You are here: Home → Comp News Weekly Archives

archives, beginning with January 7, 2008:

April 20, 2009

Hello,

This will be last Composition News of the semester, and the last of my tenure as Director of Composition. Once again I want to thank everyone for an excellent semester. And once again I want to say how grateful and impressed I am every year with the dedication to student learning shown by instructors in this program. It has been a pleasure working with you and I wish you all clear sailing with your grading and a good summer ahead.

Now to business....there are seven items today but they cover important end-of-semester information so please read them and let me or Linda know if you have questions.

1) Grades: Once you have posted your grades online, you must turn a hard copy of your grades in to Linda Baldwin. We need these in case there are technical problems in the Registrar's Office as well as for our own records. Directions for posting your grades are in the Comp Program Handbook and on the bulletin board above the copier in the Comp Office.

2) Portfolio Storage: Any portfolios you do not return to your students must be stored for one year in the storage room at the back of 4F. There are detailed instructions on how to prepare your portfolios on the door of the storage room and a portfolio storage work area with necessary supplies of labels and tape in the kitchen behind 4H. Please follow these directions so that Linda can easily access student portfolios when she needs to. If you have questions, please contact Linda.

3) Evaluations: Student evaluations must be completed by the last regular day of class (April 22). Please follow the instructions in the evaluation packet.

4) E-Files: People from outside our program, whether across campus or at other universities, are very impressed with the idea of the E-Files Teaching Writing database. I think because we have this resources here we tend to take it for granted. But E-Files can only be a helpful resources if the instructors in the program keep it alive. There is so much good teaching going on that others can benefit from, both new and more experienced instructors. I know I have found a number of things on E-Files I plan to use in the fall. So I ask  you to post your favorite assignments and course syllabi on E-Files. It takes just seconds. If you have questions about how to post something on E-Files, please contact Tabetha Adkins (tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu) until the end of May.

5) Copy Bills and Bonnie Library Books: If you received a bill for personal photocopying this semester, please settle that with Linda before the end of this semester. Please bring the bill with you. Also, if you have a Bonnie Library book checked out that you are not using please return that to Linda as well.

6) Digital Writing Classrooms: If you want scheduling preference for one of these classrooms for fall please fill out the scheduling form (http://louisville.edu/english/composition/request-a-computer-classroom) by this Wednesday, April 22. Questions should be directed to Matt Dowell (mldowe01@louisville.edu).

7) Book-in-Common Materials: Copies of the university book-in-common for 2009-2010, Luis Louis Alberto
Urrea's The Devil's Highway, are available in the Bonnie Library. A list of teaching resources is available in the Composition Program Office.

Best,

Bronwyn

April 13, 2009

 Hello,

First, let me thank those of you who had students participating in the
Celebration of Student Writing. The event was lively and the students I
spoke with seemed to enjoy the opportunity to talk about their work. We
also learned a great deal in putting on this event that will make next
year that much easier. I hope this will become an annual event and have
the support of the Composition Program as is grows. My thanks to
everyone who helped organize the Celebration and Matt Dowell in
particular for all his hard work on the project.

There are three items this week:

1) Teaching Writing Workshop on the 2009 Book in Common: There will be
lunch-time workshop on Friday (April 17) about ways to use the UofL 2009
Book-in-Common in Composition Program Courses. The book is Louis Alberto
Urrea*s Devil*s Highway, a nonfiction book about the experiences of
illegal immigrants trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico. It is a
compelling and balanced book that could work well in many ways in a
writing course. During the workshop we will discuss ideas for how people
might use the book. The Workshop will be from 12:00-1:00 in Ekstrom
Library, Room W210. There will be lunch so RSVP Ryan Trauman
(rwtrau01@louisville.edu) by 1pm on Thursday (4/16) if you plan on
attending, or if you have questions.

2) Digital Writing Classroom Scheduling: To schedule a Digital Writing
Classroom use the form found at
http://louisville.edu/english/composition/request-a-computer-classroom.
Requests made by April 22 will receive preference in scheduling.
Questions should be directed to Matt Dowell (mldowe01@louisville.edu).

3) Course Evaluations: Course evaluation packets are available in 4H.
Be sure to distribute these before the end of the semester. Also please
follow the instructions in the packet. If you have questions contact
Linda Baldwin.

Best,

Bronwyn

April 6, 2009

1) Celebration of Student Writing: The Celebration of Student Writing takes place Wednesday from 11-2 in the first floor meeting room in the Belknap Research Building. Please encourage your students to come and please make a point of coming by yourself to support the students who will be displaying their work. The students involved in this event have worked very hard and deserve an appreciative audience. Thanks.

2) Course Descriptions: Course descriptions for summer and fall courses should be posted immediately so students and advisers may make use of them during registration. Our course descriptions can only be useful to students, and to us, if we have them posted. I will be checking the list later today and contacting anyone who has not yet posted descriptions.
Step-by-step instructions on how to post your course descriptions can be found at:
http://louisville.edu/english/department-filing-cabinet/course-descriptions.html

3) Part-Time Lecturer Contracts: The contracts will be placed in your campus mailboxes this week.

Best,

Bronwyn

March 30, 2009

Hello,

I know that the last four weeks of the semester are an extremely busy time for everyone, but please take a moment to read through the items below so that you're sure to get all the information you need for the end of the semester.

There are eight items this week:

1) Course Assignments for Fall 09: Course assignment letters were placed in your mailbox last Friday. If you have an unavoidable conflict with your schedule please contact me as soon as possible. For anyone who did not receive as many courses as requested, be assured I will continue to look for openings for fall teaching. If you did not receive a course assignment letter, please contact Linda Baldwin right away.

2) Textbook Fair: Our annual Textbook Fair takes place Wednesday, April 1 from 10-2 in Humanities 300. Now that you have your course assignment, drop by to see what books, online content, and other materials publishers have to offer. And there will be free lunch and snacks available.

3) Writing Pedagogy Workshop on Textbook Selection: In anticipation of the Textbook Workshop there will be an open discussion of what books people choose for their writing courses and how they use them. One of the real strengths of our program is the variety of books people choose and the innovative teaching they do with those texts. So come on Tuesday, March 31 at 12:30 in Humanities 300 for this brown-bag event and join the conversation.

4) Celebration of Student Writing Deadline: As I mentioned in my email last week I have extended the deadline for indicating participation in the Celebration of Student Writing until Wednesday, April 1. Please let Matt Dowell know as soon as you can. The event will take place Wednesday, April 8 from 11-2 in the Belknap Research Building. A list of Frequently Asked Questions about participating in the even can be found at:
http://louisville.edu/english/composition/celebration-of-student-writing-faqs.html . My thanks to all of you who have contacted me in the past few days and your willingness to participate in this event.

5) Digital Writing Classroom Scheduling: The Digital Writing Classrooms (formerly known as CAI classrooms) are available for scheduling for Summer and Fall courses. To schedule a classroom use the form found at
http://louisville.edu/english/composition/request-a-computer-classroom. Requests made by April 22 will receive preference in scheduling. Please remember that every semester more and more people want to use these classrooms and yet we still only have two available so try to be flexible in your requests. Questions should be directed to Matt Dowell (mldowe01@louisville.edu).

6) Digital Writing Resources Page: A new Digital Writing Resources page is now available at:
http://louisville.edu/english/composition/digital-writing-resources.html. This information available on this page is still under construction, but it is the place to go to schedule classrooms and find information and resources for teaching with digital technology. The University will pull the old Computer Assisted Instruction pages as of April 1.

7) Incompletes: Remember, any Incomplete given in the Fall 2008 semester must be completed by the end of this semester or the grade automatically changes to an "F". Also remember that I must approve Incompletes before they are given to students.

8) I will not be in the office this Thursday and Friday as I will be out of town on a personal matter.

Have a great week.

Best,

Bronwyn

March 23, 2009

Hello,

Welcome back from break. I hope everyone is ready for a busy, but productive, final month of classes.

There are five items this week.

1)  Celebration of Student Writing: Please let Matt Dowell know by Wednesday (March 25) if you plan to have students participate in this event. We just need a ballpark figure at this point. If you need help with organizing student participation, contact me or Matt. Again, we want this to be a good opportunity for students and the program so please take part.

2) Textbook Fair: Our annual Composition Program Textbook Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1 from 10-2 in Humanities 300. You will have your fall courses scheduled by that time so this is a great opportunity to get ideas for the books you might adopt for your classes. Book orders for summer and fall courses are due to Linda Baldwin by April 13.

3) Textbook Pedagogy Workshop: In anticipation of the Textbook Fair there will be a workshop on choosing and using textbooks in our courses on Tuesday, March 31. We have such a wonderful diversity of pedagogical approaches reflected in our variety of textbook choices. This is an opportunity to learn what other people are doing with their textbook choices, talk about your own ideas and choices, and see how people are using a wide variety of books in exciting and innovative ways. This is a real strength of our program that we can build on. The time and place of the workshop will be announced soon.

4) Course Scheduling: We will be putting the Fall schedule together later this week. If any information has changed from what you put on your preference sheet, please let Linda Baldwin know as soon as possible.

5) Book-in-Common Open House: The University Book-In-Common for 2009-2010 will be Luis Urrea's The Devil's Highway. A kickoff open house to get more information about the book will take place today from 204 in room W210 in Ekstrom Library.

I hope the week goes well for everyone.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

March 9, 2009

Hello,

There are five items this week:

1) Preference Sheets: Scheduling Preference sheets are due this Thursday (March 12).

2) Textbook Fair: Our annual Composition Program Textbook Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1 from 10-2 in Humanities 300. You will have your fall courses scheduled by that time so this is a great opportunity to get ideas for the books you might adopt for your classes. Book orders for summer and fall courses are due to Linda Baldwin by April 13.

3) Textbook Pedagogy Workshop: In anticipation of the Textbook Fair there will be a workshop on choosing and using textbooks in our courses on Tuesday, March 31. We have such a wonderful diversity of pedagogical approaches reflected in our variety of textbook choices. This is an opportunity to learn what other people are doing with their textbook choices, talk about your own ideas and choices, and see how people are using a wide variety of books in exciting and innovative ways. This is a real strength of our program that we can build on. The time and place of the workshop will be announced soon.

4) Celebration of Student Writing: Please let Matt Dowell know by March 25 if you plan to have students participate in this event. I invited the Dean the other day and will be doing the same for the President and Provost, etc. so I hope we have a big turnout. Thanks.

4) 4Cs: I will be gone to 4Cs the rest of the week as will the ADCs (Tabetha, Matt and Trauman) so undoubtedly things will run more smoothly.

Have a good rest of the week and a good break.
Best,
Bronwyn

March 2, 2009

Hello,

There are four items this week:

1) Scheduling Preference Sheets for Fall 09: Scheduling Preference sheets are due back to Linda Baldwin by Thursday, March 12. If you have not received a preference sheet but want to teach in the fall, you need to see Linda right away.

2) Last Day to Withdraw From a Course: The last day to withdraw from a course without penalty is this Wednesday, March 4. Please remind your students of this deadline. Also remember that, before this deadline, the Provost's Office asks that we make sure students have received sense of their grade in the class.

3) Celebration of Student Writing: You will be receiving fliers about the Celebration of Student Writing in the next week. I hope everyone will seriously consider having students participate in this event that will allow them to present their work to the University community. We are willing to help if we can to make this possible for your students. Matt Dowell has lots of resources and ideas about how to make this productive for your students and as easy as possible for you. We need a sense by March 25 of how many students from your classes you  think will participate. If you have questions please contact Matt or me. This can be an exciting event for students, instructors, and the program, but only if people get involved.

4)  Literacy Narrative Archive: Cindy Selfe at Ohio State University is creating an national archive of literacy narratives. We have agreed to help collect literacy stories for their  "Everybody Has a Literacy Story...Tell Us Yours!" project. There are looking for any stories, large or small, that have to do with reading, writing, or composing (or the teaching of reading, writing, or composing) from students and teachers. So we will be collecting these stories from anyone who wants to participate. We will accept written narratives (in electronic form) or there will be recording table to do audio or video stories at the Celebration of Student Writing. I will send more detailed information about this out later in the week, but this is another great opportunity for students and teachers to contribute work to an exciting project. If you have questions, see me.

