Return to Unit One:TR

Class Plan -- Unit One, Day 1

• Introduce ourselves to each other.
• Introduce the course and policies.
• Set the tone for the semester by asking students to set goals for themselves as writers.

Assignment for Day 2
Reading - In PHG, pp. 3-15, 17-31 ("Purposes and Processes for Writing"); In LL, 329-330 (on personal writing) ; Read over the CO150 policy statement, and jot down any questions you have about it for next time.

Writing - Answer questions 3 & 4 on p. 14, PHG; Answer question 2 (about personal writing) on p. 330 of LL; Write 1-2 informal paragraphs in response to each of the following questions:

• What are some of the ways that language is used in your family? What makes these language uses in your family different or distinctive?
• What is your most vivid memory associated with reading and writing in school (elementary, secondary, or college)? Was this a situation in which you would say you were a "success"? Why or why not?
• Describe the language of a group of which you are a member (such as age, hobby, sport, religion, etc.). Show how the group's language differs from "regular English" and how it shows the group's identity.
• When have you felt like an "outsider" because of the language you speak?
• When have you felt particularly accepted (or like an "insider") because of the language you speak?.
[WARN STUDENTS THAT THEY WILL BE DISCUSSING THEIR JOURNAL WRITINGS IN SMALL GROUPS WITH THEIR CLASSMATES NEXT CLASS, SO TO AVOID WRITING ANYTHING THAT THEY WOULD NOT WANT TO BE READ BY OTHERS.]

Activities
Introductions - Make sure everyone is in the right course and section. Putting the course name, number, section number, and your name on the board helps weed out students who have wandered into the wrong room. Expect students to drift in late on the first day.

Introduce yourself. Take roll. Call names and record attendance on your roll sheet. Also write on roll sheet: nicknames and phonetic pronunciations of difficult names. While you may use some other attendance-taking method in the future, taking the time to call roll the first few days will help you learn students' names. Because students may have added or dropped since the time your roll sheet was generated, you will most likely have students who have registered for your class whose names do not appear on the roll. Ask them to stay after class to give you their names and student i.d. numbers.

Daily Writing Put prompt up on the overhead projector (OH) or on the board. Explain to students that this type of informal writing in class will be typical; that they are asked to write in this way in order to gather thoughts in preparation for writing, think about ideas that will be central to class discussion, reflect on readings, etc. [See the section in PHG on "Keeping a Journal," 9-12 for additional ideas to bring to this discussion of journal writing.]

Daily Prompt: Write for five minutes about a type of writing you enjoy (or have enjoyed) doing. If necessary, expand your ideas of "writing" to include things that we ordinarily consider informal--Email, grocery lists, letters--whatever comes to mind. OR Write for five minutes about an issue you feel strongly about.

Student Introductions Go around the room and introduce ourselves, giving name, year in school, and presentation of information from daily writing ("type of writing you enjoy" or "issue you feel strongly about").

Second Daily Writing: Goals as a Writer Put prompt up on OH or on the board. Explain to students that in large part, their success in CO150 will involve being able to set goals for themselves as writers, then to meet those goals. (Also, that their goals are likely to develop and change as the course unfolds.)

Daily Prompt: For five minutes, make a list of "writer's goals" that you have at this moment. In what ways do you hope that this class will help you become a more skilled and confident academic writer?

(This daily provides a nice transition into your explanation in the policy statement of the goals and purposes of CO150, as well as the rationale for the Unit 1 topic: language.)

Course Policy - (Be sure to show books, pocket folder, etc.) You can present the course policy statement yourself, choosing to emphasize those policies that you will later consider most important for students to know about: attendance policy, course topic, preparation for class, grading, and other policies you consider critical. One good strategy is to come to class with a copy of your policy statement which you have highlighted or annotated, emphasizing the essential ideas you want to convey. This helps to tame first day jitters associated with being on stage while ensuring that your students will know what they absolutely need to know about the course. OR

If you would like to delegate some of the responsibility of conveying this information and take the spotlight off yourself for a while, have students read aloud selected sections and stop periodically to discuss it.

Either way, you might try to avoid reading the entire policy statement aloud. It's boring, it's time consuming, and it takes the place of more substantive activities that can be done on the first day.

After going through the course policy, be sure to hand out the CO150 Course Overview (given to you during GTA Orientation) and go over the topics for the various units of the course, the sequence of the assignments and units, and any important information about the structure of the course itself which you would like to convey.

Be sure to take some time to answer any questions students might have about the course and/or the policy statement.

Put assignment for next class on OH or on the board.Have students copy the assignment. Tell them your expectations for homework assignments, i.e. do you want them typed or handwritten, do you want a heading on them, will you collect them every day when due, how will they be graded, what part of the grade reflects homework, etc. Explain that both reading and writing assignments usually serve as the basis of the next class's discussion [although you will not always discuss directly the reading they have done in PHG--they are just expected to have read it, and this reading will enable them to do their writing assignments], and that they should come prepared to participate in that discussion. [If you want to see their homework next time, be sure to tell them that you will be collecting it.]

If you find yourself with extra time on your hands, discuss some of the writer's goals that they generated in their daily, or brainstorm together on the board in response to the question,"What is good writing?" List student responses. Talk about which qualities are most important, i.e. is content more or less important than mechanics, and what features are context dependent, e.g. is it ever okay to use "I" in an academic paper? This will tie in nicely with the reading in the PHG assigned for next class about writing myths.