STATEMENT OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

STATEMENT OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

ENGLISH 101: COMPOSITION II

Approved April 2003
The following are specific educational goals for English 101, and corresponding course requirements designed to meet these goals. They are meant to be inclusive rather than prescriptive, to create a template within which different instructors can work to meet their students’ learning needs. This will allow the English 101 community (teachers and students) to participate in an ongoing conversation grounded in a clear set of goals and objectives. These guidelines are based on a class size of twenty students are designed to continue the literacy initiatives begun in the pre-requisite course, English 100 (but does not assume all students have taken 100).

Mission Statement:

In English 101, students will use writing as a way of researching and joining a conversation about a theme or issue. They will:

define and extend their educational activities and processes of academic research;
extend a critical vocabulary about their research topic and investigate red the critical conversation surrounding it; and
extend their ideas about academic literacies, specifically in the area of research-based writing and conventions of argumentation.

Educational Goals

Reading:

Students extend their ability to analyze the structures and effectiveness of argument.
Students engage in multiple readings to extend their understanding of conversation surrounding the class theme or issue.
Students extend their knowledge of rhetorical terms to include terms for analyzing arguments, such as appeals to emotion, character, and logic; fallacies of argument; and claims, reasons, and warrants.

Course Requirements
Reading:

Students read significant essays or book-length non-fiction texts contextualized with additional readings from journals or scholarly collections. Students read 100-300 pages of non-fiction prose; fiction or visual or artistic texts may be a small part of the course readings, but it is not the primary focus.
Responses to readings are argumentative or analytical and ask students to synthesize ideas.

Educational Goals Writing: Students develop coherent points of view in relationship to complex ideas. Students analyze strengths and weakness of arguments, including their own. Students extend their ability to reflect on their writing processes. Students extend their ability to provide evidence and learn to evaluate the credibility of sources. Students extend their knowledge of research-based conventions. Students practice research-based writing in order to join a conversation about a topic rather than simply report on facts about a topic. Students write in a variety of genres and for a variety of audiences and purposes. Students extend their practice/experimentation with the conventions of writing that clarify and enhance meaning; students learn that error is a necessary and productive part of the learning process.	Course Requirements Writing: Major writing assignments are revised at least once, either in peer-group workshops or in consultation with the instructor, or both. Instructors may require a final portfolio that exhibits further revision. Students write 25-30 pages of research-based argumentative writing; major assignments that are a minimum of 5-6 pages and maximum of 12-15 pages. Additional shorter writings (1-2 pages) may take on a variety of forms (rhetorical analysis, annotated bibliographies, response papers, and shorter arguments and analysis), and these writings are designed to elicit connections between readings; to illustrate understanding of the material that goes beyond summary and into analysis; and to demonstrate the ability to question and challenge texts within a personal or situational framework. Instruction in grammar and mechanics of standard written English where appropriate and necessary, in order to extend 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 student’s own writing. Instruction might be in conjunction with a handbook or handouts.
Educational Goals Critical Thinking and Community Awareness • Students continue to learn the value of instructor and peer-based feedback on their critical reading, writing, and thinking processes. • Students extend their own voice and points of view in their research based reading, writing, and thinking; students learn the integral role of active reading and writing play in their college careers. • Students develop and extend their own contributions to broader conversations about the theme or topic. • Students learn to see themselves as authorities and knowledge and research producers rather than knowledge reporters.		Course Requirements Critical Thinking and Community Awareness • Students experience a variety of student-centered activities such as small group work, sharing of student writing, and reflective writing that require regularly participation of the part of each student. • Student-centered individual and/0r group conferences take place at regular intervals throughout the semester. • Regular discussion of students’ ideas; focus on the development of students’ ideas n 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.