Have a good week,

Bronwyn

 February 23, 2009

Hi,

There are two items this week:

1) Scheduling Preference Sheets for Fall 09 Classes: As you may have already noticed, the Scheduling Preference Sheets for Fall 09  have been placed in your mailboxes. These need to be filled out and returned to Linda Baldwin by the end of business on Thursday, March 12. I ask you to remember that, while we always do our best to meet scheduling requests, we inevitably have to ask people to be flexible and make compromises. Consequently, the more flexibility you can indicate on your preference sheet the more it helps us. Also, be aware that we are given very few T-Th sections and almost no T-Th sections that meet in the middle of the dayPlease fill them out completely, even if your information has not changed, because we need to have that in front of us to do the current scheduling.

If you have any questions about filling out the sheets, how the scheduling process works, or anything else involving scheduling let me know. If you received a preference sheet and don't expect to be teaching in
Fall 09, or if you did not receive a preference sheet and do want to
teach in Fall 09, please contact Linda Baldwin.

2) Celebration of Student Writing Pedagogy Brown-Bag Workshop. Matt Dowell will lead a pedagogy workshop today that will focus on connecting classroom assignments with the Celebration of Student Writing. The Celebration is scheduled for April 8. The brown-bag lunch workshop will take place from 11-12:30 in Humanities 300. The plan for the workshop is to discuss ways to integrate classroom assignments into successful Celebration presentations such as poster presentations. If anyone has experience with poster presentations contact Matt (mldowe01@louisville.edu).

Best,

Bronwyn

February 16, 2009

Hi,

 

I am back from jury duty and will get to all the pending requests people have for appointments and such as soon as I can, but a couple of other things have come up so it may not be this week. I thank you for your patience.

 

Here is the week's news:

 

1) Summer Teaching: Several people have inquired about the possibility of summer teaching. Although it will be a couple of weeks until Susan Ryan and I get to the scheduling for summer, if you are interested in teaching a Composition Program course this summer, please send me a brief email telling me your preference in terms of course and summer session. If you are a GTA and request a literature course from Susan and a Composition course from me, Susan and I will figure out the best fit for the courses that need to be scheduled. If you are a part-time lecturer, please be aware that GTAs are now on 12-month contracts that require them to teach in the summer. Consequently, once the GTAs have been scheduled, there will be very few sections available. If you have questions please let me know.

 

2) Celebration of Student Writing Pedagogy Workshop. Matt Dowell will lead a pedagogy workshop on Monday, February 23 that will focus on connecting classroom assignments with the Celebration of Student Writing. The Celebration is scheduled for April 8. The work shop will take place from 11-12:30 in Humanities 300. The plan for the workshop is to discuss ways to integrate classroom assignments into successful Celebration presentations such as poster presentations. If anyone has experience with poster presentations contact Matt (mldowe01@louisville.edu).

 

3) Incomplete Grade Status: If you gave a student an Incomplete in Fall Semester 2008, the student must complete that work and you must get the grade to the Registrar's office by April 30, 2009. If the grade is not entered by that time the student will automatically receive an "F".

 

Best,

 

Bronwyn

February 10, 2009

Hi,

My apologies for being a day late, but I take shelter in the glacial
workings of the Jefferson County judicial system. I will be on jury duty
the rest of the week.

There are two items this week:

1. Celebration of Student Writing Pedagogy Workshop. Matt Dowell will
lead a pedagogy workshop on Monday,
February 23 that will focus on connecting classroom assignments with
the Celebration of Student Writing. The Celebration is scheduled for
April 8. The work shop will take place from 11-12:30 in Humanities 300.
The plan for the workshop is to discuss ways to integrate classroom
assignments into successful Celebration presentations such as poster
presentations. If anyone has experience with poster presentations
contact Matt (mldowe01@louisville.edu).

2. Assistant Director of Composition Openings for 2009-2010: There are
openings for two Assistant Directors of Composition for next year and
for one person to be the Assistant Director of Composition for Business
Writing. I am pasting the text of the ads below, which include the
application deadlines. They will also be posted in the Composition
Program office. If you have questions about the positions or the
process, let me know.

Best,

Bronwyn


 
Assistant Director of Composition Openings
 
There are two Assistant Director of Composition positions open for
doctoral GTAs. Assistant Director appointments are for one year with the
option of a second year available. The positions begin during the summer
of 2009. Each assistant director receives a course release in both the
fall and spring semesters and is paid a stipend for summer ADC work.
Applicants must have taken English 602 and have taught at least one
course in the Composition Program.
 
Duties of an Assistant Director include:
 Mentoring new writing teachers
Collaborating on English 602 (Teaching College Composition)
Mediating student and teacher grievances
Scheduling courses
Determining exemption and transfer credit
Planning and facilitating professional development workshops
Creating and maintaining the composition program web pages
Scheduling computer classrooms
Providing pedagogical support and mentoring for teaching digital
literacies

 
Summer duties may include reading incoming student portfolios for
credit exemption, assisting in the design of orientation for both new
GTAs and the entire composition program, collaborating in the planning
of English 602, assisting summer instructors with courses, and other ADC
duties.
 
To apply, please submit, by email, a letter of application outlining
your qualifications and a current CV to Joanna Wolfe by 9:00 a.m. March
23. Applicants will be asked to participate in an interview with the
Joanna and current Assistant Directors and decisions will be made by
April 1. If you have any questions about these positions, please contact
Joanna, Bronwyn Williams, Tabetha Adkins, Matt Dowell, or Ryan Trauman.


 
 
Assistant Director of Composition * Business Writing
 
The Assistant Director of Composition * Business Writing position is
open for doctoral GTAs. Assistant Director appointments are for one year
with the option of a second year available. The position begins in Fall
2009. The assistant director receives a course release in both the fall
and spring semesters. Applicants must have taught at least one semester
of English 306.
 
Duties of the Assistant Director * Business Writing include:
 Tutoring students in the School of Business
Working with School of Business faculty on integrating writing into
courses
Coordinating Business Writing curriculum with the School of Business
Conducting writing presentations in School of Business classes
Maintaining a Business Writing web page
Working with School of Business faculty on their writing projects

 
To apply, please submit, by email, a letter of application outlining
your qualifications and a current CV to Joanna Wolfe
(joanna.wolfe@louisville.edu) by the 9:00 a.m. March 23. Applicants
will also partic
ipate in an interview with Joanna and the current
Assistant Director. If you have any questions about this position,
please contact Joanna, Bronwyn Williams, or Anne Heintzman.
 
 

 February 3, 2009

Hello,

 

I hope everyone is getting power back and lives back to normal.

 

There is only one item this week:

 

1) Snow Schedule: Several people have contacted me today asking if the University plans to add days to the semester to make up for the week we just missed. I have heard nothing about any changes to the calendar for the spring semester, so just adjust your courses as best you can given the weeks we have left.

 

Just a reminder, I am on jury duty this week and next but am checking my email and checking in with Linda when I can.

 

Best,

 

Bronwyn

 

January 26, 2009

 

Hello,

 

There are four announcements this week:

 

1) Part-Time Lecturer Award Nominations: It is time for nominations for

the Part-Time Lecturer Teaching Award for 2008-2009. All current

Part-Time Lecturers are eligible to be nominated or self-nominated

(except those who have received the award in the last three years).

Part-Time Lecturers who are nominated will be asked to submit a teaching

portfolio by the end of March. The Awards Committee includes the

Director of Composition, an Assistant Director of Composition, and the

previous year*s Part-Time Lecturer Award winner. The winner or winners

of the award will be announced at the end of the Spring Semester and

will share the $500 prize (provided by Gray*s Bookstore.). To nominate

a Part-Time Lecturer for this award send a letter of nomination to me by

Monday, March 2. More details about the award process can be found at:

http://louisville.edu/english/composition/ptl-teaching-award.html .

This is a great opportunity to recognize the excellent teaching going on

in this program, so please get those nominations to me.

 

2) Digital Writing Resources (formerly known as CAI): The webpage for

scheduling and resources for the computer classrooms has been a casualty

of the University's change in webpage formats. We are working to get a

new page up and running, but in the meantime we cannot make changes to

the online schedule for the computer classrooms. If you have a

scheduling question or problem, please let Matt Dowell

(mldowe01@louisville.edu) know.

 

3) Celebration of Student Writing Workshop: There will be a teaching

workshop on February 16 (time and room to be announced) about strategies

for quick, in-class activities to help students who want to participate

prepare their work for this even. Details will be coming soon.

 

4) Out of the Office: I have been summoned for jury duty starting next

Monday (Feb. 2). This means I may be out of the office from Feb. 2-13,

or they may take one look at a left-wing academic like me and tell me to

take a hike. But I have to assume I will be out of the office those two

weeks doing my civic duty. I will do my best to keep up on pressing

business through email, but trust that everything will run even better

in my absence.

 

Best,

 

Bronwyn

 January 20, 2009

Hello,

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Two quick notes. First, Linda Baldwin is out sick today. We will try to have someone in the Composition Program Office during the day so people can use the copier. If the office is closed (and I'm not in my office) you can get someone from the main English Department office to let you in so you can make copies.

Also, several people have asked if I have a problem with classes being let out to watch the inauguration, as if I would get in the way of students witnessing history. Not only don't I have a problem with it, but it seems a great opportunity to observe and then talk about rhetoric in action.

There are three items this week:

1) Teaching Writing Workshop: Linda Rogers, Tamara Yohannes, and Joan D'Antoni will lead a discussion on “Learning Disabilities  in the Composition Classroom” on Wednesday, January 21 at noon in Hum. 300. Lunch will be served, so please RSVP to Ryan Trauman (rwtrau01@louisville.edu) by 2:00 today (Tuesday).

2) Security in Basement Offices: If you are the last person to leave any of the rooms in the basement, even for a few minutes, please close the door behind you. Thanks.

3) SAGE Referral System for Struggling Students: You may have seen the following message from the Provost's Office, but I want to paste it below. If you have students struggling in class this is another way to help them get resources that may help keep them in school.

Undergraduate instructors interested in the retention of their students will want to consider using the SAGE module, which provides an automated university-wide early warning alert program.  This intervention program can assist students to take stock of their academic performance and to change behaviors hindering their success.

SAGE is a web-based module that allows instructors to create referrals with reasons and recommended actions for students at any time during the semester.  A SAGE referral for a single student or for a group of students initiates a series of automated events.  SAGE enables instructors to refer students experiencing academic or personal difficulty to a campus-wide support process.  Unlike the early warning alert in Blackboard, a SAGE referral ensures referred students are contacted by university staff and offered assistance.

Your student referrals could significantly improve the course success of your students and their retention at UofL. Please consider using SAGE for student referrals this semester.

SAGE information sessions will be held on Jan. 21, 22 and on Feb. 18, 19 in Ekstrom Library.  For times and locations see: http://www.reach.louisville.edu/SAGE/index.htm
 
If you have any questions regarding SAGE, please contact Cathy Leist at 852-8105 or cwleis01@louisville.edu

Detailed directions for making a SAGE referral are available at: http://www.reach.louisville.edu/SAGE/makeReferral.htm

If you need technical assistance with making a referral, please contact 852-7530 or Greg Carmichael at: gdcarrm01@gwise.louisville.edu
 

Have a good week,

Bronwyn

January 12, 2009

Hello,

There are four items this week:

1) Instructor Information Sheets: Instructor Information sheets have been placed in your mailbox.  Please fill these out and return them to Linda as soon as possible. We use these for contact and administrative
information and they are more useful to us than you can know.

2) Teaching Workshop: Linda Rogers will lead a workshop on teaching students with learning disabilities on Wednesday, January 21 from 12-1 in Humanities 300.

