HANDBOOK FOR
ENGLISH INSTRUCTORS
Revised August 2015
This Handbook for English ECE Instructors is a guide for Connecticut high school teachers who
are teaching University of Connecticut First-Year Writing courses. It is a reference containing
information on the policies and UConn Early College Experience, and it includes, too, some
information about the First-Year Writing courses themselves. A more complete articulation of
First-Year Writing goals and practices is provided in the companion Resource Workbook.
Scott Campbell, Director of First-Year Writing
Lisa Blansett, Associate Director of First-Year Writing
Sarah Moon, English Early College Experience Program Assistant
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
2
General Information
Important Offices
4
UConn ECE Instructor Certification Process
Certification
De-Certification
Curriculum Submission
Updating and Maintaining Your School’s File
Updating Instructor Contact Information
Active Vs. Inactive Files
Annual Conference
Mini-Conference
Site Visits
6
6
7
8
9
9
10
10
10
10
General UConn Early College Experience Information
Program Description
Student Registration
University Credit
11
11
11
11
The First-Year Writing Program
Course Description: English 1010/1011
English 1010: Seminar in Academic Writing
English 1011: Writing Through Literature
The Concretes: A Checklist
12
12
19
20
23
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 3 IMPORTANT OFFICES
Office of the Director of FirstYear Writing
CLAS 126
860-486-2866
scott.campbell@uconn.edu
Scott Campbell, Director of First-Year Writing
Scott Campbell is the UConn Early College Experience
Faculty Coordinator for the English Department. As Faculty
Coordinator, Scott reviews instructor certification
applications, interviews interested instructors, and organizes
all professional development events for UConn ECE English
instructors. Scott can be contacted for all questions related to
course content, course format, grading guidelines, and
pedagogy.
Lisa Blansett, Associate Director of First-Year Writing
CLAS 127
860-486-2320
lisa.blansett@uconn.edu
Lisa Blansett shares the responsibility of UConn Early
College Experience Faculty Coordinator for the English
Department with Scott Campbell. Lisa assists in the
instructor certification process and the planning and
implementation of all UConn ECE conferences and
workshops.
First-Year Writing Office
Sarah Moon, UConn English Early College Experience
Program Assistant and Assistant Director of First-Year
Writing
Ruth Book, Assistant Director of First-Year Writing
Sarah is the point person for ECE, but both assistant
directors can handle questions about First-Year Writing
curriculum, department policies, and office resources.
The FYW office and program website house a variety of
resources for teaching, including sample syllabi and student
papers. See, too, the Resource Handbook.
CLAS 162
860-486-2859
fyw.uconn@gmail.com
fyw.uconn.edu
Main English Office
AUSTIN 208
860-486-2141
Website:
english.uconn.edu
Although the main English department office does not
generally handle UConn Early College Experience questions
or materials, it may be a useful source of some information.
Open Mon. through Fri. 8:30 a.m.-noon and 1:00 p.m.4:30p.m.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 4 English Department Address:
Send specifically English-oriented UConn ECE
correspondence (program materials, curriculum questions,
etc.) to:
Sarah Moon
UConn Early College Experience
University of Connecticut English Department
215 Glenbrook Road, Unit 4025
Storrs, CT 06269-40252002
UConn Early College
Experience
Program Office
ROWE 330
860-486-1045
Brian.Boecherer@UConn.edu
Stefanie.Malinoski@UConn.edu
Jessica.Parker@UConn.edu
Melanie.Ochoa@UConn.edu
Website:
www.ece.uconn.edu
Brian Boecherer, Director; Stefanie Malinoski, Program
Coordinator; Jessica Parker, Program Assistant;
Melanie Ochoa, Program Assistant
Brian Boecherer, oversees the administration and academic
standards of UConn ECE throughout the university
departments. He also manages program development.
Stefanie Malinoski manages the instructor certification
process and all UConn ECE events for students and faculty.
Jessica Parker manages the student registration process.
Melanie Ochoa manages the collection of syllabi and
assignments for the program and supports the
implementation of academic standards.
UConn Early College Experience
University of Connecticut
368 Mansfield Rd, U-4171
Storrs, CT 06269-4171
UConn ECE Address:
Registrar's Office:
Wilbur Cross Building
860-486-3331
erin.mason@uconn.edu
Website:
www.registrar.edu
Erin Mason, Office of the Registrar
All UConn ECE instructors will receive directions on how
to enter grades online through the University’s Peoplesoft
system at the end of each semester. Should you have any
questions or concerns regarding online grading, please
contact the UConn ECE program office or Erin Mason in the
Registrar’s office.
Homer Babbidge Library
Website:
www.lib.uconn.edu
Gail Hill, Library Assistant
UConn ECE Instructors and students have a University Net
ID that can be used to gain access to thousands of online
journals and databases through the Homer Babbidge
Library.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 5 UCONN EARLY COLLEGE EXPERIENCE INSTRUCTOR
CERTIFICATION PROCESS
Although Connecticut teachers are already certified by the State, it is important that the Faculty
Coordinator and English Department have a full understanding of an instructor’s qualifications
because this individual is, in essence, an adjunct faculty member for the University of
Connecticut. In approving an instructor to teach a course for UConn ECE, the Faculty
Coordinator is attesting that this person is qualified to teach an introductory writing course at the
college level.
The University greatly values the efforts of UConn ECE instructors to challenge Connecticut’s
academically motivated students. For this reason, a partnership should exist between the UConn
ECE instructor and the University Faculty Coordinator for a mutual exchange of ideas and
instructional techniques. Since students receive an official University transcript for taking
UConn ECE courses, the instructor and coordinator should also communicate to each other any
formal changes in the course, mandatory content areas, mandatory exams, or grading strategies.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Information regarding the instructor certification process can be found in detail on the UConn
Early College Experience website at www.ece.uconn.edu. Interested instructors may download
an application form from this website.
