Orientation 2008

Friday, August 15

9:00AM, Lanier 209

[All returning Graduate Assistants, Writing Center Tutors, FOC Review people]
  1. welcome
  2. intros & addresses/contact sheets, about meetings this fall
  3. keys, office assignments, copy codes
  4. email/parking, departmental office expectations
  5. who goes where during the next session

10:00AM, A&S 3-16

[Writing Center Tutors stay with Pete Carriere to the Writing Center]
[Teaching Fellows go with Alex Blazer to A&S 3-16]
  1. Opening Note: A day or two before the start of classes, find your classroom and locate your textbooks in the bookstore. Email your syllabi to Alex Blazer on Wednesday or Thursday, August 20th or 21st.
  2. Syllabi: requirements on every syllabus [Two sample syllabi]
    electronic: http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~ablazer/1101/1101-08-FA.htm
    1. Academic Affairs Handbook
      http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/handbooks/academic_affairs/aahandbook/21003.html
      1. Name of the instructor
      2. Title and number of the course.
      3. Name or titles of all textbooks and materials to be purchased or obtained by the student as requirements for the course. [Note: There are three mandatory books for 1101: an anthology of essays, a writing process rhetoric, and a grammar/style book. If you choose to order supplemental textbooks for Spring courses, follow this link: http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/bookstore/textbook/]
      4. List of all other materials or reading lists required for the course.
      5. An outline of the subject as the instructor plans to cover it in the course.
      6. An explanation and description of the grading system used in the course that covers all matters and methods of grading to be used in the course, i.e., tests, papers, participation, etc. [Fellows must assign four formal papers, at least two of which have the opportunity for drafting and revision, one of which involves the Circle book, and one of which incorporates library research. The first paper is typically a personal narrative and the final essay is usually a research paper. Other possible kinds of essays include, but are not limited to evaluative summaries, interrogative critiques, comparison/contrast papers, persuasive essays, and cause/effect papers. Besides formal papers, you may also want to assign informal writing that prepares for and builds to the formal papers. The requirements of informal writing, peer response, and formal writing as well as drafting and revision should equal about 12,000 words.
      7. A statement of the class or lab attendance policy or rules in the course and the effect that attendance has on grades. [Fellows must use a mandatory attendance policy, typically three absences before grade penalty]
      8. A brief statement of the major objective of the course.
        http://catalog.gcsu.edu/ugrad/4267.htm#o4726
        http://rome.gcsu.edu:8090/4DCGI/SACS/CourseDetail/ENGL1101
      9. Instructor's office number, office phone number, and the hours of normal availability. [Fellows must hold at least 2 office hours per week.]
      10. The actual meeting days, times, and place for the class or lab. Laboratories may be incorporated into the course outline or issued a separate outline at the instructor's option.
      11. Prior to mid-semester, you will receive feedback on your academic performance in this course.
    2. Departmental Addenda
      1. Include a policy on how late assignments will be treated.
      2. Include a policy on how plagiarism will be dealt with: According to the Honor Code and the Academic Affairs Handbook, GCSU does not tolerate plagiarism. Fellows should fail willfully and substantially plagiarized assignments──and fail the students in the course as well. If you plan to use TurnItIn.com, you must inform your students in the syllabus.
        http://www.gcsu.edu/studentlife/ handbook/honorcode.html
        http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/handbooks/academic_affairs/aahandbook/301.html
      3. Include a statement of equal opportunity, i.e. Disability Services
      4. Include information about the Writing Center
      5. Include information about the Regents’ Test
        http://www2.gcsu.edu/acad_affairs/acad_srvcs/acadassist/regents.html
    3. Miscellaneous
      1. Library visitation: Teaching fellows should plan a library visit into their syllabus, or be flexible to allow a visit to happen.
        • For all ENGL 1101 & 1102 sections, prior to a library classroom session and visit, teaching fellows must have students take the online tutorial and quiz. This can be accessed via the Library Homepage, under Access ENGL 1101. Students must hand a print out of the automatically scored quiz to their instructors before being allowed to attend the library classroom session.
        • For scheduling library classroom sessions, fill out the appropriate form via the Library home page.
        • For classroom sessions that occur from mid August to mid September, before possible research topics have been assigned, teaching fellows should clarify with research librarians about what sample topic might be best used. Teaching fellows who bring their classes to the library for the classroom session after mid September should, if possible, have specific sample topics so that the research librarians can tailor their demonstrations to better serve each class/research assignment.
        • It’s good idea to create a library (and perhaps MLA style) assignment to work in conjunction with the visit.
        • Teaching fellows will meet with Gary Austin or one of the other research librarians during the common meeting time, 12:30pm, on Wednesday, August 20th, in the Library Room 241 (near the Reference Desk).
      2. Conferencing: Teaching Fellows are strongly recommended to hold individual conferences at some point in the term, for instance before a key paper.
      3. Final Exams: Although final examinations on course content in comp courses are neither mandated nor recommended, final projects or papers must be due at the scheduled time of the final examination and we encourage instructors to use the final exam time for presentations, reflective writing, or reflective discussions on course themes and the writing process.

