English 100.20: Composition

Spring 2003

Professor K. Butler

Office TE-6, Room X

e-mail: beanbutler@aol.com

Phone: 203-392-XXXX

Office hours: Tues. 12:30 ­ 1:30, 3:15 ­ 4:15, Thurs. 12:30 ­ 1:30, 3:15 ­ 4:15 (and by appointment)

 

Course Syllabus

 

Course Description:

 

The theme of this serviced-based course is Literacy and Community.   You will be working to improve your reading, writing, and critical thinking skills as you develop a better understanding of the issues that shape your community, and influence your values, identity, and goals for the future. You will learn to connect your writing to something beyond traditional academics ­ to learn critical life skills by helping to solve problems that exist within your world.

 

You will be required to spend at least ten volunteer hours during the semester helping to identify and solve problems within your community, thus building a closer link between your campus and community.  As you become involved in your community, you will become an active rather than passive learner.  Through observing and working in your community, you will encounter new opportunities and challenges.  Service learning experiences provide unique opportunities to learn about our increasingly varied and changing world, to understand people and cultures that are unique, and to develop resourcefulness, a stronger inner self, and a clearer sense of personal identity.  Working with others from a different culture and/or economic class can help you begin to think critically about what advantages you possess, learn to value what other individuals in your community have a right to expect, and how you can contribute to your community.

 

The reading and writing assignments are designed to help you recognize the qualities of good writing and to expand your repertoire of writing strategies.  We will discuss the qualities of good writing, but more often we will consider them in relation to your own work and the work of your peers.  By the end of the semester you should feel more accomplished as composers, assessors, and evaluators of writing.

 

Course Goals:

 

1.        To develop reading and writing skills in exploring ideas and concepts, to connect and analyze your literacy and education histories to others¹, and to develop your own points of view involving literacy and your community.  To make you a more critical, skilled writer and thinker.

 

2.        To allow you to accept the authority and responsibility that come with being a member of a writing community and a participant of writing workshops.

 

3.        To recognize and critically examine attitudes and values expressed by others in oral and written form.

 

4.        To discover methods of writing targeted toward various audiences, purposes, and genres.  To help you assess your own writing and the writing of your peers.  To improve your editing skills in revising first drafts.

 

5.        To enhance your skills in understanding and implementing a personalized writing process.  To develop your abilities to work through first drafts, editing, and revision.  To understand and accept that error is a necessary and productive part of the learning process.  To enhance your ability to reflect on your writing process and rhetorically analyze your own writing and those of others.

 

6.        To hone your skills in the conventions of writing that clarify and enhance meaning (including but not limited to sentence and paragraph structure, usage, and larger organizational concerns such as thesis and argument development and structure).

 

7.        To sharpen your skills in analyzing how an argument makes its point through close analysis of assigned readings.  We will work closely in identifying and creating clear, well-defended thesis statements.

 

8.        To explore the vocabulary and techniques of rhetoric and discourse communities, and to expand your skills in presenting rhetorical arguments.

 

Required Texts/Materials:  (Available in SCSU bookstore)

 

1)       Garnes, Humphries, Mortimer, Phegley, and Wallace.  Writing Lives: Exploring Literacy and Community.  Boston/New York: Bedford, 1996.

 

2)       Reynolds, Nedra.  Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students.  Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin¹s, 2000.

 

3)       One two-pocket folder to be used as a journal/notebook in which you keep EVERYTHING you do for this course.  This includes all drafts of both formal and informal writing, as well as peer reviews.  You will submit this folder to me at the end of the semester as your final portfolio. You are responsible for keeping a hard copy and a back-up disk of all the work you turn in.  I am not responsible for crashed hard drives, bum disks, or computer viruses.

 

4)       An active e-mail account ­ by February 4th.

 

Course Requirements:

 

  1. Journal/Notebook: You will be required to keep a response journal/notebook in which you respond to each reading twice (once before we discuss the text and once afterward, to consider how the discussion changed or confirmed your initial response to the article).  The purpose of this journal/notebook is to get you thinking actively and critically while you read and then give you a place to respond in writing to class discussion.  The notebook should be kept up-to-date and brought to class.  I may ask you to read from it or summarize your main points to begin class discussion.  Your response (a carefully developed question on an issue, an elaboration of a point you liked or disagreed with, an attempt to grapple with a point that puzzles you, a critique) should be approximately ¾ of a page.  You will not be judged on your grammar in this journal, but on the quality of your thinking and intellectual effort.  Hopefully, your journal entries will provide you with the raw material and basic ideas for some of your essays.  You will also use the journal to respond to in-class questions and to reflect upon your experiences in your service learning project.  The journal will be collected and evaluated periodically throughout the semester.  Your journal/notebook must be complete to pass the course.