3) Change in Photocopy Record Keeping: The new system of copy codes means that we no longer need to keep track of photocopies in the notebook in the Composition Office. The number of copies you make will be recorded automatically by the machine and you will have to pay for copies when you go over your allotted amount for the semester (20 copies per student). Final note: When you come to Room 321 to pay Linda for a copy or printing bill, please bring the bill with you.

4) Part-Time Lecturer Professional Development Grants: Just a reminder that there is money available in for part-time lecturers for professional development (trips to conferences, purchases of books or software, etc). If you are interested in applying for such a grant, please see the web page:
http://louisville.edu/english/composition/bonnie-part-time-lecturer-professional-development-grants.html.

Have a good week,

Bronwyn

 

January 6, 2009

 

Hello and welcome back,

 

I hope that everyone had a restful and good break. There are a number of items to start the year, but they are important and appreciate your attention to them. I also want to remind everyone that these emails and other program news and announcements are posted on CompPost

(http://louisville.edu/english/composition/comppost.html

)

 

1. Syllabus Copies: Please turn in a copy of your syllabus to Linda Baldwin by Friday of this week. Remember that we have changed the syllabus checklist. Be sure to attach a syllabus checklist to the front of the syllabus. You can find copies of the checklist in the Composition Office or online at http://louisville.edu/english/composition/checklist.html

.

 

2. Wait List and Over-enrollment Policy: Please do not tell students they can over-enroll in your courses (unless they are graduating seniors with a letter from their adviser). The wait list and over-enrollment policy for the program can be found at

http://louisville.edu/english/composition/over-enrollment-policy.html

.

 

3. Early Morning Instructors: If you are teaching an 8:00 am course Linda will be distributing a list of other instructors who also teach at that time who you can contact if you have an emergency and need to miss class so that person can post a notice. The Composition Program office and the English Department office don't open until 8:00 and if you need to cancel a class word might not get to your students until 8:30 or so.

 

4. Fall Grade Sheets: If you have not already done so, please give Linda a copy of your fall grade sheets as soon as possible. We are still missing some from fall courses. Thanks.

 

5. Instructor Information Sheets: Information sheets will go out later this week. Please fill these out and return them to Linda as soon as possible. With more than fifty people teaching in the program it is a great help to us to have accurate information about your office hours, contact information, and so on. Thank you.

 

6. Celebration of Student Writing: A reminder that we will hold the first Celebration of Student Writing on April

8. There will be more details coming during the spring, but if you have questions or ideas about how to get your students involved, contact Matt Dowell (mldowe01@louisville.edu). More information about the event is available at: http://louisville.edu/english/composition/teaching-community.html

.

 

7. Good News: There is much good news among the people teaching in this program. You can

find out about the accomplishments of your colleagues at CompPost

(http://louisville.edu/english/composition/comppost.html

.)

Please send announcements of your good news to Tabetha Adkins (tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu).

 

I hope the semester starts well for everyone. Please don't hesitate to stop by my office if there are problems, concerns, or if you just want to chat.

 

Best,

 

Bronwyn

 

 December 8, 2008

Hello,

This will be the final news email of the semester. I want to thank you all for another fine semester. Once again I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of everyone in the program. I wish you good luck with your grading and a calm and restful break.

There are four items this week:

1) Grades: Be sure to make two hard copies of your final grades. One to keep and one to turn in to Linda Baldwin.

2) Portfolio Storage: Any final portfolios or papers that cannot be returned to students must be stored in the room off of 4F. If you have questions about the storage procedure, contact Linda.

3) Photocopy Bills: Please play any outstanding photocopying bills by Dec. 19. If you have questions about your bill, contact Linda.

4) Bonnie Library Books: If you have Bonnie Library Books checked out that you will not be using after this semester, please return them by Dec. 19.

Have a great new year.

Best,

Bronwyn

December 1, 2008

December?

Wow.

I hope everyone had a good break.

There are four items this week:

1) Final Grades: If you have questions about how to post your final
grades you can find instructions in Appendix C of the Composition
Program Handbook, which is online on the Composition Program site.
Grades must be posted by 48 hours after your final exam time for your
course. Remember to print out a copy of the final grade sheet for your
records and to give a copy to Linda Baldwin. Also, if you have questions
about the different ways of recording failing grades, please check the
explanation on the bulletin board in the Comp Program office.

2) Celebration of Student Writing Discussion: For those interested in
the possibility of including the Celebration of Student Writing in their
course planning for spring, there will be a meeting Wednesday, Dec 3 at
noon in Humanities 300. Attending the meeting does not commit you to
anything and not attending does not mean you cannot participate in the
celebration next April. If you have questions contact Matt Dowell.

3) Final Student Portfolios and Papers: Please make every attempt to
return final student papers and portfolios to students. We must store
any student papers that are not returned for one year, and storage space
is limited. If you cannot return some of the papers, you must store them
in the portfolio storage closet in 4F. Please do not leave final student
papers or portfolios in your cubicle of on the floor once the semester
is over.

Below are the instructions for storing any portfolios students do not
pick up. If you have questions about this process, contact Linda
Baldwin.

The portfolio storage closet is marked and is located at the back of HM
LL 4F.

We are required to retain student portfolios that have not been picked
up for one year.

For those who taught in the Fall 2007 semester:

If you taught in the Fall 2007 semester, please locate your portfolio
box(es) in the portfolio storage closet, and take it/them to the kitchen
area of 4F/4H.  Place the white paper portion of the portfolio into the
recycling bin located in the kitchen area.

Anything with the students* social security numbers, UL id numbers,
etc. should be placed in the box marked *To Be Shredded.*

Next place good, reusable empty ring binders, plastic folders, clips,
etc. in the box marked *To be Salvaged/Reused.*

Paper folders or damaged binders or folders, colored paper, magazine
pages, etc. can be thrown away.

Please keep your empty storage box(es), and store your Fall 2008
portfolios in these boxes when you are ready to store them, updating the
box label(s), and returning the boxed Fall 2008 portfolios to the
portfolio storage closet.  Blank box labels, tape, and markers are on
the table in the kitchen area of 4F/4H.

For those who did not teach in the Fall 2007 semester:

Please go to the *kitchen area* of HM 4F/4H and select a box in
which to store your portfolios.  You may put each section in a separate
box, or box all sections together, but make sure your label reflects
which method you used.  Fill in the label attached to the end of the
box(es) and place them in the portfolio storage closet on the shelves
marked *Fall 2008.*

4) Award for Computers and Writing: This is an announcement from the
online journal Kairos about an award for non-tenure-track faculty and
graduate students:
The Kairos Awards for Graduate Students and Adjuncts (formerly the
Kairos/Lore Awards; co-sponsored by Bedford/St. Martin's Press), a
series of three awards to recognize outstanding contributions in
teaching, research, and service to the field of computers and writing by
graduate students and non-tenure-track faculty. For criteria and
submission guidelines, please visit
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/awards/gradadjunctnom.html.
All award nominations and any questions should be sent to
kawards@technorhetoric.net. The deadline for nominations for all
awards is February 1, 2009.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

November 24, 2008

Hello,

I hope everyone has a safe and restful break.

Just one item this week.

1. Student Evaluation Packets. If your mailbox is in 4H you can find your student evaluation packets in 3 boxes on the table with the printer in 4H. Pencils are in a box under the table.  Be sure you have the packet for your course or courses. If you have questions about the packets, can't find yours, or are unclear about the procedure, please contact Linda.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

November 17, 2008

Hello,

There are four items this week:

1) Computer Classroom Requests for Spring 09: If you want to reserve time in a computer classroom for the spring semester please fill out the online form (http://louisville.edu/a-s/english/clt/cai-form.html.)  today. If you fill out the form after today we cannot guarantee that we can accommodate your request.

2) Celebration of Student Writing Workshop: Our initial Celebration of Student Writing will take place in early April (we are working out the details on the date and time right now). We will have a brown-bag discussion of how we can incorporate this event into spring courses on Wed. Dec. 3 from 12-1:30 in Hum 300. Attending this discussion does not obligate you to participate in the event, nor does missing it preclude you from participating. We just want to come up with ideas. If you have questions, please contact Matt Dowell.

3) New Syllabus Checklist: If you didn't read the email I sent last week about the revised syllabus checklist for Composition Program courses, please do so. The revised documents are up on the Composition Program website.

4) Photocopying Policy Feedback: Thank you to all who have given me a sense of how the photocopying limits are affecting your teaching. If anyone else has thoughts on this, please let me know in the next two days.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

 

November 10, 2008

Hello,

There are four items this week:

1) Computer Classroom Requests: Requests for Computer Classroom space for the spring semester are due by November 17. If you wish to be included on the CAI classroom schedule for the Spring Semester, please complete the form found athttp://louisville.edu/a-s/english/clt/cai-form.html. If you can schedule specific days, rather than every class session, that will help us get as many instructors into the classrooms as possible. Our top priority is to make these limited resources available to as many instructors as possible. If you are making a semester-long request, please include your "preferred day" in the "additional requests/instructions" entry blank to help facilitate scheduling. CAI classroom requests should be submitted by Monday, November 17. If you have questions, contact Matt Dowell.

2) Course Descriptions: For the majority of you who have posted your course descriptions, thank you. For those of you who have not, please do so. We look foolish and unprofessional as a program when, after I urge the A&S Advising to use our course descriptions to help students make informed choices about their schedules, the advisers and students go to the descriptions and find one blank page after another. This is not an onerous or unreasonable task. If you haven't posted a course description do so immediately.

3) Writing Textbook Roundtable: There will be roundtable discussion about writing textbooks featuring Joseph Harris of Duke University, Bruce Horner from UofL, and some other guy. The focus of the discussion will be how teaching and scholarship intersect in writing textbooks and how that shapes the projects. It is planned to help broaden our conversation about how we think about and use - and perhaps  write - the textbooks that get used in composition courses. It will take place Wed, Nov. 12 from 2-3:30 in Humanities 300.

4) Photocopying Policy Effects: I would like to get some sense of how the new photocopying policy is affecting our teaching. If you could send me a brief email summarizing how this is affecting your teaching (and if you can be specific if there have been particular problems) or if it has not been a hardship, I would like to send a report to the Technology Committee before the end of this semester. Thanks

Have a good week.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

November 3, 2008

 

Hi,

 

First of all, I hope everyone votes tomorrow.

 

Now, there are six items this week.

 

1) Course Descriptions: Course descriptions for ALL Composition Program courses should be posted on the English Department website immediately, while they can still do some good during registration. You can find detailed instructions about how to post your course descriptions in Appendix D of the Composition Program handbook, which is also online at http://louisville.edu/english/composition/handbook.html

 

The webpage to log in to the course description page is:

https://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/dbadmin/

 

2) Part-Time Lecturer Contracts: Linda will be processing contracts for part-time lecturers today.  If you are a part-time lecturer who received a course assignment for spring 2009, please contact Linda about coming to HM 321 to sign your contract this afternoon or Thursday or Friday of this week. 

 

3)  Pedagogy Workshop - Joseph Harris's Rewriting: Composition scholar and teacher Joseph Harris, of Duke University, will be visiting campus next week and participating in a roundtable discussion about textbooks, pedagogy, and composition scholarship. In anticipation of his visit there will be a workshop Wednesday to discuss his textbook, Rewriting. , November 5 from 11-12 in Humanities  a.m. The workshop will be a rountable discussion of instructors sharing ideas, questions, and experiences about using or possibly using Harris's work. This is not an endorsement by the program of this book, but a chance to talk about how we use textbooks with this text as a focus. If you have questions contact Ryan Trauman.

 

4) Brainstorming Session for Celebration of Student Writing: Also on Wednesday, November 5, Matt Dowell

will lead a discussion on Wednesday at noon in HM300 to jump start a conversation regarding the Celebration of Student Writing planned for next fall. Your input will shape our planning, so please plan to attend. Contact

Matt (mattldowell@gmail.com) if you have any questions or have opinions but cannot make the meeting.