Please note that students will not be allowed to register for UConn ECE courses unless official
notification from the UConn ECE program office has been sent to the newly certified instructor.
APPLICATION MATERIALS
•
•
•
•
•
Cover letter that explains teaching background and experience in detail.
Résumé or curriculum vitae that includes teaching experience and any relevant training.
Official graduate and undergraduate transcripts.
Two recommendation letters (preferably from instructor’s high school principal and
department head).
Proposed syllabus for the course(s).
DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
The minimum degree requirement for instructors wishing to teach UConn ECE English courses
is typically a Masters of Arts degree in English; however, a candidate with a Masters in
Education and a sufficiently strong English background may be considered. Handbook for English ECE Instructors 6 WHEN TO APPLY
Since most university faculty are on 9-month appointments and are often away during the
summer conducting research, instructor certification applications should be submitted to the ECE
Office on or before January 30th for consideration for the following fall semester.
MAINTAINING CERTIFICATION
In order to maintain certification with UConn Early College Experience, a certified instructor
must attend the annual UConn ECE English Conference, held in the fall, once every two years. If
attendance at the fall Conference is impossible for an instructor due to scheduling difficulties,
he/she may request that attendance at the spring semester conference be accepted instead.
Additionally, instructors are also required to submit curriculum materials for review on a regular
basis. Please see the following section on Curriculum Submission.
SUBSTITUTED/UNCERTIFIED TEACHERS
A high school cannot substitute an uncertified teacher to function as a long-term replacement for
an instructor who is certified with UConn Early College Experience. Obviously, circumstances
may occur in which a short-term substitute is required, such as an instructor's illness. Should a
school need to use a substitute for an entire semester, or for any large portion of the course, the
school must first consult with the Directors of First-Year Writing and the UConn ECE program
office. Consultation regarding substitutes is mandatory for students to receive UConn
credit for their course.
DE-CERTIFICATION
Although rare, decertification of an ECE instructor occasionally occurs, for the following
reasons:
1. Repeated failure to attend annual professional development workshops without cause.
2. A decision on the part of a provisionally certified instructor not to comply with the
conditions of the provisional certification.
3. Repeated and intentional lack of cooperation with the UConn department’s guidelines for
ECE courses.
Reasons (1) and (2) are managed by the UConn ECE program office, with the full knowledge of
the instructor, building principal, and UConn Faculty Coordinator. Extenuating circumstances
are taken into consideration. Reason (3) requires that a specific communication process be
followed:
• If a Faculty Coordinator has concerns about an instructor, s/he is required to
communicate in writing with the instructor prior to these concerns rising to the level of
considering decertification action.
• Should the Faculty Coordinator and instructor be mutually unable to resolve the targeted
concerns, the UConn ECE Director is notified and manages the process as it develops.
o The building principal is notified and a meeting of appropriate parties is planned.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 7 o If possible, a remedial plan is developed, including benchmarks that, if met, will
forestall decertification.
o The process seeks to balance the welfare of the students, the needs of the high
school, the professional integrity of all personnel involved, and the academic
integrity of the University department.
CURRICULUM SUBMISSION
The English Department requires each UConn ECE English instructor to submit very specific
curriculum materials. These materials are maintained by the First-Year Writing Office, and are
used to assess the compatibility of each UConn ECE course with the First-Year Writing courses
being taught on the University campuses. These files are also used periodically to evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of each high school’s program. These files are the best means by
which the department can envision the day-to-day functioning of a course. These files may also
be shared with other UConn ECE instructors during conferences or by individual request for
instructional purposes. If an instructor does not keep his or her curriculum materials file upto-date, that instructor risks becoming de-certified. Because each English course varies
based on instructor, each active instructor is required to submit his or her own curriculum
materials (unless courses taught by different instructors within the same school do not
differ in any significant way).
Submit curriculum materials via HuskyCT. The new HuskyCT site can be found at
lms.uconn.edu. If you have any questions, please contact Melanie Ochoa, UConn ECE Program
Assistant for Academic Standards at melanie.ochoa@uconn.edu or 860.486.3419.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
In order to understand the context and approach of each course, the English Department requires
explicit information on the following items:
1. Compatibility Statement: A narrative statement addressing the ways in which the
courses are philosophically and pedagogically compatible with the principles articulated
in the UConn English 1010 and 1011 course descriptions. Read the English Department
descriptions carefully before constructing this statement. The department asks that each
certified instructor review and potentially revise the compatibility statement each new
academic year. This statement will be an opportunity to re-articulate teaching goals, and
it will provide the department with a description of any course aspects that may not be
clear from the other submitted materials.
2. Course Description: As part of the course description, please note whether the course
primarily an English 1010 (an interdisciplinary, rhetorically-based writing seminar)? Or
does the course correspond primarily to UConn’s English 1011 (a literature-based writing
seminar)?
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 8 3. Reading lists and/or individual syllabi
4. Writing: Sample writing assignments for each course that indicate intellectual goals for
each sample. (Assignments may be submitted throughout the year.)
5. Writing: Sample student essays, preferably with instructor comments. Please limit these
to two or three essays. Ideally, these essays will be based on the sample assignments
submitted. (Student work may also be submitted throughout the year.)
6. Revision Process: An explicit description of the development of an essay. Include ideagenerating exercises, use of peer/teacher conferences, revision strategies, and any sample
forms (revision checklists, peer questionnaires, etc.) a student may use to develop his or
her paper into a “final” draft.