 

 

2.        Four Major Essays:

Literacy Narrative (3-4 pages)

Public Literacy Analysis (3-4 pages)

Ethnographic Methods Essay (3-4 pages)

Reflective Essay (4-5 pages)

 

3.  Short Essays

     Service Learning Proposal (2-3 pages)

            Journals/Notebook Entries (Approximately ¾ page each)

 

4.        Portfolio: Keep all of your papers, journal entries, graded work, and revisions in a two-pocket folder.  I will ask you to turn it in at the end of the semester so I can see how your work has changed over the course of the semester.  I will grade each paper throughout the semester, but allow you the opportunity to revise them if you would like to try to attain a higher grade.  Your portfolio must be complete to pass the course.

 

Your portfolio should include a transmittal letter of approximately two pages, written to me, in which you discuss your writing progress throughout the semester.  I want you to reflect upon your writing, how it has changed through the semester, what papers you chose to revise, why and how you did so, and what areas of writing and rhetoric you think you still need to improve upon.

 

5.        Peer Reviews: You will be responsible for critiquing first drafts of the members of your peer writing group.  These critiques provide valuable feedback to help your group members revise their first drafts.  In class, we will review techniques for performing such critiques.  The quality of your peer reviews will be reflected in your final grade.

 

6.        Service Learning Requirement: You are responsible for devoting ten hours volunteering to work for a community-based project, upon which you will reflect upon and write about in several of your class assignments.  We will discuss various options in class in order to guide you toward choosing a project that both interests you and gives something back to your community.  I have assigned specific deadlines for which you must complete two-hour segments of this service.  I will require a letter from your service project mentor, written on the letterhead of the sponsoring organization, confirming that you have completed your service commitment.  Dates these confirmation letters are due are noted below in this syllabus.

 

Final Grades

 

Your final grade in the course will be determined as follows:

 

Journal/Notebook: 30%

Participation, Attendance, Peer Evaluation: 20%

Final Portfolio: 50%

 

Policies:

 

Papers are due on the dates assigned.  If you have a problem with an assigned due date, please discuss it with me in advance.  If you are going to be absent, please hand your work in early.  Papers turned in late without permission will receive a lowered grade.

 

Attendance and preparation are required.  I expect you to come to each class session on time with readings and journal entries prepared for discussion.  Excessive absences will lower your final grade.  You can miss up to four classes without penalty.  For each absence thereafter your course grade will be affected.  After six absences, you will have to withdraw from the course (or receive an F).  The effects of missing class are cumulative.  You learn when you are in class.  This policy is not meant to be punitive.  I don¹t want to use it.  I want you to be here.  If you must be absent for an extended period of time, please notify me as early as possible.

 

Please visit me during office hours if you are having any difficulties or concerns with anything in the course.  I want to see all of you do as well as possible, and I will spend as much time as I can to help you succeed.

 

Course Schedule

 

January 21st:        Introductions to each other; course overview; description of service learning theme; read aloud short article, ³Service-Learning: Education with a Purpose,² by Jeremy Taylor.

 

Public, Personal, and Academic Literacy

 

What is literacy?  How do people become literate?  What power does one obtain by being literate in various environments?  What are the risks and benefits of acquiring new literacies?  What disadvantages do people who struggle with various aspects of literacy face?

 

January 23rd: ³The Practice of Literacy: Entering the Conversation,² pp. 1 ­ 21 (Writing

Lives text)

³Posing Problems: The Demands of College Writing,² pp. 3 ­ 21 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

Journal Prompt: Describe the process you use to create an academic essay.  How have today¹s readings changed the way you might approach the writing of a future essay? (Update journal after class discussion.)                                

                                    Discussion of Literacy Article

                                    Discussion of Allyn and Bacon article

Free-writing about your understanding of literacy and rhetoric

 

January 28th:        Amy Tan, ³Mother Tongue,² pp. 462 ­ 468 (handout).

³Writing an Autobiographical Narrative,¹ pp. 142 ­ 164 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

Journal Prompt: Describe an experience in which you have altered your normal method of communication in response to a change in your usual surroundings.  What prompted you to change your method of communication?  What was the effect? (Update journal entry after class discussion.)

