Spring 2024

ENGL 7220-01: Approaches to Teaching Writing
Professor J Palmeri

Section Description:

In this course, we will engage with research and theory about the teaching and learning of writing. While we place special emphasis on learning theoretical principles and practical strategies for teaching writing at the college level, we will also consider theories and practices of teaching writing K-12, community, and workplace settings . Some key questions that will guide our conversations include:
1)What does it mean to study and teach writing as a social, rhetorical, material, cognitive, aesthetic, and ideological activity?
2)What research-based principles and practices can enable us to prepare students (and ourselves) for a lifetime of learning writing?
3)How is the theory and practice of teaching writing evolving in light of emerging communication technologies?
4)How can the teaching of writing reinforce and/or subvert hierarchies of race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability? Or, put another way, how can we place equity and justice at the center of our writing pedagogies?
5) How are reading and writing connected? How might we employ writing and other forms of composing to enhance our teaching literary and cultural analysis?
Students in this class will have an opportunity to design a unique final course project that aligns with their personal, scholarly, and professional goals. Some options include but are not limited to: 1) crafting a scholarly essay suitable for presentation at a rhetoric and writing studies conference; 2) developing a syllabus and scaffolded assignments for a college, high school, or community writing course (with accompanying theoretical rationale); 3) developing a white paper for a public audience about a current issue related to the teaching and learning of writing.