Happily, COCC300 is meant to be innovative. In the first place, this means that the Comp Faculty counts on you to adapt your section of COCC300 to your particular students' needs. COCC300's focus is indeed on building the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills necessary to write arguments well, and we are indeed obliged to give our students a wide acquaintance with a variety of argumentative strategies so they can choose the most effective ones to use in given writing contexts. However, precisely what you choose to teach in your section, and the amount of time you spend on various critical reading, writing, and thinking skills, should depend on the particular needs of your students. You are not required to use any particular sequence of activities, nor are you required to teach a particular argumentative strategy.

In the second place, innovation means that COCC300 was sold to the university partly on its merit as a class that utilizes creative teaching strategies. Teaching in the computer classroom, mixing work at the computers with lots of small group activities, using portfolios to evaluate student progress are some of the innovations that make the class both challenging and a very fine experience for both student and instructor. While it is not mandatory that you do any of these things, they all come--of course--highly recommended.