10:30AM, A&S 3-16
  1. Grading
    • Gradebooks and Attendance: Teaching Fellows must take attendance (we recommend using sign in sheets) and keep a gradebook, either paper (located in the department’s office supplies), office suite spreadsheet, or Georgia Vista. Aside: According to Georgia state law, instructors are not allowed to send grades through email.
    • Feedback: While informal writing like journals may be graded with simple checks, you must provide feedback on formal papers. We recommend a combination of writing in the margins and composing an endnote. Do not simply assign points or a letter grade; explain to your students what they’ve done right and well, and what is ineffective and/or unsuccessful. It’s a good idea to put what you’re looking for in your assignment prompt, and develop your grading rubric from there. If you peer review, which we encourage (see below), you can adapt the peer review questionnaire/ checklist for your grading rubric. Besides providing discursive feedback, you may also conference.
    • Drafting and Revision: Because drafting and revision are core outcomes of the course, at least two of the four formal papers must be revised, which means that two papers may be graded in the “standard” one-draft way. Because midterm grades are mandatory, you cannot use the pure portfolio method in which instructors provide feedback only (sans grades) until the final draft. However, you can devise a midterm and final portfolio system. Another possibility is using two drafts, both of which are graded; you could average the two grades, have the second replace the first, or have the higher grade stand. We recommend that peer review also be incorporated in the process so students can see receive feedback from multiple perspectives as well as practice evaluating others’ writing.
    • Grading Strategies: Do not tolerate grade campaigning. Develop your rubric and stand by it. Regarding grade distribution (read: curves), we recommend a bell curve: An A should stand for excellence, therefore give them sparingly, say four or five per course. Because of the drafting and revision process, B’s will probably comprise most grades. Because everyone does not have the same above average competence, you need to assign some C’s and perhaps even a D. As with the grading feedback above, you should contemplate (and share with your students) the characteristics of effective writing, and adapt those characteristics to the letter grade scale: http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/ ~ablazer/Common/Grades.htm and see last page of sample syllabi for “Characteristics of Effective Writing.” One way to get more revision effort out of your students, even the ones who come into the class with exceptional writing skills, is to grade more harshly on the first draft.

11:00AM, A&S 3-16
  1. Lesson Plans: Come to each and every class prepared with a goal, a purpose. A typical class will consist of 1) conducting business (taking attendance, collecting or handing back assignments), 2) answering questions about the previous class, 3) presenting a hook or introduction into the topic of the day, and 4) using whatever classroom management strategies (see next section) necessary to convey to your students the key idea and issue of the day. It’s better to be overprepared than underprepared. We strongly recommend that you write out your lessons. Don’t wing it!
  2. Classroom Management Strategies: While most of class periods will be taught by the lecture and discussion format, to engage as many students and learning styles as possible, you should also utilize audiovisual materials, hold in-class debates, bring online discussions into the face-to-face classroom, have in-class individual writing, and break students into small groups to do work. Moreover, you should create a balance of reading and writing assignments. For instance, you don’t want to plan a lot of reading on the due date of a major paper─and you don’t want to assign a major paper to be due on the day of Regents’ Exam! After a particularly heavy week of reading and writing, you may want to schedule a short film (course related, of course).
    http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~ablazer/Portfolio/index.htm#3

12:00PM, Lanier 209

Lunch: pizza in Lanier 209

1:00PM, Hall House
  1. Human Resources Orientation: Location Hall House, with Kimberly. This meeting should run an hour and a half. You do not have to attend if you are not on a GCSU assistantship.)
  2. Relationship Policies [Allen Gee]