 

5) Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, and Spring Book Orders: A number of instructors used the book-in-common from the Provost's office - Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis - in their courses this fall. I just want to remind people choosing books for spring courses that Satrapi is scheduled to speak at UofL on March 27. If you find this graphic novel an intriguing book to use for your courses, Satrapi's talk will offer a productive opportunity to connect students to the text. As always with book choices, participation is optional. If you have questions about the novel and how people have used it in their courses you may wish to talk to the instructors who are using it this fall.

 

6) Book-in-Common Ideas for 2008-2009: This is the last week to send suggestions to the Provost's office for a first-year book in common for next year. Suggesting books does not commit you to participating in the program. Send your suggestions to Christy Metzger at christy.metzger@louisville.edu.

 

Have a good week,

 

Best,

 

Bronwyn

October 27, 2008

Hello,

 

There are five very important items this week.

 

1) Spring Schedule: Letters with course assignments for Spring 2009 were distributed on Friday. If you have a question or concern about your schedule please see me as soon as possible, but understand that I will make changes to the schedule only in rare circumstances.

 

2) Book Orders: Book order forms are due to Linda Baldwin by November 10.

 

3) Course Descriptions: Course descriptions for ALL Composition Program courses should be posted on the English Department website as soon as possible. I would like to emphasize that this is not optional and I will be contacting people who do not post their descriptions. Registration will be taking place soon and it is important to students that they have the information about courses available in order to make an informed decision. You can find detailed instructions about how to post your course descriptions in Appendix D of the Composition Program handbook, which is also online at http://louisville.edu/english/composition/handbook.html

 

The webpage to log in to the course description page is:

https://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/dbadmin/

 

If you have questions about posting your course descriptions see one of the ADCs or me.

 

4) Part-Time Lecturer Contracts: Linda will be preparing the contracts this week and will contact part-time lecturers about signing them. The contracts must be sent to the College of Arts and Sciences by November 7.

 

5) Computer Classroom Scheduling: If you wish to be included on the CAI classroom schedule for the Spring Semester, please complete the form found at http://louisville.edu/a-s/english/clt/cai-form.html. Our top priority is to make these limited resources available to as many instructors as possible. If you are making a semester-long request, please include your "preferred day" in the "additional requests/instructions" entry blank to help facilitate scheduling. CAI classroom requests should be submitted by Monday, November 17.

 

October 20, 2008

Hello,

There are four items this week:

1) Spring Scheduling: We are putting together the spring schedule this week. Look for your teaching assignment letters in your mailbox in 4H by the first of next week. Course descriptions and book orders will be due soon afterward.

2) Celebration of Student Writing: Look for an email this week from Matt Dowell about a planning meeting for the Celebration of Student Writing we are going to hold in the spring. If you are interested in coming and brainstorming about how best to create such an event, come to the meeting on Wed. November 5 from 12-1 in Humanities 300.

3) Election Day: Just a reminder that Election Day, November 4, is a University holiday with no classes. And a further, no doubt unnecessary, reminder to go and vote.

4) Upcoming Pedagogy Workshop: Also look for an announcement soon of the next Writing Pedagogy Workshop.

Have a good week,

Best,

Bronwyn

 

October 15, 2008                                                                        

Hi,

I hope everyone had a good break and that it was relaxing or productive depending on your needs.

There are three four items this week:

1. Watson Conference: The Watson Conference is this Thursday and Friday. Please be sure your classroom is not one of those needed for the conference.

2. Printer Policy: Please remember that the printers in the basement -- in LL15, 4H, and 4F are only for printing materials for courses you are teaching. This is a long-standing policy. Please do not print materials for courses you are taking or other personal or professional work on these machines. Thanks.

3. A Couple of Reminders: Please don't ask students to drop off papers for Composition Program courses in the Composition Program office or the main English Department office. With 2,600 students in the program you can understand why we have this policy. Also, please do not leave the Composition Program office phone number for business contacts you may have (banks, credit card companies, etc). Thank you.

Sorry for all the admonishments on such a lovely autumn day, but I do appreciate your cooperation in all of these matters.

Best,

Bronwyn

October 6, 2008

Hello,

 There are just two quick reminders this week.

 1) Watson Conference Classrooms: Remember that the Watson Conference (Oct 16-18) is taking some classrooms for conference presentations. The list of sections and classrooms is posted in the Composition Program Office. If you teach any of those three days please check the list.

 2) Course Withdrawal Deadline: The last day for students to withdraw from a course is October 16. Before that time they should have some graded work returned to them or some sense of their grade so they can make decisions about whether to stay in your class. Please remind your students of this deadline.

 A quiet week....too quiet......

Bronwyn

 

September 29, 2008

Hello,

There are four items this week:

1) Scheduling Preference Sheets for Spring 2009: Scheduling Preference Sheets are due this Friday, October 3. If you have questions about the preference sheets, please let me or one of the Assistant Directors know.

2) Course Withdrawal Deadline: The last day for students to withdraw from a course is October 16. Before that time they should have some graded work returned to them or some sense of their grade so they can make decisions about whether to stay in your class. Please remind your students of this deadline.

3) Conference Presentations: If you are going to be presenting at the Watson Conference, 4Cs, MLA, or any other conference please send the information to Tabetha Adkins (tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu) so she can put it up on ComPost http://louisville.edu/english/composition/comppost.html

4) Great Workshop: We had a great conversation last Wednesday about using politics and the presidential elections in your courses. Thanks so much to Eric Leake and Kennie Rose for great materials (which will be posted on ComPost and Efiles soon), to Ryan Trauman for organizing the workshop, and to the 25 people who came and took part. News of the next workshop will be coming soon.

Best,
Bronwyn

September 22, 2008

Hello,

I hope everyone has power back (and if not gets it soon). I so much appreciate the professional and cooperative attitude of everyone during what was not an easy time last week.

There are three items this week:

1) Teaching Writing Workshop: The first writing pedagogy workshop of the semester will focus on "Politics in the Classroom: Teaching the 2008 Election." Eric Leake and Kennie Rose will lead the discussion. The workshop will take place Wed. Sept. 24 from 12-1 in Humanities 300. I've heard from a number of people with good ideas on this subject already so I think it will be a great conversation. If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Trauman.

2) Scheduling Preference Sheets for Spring 2009: Scheduling Preference Sheets will be distributed in your mailboxes in 4H this week. Please fill out the sheets and return them to Linda Baldwin by Friday, October 3. If you have questions about the preference sheets, please let me or one of the Assistant Directors know. Please keep in mind two realities about spring scheduling. First, we have about 25-30 percent fewer sections to offer in the spring. I do the best I can to get everyone as many sections as possible, but the reality of the numbers is that I can't give everyone all the sections requested. Second, the schedule the College gives us has very very few T-Th sections. Please try to be as flexible as you can when filling out your preference sheet.

3. Teaching Observations: Just a reminder that those of you in your first, second, or fourth years of teaching in the program will have your teaching observed this semester. You should be contacted by the faculty person who will observe you within the next few weeks. If you have questions about the policy you can find a copy of it at: http://louisville.edu/english/composition/professional-development-observations.html. If you have any concerns about your observations, let me know.

Best,

Bronwyn

September 15, 2008

Hello,

I hope everyone has come through the winds safely and is muddling through the blackout as well as possible.

There are three items this week:

1) ComPost: ComPost, the Composition Program's electronic newsletter is up, streamlined, revived, new and improved, and, quite frankly, indispensable. You can find program news, see what new books are in the Bonnie Library, read about the cool things your colleagues are up to, and share insights and ideas about teaching. We are looking for anecdotes, thoughts, quotes, or other ideas for the Teaching Community section. Also, if you have a publication coming out, or have been accepted to present at a conference (hello Watson and 4Cs people), or have other good news, please share that as well. Send any information for ComPost to Tabetha Adkins (tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu). We have
an amazing community of teachers and scholars in the Comp Program and this is one place to keep in touch. You can find ComPost at: http://louisville.edu/english/composition/comppost.html

2) Teaching Writing Workshop: The first writing pedagogy workshop of the semester will focus on "Politics in the Classroom: Teaching the 2008 Election." Eric Leake and Kennie Rose will lead the discussion. The workshop will take place Wed. Sept. 24 from 12-1 in Humanities 300. This is a great opportunity to pick up new ideas for your classes, share ideas and assignments you've come up with, and just generally join in the conversation about teaching writing. We had great workshops and conversations last year and I look forward to having them again. If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Trauman.

3) Bonnie Library Books: If you have Bonnie Library books checked out that you are no longer using, please return them to Linda in HM 321 as soon as possible. If you have books that have been checked out longer than 30 days, but you still need them, please come by Linda*s office and renew them for another 30 days.  Linda will still be sending out overdue reminders, but if people respond to this request, we can save some paper and copying.

Have a good and calm week.

Best,

Bronwyn

September 8, 2008

 

There are four items this week:

 

1). Teaching Writing Workshop: The first writing pedagogy workshop of the semester will focus on "Politics in the Classroom: Teaching the 2008 Election." Eric Leake and Kennie Rose will lead the discussion. The workshop will take place Wed. Sept. 24 from 12-1 in Humanities 300. This is a great opportunity to pick up new ideas for your classes, share ideas and assignments you've come up with, and just generally join in the conversation about teaching writing. We had great workshops and conversations last year and I look forward to having them again. If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Trauman.

 

2) Watson Conference Classrooms: Just a reminder that the Watson Conference will be taking over classrooms in the Humanities building on October 16 and 17. Please check now to see if your course sections will be affected by the conference. There is a list of the classrooms on the bulletin board above the copier in the Composition Program office.

 

3) Conference Room New Flooring Update: As you no doubt know by now the work on the floors in the rooms off of 4H is continuing apace and should be done soon and the furniture and computers moved back. Thank you again for your patience with this process.

 

4) State of the University class closings: And another reminder that the Provost's Office has commanded that no classes meet Tuesday, Sept. 9 from 3-4:30 pm during the president's State of the University address so that students and staff who are so inclined may attend.

 

September 2, 2008

Hi,

I hope everyone had a good weekend and found ways to stay cool.

There are six items this week.

1) Information Sheets: The Composition Program information sheets that were placed in your mailboxes are due back to Linda Baldwin by Friday, September 5.

2) Course Syllabi: First, in the interest of conserving photocopies, if you need to make amendments to your syllabus, consider placing them on Blackboard and notifying your students. Also, if you have not turned in a copy of your syllabus to Linda, with the syllabus checklist attached, please do so.

3) Official Roster: Now that registration is officially over and the electronic waitlist is no longer in effect, check your official roster on ULink and make sure it corresponds with the people in your course (or courses).

4) Part-Time Lecturer Contracts: Part-Time Lecturers should have received a gold final copy of your contract either from Linda or in your mailbox last week. If you have not received yours please contact Linda.

5) Textbooks for Romania: We have been clearing out outdated editions of textbooks from the library in 4H and Anca Iancu is going to send those books to Romania where they can be put to good use. The cost of shipping so many books is, of course, not cheap and so we are taking a voluntary collection to help Anca defray her shipping costs. Small donations can accumulate quickly into a reasonable amount so if you have some spare change you would like to contribute there is a glass in the Comp Office near the photocopier for this purpose.

6) Digital Media Suite: You may have seen on UofL Today that the library now has a Digital Media Suite available for people who want their students to work on multimodal projects. It is located in Ekstrom Library (Room 114) and has Mac workstations, Apple and Adobe production & premium design packages as well as  tutors to provide training and assistance. For more information visit http://www.louisville.edu/digitalmediasuite or call Rae Helton, Learning Commons coordinator, at 852-7589.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

August 25, 2008: 

It was a great to see everyone Friday and to catch up on everyone's news. I want to thank Linda Baldwin for all her work in getting the workshop day organized and to the workshop presenters for some excellent ideas to try out in the classroom. Once again, the conversations I heard about teaching reminded me of how lucky we are to have such strong and dedicated instructors in this program. I'm looking forward to a great semester.

There are a bunch of items to start the year (hey, it's the first week of class....). I also want to remind everyone that these emails and other program news and announcements are posted on CompPost

(http://louisville.edu/english/composition/comppost.html.)