 

Discussion of Tan¹s Essay and Various Discourse Communities;

Discussion of autobiographical techniques and the role of a peer reviewer;

Discussion of Service Learning Requirement;

Class brainstorming about possible service projects.

 

January 30th:        Jack Solomon, ³Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,² pp. 328 ­ 341 (Writing Lives text);

³Proposing a Solution,² pp. 390 ­ 413 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

Journal Prompt: Locate and analyze a particular instance of public discourse for its explicit and implicit messages, looking critically at everything presented from the text to the images and their arrangement.  What methods does the text use to make you want or need the product or service?  How does it engage your interest or desire?  Bring a copy of your chosen text to class and be prepared to present your analysis of it to the class.  (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

                                    Discussion of on-Campus Service Learning Opportunities: Guest Speaker: Ms. Courtney Esparza, SCSU Assistant Director of Counseling Services;

                                    Small group brainstorming about service project;

                                    Service Project Proposal assigned;

                                    Discussion of Proposal Writing;

                                    Discussion of Solomon article

 

February 4th:        Lars Eighner, ³On Dumpster Diving,² pp. 63 ­ 74 (Writing Lives text)

³Reading Rhetorically: The Writer as Strong Reader,² pp. 100 - 128 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

Journal Prompt: Think about the literacies described and deployed in ³On Dumpster Diving.²  What does Eighner think you need to know to become a successful, literate Dumpster diver?  What values do you need to assume?  Why is Eighner a successful Dumpster diver? (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

                                    Record e-mail addresses.

Discussion of Eighner¹s essay;

                                    Discussion of Rhetoric essay;

                                    Literacy Narrative assigned

 

February 6th:        Sylvia Scribner, ³Literacy in Three Metaphors,² pp. 34 ­ 49 (Writing Lives text)

 

                                    Journal Prompt: In what ways does Scribner move beyond traditional definitions of literacy that are limited to reading and writing? (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

                                    Distribute e-mail addresses to class;

Discussion of Scribner article;

                                    Assign writing groups for peer review;

                                    Workshop Service Project Proposals.  Complete peer reviews.

Service Project Proposal draft due.

 

Feb. 11th:                Richard Rodriguez, ³Aria, a Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood,² pp. 86 ­ 96 (Writing Lives text)

                                    ³Writing an Autobiographical Narrative,² pp. 142 ­ 158 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

                                    Journal Prompt: How does Rodriguez associate language and power with his parents?  (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

                                    Discussion of Rodriguez article;

                                    Discussion of Autobiographical Narrative article

                                    Service Project Proposal due. 

Feb. 13th:                Marianna De Marro Torgounicle, ³On Being White, Female and Born in Bensonhurst,² pp. 109 ­ 120 (Writing Lives text)

 

                                    Journal Prompt: What does it mean to be literate in Bensonhurst?  What expectations for behavior and language use exist in the Bensonhurst community?  How do they limit and damage them?  Put your discussion  in the context of your own experience as a member of a community, and consider how such expectations originate and are perpetuated or resisted.

                                    (Update journal after class discussion.)

                                   

Discussion of De Marro Torgounicle essay

 

Feb. 18th:                Mike Rose, ³Crossing Boundaries,² pp. 162 ­ 191 (Writing Lives text)

 

Journal Prompt: All of us, in some significant ways, are under-prepared for college and university work.  Describe a way in which you have felt under-prepared for college.  What steps have you taken to overcome these gaps? (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

Discussion of scheduling and completing service learning project.

Workshop Literacy Narrative drafts. Complete peer reviews.

                                    Literacy Narrative draft due.

 

Feb. 20th:                Conferences with Peer Writing Group #1.  Other students do not need to

attend this class, and can use the time to complete their service learning project.

 

Feb. 25th:                Anne Lamott, ³Shitty First Drafts,² pp. 21 ­ 27 (handout).

                                    ³Solving Content Problems: Thesis and Support,² pp. 40 ­53 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

                                    Journal Prompt: Describe the process you use in developing a thesis in your papers.  What aspects of this process need improvement?  What aspects work well for you? (Update journal after class discussion.)

                                   

By this date, you must have completed two hours of your service learning project.  Time sheet signature from your service project mentor, written on the organization¹s letterhead must be turned in.

 

Free writing in journal/notebook about service learning project.  Discussion of service learning project in peer writing groups and with class.