3:00PM, A&S 3-16

[Comp people return to Alex in A&S 3-16, writing center people to Pete in Lanier 209.]
  1. I. Notes on Success (goals and outcomes) and differentiating ENGL 1101 & 1102
    [Handout provided by Dan Bauer] and SACS profile:
    http://rome.gcsu.edu:8090/4DCGI/SACS/CourseDetail/ENGL1101.
  2. Writing as a process: English 1101 should teach writing as a process, not simply the finished product. Walk your students through the stages of the writing process─from the invention stage of freewriting and brainstorming, to constructing a working thesis, to organizing ideas into an outline, to developing an outline into complete sentences and paragraphs, to sharing a draft with peers and instructor, to incorporating feedback from others as well as their own self-criticisms in the second draft or even third draft─and have them practice those phases in informal writing assignments and drafted and revised formal papers.

4:00PM, A&S 3-16
  1. PAWS
    • Use PAWS http://mycats.gcsu.edu/cp/home/loginf to access your class roster [handout], submit No Show Notification if a student fails to attend the first three days of class [demonstration], and submit grades [demonstration].
  2. Classroom Visits
    • Every Fellow’s class will be officially observed at least once in the semester by the Teaching Fellows Coordinator, Alex Blazer. The Acting Director of the MFA Program, Allen Gee, is able to visit. The Chair, Dr. Elaine Whitaker, may also observe your class. For the observation, select a day that will showcase teaching; be sure to provide the visitor with a syllabus. The visitor will expect to see written lesson plans on the day of class. After the period, Fellows will discuss the class with the observer. While the Coordinator will write a letter for the Fellow’s file, the Department Chair and the Acting Director may use this visit for a letter of recommendation for job seekers.
    • Every Fellow’s class will be unofficially observed at least once in the semester by one of the other Teaching Fellows. While the expectations for this peer visit are the same as an official visit (select a day that emphasizes teaching, provide the observer with a syllabus, have the lesson plan prepared, debrief with the visitor after the class), the peer observation letter is meant for and will only be seen by the instructor of the class. It is recommended that peer observation take place before the official Coordinator observation if possible.
  3. Monday’s grading exercise: On Monday, we’ll be sharing our grades and grading strategies for two sample papers. Assess and provide feedback on punctuation and grammar, theses, organization, analysis, and so forth; then assign a grade. Be ready to discuss your grade and how you determined it. [Handout sample papers.]

6:30PM

All are invited to Nathan’s wine & cheese reception.

Monday, August 18

9:00AM, Lanier 209
  1. Visit from the Chair, Dr. Elaine Whitaker
  2. Pete, Alex, Allen: how to handle punctuation & grammar

9:30AM, A&S 3-16

[Comp teachers with Alex to A&S 3-16, writing center tutors with Pete]

  1. Announcements
    • Encourage your students to submit to The Peacock’s Feet
    • Reminder: Teaching fellows meet during the common meeting time, 12:30pm, on Wednesday, August 20th, in the Library Room 241 (near the Reference Desk).
    • Policy Revision: All Teaching Fellows will be observed by Alex at least once over the course of the academic year. New teachers will be observed in the first semester.
  2. Grading Exercise Comparisons

10:30AM, A&S 3-16
  1. Announcement: Teaching Fellow peer groups.
  2. Syllabi sharing with Alex and Allen
  3. Comp teachers: Syllabi are due to Alex August 20th & 21st, either electronically or in his mailbox.
  4. Creative Writing teachers (xeroxes from Allen and Laura)
  5. About electronic syllabi posting on PAWS
  6. Early College with John Teschner and Ashley Emmett

12:00PM

Lunch on your own

1:30-2:00PM, A&S 3-16

[Comp teaching fellows only]
  1. Alex and Allen: sample approaches to the Convocation and Circles group book, Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones

Creative Writing Faculty: are not required to attend any of these events, but are welcome to attend any of them. For this fall, let’s plan on scheduling our own separate small meetings within the first two weeks for poetry, non-fiction, drama, and fiction, to go over with graduate students about reading for Arts & Letters.

Saturday, August 23rd, all are invited, Creative Writing program party at David Muschell’s, from 1 to 5pm. Swimming pool available. Or fishing in the ponds.

 

© Alex E. Blazer 2024