1. Photocopying and Printing Policies: If you have any questions about the new policies on photocopying or printing please check with Linda or me. Again, we are still getting these worked out so be patient with us. I will keep you informed on the policies as I hear about them from the Technology Committee. Again, however, the bottom line is reduce your photocopying or printing whenever possible. If you want to scan documents as PDF files and post them on Blackboard, but are unsure how to do so, you can make an appointment with one of the ADCs to get some help. If you come up with other ideas for how we can limit our photocopying costs please let me know and I will forward them to the Tech Committee.

2. Syllabus Copies: Please turn in a copy of your syllabus to Linda by Friday of this week. Be sure to attach a syllabus checklist to the back of the syllabus. You can find copies of the checklist in the Composition Office or online on the Composition Program website. http://louisville.edu/english/composition/checklist.html

 3. Office Hours: Please post your office hours on your carrel so that students dropping by or colleagues looking for you can find them. You must have two hours for each section you teach.

4. Information Sheets: Information sheets for the Composition Program will be put in your mailboxes this week (on pink paper no less). Please fill them out and return them to Linda as soon as you can. The information on office hours and contact information is vital for us to have in the office to help students and the other information is necessary for accreditation purposes.

 5. Classroom Lock Codes: Many of the classrooms in Humanities and Davidson now have keypad locks on them. Punching in the numbers 1-7 or 1-6 in sequence or the number "1" seven times should do it. Great security, huh? If you can't get into a classroom you can contact Marcia Reed at 852-6180 or you can call public safety.

6. Good News: There is much good news among the people teaching in this program. From publications to theatre performances to awards to writing historical markers, you can find out about the accomplishments of your colleagues at CompPost (http://louisville.edu/english/composition/comppost.html.) If there are ways we can make ComPost more useful please pass those ideas along.  Please send announcements of your good news to either me or to Tabetha Adkins (Tabetha.Adkins@louisville.edu).

7. Check Course Roster: Be sure to check your official online course roster through ULink and make certain the students in your class are the ones on your roster. If you have a student who is on the roster but never attended class (or only showed up one day) send the name and ID number of the student to Linda Baldwin (linda.baldwin@louisville.edu) She will forward the names to the Registrar's Office who will attempt to contact the students and see if they want to drop. If the students drop it will allow students on your waitlist to get into your class.

8. Overenrollment Policy: Please do not tell students they can over-enroll in your courses (unless they are graduating seniors with a letter from their adviser). The over-enrollment policy for the program can be found at http://louisville.edu/english/composition/over-enrollment-policy.html

9. Efiles: Efiles is back up and working so please use it to help find new ideas for teaching. I planned on having a teaching idea posted there today, but am having some trouble uploading the documents. But, once I get that sorted I will post some reading response guidelines I use for 101. And I urge you to upload your own syllabi and assignments to share the wealth of knowledge in the program. You can find Efiles at http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/index.cfm

I hope the first week goes well for everyone. I look forward to working with you all this year.

Best,

Bronwyn

 

April 28, 2008

This is the last Comp News of the Semester. Enclosed you will find 4
items and one teaching tip that may get you re-thinking how you
structure future classes.

1. CONGRATULATIONS TO SHANNON DEHN:
Shannon has received the 2008 part-time lecturer teaching award
sponsored by Gray's Bookstore. This award honors and recognizes the many
fine Part-Time Lecturers who teach in and support the Composition
Program. Formal acknowledgement of this award will be made at the Fall
Orientation, August 22.

2. COMPUTER CLASSROOM REQUESTS DUE MAY 9:
If you wish to hold your Fall 2008 class in a computer classroom, submit
your request by May 9. Request should be submitted by completing the
simple form at:
http://louisville.edu/a-s/english/clt/cai-form.html

3. TURN IN PAPER COPIES OF YOUR GRADES:
Paper copies of your grade roster(s) should be given to Linda ASAP after
you record your grades. It is very important that we have these copies
both as a back-up in case of any grade disputes and for our internal
reporting.

4. SUBMIT TO E-FILES:
The E-files is becoming an increasingly useful pedagogical resource.
Please contribute to this resource by uploading a sample syllabus,
assignment, handout, or other course materials that you found useful in
your classes. You can submit materials by going to:
http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_main.cfm
Click on "Submit an Assignment"
You will be prompted to log on. Use your regular UofL ID and password.
Assignments can be submitted anonymously.

5. TEACHING TIP: INSTRUCTOR-LIBRARIAN COLLABORATIONS
This final teaching tip is from Tamara Yohannes, winner of a 2008
Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award. Tamara has some great ideas for
re-thinking the role of research in a classroom that is applicable to
teaching 101 and 102 as well as many literature classes. Here is her tip:

Even in the age when students seem most comfortable with technology and
have a wonderful confidence that they can find any information they need
on the internet, as instructors of COLLEGE writing we may feel that
using library resources, and even (perish the thought) hard copies of
those sources, would benefit our students' research efforts.

With that assumption in mind, and in collaboration with Anna Marie
Johnson in Ekstrom Library, I redesigned both my English 101 and 102
courses to use library research as the strategy around which every
activity in those courses revolved. We decided to use a themed course
on a subject which we felt would not be inherently interesting to the
students but in which we felt students COULD find research subjects of
interest.

Three elements were essential to this course redesign – COLLABORATION
between librarian and instructor, LIBRARY-CENTERED ACTIVITIES in every
aspect of the course, and A THEME from which students could glean
meaningful research projects. Anna Marie and I published our findings on
the experiment in American Exchange Quarterly -- and the full article
has been posted on E-Files. But here are our conclusions:

We take from the two-semester experiment in faculty/librarian
collaboration several elements that can be generalized to other classes.
First, the collaboration itself is immensely helpful. Even as the
instructor retains primary instructional responsibility for the class,
the collaborative dynamic makes possible a richer, more feasible, more
engaging project for the students.

In addition, keeping every activity instrumental to the research project
and thus using no generalized instruction aids in transference of skills
from one venue to the next. Because they are working in collaboration,
the librarian and teaching faculty are completely aware
of the goals of the class and are confident that the students can and
will find the materials they need; the result is that technical
instruction in using the library resources can remain at a minimum and
can be focused on the students* actual projects.

Using a themed course allows a variety of research possibilities so that
students can choose something of interest to research and have plenty of
time to acclimate to the subject. At the same time, in order for
students to maximize their experiences using the library resources, it
is important to include one paper that gives students an open-ended
research experience. Allowing students to explore freely what the
library has to offer infuses an element of excitement into the research
writing process and engages students in ways that other models just do
not. Following-up on the open-ended paper with an argument paper works
well because it requires students to write persuasively by selecting
materials they already have at hand to support their point. Separating
the process of finding materials in the library from the very different
process of writing persuasively about a subject the student already
knows something about allows students to use the information they have
found in the libraries to their own advantage.

In assessing our experience with the two semesters* classes, both the
librarian and teaching faculty realized that repeating the same theme
the next semester does not work well. The librarians and the teacher
need to remain truly part of the research community, which is possible
only when they do not already "know" what the students need to find on
their topics. If research is a "voyage of discovery," the student needs
to be the captain of the voyage and that can only happen when the
assisting professionals are on the boat as crew members.

 

-Joanna

 

April 21, 2008

It's a busy week. There are eight items in this week's composition
news......

1. TURN IN PAPER COPIES OF YOUR GRADES:
Paper copies of your grade roster(s) should be given to Linda ASAP after
you record your grades. It is very important that we have these copies
both as a back-up in case of any grade disputes and for our internal
reporting.


2. FOLLOW NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR REPORTING *F* GRADES:
To meet federal requirements for aid management instructors will now be
asked to select ****EF** (earned failure--student completed the course
but did not pass), ****UF* *(unearned failure--student began the course
but stopped attending; this entry will also request the date of last
participation) or ****NP**(never participated--the student has no
documented record of participation in the class). Instructors are not
expected to take extraordinary efforts to document participation but
should use the records they customarily use in evaluating course work,
such as a roll call response, participation in a group activity, or a
test grade. The transcript and online grade reports will show only the
grade of *F,* regardless of the code entered by the instructor. The
regulation
requirements and the significance and consequences of the different
codes are detailed in a document at the following web address:

https://docushare.louisville.edu/dsweb/Get/Document-6774/Grading_business_process_changes_08S-final.doc


3. FOLLOW GUIDELINES FOR GIVING INCOMPLETES:
For grades of “I” given for spring 08, instructors must submit grades to
Registrar’s Office to remove incomplete grades by December 17, 2008.
Incompletes NOT removed by this date will be lapsed to “F”s. Refer to
on-line Undergraduate Catalog for details about giving a grade of
Incomplete.

4. STORE YOUR PORTFOLIOS:
Any portfolios you do not return to your students must be stored for one
year in the storage room at the back of 4F. There are detailed
instructions on how to prepare your portfolios on the door of the
storage room and a portfolio storage work area with necessary supplies
of labels and tape in the kitchen behind 4H. Please follow these
directions so that Linda can easily access student portfolios when she
needs to. If you have questions, please contact Linda. Also, please do
not store portfolios without first giving students a chance to pick up
their portfolio from you in person.

5. PAY YOUR COPY BILL AND RETURN BONNIE BOOKS
If you owe for personal copies, please see Linda about paying these
before you leave for the summer. Also, please check bookshelves/desks at
home and return any Bonnie Books that you are not using. If you have
Bonnie Books checked out for more than 4 weeks, please see Linda about
renewing them if you still need them.

6. (PTL'S ONLY) SIGN CONTRACTS AND MAKE SURE LINDA HAS C.V. ON FILE
PTL contracts for Fall 08 have been prepared and will be put in your
mailboxes later today.
Please sign your contract, date it, and return it to Linda before you
leave campus for the summer.
If you will be teaching as a PTL for the first time this summer or fall,
Linda will need your up-to-date cv/resume. You may send one to her
attached to an e-mail or drop one by her office.

7. MARK AUGUST 22, 9:00-3:00 ON CALENDAR FOR FALL ORIENTATION
All Composition instructors must attend the Fall 2008 orientation
scheduled on Friday August 22, 2007 9:00-3:00. A continental breakfast
will be available starting at 8:30 a.m. The breakfast is provided by
Gray’s Bookstore,

8. (RESEARCHERS ONLY): ATTEND THE C'S ABSTRACT WORKSHOP ON WED
We will be holding an Abstracts workshop on Wed, April 23, 12:00 in HM
300 for those interested in submitting a proposal to the 2009 College
Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC). LUNCH PROVIDED. You can
drop in without RSVPing, but if you'd like a lunch, contact Ryan Trauman
by noon April 22 at ryantrauman@gmail.com <mailto:ryantrauman@gmail.com>.

-Joanna

 

April 14, 2008

This week's composition news has 5 items and one teaching tip.

 

1. BOOK IN COMMON MEETING: This Friday, April 18, 11:30-1:00 in HM 300

we will be meeting to brainstorm together about ways to incorporate

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, next year's Book in Common, in composition

classes. We will brainstorm assignment ideas and pedagogical strategies.

FREE LUNCH. A light lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to Tabetha

Adkins by Thursday morning if you are interested in attending,

Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu <mailto:Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu> You

can check out a copy of Persepolis from Linda Baldwin in HM 321 to review.

 

2. CCCC Abstracts workshop—CORRECT DATE: Wed, April 23, 12:00 in HM 300

For those interested in submitting a proposal to the 2009 College

Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC), we will be holding an

Abstracts Workshop in which interested parties break into small groups

and read and comment on submissions. LUNCH PROVIDED. You can drop in

without RSVPing, but if you'd like a lunch, contact Ryan Trauman by noon

April 22 at ryantrauman@gmail.com <mailto:ryantrauman@gmail.com>.

 

3. COURSE EVALUATIONS: Evaluation packets and pencils are in 4H on the

table between 4I and 4J. An instruction sheet is on the front of each

evaluation packet. Please not that evaluations are to be done in the

CLASSROOM setting when students can be assured of full anonymity and the

instructor does not any contact with the evaluations before they are

turned in.

