Call me Zach. Mr. Beare is my father's name (only, not really.)
I haven't talked too much about the English 101 class that I am teaching this fall. Because the summer has been so awful, I have been sort of putting it out of my mind. Now that it is just around the corner, though, I probably should be dedicating more thought to it. Dr. Qualley, the Director of Composition, sent out an insanely long e-mail (complete with a 109 page annotated syllabus) about the course and the week long crash-course on teaching 101 called "Comp Camp."
"Comp Camp" basically is an intense seminar that will go from 8am-5pm the week of the 15th (my bday) through the 19th. Yes, I will be in class 9 hours a day for 5 whole days. I may be dead by the end of it. Also, I have to come up with an "artifact" to bring on the first day to share with the group. It is supposed to have "personal and/or cultural significance" to me. I have been madly trying to figure out something to bring. I hate activities like this. I obsess so much about what my choice might say about me. I do the same thing when people ask me what my favorite book or movie is. I worry about all of the subtext that might be hiding underneath my answer. Very scary.
If I survive "Comp Camp," the 101 class should be okay. Composition classes can be so boring sometimes, and I hate almost all of the textbooks that I have read. They are all dense, vague, and not very helpful at all.
For the class, I am using Joseph Harris's textbook Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. It is a very small, simple book. In the text, he, like almost all authors of composition textbooks, uses the metaphor of a conversation at a party to describe academic writing. There is a conversation when you arrive. You contribute to that conversation--maybe challenging or countering some of the thoughts already voiced, and the conversation continues after you leave. Harris argues that all academic writing is a form of "rewriting" and that it works by "drawing from, commenting on, [and] adding to the work of others" (2). In his text, Harris explores several rhetorical moves that writers make to accomplish this "rewriting." He names these moves "coming to terms," "forwarding," "countering," "taking an approach," and "revising" and has a chapter on each of these moves. I actually really enjoyed reading his book. Like I said, it is very short (only about 130 pages), and he is very conversational and provides good (but pretty simple) examples of these moves.
In addition to that textbook, I am also using the reader portion of From Inquiry to Academic Writing. As a class, we are going to examine 4 academic essays to see how the authors make use of the rhetorical moves Harris speaks of and how the authors are participating in ongoing discussions. These essays make up the bulk of the assigned reading for the class. I really like the essays that we are using. Some readers for composition studies use essays on composition studies, and there is nothing more dreadfully boring than that. This reader is pretty interdisciplinary, and I really like that. It also has a lot of essays that are written for those outside of the academy, and I think that is important to see that the rhetorical moves that we are examining exist and are used by writers outside of the academy. I think that the essays I am using work well together. They are all sort of about consumerism and popular culture. The essays I am using are below.
-Mark Edmundson, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education”
-Robert Scholes, “On Reading a Video Text”
-Steven Johnson, a selection from “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter”
and I am still going back and forth about the last one, but it is between:
-Henry A Giroux, “Children’s Culture and Disney’s Animated Films”
And
-Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference.”
I am sort of leaning towards Disney, but that is probably because I want to teach a class on Disney’s animated films.
The assigned writing is designed to allow the students to work with the moves Harris describes and to interact with the assigned readings. In addition to those writing exercises, students also examine a cultural phenomenon/activity that is not discussed directly in the course and write about it. All of these assignments are drafted and responded to by other students, and I conference with students several times throughout the quarter. As the quarter progresses, students will work to put together a portfolio of their work at various stages of the revision process. They will also have to produce an abstract and cover letter to go with their final essay, and these items will also be in the portfolio. I really like the idea of having them write an abstract. They can be so hard to write and really force a writer to “come to terms” with his/her own writing.
I am pretty excited about the class. It should be fun. We are watching a lot of youtube videos to see commercials and things like that, and I think that students might like that. Still, I am realistic. I know that English 101 is not the class that everyone wants to take. It will be an adventure. I will have to keep everyone updated.
"Comp Camp" basically is an intense seminar that will go from 8am-5pm the week of the 15th (my bday) through the 19th. Yes, I will be in class 9 hours a day for 5 whole days. I may be dead by the end of it. Also, I have to come up with an "artifact" to bring on the first day to share with the group. It is supposed to have "personal and/or cultural significance" to me. I have been madly trying to figure out something to bring. I hate activities like this. I obsess so much about what my choice might say about me. I do the same thing when people ask me what my favorite book or movie is. I worry about all of the subtext that might be hiding underneath my answer. Very scary.
If I survive "Comp Camp," the 101 class should be okay. Composition classes can be so boring sometimes, and I hate almost all of the textbooks that I have read. They are all dense, vague, and not very helpful at all.
For the class, I am using Joseph Harris's textbook Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. It is a very small, simple book. In the text, he, like almost all authors of composition textbooks, uses the metaphor of a conversation at a party to describe academic writing. There is a conversation when you arrive. You contribute to that conversation--maybe challenging or countering some of the thoughts already voiced, and the conversation continues after you leave. Harris argues that all academic writing is a form of "rewriting" and that it works by "drawing from, commenting on, [and] adding to the work of others" (2). In his text, Harris explores several rhetorical moves that writers make to accomplish this "rewriting." He names these moves "coming to terms," "forwarding," "countering," "taking an approach," and "revising" and has a chapter on each of these moves. I actually really enjoyed reading his book. Like I said, it is very short (only about 130 pages), and he is very conversational and provides good (but pretty simple) examples of these moves.
In addition to that textbook, I am also using the reader portion of From Inquiry to Academic Writing. As a class, we are going to examine 4 academic essays to see how the authors make use of the rhetorical moves Harris speaks of and how the authors are participating in ongoing discussions. These essays make up the bulk of the assigned reading for the class. I really like the essays that we are using. Some readers for composition studies use essays on composition studies, and there is nothing more dreadfully boring than that. This reader is pretty interdisciplinary, and I really like that. It also has a lot of essays that are written for those outside of the academy, and I think that is important to see that the rhetorical moves that we are examining exist and are used by writers outside of the academy. I think that the essays I am using work well together. They are all sort of about consumerism and popular culture. The essays I am using are below.
-Mark Edmundson, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education”
-Robert Scholes, “On Reading a Video Text”
-Steven Johnson, a selection from “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter”
and I am still going back and forth about the last one, but it is between:
-Henry A Giroux, “Children’s Culture and Disney’s Animated Films”
And
-Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference.”
I am sort of leaning towards Disney, but that is probably because I want to teach a class on Disney’s animated films.
The assigned writing is designed to allow the students to work with the moves Harris describes and to interact with the assigned readings. In addition to those writing exercises, students also examine a cultural phenomenon/activity that is not discussed directly in the course and write about it. All of these assignments are drafted and responded to by other students, and I conference with students several times throughout the quarter. As the quarter progresses, students will work to put together a portfolio of their work at various stages of the revision process. They will also have to produce an abstract and cover letter to go with their final essay, and these items will also be in the portfolio. I really like the idea of having them write an abstract. They can be so hard to write and really force a writer to “come to terms” with his/her own writing.
I am pretty excited about the class. It should be fun. We are watching a lot of youtube videos to see commercials and things like that, and I think that students might like that. Still, I am realistic. I know that English 101 is not the class that everyone wants to take. It will be an adventure. I will have to keep everyone updated.