ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Launching Curricular Reform in First-Year Composition: Navigating the Terrain between Buy-in and Burnout
Author: Deacon, Andrea
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Curriculum Development,Writing (Composition),Educational Change,Burnout,College Curriculum,College English,College Faculty,Writing Teachers,College Freshmen,Writing Instruction

One of the most taxing duties of a writing program administrator (WPA), and one that is likely to cause the most burnout, is initiating curricular reform, an initiative often met with pushback and resistance. Within the literature on curriculum reform in first-year composition, this resistance seems to arise from a complex web of issues related to institutional power, status, and collaboration. However, curricular reform need not be an exercise in futility or insurmountable frustration. Weaving her own recent experience--the good, the bad, and the ugly--with existing literature on the topic, the author will offer WPAs some advice for navigating that often tricky terrain between getting buy-in and getting burned out when launching curricular change.
Between Universalizing and Othering: Developing an Ethics of Reading in the Multicultural American Literature Classroom
Author: Dunbar, Ann-Marie
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: United States Literature,College Instruction,Multicultural Education,Literature,Student Reaction,Racial Identification,Ethnic Stereotypes,Attitude Change,Time,Ethics,Social Behavior,Stranger Reactions,Whites

This essay seeks to explore some of the common challenges facing teachers of multicultural American literature, particularly in the general education classroom. More specifically, the author addresses two typical student responses to this body of literature: the tendency to see the literature as entirely foreign and the tendency to universalize or to identify in a facile way with the text. Drawing on recent pedagogy theory, she argues that teachers of multicultural American literature need to be much more deliberate in their efforts to help students develop other, more productive ways of engaging multiethnic texts. In particular, the author explores the implications of whiteness studies and what Tina Chen has called an "ethics of knowledge" for the multicultural American literature classroom. Finally, she discusses several specific texts with an eye to pedagogical strategies that help students both to see and to avoid the twin pitfalls of universalizing and othering. In her experience, she has found that foregrounding some of the theoretical and ethical questions raised by the study of multicultural American literature in a (predominantly white) university classroom can help to make students more self-conscious, ethical readers, with a much clearer sense of their own positionality in relation to textual others. (Contains 6 notes.)
Beyond the Narrative Mode in the Composition Classroom: Embracing a Return to the Personal Essay
Author: Haugen, Hayley Mitchell
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Instruction,Writing Instruction,Rhetoric,Figurative Language,Essays,Freshman Composition,Models,Student Attitudes,Writing Attitudes,Creativity,Discovery Learning

Knoblauch and Brannon might suggest I pry loose the grip that ancient rhetorical tradition has on my modern classroom, but I'm not convinced I can so easily abandon the ancient rhetoricians. Learning to embrace the different, more creative, and less frequently acknowledged elements of this tradition may be the way for me to go instead. The ancient art of rhetoric recognizes and celebrates the ambiguity of language; rhetoric speculates about the world and invites others to make their own speculations. The essays we assign our students to write, such as the narrative essay, however, discourage ambiguity and speculation. They force students to write about what they already know about their lives or the world around them. Composition instructors should turn, instead, to the personal essay via the father of the form, Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne's example encourages students to explore their lives and only attempt to make sense of them. Unlike the stiff narrative essay encouraged by modes-based readers, the personal essay is invigorated by creativity, spontaneity, and personal discovery. If we yearn for our students to experience writing in this light, we need to create a space in our classrooms that allows for Aristotle's art of wondering and encourages Plato's motley of ideas. We need to promote students' ruminations about life, rather than privilege their explaining of it, in a space that allows for vulnerability and contradictions along their paths to discovery.
Step-Dame Study's Purpose: Early Modern Literature and Critical Thinking
Author: Isaacson, Emily Ruth
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,Humanities,Role,Critical Thinking,Thinking Skills,Evaluative Thinking,Literary Criticism,Literature,Metacognition,Basic Skills

