(Item # 1320, section RA)
Fall
2006
MTRF
Instructor: Connie Wasem
Office: bldg 5-159
E-Mail: conniew@spokanefalls.edu
1. Texts and materials
·
Listening to Earth (a Longman Topics Reader),
Christopher Hallowell and Walter Levy
·
Portfolio Preview. SFCC English Faculty
·
Little, Brown Brief Handbook, 2nd ed. Jane E. Aaron.
·
one jump-drive or two 3 ½” floppy disks (one for
back up) for writing assignments
·
another 3 ½” floppy disk for writing your in-class
impromptus (to be left in my care)
·
a floppy disk storage case, for toting disks to and from class
·
a
pocket folder (no rings) for turning in individual essays and their drafts
·
a
spiral notebook (the 70- or 100-page notebook is best) for your Writer’s
Notebook
2. Learning Outcomes for Composition 101
Students should use what they have learned about sentences,
paragraphs, conventions of the essay, the writing process, and their own
emerging capabilities as writers to:
1. recognize
that writing is a process requiring thoughtful reconsideration and revision
2. discern
and record details accurately as part of the composing process
3. generate
varied ideas as part of the composing process
4. evaluate
details and ideas in light of particular audiences and rhetorical purposes
5. organize
ideas in a coherent manner
6. use
specific details to support claims
7. gather,
use, and document information to develop an argument
8. communicate
with an academic audience to describe, analyze, and persuade
9. observe
the conventions of standard edited American English
10. meet
deadlines and complete requirements
11. write
independently
12. provide
feedback for other writers
13. use
instructor and peer feedback to improve prose
Also, we will be addressing the
ultimate goals for all learning at SFCC, as detailed by
SFCC’s 4 Abilities & Learning Outcomes
1. Analysis/Problem
Solving and Information Literacy:
Students will access, evaluate and apply information from a variety of
sources and in a variety of contexts.
2. Communications: Students will make connections that create
meaning between themselves and their audience.
3. Responsibility: Students will develop the ability to
recognize, understand, and accept ownership of their own actions.
4. World
Views: Students will demonstrate an
awareness and appreciation of the world: its scientific complexity, its social
diversity, and its artistic variety.
3. Summary of course work
a.
Focus on the Campus-Wide Theme (Sustainability: Promoting a Livable Futute)
To contextualize our
class and to give our class reading, discussions, and essay assignments a unifying
focus, we are going to dovetail our academic inquiry this quarter with the
Campus-Wide Theme for this year. On SFCC’s web site, the Campus Theme Committee
declares its purpose:
Our aim is to engage the campus
community (faculty, staff, and students) in an extended, academic dialogue
focused around one broad issue. Films, guest lecturers, panel discussions,
teach-ins, Chautauqua, and artists help create rich learning opportunities for
deepening the understanding of our theme….Because learning has been found to be
more successful when it engages students’ interest, we hope to facilitate a
series of student-oriented events through the Associated Student and
Instructional-Related Program clubs throughout the year—events created by and
for students. [And] because student retention has been found to increase when
students make a commitment to campus, we hope that the integration of classroom
learning, the core book, club participation, and college-wide theme events will
encourage students to become involved in the campus community and bring them
closer to graduation.
b. Cluster groups
Because we’ll be
sharing our work in progress, it’ll be important for us to develop a sense of
community in this class. Early in the quarter, I’ll help you establish micro learning
communities of groups of four or five students, called “clusters.” Much of the
work we will do in class will be in collaborative small groups, and your
cluster will become your support group for this course.
c.
Your Writer’s Notebook
Educational outcomes
for this course include exercising your writing and critical thinking skills to
help you gain more confidence as a college writer and student as you learn to
quickly articulate your ideas on a given topic. Toward that goal, we’ll begin
most class sessions with a “freewrite” in a spiral
notebook you’ll designated exclusively as your Writer’s Notebook for this
quarter. I will periodically collect your Notebooks to discover how you’ve been
responding to the topics and to make sure you’re engaging in this assignment.
Your Writer’s Notebook will be evaluated on completeness, development, and
thoughtfulness, and will be worth 10% of your final grade.
d.
The 4 major essays, and their revisions
The most significant
work you’ll do this quarter is writing four polished essays. The essay
assignments are designed to be cumulative, meaning the skills developed in one
essay will be built on in the next, as you learn to respond in a variety of
ways to a variety of sources.
When you do revise for a better grade, turn in these 3 things in a
pocket folder:
1)
the graded essay with my comments on it,
2) the evaluation form with my circled
ratings and total points/final grade, and
3) your revision with all changes highlighted and/or annotated.
If you do not include these 3
things, I will not read your revision. The new grade your revision receives will become the final
grade for that essay. Also, you’ll carefully save all your essays, even after
they’re graded by me, for possible inclusion in your portfolios.
e. Bring
outlines and complete drafts to workshop for points
On the days the schedule says you are to bring an outline or a complete
draft for peer-review or peer-edit, your outline or draft is required in
class with you. I will circulate around the classroom, checking drafts
and recording the points you earn for the work you have in progress. Generally,
bringing a draft with you and participating in peer-review on the required days
will earn you 25 points. If you do not have your outline or draft with you, you
will earn 0 points for that day. Please
realize that peer-review can help you improve your essay only if others can
read and respond to your draft, helping you revise effectively, before I
grade it. Also, a major goal of the Communications program is to help students learn
to give effective feedback to others.
f.