7. Grading: Describe grading principles and procedures for individual papers (methods of
response and evaluation) and the course as a whole.
UPDATING AND MAINTAINING A HIGH SCHOOL'S FILE
It is necessary for the English Department to have curriculum files that are current. The
department requests that instructors update their files every two to three years, or in the
following cases:
1. When a new, fully certified ECE instructor begins participating in UConn ECE.
2. When a certified ECE instructor dramatically changes his/her course syllabi.
3. When a participating high school revises the curriculum pertaining to the UConn ECE
English course(s).
4. When UConn revises its own First-Year Writing curriculum and the UConn ECE courses
are subsequently revised. Such changes will always be discussed at the annual conference
and shared via email and posted on the HuskyCT site.
UPDATING INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Generally, the high school’s phone number and address is used to get in touch with individual
instructors. Certified instructors are also added to a listserv for email communication. It is
important to contact the UConn Early College Experience program office if there is a change in
your contact information.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 9 ACTIVE VERSUS INACTIVE FILES
A file is active when the school is currently running UConn English courses through UConn
Early College Experience. Active files will be reviewed annually, and evaluations will be revised
when new materials are submitted to the file.
An inactive file is created for schools that are not currently running a UConn course. This may
be caused by an instructor’s de-certification, or simply by the school’s decision to no longer offer
ECE courses. Materials are kept on file in case the school decides to participate in the future. If a
school decides to start offering English ECE courses again, and the school has a fully certified
ECE instructor, the English Department will re-activate that school's file. If the school's sole
teacher has been decertified, a new application is necessary.
ANNUAL CONFERENCE FOR UCONN ECE INSTRUCTORS
Every fall, UConn Early College Experience hosts an all-day conference for certified English
instructors to come together to discuss a variety of ECE-related issues. Lunch is included and
instructors have the opportunity to earn Continuing Education Units for their participation.
Conference topics have ranged from specific teaching strategies to broad curriculum discussions.
The conferences also provide a means for instructors to stay in touch with any important changes
occurring in the First-Year Writing office.
Certified instructors must attend the UConn ECE English Conference once every two years in
order to remain certified. Instructors who do not attend the English Conference once every two
years risk de-certification and will be unable to offer UConn ECE courses in their high school.
MINI-CONFERENCES
A half-day conference is offered in the spring (typically in April) for ECE instructors to share
ideas and express any ECE related concerns they may have. Attendance at these conferences is
optional but encouraged. These conferences tend to be small and intimate, as well as extremely
productive and enjoyable. Instructors are welcome and encouraged to suggest topics for these
mini-conferences (as well as for the annual conference).
SITE VISITS
Both the Director of First-Year Writing and the ECE Assistant are available to visit participating
schools. Visits are offered for mutual enrichment purposes, and not as a means to evaluate the
certified instructor’s performance. Visits can be arranged by contacting the ECE English
Assistant, Sarah Moon. Certified instructors are welcome to visit a First-Year Writing course on
the UConn campus. To arrange a visit, please contact the ECE English Assistant.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 10 GENERAL EARLY COLLEGE EXPERIENCE PROGRAM
INFORMATION
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
UConn Early College Experience (ECE) is a concurrent enrollment program that allows
motivated high school students to take UConn courses at their high schools. Courses are offered
in over twenty disciplines and specialize in general education. High school instructors who have
been certified through the University of Connecticut teach UConn ECE courses. Approximately
10,000 students in over 180 high schools take advantage of this program. UConn ECE students
have an official University transcript that can be sent to the college of their choice. Many
colleges and universities across the country accept UConn credits.
STUDENT REGISTRATION
Each high school decides the criteria for admittance into UConn Early College Experience.
Participants are typically academically motivated students who have a good chance of success in
college courses. UConn ECE hosts an annual Site Representative Conference where student
registration forms are distributed to each school and information on the student registration
process is available. Incomplete or late registration forms are returned to the high school and are
unable to be processed. Students are billed directly for all registered courses at a rate of $25 per
credit.
UNIVERSITY CREDIT
After successful completion of the course, ECE students receive university credit and a grade.
This credit and grade is recorded on a University of Connecticut transcript and is available upon
request. Upon entering the University, the credit automatically becomes a part of the student’s
academic record. If the student matriculates at other institutions, the University will furnish an
official transcript of the course work to be submitted for transfer credit. University of
Connecticut transfer credits are accepted at many colleges and universities across the country.
Students should request a transcript online at www.registrar.uconn.edu. For additional details on
credit transfer and to view the transfer credit database, visit the UConn ECE website at
www.ece.uconn.edu.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 11 FIRST-YEAR WRITING PROGRAM
Please note that a far more extensive articulation of First-Year Writing practices and policies is
available in the companion piece to this ECE Handbook, the FYW Instructor’s Resource
Workbook. Some material from that resource is included below.
