courses taught
UNIV 299: Seminar in Multiliteracy Theories and Tutoring Practices
Ours is a century of visual and multimodal communication. We increasingly use visual language that mixes colors, symbols, graphics, images, and interactivity to communicate more clearly, quickly, and persuasively. Moreover, with social media becoming the platform for sharing global, local, and personal news, we find that oral speech skills and body language are also crucial for telling a memorable story or relating information effectively. The Seminar in Multiliteracy Center Theories and Tutoring Practices (hereafter referred to as the “tutoring course”) introduces new tutors to range of theory and pedagogy related to analyzing and providing effective feedback on written, oral, multimodal college-level work in individual and group consultations; developing workshops; managing critical/creative thinking challenges in the Writing and Multiliteracy Center (WMC); and improving cultural competencies. Cultural competencies are not only defined by awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences, but also our ability to intentionally respond and take action in cross-cultural contexts. This is to say, WMC tutors are multiliteracy tutors who are trained to effectively engage in diverse tutorial situations and consciously work to improve their cultural, literacy, and technological competencies.
English V1A: Composition
English V1A is a writing course which emphasizes critical thinking, expository and argumentative writing, and mastery of library research techniques. In this course, rather than focus just on traditional argument, we will explore more nuanced answers to the problems raised by discussions and our readings. You will learn to flex different rhetorical muscles as we bypass easy dichotomies in favor of compromise and solution. Our book this semester will be J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, which will serve as fodder for navigating complex conversations and responding in a way that promotes effective communication. You will be asked to engage in reflective writing, research writing, and writing that explores potential compromises to difficult issues.
English 101: Composition
English 101 is a foundational course designed to introduce you to academic writing at the college level. In this class, we will practice a method of writing that focuses on a series of recursive steps: invention, drafting, revision and editing. This process method of writing will develop your skills as a writer, reader and critical thinker. To give you practice in college writing, we will center the course on drafting and revising essays, some which will include primary and secondary source materials; you will also learn how to evaluate sources and gather scholarly information from the college’s library. We will use peer workshopping groups as well as individual conferences to incorporate giving and receiving feedback in the revision process. Learning to communicate your ideas clearly and meaningfully in writing is a skill that you will employ not only in your other college classes but also in your present and future occupations.
English 101A: Basic Writing
EN 101 A is an enhancement support course for EN 101. Items for study will include entry-level college composition skills, including the writing of complete sentences, well-developed paragraphs, and well-organized essays. It emphasizes basic grammar, mechanics, and usage.
English 102: Introduction to Literature
Students continue to develop the academic writing and critical reading skills begun in English I. As a writing course, English II (literature) builds on skills developed in English 1 by asking students to read critically and respond in writing to works of literature. As such, the course is process oriented, as students will brainstorm interpretations of literature and practice developing clear, well-organized, and insightful interpretations of texts. As a literature and multicultural course, English II fosters students’ understanding of the human condition and broadens their understanding of human experience through the writings of authors from diverse cultural backgrounds. Typically, the course covers elements of three or more genres, such as short fiction, poetry, and drama in order to give students tools with which to analyze literature and a vocabulary with which to articulate that analysis. Students build on their understanding of literature and their research skills, begun in English I, by incorporating literary research into their writing.
English 231: Non-Western World Literature
This course provides a survey of Non-Western world literature from antiquity to present. The readings for the course will focus on global perspectives and works in translation, particularly non-British and non-American literature and particularly post-colonial works. The course asks students to think critically about World Literature, power, self-determination, identity and postcolonial literatures in a comparative framework. Important issues that we will consider are the construction of nation and national culture, the role of education and language, hybridity, gender, and disenfranchisement. In this course fiction, autobiography, poetry, new media, and film shape students’ understanding of literary movements as a means of representation for postcolonial writers’ realities and identities.
By the end of the course students should have arrived at an understanding of how each writer’s situation is represented and interrogated in texts from several areas, including the formerly colonized world. Students should further have arrived at an understanding of how identities are formed in the context of class, gender, and ethnicity. Finally, students should have gained the capacity to express their understanding of specific literary texts through class discussions and through the writing assignments for this course.
English 230: Western World Literature
This course provides a survey of Western world literature from antiquity to present. The readings for the course will focus on non-British and non-American literature.
ESL Reading IV
English language learners and international students preparing to enroll in regular college courses or enter the work force with an advanced knowledge of English will develop critical reading and thinking skills and learn test-taking strategies. Students complete 15 hours of independent online study in addition to the requirements for this course.
ESL Writing IIIB
English language learners will study advanced grammar, learn how to select and respond to writing topics, organize ideas, and develop paragraphs in ways that will prepare them for writing in college courses. Students of this course will develop these skills in a network-based computerized classroom.