Discussion of Lamott and Allyn and Bacon essays.

                                    Assign Public Literacy Analysis paper.

 

                                    Literacy Narrative due.

 

Feb. 27th:                Conferences with students from any of the peer writing groups.  Students who do not attend may use the time to complete their service learning project.

 

March 4th:            bell hooks, ³Confronting Class in the Classroom,² pp. 235 ­ 245 (Writing Lives text)

 

                                    Journal Prompt: hooks claims that class is rarely talked about in classrooms.  In what ways does your experience support or contradict hooks¹ claim? (Update journal after class discussion.) 

 

                                    Discussion of hooks essay.

                                    Journal/Notebooks due.

 

March 6th:             Service Learning Article (to be assigned)

 

Journal Prompt: By now, you have completed at least two hours of work on your service learning project.  What did you expect to discover before undertaking this task?  How is your actual experience different than what you expected?  What are you learning about the role of literacy in the context of your project?                               

 

Bring in a news article relating to the service learning project you have chosen.  Be prepared to discuss the article and its impact on how you view your service learning project.

 

March 11th:           M. Kadi, ³The Internet is Four Inches Tall,² pp. 431 ­ 440 (Writing Lives text).

 

                                    Journal Prompt: Do you think the internet can be a democratizing force?  Why or why not?  Does it provide mind-opening or mind numbing experiences?  How do your experiences on the Net relate to the issues Kadi raises?

 

                                    Discussion of Kadi essay

 

March 13th:           E.D. Hirsch, Jr., ³Cultural Literacy,² pp. 195 ­ 206 (Writing Lives text).

                                   

                                    Journal Prompt: Hirsch suggests that there is a body of knowledge that every American must know in order to read and write well.  How would such content be determined?  Who would decide?  What are the political, social, and economic stakes involved in such decisions?

 

By this date, you must have completed four hours of your service learning project. Time sheet signature from your service project mentor, written on the organization¹s letterhead must be turned in.

 

Discussion of Hirsch essay

In-class free-writing and peer discussion about service learning project.

Workshop Public Literacy drafts.  Complete peer reviews.

                                    Public Literacy Analysis drafts due.

 

March 18th:           Conferences with Peer Writing Group #2.  Other students do not need to attend this class and can use the time to complete the service learning project.

 

March 20th:           Jacqueline Jones Royster, ³Perspectives on the Intellectual Tradition of Black Women Writers,² pp. 223 ­ 234 (Writing Lives text).

 

                                    Journal Prompt: How does Royster define ³literacy²?  Compare her definition with Hirsh¹s (from the  March 13th reading).  Do you see similarities or differences?  Explain.

 

                                    Discussion of Royster essay;

Public Literacy Analysis papers due.

 

March 25th and 27th: Spring Break!!

 

April 1st:                  Theodore R. Sizer, ³Public Literacy: Puzzlements of a High School Watcher,² pp. 323 ­ 327 (Writing Lives text).

                                    Kolln, Martha, ³Choosing Stylistic Variations,² pp. 213 ­ 230 (handout from the text Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects, Fourth Edition.  New York: Longman, 2003.)                       

 

Journal Prompt: Consider the relationship between academic literacy and public literacy.  What does the term ³public literacy² mean and what does it encompass? (Update journal entry after class discussion.)

 

                                    Discussion of Sizer¹s essay and the nuances and depth of the term ³literacy.²

                                    Discussion of the role of rhetorical strategies in successful writing

 

April 3rd:                Paulo Friere, ³The Banking Concept of Education,² pp. 209 ­ 222 (Writing Lives text).

                                    ³Seeing Rhetorically: The Writer as Observer,² pp. 79 ­ 99 (Allyn and Bacon handout)

 

                                    Journal Prompt: Friere says that the traditional classroom is based on ³the banking concept of education.²  What is the banking concept of education?  In a ³banking² classroom, what are the roles of the participants? (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

By this date, you must have completed six hours of your service learning project. Time sheet signature from your service project mentor, written on the organization¹s letterhead must be turned in.

 

                                    In-class free-writing and peer discussion about service learning project;

Discussion of Friere essay;

Discussion of Rhetorical Observation essay;

Assignment of Using Ethnographic Methods paper

 

April 8th:                 Zitkala-Sa, ³From the School Days of an Indian Girl,² pp. 268 ­ 281 (Writing Lives text).