THE FIRST-YEAR WRITING REQUIREMENT
Students fulfill the First-Year Writing requirement by passing ENGL 1010 or ENGL 1011 (with
a grade of C or above for ECE students). ENGL 1010, Seminar in Academic Writing, offers
instruction in academic writing through interdisciplinary reading. ENGL 1011, Seminar in
Writing through Literature, offers instruction in academic writing through literary reading. Both
courses are designed to give students experience developing purposeful, argument-driven,
evidence-based academic writing projects. Both courses also provide a learning environment that
supports experimentation and reflection in the revision of these projects.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
FIRST-YEAR WRITING SEMINARS ENGLISH 1010 AND 1011
THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Statement of Pedagogical Principles and Practices
Course Description: English 1010/1011
All students at the University of Connecticut take either English 1010 or English 1011 to meet
their First-Year Writing requirement. Both courses are four-credit, single-semester writing
seminars. Students with verbal SAT scores of 540 and above may choose either ENGL 1010 or
ENGL 1011. Students whose SAT Critical Reading (“verbal”) scores fall between 440 and 540
have the option of taking ENGL 1004 (Introduction to Academic Writing) if they would like a
smaller class with more individualized attention and need to spend some more time writing
before moving on to 1010/1011. Students with SAT verbal scores of 430 or below are required to
take English 1004 before proceeding to 1010 or 1011. To verify students’ placement, instructors
review first-day writing samples and discuss any concerns with the First-Year Writing Assistant
Directors and Directors. The only exemption from the FYW requirement is for students who
receive either a score of 4 or 5 on either AP English exam.
In the ENGL 1010 course, “Seminar in Academic Writing,” students practice writing in response
to interdisciplinary readings. Students examine and use the practices of academic writers,
situating themselves in a conversation with other writers, engaging with them in meaningful
ways, and developing new ways of approaching texts. Students further develop their
understanding of the choices writers make and the effects of those choices through revision of
and reflection on their work. In the context of “making meaning,” students also work on
presentation and delivery (which includes grammar, mechanics, and style).
While ENGL 1010 emphasizes the intellectual purposes and discursive formations of academic
writing, English 1011, “Writing Through Literature,” emphasizes the intellectual purposes and
aesthetic dimension of literary texts. Both seminars engage students in the work of academic
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 12 inquiry by grappling with difficult texts, participating in the issues and arguments that animate
the texts, and reflecting on the significance of the critical work of reading and writing for
academic and general culture and for themselves. There is no sharp boundary between the types
of reading assigned in either course. Assignments in both courses highlight the work that writing
does in academic, literary, and general culture and are arranged in sequences as a series of
intellectual tasks.
In addition to achieving some specific writing goals, such as the ability to write critical essays
that demonstrate a thoughtful engagement with complex readings of some length, the seminars
are designed to help students develop, through revision and reflection, an understanding of
themselves as writers and thinkers. Students should emerge from the seminars more powerful
and self-aware writers, readers, and thinkers.
The First-Year Writing seminars stress the value of revision as a means of achieving depth of
understanding in reading and coherence, clarity, and control in writing. Revision is, so to speak,
where the action is in writing, since it is through revision that we develop a more nuanced
understanding of the texts under consideration and the shared world the texts draw us into. We
might think of reading and writing as a kind of conversation between the text and the reader
about a world that both text and reader are in the process of understanding. Rather than
promoting an adversarial or exclusively evaluative model of writing, with such questions as
“What are the weaknesses of the author’s argument?” or “Do you agree or disagree with the
author’s position?” (although such questions could certainly be part of a series of questions), the
seminars should encourage students to think of themselves as participants—as they, in fact,
are—in a collaborative process of questioning and discovery and making new knowledge, at
times working with and at other times working against the views and voices in the readings and
among other students in the class.
One goal of the seminars, then, is to provide a context within which students can work with
academic texts, texts that constitute the work and the voices of the university. The students’ task
is to make use of these texts and enter into the conversation. To do this, they must see for
themselves that the meaning of a text, no matter the discipline, is not contained exclusively in the
words on the page but that meaning exists only through readers’ active participation. Texts live
through the work of readers. In reading anthropology or physics or literary criticism, for
instance, students will have to become, as reader response theory would have it, co-authors; they
will have to construct a “reading” that makes the text meaningful. And in order to make their
reading meaningful to others, they will need to write their own text for others to read, extending
the conversation.
Typical Activities in First-Year Writing Seminars
•
•
•
•
•
•
Working with assigned readings, either in preparation for a writing assignment, as part of
revising drafts, or to illustrate rhetorical principles and generic features
Working with student essays for similar purposes
Writing brief, exploratory in-class essays: for example, a 15-20 minute focused free-write
in preparation for discussion of a reading assignment
Revising, individually and in groups
Participating in writing groups and conferences during the drafting process
Meeting with the instructor for individual conferences
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 13 Note: As this list of typical activities and the conference discussion below indicate, student
engagement on many levels is at the heart of the First-Year Writing seminars. Engagement is
linked to attendance, as students cannot engage when not in class; as such, attendance is linked
to engagement requirements in determining a final grade. The seminars are largely writing
workshops, analogous to science lab courses (also four-credit courses). Lack of engagement
(i.e., nonattendance or meager in-class contributions) may lower student grades. Instructors
should distribute a course description, which must include at least a partial schedule, during the
first week of the semester. The course description should include information such as the texts
for the course, the instructor’s office hours, amount and type of work required, and grading
policies, including an attendance/engagement policy.
Reading
The writing seminars should emphasize reading as a constructive activity, not merely the passive
absorption or duplication of “information” from the reading. Reading involves the construction
of a text that functions as a record of the interpretive activity of a reader who makes explicit
some of the potential meanings embodied in the language of a text. Meaning in this sense is, to
paraphrase Bakhtin, half the text’s and half the reader’s. In order to read, we need to consider the
implicit assumptions or axioms upon which a text’s point of view is based and the larger
discursive field a text locates itself within. We also need to bring out into the open, to evoke
Hans-Georg Gadamer’s terms, our own presuppositions about the apparent object/s of the text. In
the seminar, we read, read again, and write; then we test what we have written against the
interpretations of other readers before reading and writing again, and so on. Through this
recursive process of multiple conversations—between individual readers and texts, between
teachers and students, and among students in the class—a preliminary understanding will
gradually become more focused, more responsive to the text and a range of other possible
responses or objections, and thus more controlled and complex. Rather than assuming a text’s
meaning is to be unlocked, we ask students to take responsibility for making something of the
text.