Given what seems a constant barrage of criticism aimed at the academy from politicians and the public--and the great concern for buzz words like accountability and transparency--it has become fairly routine to see a defense of the humanities in opinion pieces in &quot;Inside Higher Education,&quot; &quot;The Chronicle of Higher Education,&quot; &quot;The New York Times,&quot; and even CNN.com. The pieces range from defending the intrinsic worth of the humanities to defending the concrete skills that teachers teach, like critical thinking and writing. Most of these arguments seem to imply that it is one way or the other; the defenders who argue for the former tend to see the pragmatic conversation as sullying the aesthetics of the disciplines, while the defenders arguing for the latter see the lack of discussion of anything other than marketable skills as pie-in-the-sky idealism. The author is certainly not the first to make this observation--and she hopes that she is not the last--but she thinks it is possible to make both arguments. In this article, the author first considers the role the humanities play in the teaching of those core skills of critical thinking, one of the more practical aspects of the humanities. Though, of course, she hopes that she also conveys to her students her own love of literary studies, with the focus on the beauty of the art and the intellectual stimulation of literary criticism. From there, the author will present her own experience of teaching Renaissance Literature as a case study in the ways that teachers can teach critical thinking in their literature classrooms.
Science and Science Fiction: Methods for Evaluating Interdisciplinary and Intermedia Assignments
Author: Lear, Ashley
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Assignments,College Students,Science Fiction,Sciences,Interdisciplinary Approach,Multimedia Materials,Integrated Learning Systems,Student Evaluation,Writing Instruction,College English,Web Sites

Supplementing classroom instruction with online materials and learning activities is becoming less avant-garde and more of an expectation for faculty members in higher education. The use of Blackboard, WebCT, or proprietary software, like Georgia Institute of Technology's Sakai installation (T-Square), has become a requirement, rather than an option. Citing both Project Tomorrow's &quot;Speak Up 2008&quot; report and &quot;Visions 2020.2,&quot; a report based on a survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and NetDay, a nonprofit organization in California, the &quot;Chronicle of Higher Education&quot; concluded in their &quot;The College of 2020: Students&quot; report that the students of 2020 &quot;are restless with the traditional forms of learning and eager to incorporate into their educations the electronic tools that have become omnipresent in their lives: their smartphones, laptop computers, iPods, and MP3 players&quot; (Van Der Werf and Sabatier 7). Faculty intent on reaching such students must devise nuanced methods of course delivery and revise course assignments to more comprehensively account for these shifting paradigms. As these alterations are made, faculty must also devise new systems of evaluating student work when it reaches beyond the discipline-specific learning outcomes to include technical writing and digital design components. In constructing an interdisciplinary course on the intersections between science and science fiction at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, one of my goals was to create assignments that challenged students' technical prowess, as well as their skills with writing and critical analysis. Requiring students to learn or improve upon their HTML skills by developing webpages, rather than traditional essay assignments, allowed me to more easily convey the idea of technical languages as having their own rhetorical principles. The complexity of the projects required a staged evaluation process that ultimately challenged students to work far beyond the assignment &quot;requirements,&quot; as they began to truly explore the boundaries between different modes of discourse. (Contains 1 note.)
An Introduction to the Work (and Play) of Writing Studies Research Methods through Micro Study
Author: Aiken, Suzan
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Doctoral Programs,Graduate Students,Research Methodology,Writing (Composition),Writing Research,Researchers,Student Projects,Novices,Rhetoric,Participant Observation,Experiential Learning,Scholarship,Reflection,Professional Identity

This article addresses the benefits and challenges involved with assigning small-scale research projects in one research methods class as means of introducing new(er) researchers to the work and rewards of empirical writing research. The following discussion does not claim to offer examples of cutting-edge methodological work. That is not our goal here; rather, the purpose of this article is to further Rebecca Rickly's call for increased curricular attention to empirical field research ("Messy Contexts: Research as a Rhetorical Situation") by offering three case studies--micro studies. Completed as part of a graduate methods class, the studies illustrate the emerging researchers' research experiences with conducting small-scale, "practice" observational inquiry. Our claim, then, is simple: we tend to forget how thoroughly we have already been enculturated as rhetoric and composition researchers--we tend, that is, to be unaware of the depth and complexity of our own literacies once they become second nature to us. But what may very well seem obvious to established researchers, whether it be the questions posed, the methods used, or the findings reported, are only obvious to those of us who have already had at least one (and likely many) such enculturating experiences. The authors--three student participants and the course instructor of the same graduate methods seminar--narrate critical, self-reflective, self-selected micro studies in order to examine how students of writing researchers came to identify and employ methods and methodologies as a way of "learning and using" writing studies research. The studies, which include a survey of first-year college students on their transition from high school to college; an examination of the actions, sounds, and voices the researcher observed in the hallway of a researcher's office building in her participant observation of "work in action;" and a textual analysis of Works Cited pages of College Composition and Communication serve as examples of the very real benefits of--and the need for--practical, hands-on experience enacting observational research methods and methodologies. (Contains 1 note.)
Indigenous-Centered Pedagogies: Strategies for Teaching Native American Literature and Culture
Author: Portillo, Annette
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: American Indian Culture,American Indian Literature,American Indian History,Interdisciplinary Approach,College Instruction,World Views,Reflection,Liberal Arts,American Indians,Cross Cultural Studies,Indigenous Populations,Educational Strategies

