Syllabus

WRIT 291AA – Pedagogies of University Writing: Theory and Practice

Scheduled W 12:00-2:50pm
Class Location: ILP 4107
Enrl Code: 57612
Class Shared Drive

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Saur
Email: esaur@ucsb.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 12:00 pm –1:30 pm or by appointment; either in-person or via Zoom
Physical Office: Girvetz 1310 
Zoom Office: https://ucsb.zoom.us/my/bethsoffice  

While I hope we can all work productively with the policies and descriptions I have included here, I fully recognize the reality that we will encounter various challenges along the way. If you are having difficulty with either an assignment or a technology, or if you have any other concerns, please let me know. We can work together to find creative and purposeful solutions for whatever challenge or issue you are experiencing.

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COURSE MATERIALS

COURSE DESCRIPTION

WRIT 291AA is designed to investigate the interplay between pedagogical theory and the practical aspects of teaching–with a particular emphasis on the influences that shape effective instructional practices and the writing process itself. Students will explore foundational theories of writing pedagogy, learn how to design writing assignments, and examine strategies of assessment and feedback. This course encourages a critical examination of how all of these elements converge to form a coherent and dynamic approach to writing instruction.

Throughout the quarter, you will engage in several comprehensive projects: articulating your educational beliefs through writing a teaching philosophy; applying pedagogical theories in practical settings by designing and facilitating a classroom activity and discussion; and enacting effective pedagogical practice in creating a writing assignment. At the end of the quarter, you will compile all these experiences into a teaching dossier, accompanied by a reflective essay that draws from the various pedagogical theories discussed throughout the course. These activities will be complemented by your contributions to a weekly dialectical journal as well as a lot of in-class discussion.

Given the diverse backgrounds and experiences you bring to this space, I invite you to tailor the course materials and projects to align with your individual interests and goals for the class. This course is designed to be collaborative and engaging, and your active involvement will be crucial in shaping a rich learning experience for both you and your peers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Although I highly value the following course goals/outcomes, I also hope you will name your own goals depending on your aim for taking this course:

  • Develop an advanced understanding of pedagogical theories relevant to academic writing instruction, exploring how these theories can be applied to teaching practices.
  • Design effective writing assignments that not only promote critical thinking and effective communication but also engage students in exploring diverse perspectives and contexts.
  • Explore generative and equitable strategies for assessment and feedback on student writing.
  • Reflect on your own teaching philosophy and practices, considering how they align with contemporary educational values and student needs.
  • Think critically about how approaches to writing instruction either reinforce or subvert personal, political, racial, social, and economic hierarchies. 

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COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

The work for WRIT 291AA consists of weekly writing, collaborative discussions, and three major assignments. We will discuss the individual criteria for each assignment as the course progresses; however, all work for this course should meet the requirements established for each assignment, should demonstrate understanding of audience, context, and purpose, and should be considerate and respectful of others.

Dialectical Journal Contributions

By Wednesday of each week, you’ll contribute at least 2 entries (rows) to the dialectical journal about the readings and discussion for the week in Google Drive. These entries can be a quote/paraphrase of a text or something that was brought up in group discussion (left side of notebook) and a response to a quote / paraphrase (right side of notebook).

You’ll then have the rest of the week to make your additional 4 contributions – responses to a peer’s response (a comment in the margin or a response to another comment). By Friday of each week, you’ll have made at least 6 contributions in total (2 complete rows and 4 comments on others’ contributions). Given how integral these are to the success of the course this quarter, there are high expectations for your participation here, but don’t worry—we will go over these much more in detail, and I believe you will find this space very productive for your own thoughts and approaches to the readings and conversations for the quarter.

Teaching Philosophy

For this assignment, you should articulate the core beliefs that inform your approach to teaching writing and your understanding of how students best learn to write. Essentially, you will outline the key principles that guide your instructional methods in writing education, including how you design writing activities and assignments. You can provide specific examples of how your teaching philosophy translates into practice by describing the types of writing exercises, feedback methods, and student interactions that embody your approach. Consider what makes your teaching of writing distinct—perhaps your strategies for fostering critical thinking through writing or your methods for addressing diverse writing styles and needs. (We will revisit this later in the quarter to ensure you have an opportunity to revise this in a way that will be most helpful for your own academic, professional, and personal needs.)

Teaching Artifacts

In this larger assignment, you will engage in practical application of the pedagogical theories discussed throughout the course by developing materials that will directly influence learning outcomes for writing. While there are two parts to this, these two parts do not necessarily have to be related to one another, though they can if you find it productive and usefu.