 

4. FALL COURSE ASSIGNMENTS: Fall 2008 course assignment letters and book

orders have been placed in mailboxes here on campus or (for those not on

campus this semester) have been mailed to the home address that was

available on PeopleSoft as of last week. Please note that book orders

for Fall 2008 are due in HM 321 on or before April 25. Please let Linda

know if you need an extension on this date. If you do not intended to

use a textbook, please turn in your book order marked "no text required."

 

5. RETURNING PORTFOLIOS: Any portfolios you do not return to your

students must be stored for one year in the storage room at the back of

4F. However, please do not store portfolios without first giving

students a chance to pick up their portfolio from you in person.

 

6. TEACHING TIP: The Perils and Promise of Praise

A recent article in Education Leadership summarizes research that

indicates that praising students for their natural intelligence can have

long-term negative effects. Students who are used to being praised for

their intelligence tend to see struggle as evidence that they are not

smart. These students tend to be risk adverse, choosing easy tasks that

ensure error-free performance. By contrast, students accustomed to being

praised for their effort tend to have higher confidence in their

abilities and see challenges as opportunities to learn. Moreover,

students praised for intelligence were more likely to lie about their

test scores (and one might infer might be more likely to plagiarize)

than those praised for effort.

 

The author (Carol Dweck) writes:

"Our research shows that educators cannot hand students confidence on a

silver platter by praising their intelligence. Instead, we can help them

gain the tools they need to maintain their confidence in learning by

keeping them focused on the process of achievement."

 

So, the moral is, as you work on providing students with those final

assessments: praise them for process and effort and perseverance, but

not intelligence. Try to instill a growth mind-set in your students

where confidence is gained by focusing on the PROCESS OF ACHEIVEMENT.

 

To read more, go to:

http://wellesleyhigh.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Perils-and-Promise-of-Praise.pdf

 

-Joanna

 

April 8, 2008

 

There are 7 items on this week's composition news.

 

1. FALL COURSES: Letters detailing your Fall course assignments will go

out by the end of this week. Linda Baldwin should be able to tell you

informally what your courses are by Tuesday afternoon so you can have

this information for the Book fair on Wed. Everyone who turned in a

course preference sheet received at least one course.

 

2. COURSE EVALUATIONS: Later this week, Linda will put evaluation

packets in Room 4H (on the table outside LL04I and LL04J). Please check

early and let Linda know if something is missing from your evaluation

packets or if you do not have a packet(s). There will also be a box of

pencils on the table; whenever possible, please return your pencils to

the box after use. Evaluations are to be done in the CLASSROOM setting

when students can be assured of full anonymity and the instructor does

not any contact with the evaluations before they are turned in.

Evaluations done during individual conferences or in another situation

outside of the classroom are NOT acceptable.

 

3. PEDAGOGY WORKSHOP on Style: Tues, April 8 at 2:00 in HM 300.

Mary Rotella will be leading a pedagogy workshop on teaching style in

composition courses *Tuesday at 2:00*. We’ll have snacks and Mary will

have some great tips for teaching style and local revision. Everyone is

invited. Please RSVP to Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu

<mailto:Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu> so that the appropriate amount of

snacks can be purchased.

 

4. BOOK FAIR: Wed, April 9, 10-2 in HM 300.

A Multi-vendor book fair will be held on Wed., April 9 from 10-2 in HM

300. FREE LUNCH! This is a time to look at books for your courses for

next semester. GTAs who will be teaching composition for the first time

should especially try to stop by and introduce themselves to Joanna Wolfe.

 

5. BOOK IN COMMON MEETING: Friday, April 18, 11:30-1:00 in HM 300.

Next year's book in common is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a fun,

short graphic novel that should work well in 101 and 102 classes. This

book in common meeting is intended to help instructors brainstorm and

collaborate on ways they might include Persepolis in their composition

classes. If you are interested in reading and possibly assigning

Persepolis, you can check out a copy from Linda (the Bonnie library has

4 copies). Joanna also has FREE COPIES for anyone who is pretty sure

they want to assign it. Just pop your head in my office.

 

6. CCCC Abstracts workshop: Wed, April 24, 12:00 in HM 300

For those interested in submitting a proposal to the 2009 College

Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC), we will be holding an

Abstracts Workshop in which interested parties break into small groups

and read and comment on submissions. LUNCH PROVIDED. You can drop in

without RSVPing, but if you'd like a lunch, contact Ryan Trauman at

ryantrauman@gmail.com <mailto:ryantrauman@gmail.com>.

 

7. Fall 2007 Incompletes: The deadline for instructors to submit grades

for Incompletes given in Fall 2007 is Tuesday, April 29. Incompletes NOT

removed by this data will automatically lapse to an F. Finishing an

Incomplete is the student's responsibility.

 

-Joanna

 

March 31, 2008

 

This week's composition news has four announcements and one teaching tip.

 

1. Teaching Preference Sheets Due!!!!: Teaching Preference sheets for

Fall 08 teaching are due to Linda on or before Thursday.

 

2. Persepolis Book in Common: You may check out a copy of next year's

book in common, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, from the Bonnie Library.

Even if you decide not to adopt it for your writing class next year, you

will still have fun reading it. We will have an informal meeting on

Friday April 18, 11:30-1:00 to discuss the book and brainstorm ideas for

how it could be used in composition classes. There is also a wiki for

sharing resources, thoughts and ideas related to teaching Persepolis at

UofL: http://thinkingaboutpersepolis.pbwiki.com/

 

3. Security: Remind yourself and remind students that thefts become

increasingly common at the end of the semester. As the bookstore begins

offering buy-backs textbook thefts increasingly become a problem. Thefts

of laptops are also growing. Remember to keep your belongings secure.

 

4. Technology Tip—Graphics and thumb drives: If you have trouble

retrieving image files from your thumb drive, try saving your files to a

hard drive and working from the hard drive copy. Thumb drives can be

slow and cause this picture-visibility problem. Thanks to Geoff Cross

for this tip.

 

5. Teaching Tip: Portfolio Reading suggestions

It is not too early to think about strategies for reading and evaluating

final writing portfolios. It is a good idea to share as much of your

assessment process and criteria with students as possible in advance.

Steve Smith has a portfolio rubric available on EFiles that is tied to

the learning outcomes statement for English 101:

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm (keyword:

portfolio)

 

Steve also has a list of procedures for reading portfolios:

 

_HOW I READ AND ASSESS PORTFOLIOS_

_ _

1) CHECK TO SEE ALL REQUIRED COMPONENTS ARE THERE AND LOOK AT THE

QUALITY OF OVERALL PRESENTATION, E.G. TITLES, PAGE NUMBERS, TABLE OF

CONTENTS, CLEAR LABELS FOR ALL COMPONENTS.

 

2) READ THE REFLECTIVE COVER LETTER FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GOALS

OF THE COURSE.

 

3) READ THE FOUR FINAL DRAFTS HOLISTICALLY, I.E. AS A BODY OF WORK.

 

4) LOOK TO SEE WHETHER EACH GOAL WAS MET, EXCEEDED, OR NOT MET.

 

5) PAY ATTENTION TO DEGREE OF REVISION IN EVIDENCE BETWEEN DRAFTS.

 

6) LOOK BACK AT EARLIER DRAFTS IF QUESTIONS ARISE.

 

7) CHECK FOR PLAGIARISM, IF NECESSARY.

 

8) WRITE SUMMATIVE RESPONSE VIA RUBRIC.

 

9) AGONIZE IF NECESSARY. REREAD IF NECESSARY.

 

10) ASSIGN GRADE FOR PORTFOLIO BASED ON HOLISTIC EVALUATION OF THE

DEGREE TO WHICH THE OUTCOMES WERE MET OR NOT.

 

-Joanna

 

March 25, 2008

 

This week's Composition News has five items and one teaching tip:

 

1. Thurs, April 3—Teaching Preference Sheets Due!!!!: Teaching

Preference sheets for Fall 08 teaching are due to Linda on or before

Thursday, April 3. The Teaching Preference sheet is photocopied on blue

paper. We will be doing staffing for Fall on April 7 and hope to have

Fall class assignments out to everyone by Tues, April 8. (I am checking

on a few things, but hope to have the Summer staffing schedule finalized

by the end of this week).

 

2. Tues, April 8—Pedagogy workshop on STYLE: Mary Rotella will be

leading a pedagogy workshop on teaching style in composition courses at

2:00 on Tuesday, March 4 in HUM 300. We’ll have snacks and Mary will

have some great tips for teaching style and local revision. Everyone is

invited. Please RSVP to Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu

<mailto:Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu> so that the appropriate amount of

snacks can be purchased.

 

3. Wed, April 9—Book fair, 10-2: A Multi-vendor book fair will be held

on Wed., April 9 from 10-2 in HM 300. FREE LUNCH! Some of the vendors

planning to attend include Bedford, Freeman & Worth (Bedford-St.

Martin's), Cengage Learning (formerly Thompson), McGraw-Hill/Irwin, and

W.W. Norton. Free lunch will be provided.

 

4. Class Size increase for 303, 306, 309, 310: Because of the current

budget situation, the department has voted to increase class size for

all upper-level writing classes to 22. (Class sizes for 101 and 102

remain the same at 22 and 26 respectively). This change goes into effect

with this summer.

 

5. Next Year's Book in Common—Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis

is a fun, short graphic novel that has been chosen for the Book in

Common initiative for 2008-09. The book in common is a relatively new

first-year initiative by the university that seeks to help first-year

students transition into the university by connecting students through a

common reading and by sponsoring events, conversations, and other

intellectual endeavors that can occur outside the traditional classroom

setting. We are encouraging instructors to assign and find ways to use

Persepolis in their 101 and 102 classes. This book would work

particularly well in classes that assign multimodal projects or spend

substantial class time discussing genre. The book also lends itself to

discussions on gender, class, religion, war, and/or the Middle East.

 

If you are interested in reading and possibly assigning Persepolis, you

can check out a copy from Linda (the Bonnie library has 4 copies).

Joanna also has FREE COPIES for anyone who is pretty sure they want to

assign it. Just pop your head in my office. You are also invited to the

Book in Common Kickoff, March 27, 2-4PM in Room W210 in Ekstrom library.

REFRESHMENTS and some FREE BOOKS will be provided.

 

I will also be hosting a meeting of interested instructors the week of

April 14 to brainstorm ways to incorporate the book in composition

classes. I plan to put some sample assignments and related readings up

on Efiles by the end of the semester.

 

6. Teaching Tip: Corbett's Numerical Style Analysis

One of our primary jobs as writing instructors is to help students

distance themselves from their writing and be able to view their prose

the same way other readers might perceive it. I have found Corbett's

numerical style analyses a productive way to achieve this distancing

effect and simultaneously think about style more critically.

 

Corbett's style analysis method asks students to complete a worksheet in

which they COUNT things in their writing and compare their tallies and

averages to those in a sample of professional writing that they would

like to emulate. Corbett developed four different charts that include

things like sentence and paragraph length; sentence types (simple,

compound, complex) for slightly more advanced writers; sentence openers

and diction for very advanced writers. After students complete the

chart, Corbett asks them to write an informal essay based on what they

learned.

 

I've never used Corbett's assignment exactly as he describes it (I think

the advanced charts are too, too much), but I've used a million

variations on the basic method. Sometimes, I just have students go

through papers they are getting ready to turn in and underline all the

"to be" verbs on pages 2-3 of a paper. Then they calculate an average,

compare it to the class average (usually around .7), and work with a

partner to see if any sentences using multiple "to be" verbs could be

revised to be more concise and vivid. (The theory behind this is that

overuse of "to be" verbs is often a sign of passive and/or wordy and

imprecise writing). I allow students to "keep" any edits that they make

on their papers. Sometimes, this exercise results in students producing

some weird sentences just to get rid of the "to be" verbs—and we discuss

those occasions—but more often, it jolts certain students into thinking

more critically about their style.

 

Similarly, I have used more elaborate versions and asked students to

write a short paragraph on what they have learned or sometimes even an

entire 1-2 page informal essay. A few students object to tallying the

numbers, but many more (including several of those who have been

unmotivated for most of the semester) tell me the exercise is really

eye-opening and has motivated them to try to improve their writing style

in particular ways.