As a reflection on pedagogy, this essay seeks to provide strategic tools for teaching Native American literature and culture to non-native students. My teaching philosophy is informed by the indigenous-centered, decolonial methodologies as defined by Devon Mihesuah who calls for &quot;indigenizing&quot; the academy by challenging the status quo and debating the controversial issues that adversely affect the lives and representations of Native Americans (&quot;Indigenizing the Academy&quot;, 2004). I argue that an indigenous-centered pedagogy and multidisciplinary approach gives students the opportunity to critically examine those instances of cultural tourism and popular media stereotypes that continue to perpetuate gross misconceptions about American Indian identity and culture. In addition, I highlight the ongoing challenges that instructors face when teaching students to &quot;unlearn&quot; Eurocentric histories and dominant national narratives. I have taught Native American Studies courses to a wide range of students from multiple backgrounds and thus, this essay will be based on the various experiences I have had in the classroom at five different institutions in the past eight years (i.e. Ivy League, small liberal arts college, state college, and university). (Contains 3 notes.)
To Be a Co-Worker in the Kingdom of Culture
Author: Witonsky, Trudi
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Inclusion,African Americans,Civil Rights,Participation,Whites,Conflict,Rural Areas,Racial Discrimination,Political Attitudes,Politics of Education,Critical Thinking,Thinking Skills,Cultural Awareness,Social Class,Social Stratification,Quality of Life,Differences,Novels,Relevance (Education),Imagination,Human Geography,Music,Cultural Context,War,Veterans,College Instruction

In 1903, in the introduction to his ground-breaking, seminal work, &quot;The Souls of Black Folks&quot;, W.E. B. Du Bois calls for a vision of our country in which African Americans can become &quot;co-worker[s] in the kingdom of culture.&quot; In this article I make the case that the use of a novel like &quot;Gods Go Begging&quot; by Alfredo Vea can help us better understand what is required in implementing Inclusive Excellence, an initiative of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, that takes us a little farther down the road toward Du Bois' vision. (Contains 10 notes.)
Service Courses: Forays to Bridge the Gulf and Invite New &quot;Citizens&quot;
Author: Sturgeon, Carolyn
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Introductory Courses,Literature,Writing (Composition),College Freshmen,English Departments,Specialization,Majors (Students),Active Learning,College Students,Student Attitudes,Value Judgment,Nonmajors,Barriers,Time to Degree,Course Descriptions,Change

Teaching service courses such as the first year composition courses and an introduction to literature is often a primary mission for English departments on campuses in the United States. Sometimes specific departments request specialized additional English classes such as Writing for Business, basic grammar courses, composition courses focused for specific colleges such as, on the author's campus at West Virginia State University (WVSU), English 202: Writing for the Sciences (West Virginia Catalog 132), and Media Studies 502: Graduate Research and Writing (West Virginia Catalog 165). All of these courses mentioned above are written and taught by WVSU English department faculty. Demonstrating the value of material taught in these service courses is an essential step for active learning. Students often resist instruction in service courses simply because these students do not understand the need for and the benefits of courses not in their major subjects. Instead of perceiving the benefits of courses such as a First Year/Freshmen Experience course and service course requirements for a basic foundation in, typically, math and English students often just see added costs and delays toward the day they graduate from college and begin living the lives they have imagined through all the years of their educations. In this article the author discusses the creation of the course Media Studies 502: Graduate Research and Writing and its impact on students taking the course.
Crossing Cultural and Gender Borders to Change the Way We Use Discourse in the Classroom
Author: Lloyd, Keith
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teaching Models,Cooperating Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Discussion (Teaching Technique),Persuasive Discourse,Adoption (Ideas),Competition,Feminism,Academic Discourse,Rhetoric,Cultural Differences,Perspective Taking,Problem Solving,Personality Traits,Bias,Inquiry

Though many teachers have adopted collaborative models for teaching writing and literature, much of classroom discussion, in small or large groups, is driven by the assumption that arguing ideas is a competitive exercise. Generally, essays written in this context are &quot;counter-positional&quot; and &quot;agonistic,&quot; supporting points by eliminating/discrediting others and shaped by either/or extremes. Such extreme views create false dichotomies rather than thought-out perspectives, a reflection of the often counter-productive argument students see most in the media. Such argumentation actually polarizes people and shuts down dialogue. To adopt other models, it is important to look across the borders of argumentative discussion. This essay offers two alternative models of collaboration and essay construction, one from India, based in an approach to argument known as &quot;Nyaya,&quot; the other based on feminist perspectives based in the ideas of Sonja Foss and Cynthia Griffin.
A Conspicuous Gap in Cultural Studies: Popular Music in the English Studies Classroom
Author: Knippling, Jim
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Popular Culture,Singing,Printed Materials,Cultural Context,Content Analysis,Writing (Composition),Advanced Courses,Generational Differences,History,Music,Reputation,Audience Awareness,Technological Advancement,Holistic Approach

