Composing Group Meetings for Fall 2005

The KU Composing reading group will have its first meeting on Tuesday, September 20th from 11am-11:50am in Lytle 207. As I said in the meeting yesterday, I am thinking about this first meeting as an organizational meeting. I thought we could decide on a couple of readings we would like to discuss and to find a good time to meet for the rest of the semester.

There are several articles on eReserve that we might want to consider:

• "Bitch" Pedagogy- Agonistic Discourse and the Politics of Resistance (Greenbaum, Andrea)
• Critical Discourse Analysis and Composition Studies: A Study of Presidential Discourse and Campus Discord (Powell, Pegeen Reichert)
• Fa(c)ulty Wiring? Energy, Power, Work, and Resistance to Technology (Strenski, Ellen)
• Pedagogy of Multiliteracies- designing social futures (The New London Group)
• Politics of writing- Introduction (Clark and Ivanic)
• Resistance as a Tragic Trope (Trimbur, John)
• Students' Right to Possibility: Basic Writing and African American Rhetoric (Gilyard, Keith and Elaine Richardson)
• Technology and Literacy- A Story About the Perils of Not Paying Attention (Selfe, Cynthia L.)
• Three Codifications of Critical Literacy (Philion)
• Writing on the Bias (Brodkey, Linda)

But these articles are just suggestions. At the first meeting, or on the blog, please post any additional suggestions and we can add them to the eReserve list.

Multi-Literacies?

I've been reading Robert Scholes's The Rise and Fall of English: Reconstructing English as a Discipline. I'm glad I finally got around to reading this text. Scholes argues for resituating English curriculum, especially general education core classes, around issues of textuality. He argues,

We need speaking and listening skills, to be sure, and we need to be literate in the traditional sense: able to read and write. But we also need to be "literate" across a various and complex network of different kinds of writing and various media of communication (130).

A couple issues have been in the back of my mind while reading this. This year, the Composition Committee will be taking a look at the College Composition curriculum in order to update/revise it. The question is: what principles and assumptions about literacy and the purpose of composition are we using currently? To what degree is our teaching relevant to today's world? That is, I am thinking about why we do what we do, who we serve, and toward what ends. Scholes is giving me some things to think about. In particular, Scholes gives us the following definition of literacy:

Literacy involves the ability to understand and to produce a wide variety of texts that use the English language--including work in traditional literary forms, in the practical and persuasive forms, and in the modern media as well. Whether students go on to higher education or enter the workforce after graduation, their success will depend to a great extent on their ability to understand and use the English language. That is why this course [a high school capstone course in English Studies] makes language itself--and its use in various forms, genres, and media--the center of attention (130, brackets mine).

Yes, Scholes is writing about a high school senior English course he helped develop for the College Boards with high school teachers around the country called "Pacesetter English." But his definition of literacy as something broader than "academic writing" or "good prose" interests me. It also makes me think that one of the things that is important to do when planning a course is to ask ourselves what assumptions we are making about literacy and the purpose of College Composition.

These are very provisional thoughts...and one's that make me want to get back to reading Pegeen Reichert Powell's, "Critical Discourse Analysis and Composition Studies," since she has bit of a different take, although still very interested in the assumptions and purposes of comp. And there's also that article from the New London Group, "Multiliteracies," that is quite useful. Both are on eReserve, by the way.

Kevin

Meeting for new and returning faculty teaching composition

I have scheduled an introductory meeting for new and returning faculty who will be teaching composition in the fall. The meeting will be held Thursday, August 25th at 12 noon in 207 Lytle Hall. The meeting is open to all faculty, but new faculty are especially encouraged to attend.

The meeting will address:

• The directed self-placement process. For those new to the concept, this means that with guidance from me and others, students self-select the composition course based upon their history and comfortability with academic reading and writing. The directed self-placement process influences how we structure our composition classes. For example, ENG 022 Introduction to College Composition is not a "remedial" class. It is designed to give students an additional semester practice in academic writing so they can do well in ENG 023.
  
• An overview of ENG 022. Given that Introduction to College Composition is not a remedial class, it poses challenges for faculty who are used to teaching introductory composition classes as "grammar" classes or "remedial" classes. Dr. Linda Cullum will join me to discuss the goals of ENG 022 and provide some suggestions about how to plan your course effectively.
• Dr. Cullum is also the Director of the Writing Center. She will provide faculty with an overview of the Writing Center. Chris Lang, an English grad student and Writing Center tutor, will join us as well.
• Composition Program planning for the academic year. Our plans include: the Third Annual Composition Conference for First-Year Student Writers, revising ENG 023, our weekly Composition Conversations, the new Composing reading group, and a "Teachnology" grant exploring the use of blogs in the Composition classroom.

I hope that some returning faculty will join us as well to talk about their experiences teaching composition at KU. If anyone has any ideas of additional things that would be useful to discuss--post them here!

Oh, and by the way, I'll be bringing the famed bagels and cream cheese for everyone. Even if you can't stay the whole time, please come by for a bagel!

Kevin