This kind of active reading requires that students spend more time than most students are used to
in reading and rereading the assignments. To make that reading/rereading productive, instructors
should select texts that give readers work to do, texts that pose problems, that resist easy and
facile summation, and that open up as many questions as they answer. (Readings found in texts
such as Ways of Reading serve as fine examples of reading appropriate to English 1010; English
1011 reading lists typically include an assortment of literature broadly defined to include popular
literature as well as digital media, film, and television.) Both courses emphasize care and
richness of reading, not the coverage of a selection of types of reading. In English 1010, a class
might read four or five essays in one term, while in English 1011 a class might read a few short
stories, one novel, selections of poetry, or a couple of plays—or perhaps a series of graphic
novels or a set of pop culture texts. The course is not a literature course, and a “coverage” model
has an entirely different goal from a course on academic writing for the University. Often, we
introduce essays like those found in Ways of Reading as “frames” that build a critical vocabulary
around an idea or approach and ask that students work with these framing essays, reading the
literary texts as an artifact that may be understood differently when paired with the non-fiction
piece. This pairing of literary and theoretical and philosophical texts (broadly defined) can also
work well in English 1010 courses. While ENGL 1010 courses benefit from having some
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 14 readings that could be described as literary or cultural texts, so too 1011 courses benefit from
having some academic and/or argument-driven pieces.
Writing
The writing seminar should teach students how texts can complicate, support, extend, and
challenge their own thinking. Rather than merely writing about texts, students should explore the
ways in which texts provide other ways to think about and understand a shared world. In that
effort, they will find themselves sometimes writing with, sometimes writing against, and
sometimes writing to extend work initiated by a text. The writing should be focused on
intellectual tasks, and the assignments should be sequenced to encourage extended and sustained
inquiry as a way for students to build an intellectual project, rather than asking them to write
discrete essays that demonstrate their “understanding.” For example, one might begin by asking
students to interpret a single reading for the purpose of raising questions or to begin to develop
an approach that would be explored in the next reading and writing assignments. The emphasis
in all writing assignments should be on the intellectual work to be done in the assignment, not a
pre-determined form (e.g., comparison/contrast) for the writing. That is not to say that the
student essays will be formless—the forms that students end up writing will be the result of the
intellectual work of the assignment. The forms will emerge from the thinking done through
writing rather than the thinking having to be fitted into a form. After reading, drafting, rereading,
revising, workshopping, and so on, students will amass by the end of the semester twenty-five to
thirty pages of revised, edited, and proofread formal prose (a university requirement). This
traditional page count translates into roughly 7,500 to 8,500 words (assuming approximately 300
words per page). In addition to the university’s page requirement, instructors may also require a
range of informal assignments, such as in-class writing, brief reading response papers, and
journal writing. They may also require other formal assignments, such as small research projects
and oral reports or presentations in the service of reading. Thus students will write more than the
required pages, but not all writing needs to be or ought to be graded or evaluated (e.g., journals
and free-writing). All the formal, finished essays that count toward the university requirement
should be academic in nature, although the occasional “creative” assignment, for example, a
narrative followed by analysis, a formal argument followed by self-reflection, and other mixedgenre efforts, can serve to extend the purposes of academic inquiry.
As an aid to showing students how to work actively on their reading through their writing, the
seminars will familiarize students, through practice, with the conventions of citation, quotation,
paraphrase, and so on, with an eye toward cultivating the practices of ethical scholarship and
marking the circulation of texts in academe. To evoke the conversation metaphor, such
conventions provide the part of the textual conversation the students respond to in their writing.
Without those conventional practices of citation, student papers would read like the overheard
words of one partner in a telephone conversation. Citation in one form or another enables textual
conversation, a precondition for thoughtful exploration and testing of ideas. Such exploration and
testing implies, of course, a bit of risk; as we write, we may find ourselves moving in
unanticipated directions. But that surprise of discovery is, after all, one of the real values of
writing. In important ways, students are not only learning about the conventions of academic
writing, they are also anticipating and experimenting with the ongoing revision of these
conventions.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 15 Revision
Early in the term, instructors should not emphasize closure, symmetry, and clarity at the expense
of exploration and risk. In the second half of the term, however, when students have developed a
sense of how revision sustains the movement from open-ended exploration to clarity of point of
view and sustained complex coherence, the seminars should devote progressively greater
attention to student papers as discrete works, as public presentations of what each writer has
learned in the process of reading and writing. Open reflection and committed, persuasive
argument are complementary aspects of a single process. Without the former (open questioning
and exploration of texts in their relation to a shared world), the writer learns nothing; without the
latter (a clearly expressed, richly developed, and accurately documented essay), the reader learns
nothing. The seminars, then, have a double emphasis: to teach students how to develop a point of
view through reading and writing across disciplinary boundaries and on matters about which
they have not previously given much thought and to enable students to produce a rhetorically
effective text. The completed, revised essays written in each writing seminar should have a
central idea and purpose that requires detailed argument and development, should be carefully
contextualized and developed in light of the readings that stimulate the assignment and the
central idea that grounds the student essay, and should be properly documented, formatted,
edited, and proofread.
Working with Student Writing
Student essays should be given the same respect and attention as the assigned published reading.