 

-Joanna

 

 

March 3, 2008

 

There are five announcements and one teaching tip in this week's

composition news

 

1.  Pedagogy workshop rescheduled:  The Pedagogy workshop led by Mary

Rotella originally scheduled for this Tuesday has been rescheduled to

Tuesday 4/8 at 2:30.  Please contact Tabetha Adkins

 Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu <mailto:Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu> to

RSVP.

 

 

2.  Upcoming deadlines:

2a.  Part-time Lecturer teaching award nominations due today:  To

nominate a part-time lecturer for this award send a brief letter of

nomination to Joanna Wolfe by tomorrow morning.  Self nominations are

accepted.

 

2b.  Applications for Assistant Director of Composition and Assistant

Director of Business Writing are due March 15.  These positions are

available to doctoral GTAs.  For more information, contact Joanna.

 

3. Emergency Drill Tuesday:  The severe weather we had just a couple of

weeks ago demonstrated the need for everyone on campus to know where to

go in the event of an emergency.  In an attempt to educate faculty and

students of safety procedures the entire campus will be participating in

a tornado drill next Tuesday, March 4 at 10:07 am.  For detailed

instructions please follow this link

http://louisville.edu/dehs/emergency/tornado.html .

 

4.  Part-time Faculty -- It's election time for the Faculty Senate

again.  If you're teaching as a part-time lecturer and usually teach 2

out of the 3 semesters, please consider running for election to the

Faculty Senate.  We actually have two open seats and could use another

person from English!!!!!  As a part-time faculty senator, you would have

the chance to influence policy concerning part-time faculty and to be on

the inside concerning all types of policy and budgetary matters.  And,

it's paid service for the university!!  $500 a semester....  

 

To run, all you need to do is e-mail a short bio (less than 100 words)

to Bev Edwards in Communications -- edwards100@yahoo.com

<mailto:edwards100@yahoo.com> -- but if you have any questions, see

Tamara Yohannes or Joanne Webb.

 

5.  EGO Book Sale:  The English Graduate Organization is organizing its

annual Book Sale event on 18-20 March, Tuesday-Thursday the week after

spring break. Please mark your schedule (any time between 9 and 3one of

these days) to browse and buy some useful books in the lobby of Bingham.

EGO volunteers are also dropping brown bags in your offices to collect

more books this week.

 

6.  Teaching Tip:  Point-Predict (or Interpretative reading) Peer review

and conferencing strategy

One of the goals of writing courses should be to teach writers to see

their writing from a reader's point of view.  The point-predict is a

simple peer review strategy first publicized by Barbara Sitko that

impresses upon writers that their writing creates certain expectations

in readers that they need to fulfill.

 

In a point-predict peer review, writers have peers read their paper

*aloud*, pausing every few sentences to summarize what the main point is

and then predict what will come next.  When the reader's prediction does

not match what actually follows, the writer and reader need to discuss

why the reader had this expectation and what could be done to revise the

paper.  The point-predict strategy also works well in individual writing

conferences, particularly with papers that need help in organization.

 

You can find out more information and access class handouts on the

point-predict technique on the Efiles at

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm (key word:

point-predict)

I've placed in the Efiles a discussion of Corbett's style analysis from

the St. Martin's Guide to Teaching as well as two variations of this

assignment I've used:

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm (keyword:

style analysis)

 

You may also be interested in Samantha Necamp's assignment in the Efiles

on "Rhetorical effect of sentence length" which also uses some small

numerical strategies to get students thinking more critically about style:

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm (keyword:

sentence)

 

-Joanna

 

February 25, 2008

 

There are two items and one (lengthy) teaching tip in this week's

composition news....

 

1. Pedagogy Workshop, 3/4 2:00: Mary Rotella will be leading a pedagogy

workshop on teaching style in composition courses at 2:00 on Tuesday,

March 4 in HUM 300. We’ll have snacks and Mary will have some great tips

for teaching style and local revision. Everyone is invited. Please RSVP

to Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu <mailto:Tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu>

so that the appropriate amount of

snacks can be purchased.

 

 

2. Must evacuate for Fire Alarms: When fire alarms go off in buildings,

all persons are required to evacuate the building unless special

permission has been given prior to the incident. If you continue to hold

class after a fire alarm has gone off, you could be held personally

liable for any ensuing consequences. Last month, some classes failed to

evacuate Davidson Hall after afire alarm was activated.

 

3. Teaching Tip: Teaching Sentence Boundaries with Tag Questions—or the

/Isn't it true that/__________? trick.

 

This teaching tip applies only to a handful of students with severe

grammar problems, but when it works it can be like magic. In part

because I am frustrated that I learned this trick so late in my teaching

career, I'm framing this teaching tip as a personal narrative.

 

At least once a semester, I get a student whose writing looks something

like the following:

 

***

The term water is frequently used throughout the text. Indicating a

significant meaning simply behind the title of the story: “The Man To

Send Rain Clouds.” Leon simply is concerned with providing his

grandfather with a proper Indian Burial. Even though he has requested

the Father to bring his Holy water to the graveyard; suggesting he

thinks no less of the Catholic rituals, he simply wants to make certain

that Teofilo shall have plenty of water prior to being laid to rest.

Indicating Teofilo may not enter a new life and pass through to the

afterlife unless the proper amount of water is provided. Furthermore, he

will be unable to bring Rain clouds to the reservation. Indicating to

his people, he never crossed into the afterlife. Providing images to the

Native Americans Teofilo was unsuccessful in beginning a new life.

***

 

This is from an actual student paper (from a student who had already met

the 101/102 requirement no less) and is pretty representative of the

paper as a whole. Close to half of the sentences are fragments. The

student has clearly had some lessons in punctuation-- the paragraph uses

both a colon (correctly) and a semicolon (incorrectly)-- but these

lessons have not helped the student identify sentence boundaries. This

student's problems go far beyond what a simple punctuation lesson will

teach.

 

When I first started teaching, my philosophy was to delay commenting on

such issues until the final draft on the assumption that one should

always address content and organization first and hope the grammar

issues take care of themselves as the student revises. I now think that

is a mistake. I have not seen any evidence that major problems such as

these take care of themselves and I *have* seen plenty of evidence that

people both within and especially without the university judge such

problems exceptionally harshly—often seeing such mistakes as evidence of

character defects such as laziness or stupidity. Moreover, when people

ask this student "What did you do in your composition classes anyway?"

we don't want the answer to be "My teacher never really talked about

grammar."

 

My point is that we are doing a major disservice—both to students and

ourselves—by not aggressively addressing such issues. I now decline to

grade a paper until it is almost completely free of these glaring

errors. (Logistically, I hand the paper back with a note explaining the

problem, suggesting times I could meet, providing lots of encouragement

and reassurance, and offering to grade the paper once it is returned

with the errors eliminated).

 

But once I get the student into my office, then what? When the

particular student who wrote the above paper came to my office, I

explained that there were lots of fragments and asked her to read the

paper aloud, stopping to note any sentences she thought were incorrect.

The student was just as likely to identify a correct sentence as a

problem as she was a problem sentence. The problem was something that

slowing down could not address.

 

The trick to this problem was discovered by Rei Noguchi who recommends

having the student try to transform each sentence into a question by

saying /Isn't it true that_________/ before each potential sentence. So

in the case above, we would have

 

/ Isn't it true that /the term water is frequently used throughout the

text?

/ /

/ Isn't it true that/ indicating a significant meaning simply behind the

title of the story: “The Man To Send Rain Clouds”?

/ /

/ Isn't it true that/ Leon simply is concerned with providing his

grandfather with a proper Indian Burial?

/ /

/ Isn't it true that/ even though he has requested the Father to bring

his Holy water to the graveyard?

 

 

Believe it or not, the student who had absolutely no success in

identifying sentence fragments when she just read the text, had about

80% success with this method. She immediately "got" which were and were

not sentences, and after about 15 min practice was able to apply it

successfully to revise her text independently.

 

There are lots of variations on the particular tag question used,

including *"___________, */didn't it?/ and turning the sentence into a

frame "I know that ___________."

 

In Grammar and the Teaching of Writing (available in the Bonnie

library), Noguchi describes the clever use of linguistic theory that led

to this trick. This theory suggests that certain grammar structures and

the rules for transforming them into other grammar structures are

hard-wired into our brains and that people who might have difficulty

recognizing one type of grammar structure can nonetheless recognize

other "deeper" transformation of the same content. But you don't need to

know or understand the theory to use the tip.

 

Of course, this trick is exceptionally time-consuming for the student to

implement and such students will need extra time on papers. One hopes

that the practice in editing for fragments eventually embeds the correct

version in the student's brain so that the tag question editing step can

eventually be eliminated. However, I know of no research showing long

term benefits for this strategy (but it sure would make a good

dissertation or other research project!).

 

-Joanna

 

 

February 18, 2008

 

There are four items and one teaching tip in this week's Composition News:

 

1. Fall '08 Course Preference sheets: Course preference sheets for Fall

'08 have been placed in your mailboxes. Please note that scheduling for

Fall '08 will take place later this year than in previous years, partly

in the hope that all Assistant Director positions will be decided by

then and partly in the hope that we will have more information about the

budget situation by early April. GTAs with summer appointments will be

contacted shortly for their summer teaching preferences.

 

2. Conference in Humanities Building—Room changes: Please note that the

Louisville Conference on Literature will be using the Humanities

Building on February 21-23, 2008. The building will be slightly more

crowded this week and the following classes MUST move from their rooms

to accommodate the conference:

 

Thursday, February 21, 2008

 

Engl 102-43 2:30 p.m. HM119

Engl 102-49 2:30 p.m. HM215

* *

Friday, February 22, 2008

 

Engl 102-07 9 a.m. HM108

Engl 102-88 9 a.m. HM109

Engl 102-09 10 a.m. HM119

Engl 102-53 12 p.m. HM119

Engl 102-24 1 p.m. HM210

Engl 102-27 2 p.m. HM217

Engl 101-03 9 a.m. HM117

Engl 102-06 9 a.m. HM223

 

 

3. Writing Center Survey: If you have not taken a few minutes to answer

the very short Writing Center survey, please do so at :

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bHQgP6170NMSnJjNptuS_2bQ_3d_3d

 

This survey will help the Writing Center make better use of the services

they provide Composition instructors.

 

4. Feb 25 Last Day to Withdraw: If you have not yet provided your

students with some form of substantive feedback, please be sure to do so

by the end of this week so that students can make informed decisions

about whether to withdraw from your class.

 

5. Teaching Tip: Teaching Citation Rhetorically—A first step to Genre

Analysis. One goal of 102 and advanced courses such as 303 (Technical

Writing) and 309 (Academic Writing) should be to teach students that

different disciplines have different styles, conventions, and

expectations. You don't have to teach students to write in all these

different styles, but you should teach them that the differences are

there and give them some guidance on how to identify and interpret these

differences as indicators of specific disciplinary values and reading

practices—and not just arbitrary practices.

One way to do this is to ask students to compare and contrast the

citation styles of various disciplines and talk about what these

citation styles suggest about what different academic fields privilege

and value. For instance, MLA clearly privileges authorship: it is very

easy to provide direct quotations in MLA and many of MLA's rules focus

on handling exact quotations. By contrast, APA clearly privileges

currency. It is also much easier in APA to attribute one idea to

multiple authors than it is in MLA. Thus, where MLA focuses readers'

attention on authorship, APA helps focus attention on the current state

of knowledge on a topic.

 

In contrast to both APA and MLA, scientific numbered citation styles

such as CBE (Biology) or IEEE (Engineering) work to depersonalize

knowledge: authors names do not appear in the text and the works cited

is ordered not alphabetically but chronologically by the order in which

the work was referenced in the paper. These conventions help make

in-text citations concise (a number is used rather than a name) and

simplify the process of attributing a single idea to multiple texts by

allowing authors to refer to a range of numbers (For ex: [18-23]). In

part, these conventions also reflect the nature of collaborative work in

the sciences where it is common to have texts with as many as five or

more authors (and relatively rare to have texts with only one author).

