In English 100, students will use writing as a way of thinking through and building on their literacies, educations and/or cultures. They will

1. explore their literacy, educational, and/or cultural experiences in relation to others’; and
2. develop a critical vocabulary with which to analyze their literacy, education, and/or cultural histories; and
3. develop their academic reading, writing, and critical thinking skills; and

■ Students explore texts that challenge them to undertake multiple readings and analysis in order to achieve comprehension; students develop their own reading processes.

■ Students develop connections between acts of reading, writing, and thinking.

■ Students explore a variety of approaches to reading texts and develop reading strategies they can apply to courses in fields other than English.

■ Students identify, evaluate, and apply critical terms introduced in texts of a variety of genres, which may include electronic genres.

■ Students learn basic rhetorical terms for analyzing a variety of texts, such as purpose, audience, and genre.

■ Readings are of significant length and depth to produce a substantive discussion of arguments, ideologies, and experiences.

■ Shorter writing assignments, such as reading responses and/or journals, may be combined with re-reading texts.

■ Writing assignments are grounded in readings that are used as models, for subject matter, or for material that otherwise informs the assignment.

■ Students will develop the ability to write for a variety of audiences, purposes, and in a variety of genres.

■ Students develop personalized writing processes that emphasize invention and distinguish between "revising" and "editing."

■ Students develop the ability to reflect on their own writing process and rhetorically analyze their own writing.

■ Students become conversant with 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); students learn that error is a necessary and productive part of the learning process.

■ Students learn the value of instructor and peer-based feedback on their critical reading, writing, and thinking processes.

■ Students develop their own voice and points of view in their reading, writing, and thinking; students learn the integral role active reading and writing play in their college careers.

■ Students develop their own critical and creative contributions to broader conversations about literacy, education and/or culture.

■ Students learn to see themselves as active learners, as readers, and as writers; students develop their ability to take responsibility for their educational experiences.

■ Four or five writing assignments of 4-5 pages, or a larger 15-20 page project built from shorter writing assignments.

■ Writing assignments undergo significant draft revision; assignments receive regular and quantifiable response from the instructor; responses support and evaluate the student’s overall writing process; instructors may require a final portfolio led by a reflective statement that exhibits final products with earlier drafts.

■ Opportunities for students to discuss and evaluate their composing and revision processes.

■ Instruction in grammar and mechanics of standard written English where appropriate and necessary, in order to develop sentence-building strategies and confident control of writing in each individual student. Instruction in grammar stems from student writing and course readings and are not simply drills divorced from students’ own writing. Instruction might be in conjunction with a handbook or handouts.

■ Students experience a variety of student-centered activities such as small group work, sharing of student writing, and reflective writing that require regular participation on the part of each student.

_ Student-centered individual and/or group conferences take place at regular intervals throughout the semester.

■ Regular discussion of students’ ideas; focus on the development of students’ ideas in writing; assignments that encourage students to produce earned insights or new knowledge about literacy, education, and/or culture; discussion and assignments that encourage students to apply their insights to other writing and learning situations.