans; develop reports on use of technology and working with individual needs of students in composition classes; develop report on evaluating student writing; examine composition/language texts in ERC.

Tentative Class Schedule:

Week One--(January 23)

Week Two--(January 30)

Week Three--(February 6)

Week Four--(February 13)

Week Five--(February 20)

Week Six--(February 27)

Week Seven--(March 6)

Spring Break, March 11 - 19.

Week Eight--(March 20)

Week Nine--(March 27)

Week Ten--(April 3)

Week Eleven--(April 10)

Easter Break, April 14 - 17.

Week Twelve--(April 17)

Week Thirteen--(April 24)

Week Fourteen--(May 1)

Week Fifteen--(May 8)