W131+First-year+Writing

English W131, formerly "Elementary Composition I," now renamed "Reading, Writing, and Inquiry I," is a course required of all IUPUI students. In fact, it is required of all students at Indiana University's campuses across the state. I have taught this course, or the honors version W140, every year. As Director of Writing, I think it important that I keep teaching this course, and I enjoy teaching it. I work closely with other members of the Writing Coordinating Committee to develop and revise curriculum for the course, to assess its effectiveness, and to help create a community of teaching inquiry among its many instructors.

Course Portfolio
In fall 2010, as a major part of my application dossier for the FACET program (Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching, a program that spans all Indiana University campuses), I developed this course portfolio for my teaching of W131. I was accepted into the FACET program.

Syllabus Spring 2010
//This semester I used Peter Elbow's Writing With Power and Bill McKibben's Deep Economy. McKibben's book was being read across campus// //as part of the IUPUI Common Theme. Below the syllabus is an overview of the course assignments, and those assignment guidelines follow. I used// //a grading contract in this class (see W140 Honors for details and links).//



Self-Directed Writing
//I borrowed this idea from my colleague Kim Brian Lovejoy, who has published an article on his use of Self-Directed Writing, which I also include below. One value of self-directed writing is for students to get more writing practice; another is for them to make their own choices as writers about purpose, audience, and genre. Lovejoy also emphasizes that in self-directed writing, students can use any language variety they choose, and thereby he invites all kinds of "Englishes" (and potentially other languages) into the writing classroom. My students in W131 and W140 have enjoyed doing self-directed writing, and I always invite them to include one or two of their favorite pieces in the final portfolio. In this section of W131, I asked them to turn a self-directed writing into a formal paper, Paper 2 below.//

Paper 1
// For their first formal assignment, I asked students to choose one theme that runs throughout Deep Economy and write an analytical paper about this theme. Their purpose was to explain McKibben’s argument related to this theme and analyze how effectively he makes that argument. The paper essentially asked for rhetorical analysis rather than argument, and some students found that difficult, but through in-class workshops and revision, they finally got it! //

Paper 2
// I asked students to choose one self-directed writing (or integrate two or more of them) and develop it or use it as a springboard for a work with a specific purpose and audience, choosing the genre according to their purpose and audience. They were asked to develop their own criteria for this piece (in consultation with classmates and me). I wanted students to demonstrate their writing versatility and their willingness to take chances, to explore ideas, to play with language. //

Paper 3
//I asked students to choose a local problem related in some way to the ideas in Deep Economy. Drawing on their reading of Deep Economy, other readings, and at least one interview or observation, they analyzed the problem and proposed a solution. Some of my favorite papers in this section came out of this assignment, which had students synthesize McKibben's ideas with their own interests and took them out into the community to see where those ideas might be applied.//

Final Portfolio
//As in every section of W131 at IUPUI, students are asked to select at least two pieces of writing from the semester, revise in some significant way, and reflect on how they have accomplished the course goals, providing evidence of this in a retrospective essay and in the portfolio's contents. It's a lot of work to read these final portfolios, but it can be very satisfying for both student and instructor. I wouldn't teach first-year writing any other way, and I have used portfolios in many of my other classes as well.//