STATEMENT OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

STATEMENT OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

ENGLISH 098: COMPOSITION--WRITING LAB

Approved December 2002
The following are specific educational goals for English 098, and corresponding course requirements designed to meet these goals. They are meant to create a template within which different instructors can work to meet their students' learning needs. This will allow the English 098 community (teachers, students, and parents) to participate in an ongoing conversation grounded in a clear set of goals and objectives.
Mission Statement:

In English 098, students in need of extra preparation in writing and reading will learn how to:

(1) develop reading and writing skills;

(2) practice seeing themselves as part of a community of writers;

(3) define their role in a learning partnership between teachers and students;

(4) investigate the role their writing histories play in the development of their own multiple literacies, both inside and outside of college.

Educational Goals
Reading:

To introduce students to reading as a process, in order to develop multiple reading strategies.
To teach students how to negotiate college-level readings as compared to their previous high school reading experiences.
To teach students how to analyze predominantly non-fiction texts in their writing, which is both argumentative and reflective.
To introduce students to the interconnected acts of reading and writing.
To introduce to students active reading strategies and critical reading skills.
To introduce students to a variety of written genres and ways of approaching the reading of these texts.

Course Requirements
Reading:

Readings of an adequate length and depth to produce a substantive dialogue on style, argument, ideology, or other key elements in class discussion.
Readings might be selected in conjunction with students, and follow a "theme" or be on interconnected subjects.
Readings should be predominantly non-fiction texts.
Shorter writing assignments, such as reading responses and/or reading logs, may be combined with re-reading of texts.
The above assignments are grounded in readings that are used either as models, subject matter, or material that otherwise informs the writing prompts and the execution of those prompts.

Educational Goals Continued
Writing:

To introduce students to the act of writing in an academic setting.
To introduce students to forms of expository writing that go beyond the limits of the "five paragraph theme."
To introduce students to the process of writing as exhibited in a body of their own collected work (including the process of drafting and revising a piece of writing multiple times).
To introduce students to academic writing conventions, including the notion of writing for different audiences
To use writing as a means of exploring a topic, questioning an idea, or reflecting on one's own writing as a way of learning.
To introduce students to the difference between "editing" and "revising" in college-level writing.
To help 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).
To teach students that error is a necessary and productive part of the learning process.

Critical Thinking and Community Awareness:

To show students the value of peer-based feedback in the critical writing and reading process that shapes literacy.
To demonstrate to students the value of their own voices in the classroom.
To allow students to see themselves as active learners through writing and writing instruction.
To encourage students to take responsibility for their own educational experience.
To show students the value of writing in their college careers.

Course Requirements Continued
Writing:

Students should compose four to five writing assignments of two to five pages* each that receive regular and quantifiable response from the instructor.

These assignments should undergo draft and revision, and these assignments should provide opportunities for support and evaluation of the student's overall writing progress.

Students should create a final portfolio that is representative of the student's writing in the course as a whole.**

The portfolio should include clear evidence of the drafting process, as well as a reflective essay or memo that introduces the work, situates it in a larger context, and evaluates the writer's progress.

Grammar instruction where appropriate and necessary, so as to build a college-level vocabulary and confident control of writing in each individual student.

This instruction might be in conjunction with a handbook, or by other means, such as worksheets or handouts that stem from student writing and/or course readings and are not simply drills divorced from course content.

Critical Thinking and Community Awareness:

Regular participation on the part of each student is expected.
Students should engage in a variety of student-centered activities, such as group work, sharing of student writing in large or small group settings; and reflective exercises.

These activities should promote the process of learning collectively with one's classmates.

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

* A page here is assumed to be 250 words or more.

**See 098 policy document from April 2001 re: course promotion to 101 via final portfolio assessment