That means a substantial formal part of the plan of the course should involve direct discussion of
student writing. There are a number of ways to organize and focus such discussion. For example,
before asking students to work in peer groups on rough drafts, teachers might have a student or
two submit drafts early for in-class discussion. Then a class could be devoted to working on the
example drafts to illustrate the kinds of questions to ask and suggestions to make when working
on drafts for revision, not proofreading. Once final drafts are done, the instructors might catalog
the best passages and take note of the writing issues that emerged in their readings of student
essays; the instructor may circulate selected parts of the final drafts, and add another post-hoc
round of revision on, for example, engaging with, rather than relying on “sources” as validation
or foil in a polemic. Such work could also be done in small writing groups. The general point is
to demonstrate as concretely as possible how the critical reading skills one brings to the
published readings can inform the way one reads one’s own and one’s peers’ writing. Thus
throughout the term students should be required, either in groups or individually, to respond
critically to their own work and the work of other students, especially in regard to conceptual
significance, interpretive accuracy, organizational effectiveness, and general clarity, including
mechanics.
Writing Groups
In many ways, conferencing and workshopping, both individually and in small writing groups,
are at the heart of the First-Year Writing seminar. These courses are designed to encourage as
much student/teacher contact as possible, centering teacher responses to student writing on
conversations with students. While some teachers prefer individual conferences to peer-review
writing groups, and others prefer writing groups to individual conferences, both structures are
valuable and workable. Some teachers require individual conferences for each project. Other
teachers organize small groups to meet for each cycle. Perhaps most teachers make use of both
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 16 methods, alternating between individual conferences and group conferences. However one
chooses to structure this work, one should be sure that students have to prepare for the
conference and that there are specific tasks and goals for each session. For example, one might
structure writing group meetings as follows: (1) students organize themselves into groups of four
with the intent to work together as a writing support group throughout the term; (2) the instructor
assigns tasks related to the reading to each group; (3) when rough drafts are due, each member of
the group provides a copy of the draft for the instructor and the other members at least one day
before the scheduled session; (4) the group and the instructor read the drafts before the session
and list the areas (strong parts and problematic parts) of the draft they would like to discuss; the
group discusses the draft while the writer simply listens; (5) during the meeting, fifteen or twenty
minutes are scheduled for each draft for peer conversation (it is important that the instructor take
a backseat, acting as facilitator rather than the one with the last word); (6) after the groups
discuss each paper, the writer responds to the discussion and summarizes the areas that she will
work on in revision. Similar work can be done on “finished” papers as well.
Learning Goals for the Seminar
In order to contextualize and coordinate the goals of our First-Year Writing seminars with the
goals of other first-year writing programs across the country, we have adapted the Council of
Writing Program Administrators’ Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (2014) to our
program goals. To the basic tenets of the WPA Outcomes, we have added some of the specific
language and emphases we have developed for our First-Year Writing program. In our
adaptation, we have stressed particular aspects of the WPA’s general goals for our specific
purposes, and added some specific goals of our own. Here is our revision of the three categories:
(1) Critical Literacy, (2) Academic Rhetoric, and (3) Practices and Processes. What follows,
organized under each of the three categories, is a specific list of official English Department
goals for learning outcomes in the First-Year Writing Program at the University of Connecticut.
Critical Literacy
•
•
•
•
•
•
Approach reading and composing as a productive means of inquiry, critical thinking, and
communicating in various contexts;
Read and respond to a variety of different texts, developing one’s own approach and
project in the contexts of this variety;
Discern the usefulness and appropriateness of other writers’ works to be included in
one’s own work;
Recognize a writer’s aims, methods, materials, and critical vocabulary, and analyze the
assumptions another writer works from;
Engage substantively with other writers’ work, extending the “use” of other writers
beyond validation or foil for an argument;
Delineate the relationship between one’s own ideas and ideas from reading (that is, to
demonstrate how one reads by way of writing, and how one writes by way of reading).
Academic Rhetoric
•
•
Approach reading and composing as a productive means of inquiry, critical thinking, and
communicating in various contexts;
Recognize the social nature of writing, situating one’s work as part of a critical
conversation;
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 17 •
•
•
•
Cultivate productive search strategies for research (broadly defined), locating appropriate
materials for academic work;
Develop facility with writing strategies, learning to adapt the way one writes to the aims
one has, the methods employed, and the materials explored;
Respond to a variety of writing situations and contexts by making thoughtful choices
about presentation, delivery, design, medium, and structure;
Practice writing with a variety of technologies on different platforms for a wide range of
audiences.
Practices and Processes
•
•
•
•
•
•
Develop reading practices relevant to reading not simply for information, but for entering
a conversation;
Adapt writing habits that include revisiting, reconsidering, redirecting, and revising one’s
work over several drafts;
Embrace peers as the most immediate audience to test one’s writing on, and accept the
feedback from those peers as substantive and valuable critical responses;
Learn to offer productive, substantive feedback to peers that moves beyond simple
evaluative comments or notations that are limited to advice on sentence structure and
grammar;
Apprehend the demands of writing in different modalities and with different
technologies;
Accept that writing is an ongoing practice, not a vocational skill completed by the end of
a single course.
Specifics about 1011
English 1011 should be fundamentally identically to English 1010 in that it should encourage the
same sort of writing, even though many of the texts read are literary rather than interdisciplinary.
Literary reading in English 1011 works as a wellspring for writing and discussion. While
instructors are encouraged to teach texts that interest them, the course is conceived as a writing
seminar and not as an introduction to literature or a course focused on a narrowly defined
period or subject area.
• The readings should incorporate literature broadly defined (poetry, narrative, drama,
autobiography, creative nonfiction, graphic novels, films, etc.), but with no
requirement to cover major genres.
• Readings may also include contextual resources supporting literary readings, such as
historical documents, criticism, biography, visual materials, films, etc., but again, the
course should not emphasize literary or historical criticism, but rather literature as a
place to begin academic writing.