 

Talking about the rhetoric of citation can be a good way to jump-start

discussion into other disciplinary genre differences. For instance,

after discussing citation styles, you might send students to the online

databases to find three articles in different fields and talk about

other genre differences, such as the frequent use of block quotations in

Humanities journals or the frequent use of headings in Science journals

which help readers skip around and read non-sequentially.

 

I've placed a one-page handout on the Efiles that provides examples of

citations in MLA, APA, and IEEE and asks students to compare and

contrast. I've also placed a book chapter by Diane Dowdey that talks

more about the rhetoric of citation practices. You can access these

materials at

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm (keyword:

citation)

 

-Joanna

 

February 11, 2008

 

There are four items and one "teaching tip" this week:

 

1. Feb 25 last day to withdraw: Please be aware that the last day for

students to withdraw from classes is February 25th. A&S guidelines

mandate that students have some formal feedback in each class before

that date. Please make sure your students have received a grade by this

date. You may also want to remind any students whose attendance and

performance warrants concern of this deadline.

 

2. Part-Time Lecturer teaching award nominations due March 3: This

award, sponsored by Gray's Bookstore, honors the many fine Part-Time

Lecturers who teach in and support the Composition Program. To nominate

a part-time lecturer for this award send a letter of nomination to

Joanna Wolfe by March 3. Self nominations are allowed. Nominees should

then submit a teaching portfolio to the composition office by March 24,

2008. More information will be distributed in mailboxes shortly.

 

3. Personal copy bills due by March 15: Personal copy bills were put in

your mailboxes on Feb 6. If you received a bill, please make every

effort to pay it by March 15, 2008. Your payments help keep the copier

supplied with paper and toner so we can continue to make copies

available to you in the department at a reasonable cost that has not

gone up in years.

 

4. Writing Center Notifications: The Writing Center wishes to remind us

that you can ask your students to request that the Writing Center staff

send you notification of their visits to the Center.

 

5. Teaching Tip: Teaching revision and organization with the backwards

outline—and fun variations.

 

One of the best things we can do for students is to teach them how to

identify main ideas from supporting ideas and use this knowledge to

develop a tightly organized essay. A common strategy for teaching

organization (and revision) is the backwards outline. In a backwards

outline, the writer starts with a finished paper and proceeds to create

an "after-the-fact" outline of the paper. First, the writer identifies

and writes down the thesis. Then for each paragraph, she writes down the

most important main idea. After extracting this information, the writer

articulates how each paragraph's main idea (1) supports the thesis and

(2) is different from the main idea of the other paragraphs in the

essay. Next, the writer indicates how each paragraph's main idea builds

on that of the previous paragraph and notes what transitions are needed

to help make this progression clear. You might also ask the writer to go

through each paragraph and identify all the evidence or ideas supporting

that paragraph's main idea and note which evidence does not belong in

that paragraph.

 

This activity jump-starts revision and helps students see the principles

of organization. It is a good idea to model this with students first

with a couple of papers before asking them to do it themselves.

 

Mary Rotella has a fun and pedagogically effective variation on this

exercise. After modeling some of the principles of revision and

organization with students, she then gives them a pair of scissors, a

glue stick, and colored paper and has them literally cut and paste

sections of their essay into a backwards outline. So, first students cut

out the sentence or sentences that articulate that main idea of the

entire paper and paste it onto the colored paper. Then for each

paragraph students cut out the sentence that best articulates that

paragraph's main idea (or alternatively, students can just cut out the

main phrases in the paper that support the thesis). I also have students

draw lines from their main ideas for each paragraph to the concept or

idea in the thesis statement that this paragraph illustrates. This

exercise really drives home its point when students with weak theses or

organization realize that there *are* no sentences for them to cut out.

 

You can find Mary Rotella's assignment on the efiles:

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm (keyword:

revision; or select "rotella" from the list of instructors). I have a

plastic bag of (blunt) scissors and glue sticks in my office that

instructors can borrow.

 

-Joanna

 

February 4, 2008

There are two items and one "teaching tip" this week:

 

1.  Pedagogy workshops this week on helping students with online

searching:  Patrick Corbett will help us understand how students think

about online searches and give insights and strategies to assist us in

teaching students to improve their information-seeking skills.  There

are two opportunities to participate:

 

Wednesday, Feb 6 1:00  HM 300

Thursday, Feb 7 10:00, HM 300

 

Please RSVP to tabetha.adkins@louisville.edu

 

2.  Writing Center Survey:  The Writing Center would like to survey

composition instructors about their use of and recommendations for the

Writing Center.  The survey is short and responses will be anonymous. 

Please take a moment to complete the survey at the link below:

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bHQgP6170NMSnJjNptuS_2bQ_3d_3d

 

 

3.  Teaching Tip:  Ranking.  In his famous meta-analysis of research on

writing, George Hillocks identifies "scales" (also known as ranking) as

one of the few instructional activities that has a positive measurable

impact on student writing (see the appendix of Teaching writing as

reflective practice).  Ranking makes use of criteria to help students

evaluate and revise pieces of writing by others unknown to them.  In a

ranking exercise, an instructor usually discusses the criteria for

evaluating a particular aspect of writing, gives students several essays

or passages of varying quality, and asks students to rank these texts in

order from best to worst.

 

I use some form of ranking exercise in all of my writing classes (in

some it is almost a weekly exercise).  I have placed several handouts in

the Efiles that show how ranking exercises can be used in various

writing in the disciplines classes.  I hope others will share ranking

exercises that they have used in 101/102 or other writing classes.  Such

resources can be exceptionally helpful for first-time teachers who do

not have a repository of student writing available.

 

You can access the Efiles at:

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm

 

To see the assignments I have just uploaded, use "ranking" as your

keyword.

 

-Joanna

 

 

January 28, 2008

 

There are four items and one "teaching tip" this week:

 

1. Information Sheets: If you have not turned in your information sheet

(they were photocopied on orange paper this semester), please drop it

off in the composition office (321) as soon as possible. We use these

sheets both so we have immediate access to your most recent contact

information and office hours and so we have information to give to

accrediting agencies about our instructors' qualifications.

 

2. Class Rosters: Please double-check your class roster one last time to

make sure that the students who are attending your class are actually on

the roster. You can access the most up-to-date version of the roster on

ULink.

 

3. Ethnographies, Interview Assignments and IRB: I have received a few

questions from instructors who assign ethnographies or other kinds of

"human subjects" research projects about whether they need to receive

clearance from the university's Institutional review board for research.

The answer, you will be glad to hear, is that if an assignment is

strictly for educational purposes and will not be published, it does not

meet the university's definition of "research" and thus does not need to

be reviewed. However, it is a good idea to discuss basic research ethics

with students and have them give research participants a small consent

statement. Here is a template for a consent statement that can be used

for classroom assignments (NOTE: anything that will be published needs

to go through a formal review process). I have also put a copy of this

consent template in the Efiles:

 

***

*Consent Statement*

We are students at the University of Louisville doing a class exercise

on DESCRIBE EXERCISE for COURSE NUMBER AND NAME. We are studying the

experiences of non-technical users with various common products. We

would like to invite you to help us with this project. Your

participation in this user test is VOLUNTARY and you can withdraw at any

time. The data collected will be CONFIDENTIAL and NOT identify you in

any way. If you have any questions or comments, please contact our

faculty advisor, INSTRUCTOR NAME, at INSTRUCTOR PHONE NUMBER. THANK YOU

for your time and patience in supporting us in doing this class exercise

in research!

***

 

4. Louisville Writing Project: Jean Wolph, the director of the LWP, is

interested in finding out if any current Ph.D. students (or possibly a

master's student if they have had some preparation in research methods)

are interested in K-12 writing/education/assessment and getting involved

in an evaluative role in the 2007-2008 partnership either as

dissertation work or just in conjunction with their experience at U of

L. Cindy Britt (cynthia.britt@louisville.edu

<mailto:cynthia.britt@louisville.edu>) has worked with the Louisville

Writing Project for several years and would be happy to talk with anyone

who might be interested.

 

5. Teaching Tip—Alternatives to the Traditional Annotated Bibliography:

One of the goals of 102 (or in fact any class we teach) should be to get

students to move beyond the stereotypical high school "research paper"

in which they simply reproduce what they have read. We should be

teaching students to engage with sources in more critical ways by asking

them to synthesize, evaluate, and ultimately build upon what they have

read, in effect extending the conversation on a topic. However, when we

assign a typical annotated bibliography that asks students to summarize

what they have read, we are acting at cross-purposes with these goals by

implying that we do simply expect them to summarize.

 

I have posted some alternatives to the traditional annotated

bibliography assignment on Efiles. One alternative comes from Linda

Rogers, who assigns an "I-search" paper in which students write a

narrative of the research processes. Another alternative posted on

Efiles draws heavily on Joseph Harris' Rewriting by leading students

through the steps of "Coming to Terms" with a source. Since Harris' text

is so popular with instructors this year, I have temporarily placed a

PDF of the first chapter in the Efiles.

 

You can access these assignments (and the PDF from Rewriting) at:

http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/jlwolf02/efiles/e_search.cfm

 

-Joanna

 

 

January 14, 2008

Hello!  I hope everyone has had a good first week of classes.  There are four items in this week's Composition News:

 

1. Basement Printers: There has been concern about the amount of toner and paper being consumed by the basement printers.  These printers support composition instruction, and the department is not able to underwrite costs such as dissertation work or printing for classes that instructors are taking.  Please also note that when printing materials for classes you are teaching, you should print one copy and then use it to photocopy the rest.  Photocopying is much cheaper than printing.  If usage of these printers continues to seem excessive, the department will need to more closely monitor printing use by individuals.

 

2. Information Sheets: Please fill out your Information Sheets completely and return them to Linda Baldwin as soon as possible. The Information Sheets are in your mailboxes in 4H. We must have information such as office hours in order to answer student questions and information such as your educational background to fulfill accreditation requirements.

 

3. Syllabus Copies with Checklist:  Please turn in a copy of your syllabus to Linda Baldwin as soon as possible. Be sure to attach a syllabus checklist to the back of the syllabus. You can find copies of the checklist in the Composition Office or online at http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/composition/Syllabus%20Checklist.htm.

Thank you to everyone who has already turned in a syllabus with a checklist attached.

 

4.  Fall Grades: If you have not already turned in a copy of your fall grades to Linda Baldwin, please do so as soon as possible.

 

-Joanna

 

January 7, 2008

Happy New Year!

 

Joanna Wolfe is the acting director of composition until Bronwyn returns

from sabbatical in July.  My office is directly across the hall from

Linda in room 317.  If I have not had an opportunity to meet you, please

stop by and introduce yourself.

 

There are five items this week:

 

1.  Composition website:  There were some problems accessing the

composition and CAI websites the last few days due to the new English

department website.  These problems have been addressed.

 

2.  Class Rosters:  Please check your class roster regularly the first

few weeks to make sure that the students who are attending your class

are actually on the roster.  You can access the most up-to-date version

of the roster on ULink.  Send any students who are not on the roster to

Linda Baldwin.

 

3. Syllabus Copies: Please turn in a copy of your syllabus to Linda

Baldwin by Friday of this week. Be sure to attach a syllabus checklist

to the back of the syllabus. You can find copies of the checklist in the

Composition Office or online at

http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/composition/Syllabus%20Checklist.htm.

 

4. Over-enrollment Policy: Please do not tell students they can

over-enroll in your courses (unless they are graduating seniors with a

letter from their adviser). Business students who wish to over-enroll

306 need a note from their advisor attesting that they are a business

major and that they are eligible for graduate this Spring.  All

over-enrollments for composition courses must be approved by Linda.  The

over-enrollment policy for the program can be found at

http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/composition/overenrollment.htm.

 

5.  Last day to withdraw:  The last day for students to withdraw from a

class without penalty is 2/25.  Students must have received formal

feedback by this date so they may make an informed decision about

whether to stay in the class.

 

-Joanna