this is the virtual writing space for english 61094, teaching college writing. here, we'll share our writing & thinking as readers of the scholarly material for the course, as thinkers engaging in theories of teaching & learning, as future writing teachers planning out how we'll design our courses & relate to our students, as students reflecting on our own experiences as learners & writers, and as writers engaged in 21st century writing practices. this may be the first time you've written online. all the better. writing teachers should have experience in how people are writing now and in the spaces writers frequent. this blog is open - so when you write, you're writing for yourself, for your class colleagues, and for people "out there" who might be reading over your shoulder virtually.
we'll use this space to reflect on the course - what we're reading, what we're talking about, what we're doing in class meetings and class assignments. participation is required - although i'm hoping that as you immerse yourself in each other's thoughts & words, you'll find this an exciting & stimulating aspect of the course. consistently, across course levels, i have found that reading student responses (in a variety of forms - in notebooks, on computer printouts, in listservs, on electronic bulletin boards, in blogs) have been my favorite part of teaching. i learn so much from the collective intellligence of the courses i've been fortunate to be part of. your participation here should be a balance of two equal types: responses to the course material and responses to one another. responses to the course material should summarize the argument and analyze that argument from your own perspective. it's perfectly appropriate in these to actually quote the scholar. responses to your class colleagues might pick up their summary of the argument or their analysis. you can argue or develop further either line of argument.
but whatever you write, do it thoughtfully, with care, and grounded in the course.
you should post about 1000 words a week (this entry is 429 words in length). this can be a combination of your responses to the course material and responses to one another. balance these so that in the end of the course, you’ve done both.
i’d like to keep this blog as a central location for the class musings, so we don’t all have to trek out to different locations. you’re also welcome to start your own blog by going to blogspot.com, though, and your individual blog can be linked to this class blog. the directions are pretty straightforward.
let’s write!
pam