  1. Design an Assignment Prompt: For this teaching artifact, you will draft an assignment prompt that effectively integrates the pedagogical theories discussed in this course. While there is a fair amount of flexibility concerning the context of the prompt, it should reflect an understanding of how these theories can influence writing instruction.
    • This assignment is due by Week 8.
  2. Activity Lesson and Discussion Facilitation:  For this teaching artifact, you will work with one or two other classmates to design and lead an hour-long class segment that includes both a writing activity lesson plan and a discussion around a reading assigned for that week. The activity should encourage engagement with the text through writing in some way, while also making space for active discussion.
    • You will sign up to conduct your session in Week 6, 7, 8, or 9, depending on scheduling and preferences.
Teaching Dossier

In this larger assignment, you will revisit and refine all materials you have developed over the quarter. This process involves integrating insights you gain from our readings, pedagogical theories, discussions, and the valuable feedback you’ve received. The aim is to produce polished, thoughtful work that embodies your growth as a teacher of writing.

  • Revised Materials: You will review your teaching philosophy, assignment prompt, and activity lesson plan and revise these documents to reflect your pedagogical principles, incorporating feedback and aligning them with your teaching philosophy.
  • Reflection: You will also compose a reflection that draws direct connections between your revised materials and specific readings from the course. Discuss how these readings have influenced your understanding and practice of teaching writing, as well as how you revised your materials along the way and why. Ultimately, you should highlight your development as an educator, identifying moments where your approach to teaching writing has evolved based on the theories and discussions from the course.

Your final submission, due during Finals Week, is a chance to reflect on your journey through the course, illustrating how the readings and your reflections on them have shaped your future teaching practices.

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COURSE ASSESSMENT

We will be using a labor-based grading approach to determine your final grade in WRIT 291AA this quarter. In other words, your final course letter grade will be determined by your labor, by completing assignments and participating in the course. This doesn’t mean that the quality of the work matters less, as we will regularly discuss the quality of your involvement. Rather, it means that we will focus on improving writing through hard work and collaborative efforts.

When it comes to evaluating your work, my goal is to create collaborative opportunities for receiving and providing feedback that will foster your growth. That is, we will try to create a class where you, your classmates, and I function as allies and collaborators, rather than adversaries working against each other for grades or approval by teachers. This approach, I hope, will allow you freedom to take risks and foster more investment in the work you do. Taking risks (even when they don’t work out as we hope) can show us our weaknesses, misunderstandings, and provide opportunities to grow and change.

Furthermore, since I won’t be assigning letter grades to your work, this makes the feedback and advice you receive from me and from your colleagues–and especially your own assessment–all the more valuable. This will help you listen carefully to others’ differing judgments and build self-assessment strategies that function apart from a teacher’s approval. In other words, I want to create an environment in which you can learn to assess those judgments in relation to your work and development. Such assessments will require time and critical thinking.

With all that said, the systems in which we function dictate that final grades need to be submitted. So in terms of the practical considerations of overall course assessment, work in this class will be evaluated on a “Complete”/”Incomplete”/”Missing” basis:

  • If you turn in work that meets the established standards established for completion, you will receive credit for it.
  • If you turn in work that does not meet the standards established for completion, I will provide feedback that explains why, and you will have the opportunity to revise it to meet the established standards for completion.
  • If you don’t turn in work–and you don’t communicate with me about it–it will be considered “Missing.”

For an A in the course, you should:

  • Complete all of the weekly coursework, demonstrating engagement in both in-class discussions and the dialectical journals, 
  • Actively engage with the course material in a thoughtful and reflective manner, and 
  • Complete all of the larger assignments to the standard of completion (or beyond), with thorough attentiveness and careful consideration of the choices you’re making at every step.

Grades below an “A” mean that you have not completed all of the required assignments to the standard of completion. Your grade will therefore be determined by the amount of work you do not complete.

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COURSE POLICIES

Course Site / Daily Schedule

The daily course schedule, readings, and assignment prompts are available on Canvas. Keep in mind, the course schedule is tentative and is subject to change based on the needs and interests of the class, as well as what is going on in the world. You are responsible for regularly checking the schedule for updates. I do my level best to communicate all the logistics of the course (deadlines, updates, changes, procedures), so please, for your sake and mine: check your email and read emails from me completely.

Complete Work 

Major assignments and weekly work are considered “complete” if they satisfy the criteria outlined on their prompts. For example, if an assignment asks you to provide an analytical reflection and you instead only offer a summary of what happened, that assignment would not be considered complete. Similarly, if you write a last-minute and ill-considered draft that does not seem to be a good-faith effort to satisfy the prompt, that would not count as a “complete” assignment, and I would ask you to try again. (Labor-based assessment means that in that case, the assignment would be marked as “incomplete,” rather than receiving a lower grade.)