• Instructors should aim to assign no more than approximately 300 total pages of
reading.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 18 English 1010: Seminar in Academic Writing
SEMINAR
Although we often see higher education depicted as a space where experts deliver knowledge to
novices, our FYW courses are seminars, which means that they are collaborative and open-ended
spaces where the inquiry is driven by the students themselves. The instructor’s role in a seminar
is to get the conversation started and to provide contexts (with readings, feedback, central
questions, and directed discussion) for this ongoing work. The instructor helps to curate and
oversee the cycles of writing and reflection that culminate in each graded essay. In turn, students
pursue writing projects that enable them to select and define places where they might add to or
develop the discussion at hand. Most of the learning in a seminar comes, then, from the
experience of making and doing rather than from “lessons” provided by an expert.
ACADEMIC
First-year students may have only very limited experience with “the academy,” but, as
participants in our courses, they are indeed academic writers. The FYW courses are crossdisciplinary and multivalent. Because there is no universal model for the academic essay or
paper, we present the courses as places to explore provisional formulations and practice
intellectual work that is common to all fields. This work includes engaging with established
formulations, working with and through evidence, and circulating one’s own thinking with others
engaged in related inquiries. The FYW courses, then, serve as sites of trial and negotiation. By
semester’s end, the class itself functions something like a mini-discipline, with a cohesive, if also
disparate, collection of projects developed around a common set of questions and texts.
WRITING
The content of a First-Year Writing seminar is threefold. There is a subject matter, provided by
the assigned readings and whatever ancillary materials are uncovered in a student’s research
process. The second content includes the various insights, terms, and formulations the class
develops (with the instructor’s help) regarding academic writing, including considerations of
genre, audience, writing process, and so forth. But the most vital content of the course, and the
bridge between the first two, is the students’ writing itself, which should serve as a primary text
for the work of the course and feature prominently in most class sessions. The core activities of
the FYW seminars are writing and reflection on writing. In producing individual writing
projects with particular emphases and goals, a student gains experience in the local, specific
contingencies and pressures of academic writing. In reflecting on and working with other
students’ writing, a student has opportunities to consider more widely the problems and
possibilities inherent in the choices writers make to communicate their ideas.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 19 English 1011: Writing Through Literature
*The boundary between ENGL 1010 and 1011 is porous. Despite the two course names and
numbers, they are designed to meet the very same general education requirement; they are both,
equally, seminars in academic writing. Traditionally, the 1011 courses are built around the
reading of literary texts whereas 1010 courses use non-fiction texts, but even this distinction
breaks down quite readily. Most 1010 courses have a “literary” component, even if this means
only that they assign essays and/or examine texts from the popular culture. And most 1011
sections now include argument-driven texts that complement or inform the reading of literary
texts in various ways, often in the form of historical or critical texts. And, of course, the question
of what exactly constitutes “literature” only muddies the waters. It seems fair to say that in
today’s English departments literature connotes less an exact content (a list of certain approved
texts) than a way of reading that is open to interpretation, opportunity, and play. We are doing
"literary" work when we consider texts as more than conduits of meaning. And even this is a
limited and only provisional description.
*ENGL 1011 is not a literature course or an introduction to literature. “Writing Through
Literature” has always meant much more than writing about literature. Whereas writing about
literature makes the literary text the object of study, in 1011, the literary texts (and the work of
coming to terms with them) foster an outwardly directed energy. Reading through literature
means making use of literary texts to generate
and support projects that extend beyond the
Reading appears, indeed, to be a dynamic of
attraction and response: books bring singular
occasion of this particular literary text. For
configurations, each implying potential “paths” to
example, one might read an Alice Munro short
our attention, our perception, and our capacities
story in a 1011 section with a course topic of
for action. The forms they contain are not inert
community (in conjunction with other texts,
paintings placed before a reader’s eyes (though
including an Arlie Hochschild study of family
paintings are not inert either), but rather traced-out
possibilities of existence. The activity of reading
life). In a standard literature course, students
might write papers that analyze and interpret the makes us feel these forces within ourselves, as
possible directions of our mental, social, or
short story; the papers would be about the short
practical life, presenting us with opportunities to
story or about Munro. In a 1011 course,
reappropriate, imitate, or dismantle them.
however, it is never enough to merely
demonstrate productive reading of literary texts.
—Marielle Macé
The goal of the student essay should be directed
toward a more specific contribution to a problem or question set up by the course readings. The
crisis at the heart of a Munro story may effectively enact or portray a tension about community
that a thesis from a sociologist like Hochschild can only incompletely render. But Hochschild
may introduce a terminology or a historical frame that helps students see something in the Munro
story. The 1011 writer, having access to both texts, may interrogate the sociologist’s conceptual
frame with material from the story. The fictional text is not a “proof” of something—it is, after
all, fictional—but its portrait of a community or its detailed rendering of a particular family can
be set in a productive, dialectical relationship with these concepts. The students’ back-andforthing with these two texts becomes something more than just the application of a concept or
the fulfilling of a readymade thesis.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 20 *The two courses nevertheless co-exist at present in a productive relationship. The 1010
course may provide a more familiar and expected FYW course, often with readings from writers
who use evidence and reference to other texts to build arguments, much like what the students
themselves do in their own writing for the course. It is, on its surface, similar to FYW courses at
many or most universities, and the readings often serve as models for student writers. But, unlike
many FYW courses, our 1010 course does not teach argument as a specific form or set of
requirements.1 In our courses, the form the essay takes will be in dialogue with conventional
forms, but it is more important that students see writing as purposeful and directed toward an end
that compels them to write. What 1011 enables is an approach to reading that is more dynamic
and more open-ended than conventional appeals to evidence. Consequently, the argument-driven
writing in a 1011 course may tend toward riskier and more exploratory projects. 1010, on the
other hand, often provides more models for the logic-driven, evidence-based texts our students
produce in these courses.
