Tentative Schedule for English 105
Horticulture/Agricultural Business Learning Community
Texts
Anderson, Chris and Lex Runciman. A Forest of Voices: Conversations in Ecology. 2nd
ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2000.
Schwenke, Karl. Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach. United States:
Storey, 1991.
Smillie, Joe and Grace Gershuny. The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master
Gardeners and Farmers. 4th ed. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green
Publishing Company, 1999.

For every Tuesday reading, you will need to fill out a written assignment. It may ask
you to explain the purpose of an introduction, explain the thesis statement, identify
the type of writing, or it may ask you to create an outline of the text. Whatever the
specific assignment, it will be something that will ask you to contemplate what the
text says and how it says it.

For reading connected to the final project (anything out of Schwenke’s book), you
need to keep a journal with notes on reading content. These will be collected
randomly and checked for quality and quantity. Everyone should be keeping notes all
the time.

For written work—whenever you hand in a paper, you have to fill out a reflection
form. The assignment will not be graded without this form.
Tentative Schedule for English 105
Horticulture/Agricultural Business Learning Community
Texts
Anderson, Chris and Lex Runciman. A Forest of Voices: Conversations in Ecology. 2nd
ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2000.
Schwenke, Karl. Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach. United States:
Storey, 1991.
Smillie, Joe and Grace Gershuny. The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master
Gardeners and Farmers. 4th ed. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green
Publishing Company, 1999.
Day One
 Introduction.
 Write an essay on how you view the soil that answers the following questions:
How would you define it? What is its purpose? How do you/would you take care
of it?
 Review outline structure.
Assignment for next time: Read “Understanding Soil Ecosystem” (Smillie and Gershuny
7-51) and make an outline of the chapter.
Day Two
 Today we’ll learn the elements of design. Someone from the College of Design
will come and work with us.
 Assignment: Create PowerPoint slideshow. Hand in to me on a CD/floppy and on
paper (three slides to a page). Include the notes that you would use to give an oral
presentation of the material.
Assignment for next time: Create an informational PowerPoint presentation.
Audience: Beginning agronomy students.
Goal: Summarize, digest, and relay information without providing commentary.
Day Three
 Peer review—write letter to peer after carefully examining the PowerPoint slides
according to the peer review guidelines.
 Revise.
Assignment for next time: Read “Observing and Evaluating Your Soil” (Smillie and
Gershuny 52-79) and make an outline.
Day Four
 Write a response letter following the guidelines on the handout.
 Hand in a copy of the original PowerPoint presentation, the peer letter, an
electronic and hard final copy of the presentation, and your response letter.
Assignment for next time: Go Horticulture 111 and do the series of soil experiments that
were outlined in the reading today.
Day Five
 Go over the elements of a proper report. Have examples from Horticulture 221.
Assignment: Write a report of your soil experiments.
Audience: Horticulture 111 professor. We’ll be grading them together.
Goal: Digest and use information. Learn proper format for a research report.
Day Six
 Peer review—write letter to peer after carefully examining the report.
 Revise and write response letter.
Reading: Read “Soil Management Practices” (Smillie and Gershuny 80-138) and make
an outline of the material.
Day Seven
 Hand in a copy of the draft, the peer letter, the revised essay, and your response
letter.
 Dr. Manu will give a short lecture on soil—this should be a review for you if you
have been keeping up with the material. Dr. Manu will have a couple of case soil
studies for you to figure out so that you can use your newly acquired knowledge
to create a “fixing plan” to make the soil healthy. Dr. Manu will be able to go
around and help you personally. He will also read through your final drafts for
accuracy.
Assignment: Explain what you need to do to make the soil you tested last week healthy.
Audience: The farmer who owns the field.
Goal: Understand, analysis, and apply information.
Assignment for next time: Do some research on the various ways that a farmer can
market his/her goods. Shoot for five alternatives.
Day Eight