For the author, the key analytic question about a popular song is not "What does it mean?" or "What hidden or coded meaning does it express?" but "What does its popularity tell us about the cultural moment when it resonated with its public?" How did the song "create its audience," so to speak? Obviously, a 1973 hit song, if it could time-travel, would meet with a different fate in 1943 or 2013. It's not in a vacuum that a song makes a splash, pushes psychic buttons, rings a bell, creates good vibrations, or bangs a gong in the public mind. It is a hit in the sense that contact is made with the hearts and minds of particular people at a particular moment in their history. It is the reception of a song that can be most productively analyzed--not timeless meanings. Songs are cultural artifacts that are uniquely and especially of their moment. For that reason, the author has been experimenting with a Popular Song Analysis assignment in advanced composition courses--an assignment in which he tries to steer students away from limiting their analysis strictly to lyrics. What kind of student writing, then, can be elicited by an assignment such as this? In this article the author discusses the outcome of this assignment.
Food for Thought: Crossing Disciplinary and Campus Borders with Integrated Pedagogy
Author: Hall, Betsy L. F.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: First Year Seminars,Ethics,Sustainability,Food,Interdisciplinary Approach,Rhetoric,Course Content,Chemistry,Political Science,Sociology,College Freshmen

The author created and has been teaching a first-year seminar (FYS) called &quot;Food for Thought: Rhetoric of the Edible&quot; for the past three years. Sustainability and ethics in the production and consumption of food have been tangential topics that have arisen in the course. While her academic background is composition and rhetoric, food has become a research interest in recent years as she has learned alongside her students in this course. The interdisciplinary aspects of the course have changed significantly each time she has taught the course. Here, she focuses on connections with political science, sociology, and chemistry faculty. The aforementioned Food Politics serves as a framework for the political science connections as teachers discuss how politics influence food sustainability. In her partnership with a sociology course, she and the teachers examine how social and cultural customs affect sustainability, specifically how adherence (or lack of adherence) to social codes impacts the ethics of sustainability. In addition to her teaching partnership with political science and sociology, she has also integrated course content with an introductory chemistry class, examining how genetically modifying the chemical composition of food affects sustainability as well as the benefits and drawbacks of chemical-free farms.
The Risks and Rewards of Sports Lit and Other Bait-and-Switch Courses
Author: Irvine, Colin
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Rewards,Athletics,Literature Appreciation,Interdisciplinary Approach,College English,Assignments

The author spent significant time over the past year developing a course that would examine sports themes and analyze the literary techniques authors, directors, and others employ when converting this seemingly facile facet of contemporary life into art. He worked his way through what are at times perfunctory preparatory tasks with an uncommon kind of ardor for this kind of work--rather than gearing up as he normally does for a new course with a casual, it-will-work-out approach learned over the last eighteen years of teaching, he geared up in ways more normally associated with getting ready for the Olympics or possibly a new season as a highly-paid NFL head coach. The author planned the course--developing assignments and picking readings and laying out units and individual classes--as one might think through an entire season of close wins and sure things.
The Supervisory Process of EFL Teachers: A Case Study
Author: Chen, Cheryl Wei-Yu
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Foreign Countries,Teacher Supervision,Team Teaching,Supervisors,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Language Teachers,Native Speakers,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Role,Case Studies,Supervisor Supervisee Relationship

Supervision is an essential part of language teachers' professional experiences. The literature on language teacher supervision from the past few decades consists largely of descriptions of supervisory approaches (Bailey, 2009) and analysis of the supervisory discourse (Hooton, 2008; Wajnryb, 1994; 1995; 1998; Wallace &amp; Woolger, 1991). This study makes a unique contribution to this field, as it offers a detailed account of what happened before, during, and after a supervisor visited her native-English-speaking (NES) supervisee who co-taught with a non-native-English-speaking (NNES) teacher in an elementary school English classroom in Taiwan. Data suggest that the supervisor's comments were a wake-up call for the NNES teacher, who therefore started to play a more active role in team teaching. However, the supervisor's visits and suggestions did not create a lasting impact on helping her NES supervisee to improve her teaching. Practical implications as well as future research directions are offered to conclude the paper. (Contains 1 table and 6 notes.)