                                    Kolln, Martha, ³The Writer¹s Voice,² pp. 64 - 82 (handout from the text Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects, Fourth Edition.  New York: Longman, 2003.)                       

 

                                    Journal Prompt: Zitkala-Sa obviously learned to write well.  Speculate a bit about what it cost her to become literate in the world of the ³pale face.²  (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

                                    Discussion of Zitkala-Sa essay.

                                    Discussion of the role of voice in one¹s writing.

 

April 10th:               Allan Bloom, ³The Student and the University,² pp. 294 ­ 304 (Writing Lives text).

                                   

                                    Journal Prompt: Bloom argues that the university curriculum is so fragmented that none of the courses seem to ³speak to each other.²  Are there examples of this fragmentation at Southern?  Is this indeed a problem?  Why or why not? (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

April 15th:               Draft of Using Ethnographic Methods paper due.

By this date, you must have completed eight hours of your service learning project. Time sheet signature from your service project mentor, written on the organization¹s letterhead must be turned in.

 

In-class free-writing and peer/class discussion about service learning project.

Workshop Using Ethnographic Methods draft.  Complete peer reviews.

Discussion of Ethnographic observations.

 

April 17th:               Conferences with Peer Writing Group #3.  Other students do not need to attend this class, and can use the time to complete the service learning project.

 

April 22nd:              Jon Katz, Rock, Rap, and Movies Bring You the News,² pp. 367 ­ 377 (Writing Lives text)

 

Journal Prompt: Where did you get your news today?  Was it from your usual source?  Where would you go if you needed absolutely reliable information?  (Update journal after class discussion.)                          

 

Using Ethnographic Methods paper due.

Discussion of Katz¹ article;

                                    Assignment of Service Learning Reflective paper.

 

April 24th:               Shirley Brice Heath, ³The Fourth Vision: Literate Language at Work,² pp. 142 ­ 161 (Writing Lives text)

³Writing a Reflective Self-Evaluation,² pp. 628 ­ 640 (Allyn and Bacon handout).

 

Journal Prompt: Heath claims that the ³overwhelming tendancy of education today is to simplify, standardize, and make predictable.²  Based on your own experiences in school, as in this class in particular, as well as on the evidence presented by Heath, to what extent is her claim persuasive?  (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

                                    Discussion of Heath article

Discussion of Self-Reflective Writing

                 

April 29th:               Conferences with Peer Writing Group #4.  Other students do not need to attend this class, and can use the time to complete the service learning project.

 

May 1st:                  Jean Anyon, ³Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,² pp. 248 ­ 267 (Working Lives text).

 

                                    Journal Prompt: Anyon argues that there is probably a connection ³between everyday activity in schools and classrooms and the unequal structure of economic relationships in which we work and live.²  Describe your everyday college activities and how they contrast, economically and socially, with the work you are doing in your service learning project. 

 

By this date, you must have completed ten hours of your service learning project. Time sheet signature from your service project mentor, written on the organization¹s letterhead must be turned in.

 

May 6th:                  John T. Molloy, ³From John T. Molloy¹s New Dress for Success,² pp. 416 ­ 430 (Writing Lives text).

 

                                    Journal Prompt: Think of a time when matters of dress have had great significance for you.  Can you remember an instance when the way you dressed affected how you were treated, when you misjudged a situation and dressed inappropriately?  How do clothes represent values and beliefs?  How do they play a role in stereotyping and categorizing a person?  What role does clothing play in the context of your service learning project?  (Update journal after class discussion.)

 

Draft of Service Learning Reflective paper due.

                                    Discussion of Molloy essay.

Workshop drafts with Peer Writing Group.

Complete course assessments.

 

May 8th:                  Conference date for any students needing individual help in revising papers or fulfilling his/her service learning requirement.  Other students do not have to attend class and can use the time to complete their service learning project.

                                                     

May 13th:               10:15 ­ 12:15: Final Exam period. 

Service Learning Reflective paper due.

Portfolios and journal/notebooks due.

Critical Statement and Description of Major Writing Assignments

This course is designed to move back and forth between the concepts of public, personal, and academic literacy.  At the same time, we will focus on the students¹ service learning project, a ten-hour community based service to be performed outside of class.  Students will be required to maintain a journal/notebook.  I will offer a journal prompt to accompany each essay we read.  Students will come to class having written their initial reaction to the essay, and then they will make a second entry about the article based on class discussion.  I will collect the journals once during the semester to ensure students are keeping up with the work and that their comments are in line with my expectations.  I will collect them again at the end of the summer.  This way, students will be writing at least twice a week, and I feel they will be better invested in the essays we discuss.