*As in 1010, most student writing works with more than one text (often two) but not as a
simple comparison. ENGL 1011 assignments generally pose a question or problem that the
assigned reading makes more visible or concrete. But readings won’t usually serve as simple
demonstrations or examples, and, quite often, the texts will be used in various and diverse ways.
As in ENGL 1010 or 1004, instructors should consider the roles these texts are being asked to
play in the course and the essay assignment. What work do you want students to perform with
these texts? What tools or contexts will they need to succeed in this work?
*Students may perform “close reading” of texts, but this work is usually more of a
component than a goal of a 1011 essay. That is, the careful working through of a close analysis
of a piece of text—still a primary methodological tool of the English major—can really help
1011 students. We might describe this as a horizontal slowing down of the argument that
enriches and complicates by investigating language and precise, local materials. (I sometimes
describe the deliberate analysis of a quoted passage as happening in “bullet time”—where time is
nearly stopped and the “camera” pans around a scene, revealing details that had gone unnoticed.)
But whereas some literary assignments stop here, asking students to "provide a reading" as the
chief task of the assignment, a 1011 assignment must ask students to take this reading
somewhere or use it in some way.
*The tools of literary analysis may still on occasion be needed. A 1011 course has very little
time to spend on introducing the elements of literary analysis, but sometimes a brief review of a
few terms or concepts can help students. We are not suggesting that literary texts are transparent
containers of meaning. Students may struggle with texts that require some familiarity with
literary traditions or reading methods. Instructors sometimes bring in terms like satire or
adaptation or provide a thumbnail description of romance to support the work of analysis,
interpretation, and use. This is perhaps most evident in the use of film. Students can describe
scenes and quote characters, but we would like them, too, to consider camera work, sound, and
genre issues. When needed, we can provide such context, but often the best way to accomplish
1
That a FYW course could adequately provide students with a universal template for writing academic papers has
long been questioned. Students will need to learn the particular discursive moves of their field in the courses they
take within that field. Our course is more experiential than informational—more about doing writing than in learning
“how to write”—and it therefore emphasizes the activity of writing alongside other writers.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 21 this is to assign a critical text that performs some of this work. If the texts you’ve assigned seem
to require an introduction to dithyrambs, a discussion of translating Italian, a digression into
Biblical scholarship, and at least some familiarity with late Borges, I would recommend
assigning other texts.
*The literary trace of ENGL 1011. UConn students
were once required to take two semesters of first-year
writing, and the two three-credit courses that existed,
ENGL 105 and 109, were, respectively, an expository
writing course and an introduction to literature. Our
two four-credit FYW courses that replaced this model
were at that time often mistaken as legacy variations
of the 105 and 109 courses. But this is not the case.
Both of our FYW courses meet the same
requirements, and students rarely take both 1010 and
1011.
[I]n real life people talk most of all about
what others talk about—they transmit,
recall, weigh and pass judgment on other
people’s words, opinions, assertions,
information…Every conversation is full of
transmissions and interpretations of other
people’s words….of all words uttered in
everyday life, no less than half belong to
someone else.
—M.M. Bakhtin
*A general rule. There is no need to downplay your training or your interests. You are likely a
very good reader with some historical knowledge and a humanities-trained skepticism of static
knowledge claims. It is perfectly reasonable to build your course around things you feel
comfortable discussing and thinking about. But remember that the course is for academic writers
in all fields, and the goal should be to help all students feel supported as writers and as thinkers.
ENGL 1011 will ask students to think about and make use of literary texts, but it is not a
student’s introduction to the field of English.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 22 The Concretes: A Checklist
This checklist focuses on nuts and bolts and is meant to complement the more substantive FYW
course goals documented elsewhere.
Over the course of the semester, you must:
• Assign at least 30 pages of revised, polished prose over the course of (usually) four major
essays.
• Conduct a substantial revision exercise (individual conference, small group conference,
peer conferencing, or other model) for each draft of a major essay (i.e., each project
making up part of the 30 required pages of writing) over the course of the semester.
• Not assign more than 300 pages of reading. Most instructors assign far less reading in
order to keep the focus on the students’ own writing.
• Include an explicit Information Literacy component in at least one written assignment
(often but not always one of the four major projects).
• Include a reflective component of some kind in the course (could be a stand-alone
assignment or could be built into other assignments).
• Provide written assignment guidelines for each writing assignment.
• Provide written feedback for each student essay.
• Assign a letter grade for each revised major essay. (Grades should not be provided for
drafts.)
• Schedule and attend at least one office hour per course per week.
• Offer some kind of course evaluation opportunity at midterm time (recommended; and
can be informal).
• Ask students to evaluate your course in the last week or so of classes. You and your
students will get a link for course evaluations toward the end of the semester, so they can
complete them online. Plan evaluations into class time during the last week of the
semester, since students are more likely to complete evaluations in class than when left to
do so on their own outside of class.
• Distribute and discuss plagiarism and ethical scholarship documents before students
submit their first essay. (Electronic copies are available at:
http://fyw.uconn.edu/instructors/forms/plagiarism.php.)
In the first week or so of class, you should:
• Not allow students to overenroll in your course. 1010/1011 courses are capped at 20.
• Give and evaluate an in-class writing assessment on the first day your class meets.
Contact the FYW Office if you notice any anomalies or have any questions. This is the
final check on whether or not your students have been placed in the appropriate FYW
course.
Handbook for English ECE Instructors 23