 “Marketing”—Agriculture Business expert and farmers (Cindy Madsen, for
example).
 Today we’ll workshop the papers, focusing on the thesis statement and paper.
[Saturday—Go to the Farmer’s Market in Des Moines. This outing will include a small
primary research project.]
Day Nine
 Discussion—how do you view the soil now? What have you learned about soil
and how much do you appreciate it?
 The information is directly related to the final project.
Final project is turning a traditional farm sustainable. This is where you’ll get the specs
and start working on the final project. I will grade it for communication and experts will
examine the texts for accuracy in their fields.
Assignment for next time: Read “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest
Williams (Anderson and Runciman 569-575).
Day Ten
Assignment for next time: Read “Learning from Love Canal: A Twentieth-Anniversary
Retrospective” by Lois Marie Gibbs (Anderson and Runciman 550-554).
Day Eleven
Assignment for next time: Read “Fading Colors” by John Dillon (Anderson and
Runciman 292-295).
Day Twelve
Assignment: Paper on how humans effect their environment. Explain how a case can be
made that how humans effect their environment can effects humans. Refer to a case in
your own family.
Audience:
Goal: Reflection, citations, thesis, and structure.
Day Thirteen
 Review thesis and structure. Start introductions and conclusions.
Assignment for next time: Read “No Rms, Jungle Vu” by Melissa Greene (Anderson and
Runciman 223-237).
Day Fourteen
 Citations.
 “Plants”—expert lecture.
Assignment for next time: Read “A Life in Our Hands” by Keith Ervin (Anderson and
Runciman 263-280).
Day Fifteen
 Repurpose the human/environment paper, concentrating on paragraphs centered
on one main idea.
Assignment for next time: Read “Farm Machinery” (Schwencke) and take notes in your
journal.
Day Sixteen
 Rainbow revision.
 “Farm Machinery”—guest expert, local farmer and mechanic Mike Kalsem.
Assignment for next time: Read “The Land Ethic” by Aldo Leopold (Anderson and
Runciman 450-463).
Day Seventeen
Assignment for next time: Read “Farm Practices” (Schwencke) and take notes in your
journal.
Day Eighteen
 Peer review—write a letter following the guidelines set forth in the handout.
 “Farm Practices.”
Assignment for next time: Read “Voices from White Earth” by Winona LaDuke
(Anderson and Runciman 435-448).
Saturday trip to a sustainable farm, preferably a CSA.
Day Nineteen
 Research ethical issues in your chosen field in three parts. 1) Fully describe the
situation. 2) Then describe the ethics of your field. 3) How can you ethically
solve the problem? A couple of people, one from Horticulture and one from
Agricultural Business, will come and discuss ethical problems in these fields.
Hopefully this will get you started.
Assignment for next time: Read “Cash Crops” (Schwencke) and take notes in your
journal.
Day Twenty
 Repurposing assignment on the draft of ethical issues.
 “Cash Crops”—Agriculture department expert?
Assignment for next time: Read “Evaluating Children’s Ficion” (handout) and make a
comprehensive list of the evaluation criteria that the authors set forth.
Day Twenty-One
 Write an essay in which you evaluate a children’s book with the evaluation
criteria set forth in the reading. The audience will be elementary school teachers.
Assignment for next time: Read “Other Cash & Specialty Crops” (Schwenke) and take
notes in your journal.
Day Twenty-Two
 Introduction and conclusion on the draft of ethical issues.
 “Other Cash & Specialty Crops”—Horticulture crop expert?
Day Twenty-Three
 Elements of Design—students from the design college.
 Create a handout for the children’s book evaluation you’ve written.
 Evaluate a variety of newsletters and establish a set of evaluation criteria that you
would use if you needed to write an evaluation.
 Assign newsletters for the humans and environment paper.
Assignment for next time: Read “The Whole Farm”and “Conclusion” (Schwenke) and
take notes in your journal.
Day Twenty-Four
 Peer review of the two parts of the evaluation assignment—write a peer letter
according to the guidelines set forth in the handout.
 “The Whole Farm”
Assignment for next time: Read “A Fragile Kingdom” by Sue Halpern (Anderson and
Runciman 225-262).
Day Twenty-Five
 Discussion and research the butterfly given to you. Write a report.
Day Twenty-Six
 Visit the butterfly conservatory at Reiman Gardens. Written reflection.
Day Twenty-Seven
 Presentations (videotaped)
Day Twenty-Eight
 Presentations (videotaped)
Day Twenty-Nine
 Presentation evaluations
Day Thirty
 Presentation evaluations
Final exam—questions on writing and visual elements.