Composition Forum 27, Spring 2013
http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/

Appendix 6 to Intractable Writing Program Problems: Teacher “Training” Materials from Writing About Writing Project

Elizabeth Wardle

This is an appendix to Intractable Writing Program Problems, Kairos, and Writing about Writing: A Profile of the University of Central Florida's First-Year Composition Program.

Spring 2010 “Syllabus” for ENC 1101 Teacher Training

What Does the Training Entail?

8 total meetings of 1 hour each

Attendees should read all common texts and attend at least 6 of the 8 meetings.
Those who complete the training will receive a stipend of $200 and will teach the new curriculum in ENC 1101 beginning in Fall 2010.

Schedule

Meeting	Reading	Discussion Topics	Materials to Be Given or Reviewed at Meeting
Meeting 1: What is This?	Downs & Wardle, “Rethinking Writing”	What is this curriculum? What are its goals? What are the approved books for the curriculum? What are we going to do in the remaining meetings?	Samples of student work Course outcomes Sample syllabi
Meeting 2: Why Do We Need to Make a Change?	Beaufort, Chapter 1 Wardle, “Mutt Genres”	What are problems with the older versions of composition? What are the implications of these articles for the way you have been teaching composition?
Meeting 3: What is the “writing-about-writing” curriculum?	Perkins & Salomon, Transfer Beaufort, Appendix A Review Downs & Wardle, “Rethinking Writing”	What is the “writing about writing” curriculum? What are the arguments for it? What are the many forms this curriculum could take?	Review the handout on outcomes shared at first meeting.
Meeting 4: Understanding “Constructs”	Writing About Writing, Introduction to Chapter 1 Williams, “The Phenomenology of Error” Rose, “Rigid Rules”	What are constructs? How can we use these readings to help students write the “Considering Constructs about Writing” assignment?	Group leader share any materials from their own class activities on these topics
Meeting 5: Some Basic Concepts	Grant-Davie, “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents” Porter, “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community”	What are some strategies for helping students read articles like these? What would we do in class to teach these articles? How could we use these articles to help students write the “Navigating Sources That Disagree” assignment?
Meeting 6: Considering Writing Processes	Swales CARS model summary (use this to help students understand how to read research articles) Perl, “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers: Berkenkotter & Murray, “Decisions and Revisions”	How could we teach these articles? How could students use these to help them write an autoethnography or portrait of a writer?
Meeting 7: Understanding Discourse Communities	Swales, “The Concept of Discourse Community” McCarthy, “A Stranger in Strange Lands”	How can we use these articles to help students write a discourse community ethnography? In what other ways might you teach about discourse communities?	Look at supplemental resources on ethnography and human subjects issues
Meeting 8: Planning		Look at the approved textbooks for the new curriculum. Look at potential assignments. As a group, begin to sketch out what participants would like their own curriculum to look like—what book would they use? What major assignments would they like to give? What readings would work toward these assignments? Will they use one of the sample curricula, or will they create their own? Discuss plans for the fall. What workshops and further training would trainees like to see? Would they like some workshops in the summer as they prepare?

Post-Training Follow Up

Pilot Training Discussion Leaders will be first point of contact for the teachers trying the new curriculum for the first time. Trainees should show their syllabus and assignment sheets to their trainers prior to the start of the fall semester to get feedback and suggestions. If the trainer has any concerns about the syllabus, he/she should talk with Wardle or Weaver about it. Once finalized, a copy of each trainee’s syllabus should be submitted to Patty for keeping in a centralized binder.

Appendix 6 to “Intractable Writing Program Problems” from Composition Forum 27 (Spring 2013)
Online at: http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/ucf-appendix6.php
© Copyright 2013 Elizabeth Wardle.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

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