Late/Make-up Work

If you know (or suspect) beforehand that you will need more time on an assignment, please get in touch with me. While I have created deadlines (to help make it all manageable for you), I also want to be flexible. I know many of you are dealing with a lot: the regular responsibilities of school, but also taking care of yourself, physically, mentally, and emotionally; dealing with technology access issues and challenges, etc. What is important here is communication: please let me know as soon as you can and update me whenever you can. Do your best to let me know in advance if you anticipate needing extensions or other accommodations so we can work together to help you figure it out.

Backing up Work

Please make sure to have a plan for backing up all of your digital work in multiple places in case of computer failure. Please also make sure to save all of the work you complete for class.

Respect / Community

This class will rely heavily on active involvement from everyone. While we will often engage with challenging material in this class, personal insults or attacks on an individual person’s race, class, gender, sexuality, or disability will not be tolerated. In other words, be courteous and respectful to those around you. This course will benefit you most if everyone is actively and productively involved in the learning process.

Academic Integrity / Plagiarism

My assumption is that the work you submit is your own original work — that is, produced originally for this class. To copy someone else’s work without acknowledging that use is an act of academic as well as professional dishonesty. This includes any collaboration you might do with ChatGPT or other language processing models. These forms of dishonesty constitute serious breaches of academic integrity. If you have doubts about whether or not you are using your own or others’ work ethically, please ask me.

That said, as we will discuss this quarter, we are now entering into an unknown, exciting, and anxiety-producing space when it comes to human collaboration with generative artificial intelligences. Rather than ignore or attempt to reject this reality, I find it best to learn productive ways to work with it. So, with this in mind, you are welcome to use GAI models to help you with your writing process; however, I expect you to be completely transparent in how you do so. That is, any time you opt to collaborate with ChatGPT or any other language processing model, you need to include an AI Transparency Statement along with your final draft.

When you have used artificial intelligence–at any stage of the writing process–you should also include a statement that answers the following questions:

  • First, has any text been generated using AI?
  • Second, has any text been improved using AI? This might include an AI system like Grammarly offering suggestions to reorder sentences or words to increase a clarity score.
  • Third, has any text been suggested using AI? This might include asking ChatGPT for an outline, or having the next paragraph drafted based on previous text.
  • Fourth, has the text been corrected using AI and – if so – have suggestions for spelling and grammar been accepted or rejected based on human discretion?

In the spirit of full disclosure: This statement was taken from the Guardian article by Kester Brewin, “Why I wrote an AI transparency statement for my book, and think other authors should too.”

Academic Support and Access

I am available to help you with your writing. Please feel free to drop into my office hours or contact me via email; I am happy to work with you in whatever way facilitates your work in this class.

  • Disabled Students Program (DSP) provides a wide array of academic support services to eligible students with documented disabilities. These services include note takers, readers, sign language interpreters, facilitation of access, and adaptive computing equipment. If you have a disability and would like to discuss accommodations, please contact them (893-2668) directly and/or me as soon as possible.
  • Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) is committed to providing timely, culturally appropriate, and effective mental health services. All registered students are eligible for services at CAPS. You can find their site at http://caps.sa.ucsb.edu/. Please take care of your whole self while you’re in college (and afterwards). We all need help to do that sometimes.
  • The Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity works with students, staff, and faculty to ensure that LGBTQ identities, experiences and concerns are represented and addressed at UCSB. The center aims to create a vibrant and engaging environment through social and educational programming, volunteer and leadership opportunities, a comfortable and welcoming social and study space, and professional and student staff members for support and advocacy. For more info, please see http://rcsgd.sa.ucsb.edu/.
  • The Food Bank is a free service that offers food, toiletries, and other basic need items. They also have a Seed Bank program where you are given everything needed to start a garden. Please check out their website for the full range of services. Registration is easy and the staff is ready to help you access some amazing resources.
On a Final Note

Please know that I am available to help you with your work throughout this quarter. Feel free to utilize my office hours or contact me via email; I am happy to work with you in whatever way facilitates your work in this class. But also please know I am also available if you just need someone to chat with. I recognize that none of us exists in a vacuum, that we are all people beyond our identities of “student” and “teacher,” and that there is a lot to be gained from just having someone listen. So, don’t hesitate to reach out and we can chat in person or on Zoom (or FaceTime or Skype or Google Hangouts, etc). There’s no need to go through it alone.

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