English 534:  Literacy and ESOL Writing                  

Spring 2004

Dr. E. Curtin                                                                   Office:   HH378

Office Hours:  MW 1:00-2:00                                         Phones: 410-548-5594 (w)

                       T      1:00-3:20                                                      410-546-6183 (h)

                        F     1:00-3:00 (added for this class)                                                                 

Other hours by appointment

Texts:

Ferris, Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing

Ferris and Hedgcock, Teaching ESL Composition Purpose, Process, and Practice

Blanton and Kroll (eds.),  ESL Composition Tales: Reflections on Teaching

Silva and Metsuda (eds.), Landmark Essays on ESL Writing

Resource texts will also be available for your use.

Course Description:

This course introduces students interested in questions of language acquisition to the theories and practices of learning to write in a second language or second dialect.  Topics include, but are not limited to theories of writing, strategies and genres embedded in western written modes of exposition; writing assessment—individualized and standardized—for K-16 ESOL writing; and other rhetorical concerns. The course exposes students to the range of genres, rhetorical and discourse conventions of written English, and the need to equip newcomer populations with the same range and breadth of written literacy expertise as their peers.  The course also includes in its focus a consideration of the influence of L1 culture, (home and school) on writing in a second language/dialect, cognitive considerations in writing in a second language/dialect, school-wide/institutional policies for writing programs for ESOL/second dialect students, considerations in the choice of effective materials for emergent to advanced newcomer writers, and finally, a battery of best practices for teachers to assist ESOL students/second dialect users develop strategies to monitor their use of and expertise in a multiplicity of English genres, discourse structures and writing conventions.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the course you should have a strong theoretical background in the issues surrounding ESL Writing and have the practical strategies for adapting different theoretical principles to classroom instruction.  Specifically, you should be able to

1. Understand and apply current theories and research in language and literacy socio-economic background, and previous schooling in the emergence of written literacy in English the 21^st century.
2. Demonstrate an ability to effectively teach ESOL students a range of genres, rhetorical and discourse structures and writing conventions in English.
3. Provide appropriate and effective feedback on newcomer writing in a bid to ensure the eventual mastery of fluent and accurate academic language proficiency in writing.
4. Use appropriate technological resources to help ESOL students/second dialect writers access and use these resources to help with their academic literacy.
5. Develop appropriate and adaptive assessment techniques to assess ESOL writing at the programmatic level (i.e., diagnostics, placement and retention purposes), as well as at the classroom level  (i.e., self assessment and peer assessment in process writing, and achievement assessment in language arts as well as other content area/genre mastery of written literacy skills). Development particularly as this concerns the fundamentals of the writing process.
6. Design a teaching strategy that incorporates choice and authenticity, while recognizing the various stages of English language and literacy development, and the importance of ESOL students’ home languages/dialects, culture, family.

Course Requirements:

You will need to read all assignments before coming to class and come to class prepared to discuss them. You will need to present a 15-20 minute discussion on a theoretical essay and consider the practical implications of that essay. You will develop a 7-10 page paper in which you connect your findings about the essay to some other aspect of the course’s readings or discussions.  You will prepare a reflective journal with at least a 2-page entry a week, discussing and examining something that you respond to in readings, in your own classes or in a field observation. (Note: one entry must be on the required field observation.) Finally, you will prepare a lesson plan concerning some aspect of teaching writing to ESOL students/second language learners.

Grading:

Class Participation/Preparation                                          10%

15 minute presentation of essay                                         20%

(Note:  All but the first presentation will concern essays in Landmark Essays.)

Essay connecting presentation to other aspect               30%

of course

Lesson Plan                                                                   20%

Reflective Journal                                                                  20%   

(Must include detailed entry of field observation)

Attendance/Courtesy

Each class represents 20% of the entire class, so act accordingly.  Should an emergency arise, we will need to make special arrangements for you to make up everything that transpires during that one day. Please turn off any cell phones, pagers or alarms before you enter the classroom unless you have an emergency situation, about which you should notify me before class begins.

