I need to create my second semester fyc class. Even though we have three more weeks of school, counting Thanksgiving, but not finals, I am already gearing up for next semester.
Second semester first year composition:
I will also be teaching another freshman composition course which is composed in a way totally different from any I have ever taught. It requires four papers, each of which build toward the final research project, and which each add one additional source to the project. So, the first paper has one source. The second paper has two sources. The third paper has three sources. (I believe that these must be different sources as the final research project requires at least six sources.)
Today I found this idea on the CHE fora:
[T]his time I required that they submit, first, an abstract with a clearly stated thesis, and second, an annotated bibliography/outline, with a revised thesis. These are each worth only 5% of their grade and I do not mark off for grammar, spelling, etc. The assignments must be submitted digitally, and I slot them directly into my google docs, which I can then “share” with each individual student once I am finished commenting.
Thanks, new member Girasol, for a great idea for my second-semester fyc class.
Thinking through previous practices that might produce positive results with this class:
Requiring a pre-writing exercise that includes more than the necessary articles for the final project be found and linked.
Creating a Works Cited list for those articles.
Creating summaries of the articles the students intend to use. This actually did not work well one time, because the students then incorporated the summaries into their papers, which was not the point of the exercise. However, if they write the summaries, I know they have read the articles. (Or I find the plagiarism early.)
Projects/avenues that might contribute in a positive manner to this course:
Poster presentation as the final project.
Have the students create a poster presentation about their research and present it. This would be helpful for:
tying the first-semester fyc paper on visual rhetoric to the research project.
those who end up doing the undergraduate research fair.
those who are in the social sciences (or in the technical edges of the humanities).
Proposal and progress reports:
This would be useful to the business majors.
It would also keep me informed about what progress (if any) they are making.
It might allow me to intervene in situations where the work isn’t being done in a timely manner.
Perhaps the progress report would be most useful between the third paper and the final large project.
Things I need to find/figure out:
fyc
What the full scope of this fyc course is. (Perhaps get others’ syllabi?)
Where I can get the books I am supposed to be teaching from.
linguistics
What linguistics books the previous teacher used.
Where I can get a copy of that book.
Decide whether to use a popular linguistics book as a text as well.
Other classes:
My schedule changed yesterday. Now instead of a sophomore literature course I have taught once, I will be teaching a senior linguistics course that I have never taught.