The 101 mid-term and final portfolio assessments
All
students at SFCC will turn in two writing portfolios for a group of English 101
teachers to read and respond to, one due at mid-term and the other due just
before the end of the quarter. These portfolio assessments assure that all
students who pass English 101 meet the minimum requirements before earning a C
(2.0) or higher in the course, making them eligible for enrolling in English
201. Your mid-term portfolio, to be read by faculty on Oct 24, will
include one of your first two essays (you’ll choose which one you think is
best). The final portfolio, which will be read by faculty on Nov 29 & 30,
will include an essay from the first half of the quarter, an essay from the
second half, and one impromptu essay. If you do not pass the final portfolio,
your final grade will be a 1.9 or lower, depending on your grade average. If
you pass, you will receive the grade you earned up to the final portfolio
assessment. See the Portfolio Preview text for more details about
SFCC’s portfolio assessment.
g.
In-class impromptu essays
Because
you will have to, at some time in your college career, write essay exams and
other kinds of in-class writing tasks, you’ll have the opportunity to write two
or three impromptu essays during this quarter in Comp 101, to give you
experience with impromptu writing. Also, the SFCC English faculty who will be
reading your final portfolio want a sample of your writing that is the result
of your own skills, without editorial comment or assistance from your peers or
instructor. These written essays will not be graded. Instead, each time
you write an impromptu essay, you will turn in to me the hard copy and the disk
you wrote it on. I will store them for you, eventually collecting all three
essays. When it comes time to prepare your final portfolio, I will hand all
three back to you, and you will choose the one you think represents your
strongest writing. You will have the chance to revise it once, without any
input from me, before including it in your final portfolio.
h.
The On-Line Syllabus
All class
assignments, handouts, and announcements four our class can be accessed on
SFCC’s On-Line Syllabus service, which is accessible via SFCC’s web site. When
you get to SFCC’s home page, scroll down the left column and click on the
On-Line Syllabus link. From there, find
my name (Wasem) and our class (English Composition 101) and you’ll be in. In
class, I’ll show you how to navigate your way around this on-line service.
4. Policies
·
Attendance policy
This is an
experience-based class, not a lecture class, and your participation is vital.
If you miss too much
of the class
experience, you won't get the full benefit from the course. Therefore, my attendance
policy
has been designed to
encourage your daily attendance. You have 4 free absences to use for illnesses
and emergencies. Save these freebies for emergencies! Each absence over 4 will
lower your earned final grade by 20 points (on a 1,000 point scale) per absence. On your 8th
absence, you will earn the grade of 0.0 for the course. Also, please take
note that I do not distinguish between "excused" and
"unexcused" absences. Still, if you have excessive absences, come
talk to me, and let me know what is interfering with your success in this
course. I will do what I can to help you succeed.
Please note: You
must complete the 4 essays and the Writer’s Notebook to receive a
passing grade for the
course.
Cheating in
any form will not be tolerated. According to the official Policies and Procedure
of SFCC, “Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program” is
prohibited and subject to disciplinary action. Depending on the seriousness of
the offense, such action may include receiving an “F” or a “0” on a given
assignment, or receiving an “F” for the course, or being dismissed from school.
Because
I believe that extra curricular activities are an excellent means to expanding
your education, I encourage my students to participate in literary, artistic,
and political events. Take advantage of the many on-campus activities,
especially those offered during the “Class Free Hour” on Wednesdays at
Your
registration for this class, this class syllabus, and the class schedule
represent a contract between you, the student, and me, the instructor. If you
decide to drop the class, then you are
responsible for meeting the drop deadline and filing the required
paperwork. Please do not assume I will give you the grade of “Z” if you stop
attending after the official deadline for W withdrawals. To receive a grade of
“Z,” write me a letter (signed and dated) explaining the circumstances that
will not allow you to complete the class work. I may also request reliable
written documentation of the circumstances.
5.
How your final grade is figured
Your final grade will be determined by the following 1000 points system:
drafts for wkshps @ 25 each 100
Essay #1 200
Essay #2 200
Essay
#3 200
Essay
#4 200
|
total
pts gpa letter grade equivalent |
total
pts gpa letter grade equivalent |
|
96-100 4.0 A+ 95 3.9 A (superior achievement 94 3.8 |
76 2.2 75 2.1 C (average achievement) 74 2.0 |
|
93 3.7 92 3.6 A- 91 3.6 90 3.5 |
73 1.9 72 1.8 C- 71 1.7 70 1.6 |
|
89 3.4 88 3.3 B+ 87 3.2 |
69 1.5 68 1.4 D+ 67 1.3 |
|
86 3.1 85 3.0 B (above average achievement) 84 2.9 |
66 1.2 65 1.1 D (minimum achievement 64 1.0 |
|
83 2.8 82 2.7 B- 81 2.6 80 2.6 |
63 0.9 62 0.8 D- 61 0.7 60 0.7 |
|
79 2.5 78 2.4 C+ 77 2.3 |
59- 0.0 F (failure) |