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