The first short writing assignment (2 ­3 pages) will be a proposal for their service learning project.  This will be due after we have discussed the many possible community groups with which they will connect.  I want to be sure their project is structured and supervised carefully so that both the student and the service organization will fully benefit from the student¹s ten volunteer hours.  Drafts of each paper will be due one week before the final draft is due.  We will workshop each piece in peer writing groups, and students will revise based on peer feedback and self-reflection.

The first major paper will be a 3 ­ 4 page Literacy Narrative.  I chose this as the first paper to get students thinking about their own struggles with literacy, and to invest them personally in this subject.  I want them to consider the relationship between their own literacy and the community.  Through the introspection required in this assignment, I hope to make them more sensitive to the literacy issues involved in their community-based service learning project.  I want them to reflect on instances when they did not have the literacy to fully participate in a particular community, and how this void made them feel.  My goal is to help them understand that everyone struggles with literacy at various points in their life.  I want them to reflect upon the importance of literacy, and to develop a sense of compassion for others who struggle with literacy in different discourse communities.

The second major paper is a Public Literacy Analysis (3 ­ 4 pages), designed to make students aware of the multiple literacies that permeate our culture.  In this assignment, students will focus on a particular web site, text, or set of texts, advertising piece, media source, junk mail, etc. ­ sources of information that are within the public forum.  They are to reflect upon the location of their item of public literacy, analyze how the language and images are incorporated, and what effect these choices have upon the way one might perceive this text.  They will perform a rhetorical analysis of their example in an effort to build their awareness of the purposes, structures, and effects of material that is available to the general public.  My goal is to get students think about the role of public discourse and how it shapes our community.  I also want to increase their awareness of issues of literacy they will encounter in their service learning project.  As this assignment is very broad, I will carefully construct the assignment sheet to eliminate as much confusion as possible.  I will also allow students to brainstorm the various examples of public literacy they can choose from

The third major writing assignment is an Ethnographic Methods paper (3 ­ 4 pages).  For this essay, students will focus on various literacies at work within SCSU, and they will conduct a form of ethnographic research designed to stimulate their thinking about academic literacies, literacies that may shape their success in college.  Students will select an academic setting, and then analyze the texts used for the class, the use of classroom space, teaching methods, types of tests, patterns of student interaction, etc.  Students will examine and explain the types of literacy at work in their site.  They will reflect on communication strategies that are both successful and unsuccessful in their site.  They will consider the roles of reading, writing, and speaking in their site.  By the time this essay is assigned, students will have become familiar with their surroundings at SCSU, so they will already have some understanding of the particular site they choose.  This project is designed to increase students¹ awareness of the many variations involved in literacy, and to make them reflect on the many choices that determine a discourse community.

The fourth and final major paper (4 ­ 5 pages) is a Reflective Essay, based on their experiences during the semester in their service learning project.  Drawing on the skills they will have developed in their prior papers, I want them to analyze the discourses and versions of literacy they encountered in their project.  I will ask them to compare their initial expectations with a post-service reflection.  They will analyze how and why various aspects of literacy are used within their service project environment.  I want them to analyze and reflect upon instances when they observed individuals at their site struggling with literacy, and the steps they took to overcome these challenges.  I will ask them to discuss the structure and effectiveness of the methods of discourse they observed at their site.  Without knowing how my students will respond to their service learning project, I am not able to fully conceptualize what I will require in this paper.  That will take shape as the semester progresses and we discuss their experiences.  Overall, however, I want this paper to circle back to the three other papers they wrote in an effort to link the notions of personal, public, and academic literacies to both their own lives and to the service learning environment where they volunteered their time.

I will assign grades to papers throughout the semester, but will always extend the opportunity for students to revise if they would like to try to improve upon their grade.  Their final portfolio will demonstrate the progression of their learning throughout the semester, and the level of their investment in the service learning concept.  Students will be evaluated based on their final portfolio, which includes the four major essays (50%), journal/notebook (30%), and participation, attendance, and peer review (20%).  Although I am sure I will change this syllabus many times before the semester begins, I feel I have a structure that is logical and recursive.  However, if I observe that my plans do not succeed, I will revise my syllabus to maximize student learning and their personal investment in my class.