Plagiarism

The English Department takes plagiarism, the unacknowledged use of other people’s ideas, very seriously indeed.  As outlined in the Student Handbook under the “Policy on Student Academic Integrity,” plagiarism may receive such penalties as failure on a paper or failure in the course.  The English Department recognizes that plagiarism is a very serious offense, and professors make their decisions regarding sanctions accordingly.

            Each of the following constitutes plagiarism:

1.                  1. Turning in as your own work a paper or part of a paper that anyone other than you wrote.  This would include but is not limited to work taken from another student, from a published author, or from an Internet contributor.

            2. Turning in a paper that includes unquoted and/or undocumented passages someone else wrote.

            3. Including in a paper someone else’s original ideas, opinions or research results without attribution.

            4. Paraphrasing without attribution.

A few changes in wording do not make a passage your property.  As a precaution, if you are in doubt, cite the source.  Moreover, if you have gone to the trouble to investigate secondary sources, you should give yourself credit for having done so by citing those sources in your essay and by providing a list of Works Cited or Works Consulted at the conclusion of the essay.  In any case, failure to provide proper attribution could result in a severe penalty and is never worth the risk.

MSDE/NCATE Technology Requirements

All students seeking TESOL certification should establish an electronic portfolio, and include as many projects from this course in this portfolio.  Detailed hypermedia presentations done for this course can be included in this electronic portfolio.  When including your portfolio selection, be sure to include: (just some tips!)

1. A brief narrative argument explaining why the selection will be integrated into your classroom pedagogy—explain why it is of importance.
2. The extent to which the selected material meets outlined course objectives—show its connection to the actual course.
3. A brief synthesis of the extent to which you feel that your selection meets a specific standard in the above cited NCATE/TESOL standards and your evaluation of whether it:

a) Approaches the specific standard

b) Meets the specific standard

c) Exceeds the specific standard

Please consult the following web page: http://trc.salisbury.edu/portfolio/Portfolio.htm

FOR STUDENTS SEEKING CERTIFICATION IN ESOL/TESOL: NCATE STANDARDS[1]

Please refer to Domains 1-5 in the document: http://www.ncate.org/standard/new%20program%20standards/tesol.pdf.

Since writing literacy is integrated into the entire document, all standards are relevant. Some specific standards are: 1.a.7 (“demonstrate ability to help ESOL students acquire a range of genres, rhetorical and discourse structures, and writing conventions in English), as well as numerous other standards: 1.a.9; 1.b.5; 1.b.7-12; 2.a.2; 3.a.4; 3.b.2; 3.b.8; 3.c.4; 4.c.2-3.

Please refer to the following web site: http://www.ncate.org/standard/new%20program%20standards/tesol.pdf for exact details. All tasks in this course are linked to these standards verbatim for the most part. The requirements chart below indicates the variety of assessments used in this particular course to meet these standards. Scores of 90-100% assume that the candidate “Exceeds Standards”; scores of 80-89% assume that the candidates “Meets Standards”; and scores of 70-79% assume that the candidate “Approaches Standards.”

Additionally, these TESOL/NCATE standards afford you the opportunity to:

1. Utilize your “understanding of language and literacy theory to provide optimal learning environments for ESOL learners.” [2]
2. Provide you with an “opportunity to conduct theory based research on issues of crucial interest in ESOL and writing.”[3]

Writing Across the Curriculum

Essay, Lesson Plan and Reflective Journal all support the university’s policy that writing be an integral part of every course and used as part of evaluation. 

Tentative Schedule: Please be alert for any changes. 

April 17 2004

Introductions

Embracing contraries

Theoretical and Practical Issues in ESL Writing  (Model essay presentation, Ferris and Hedgcock, Chap 1)

Treatment of Error

Guest speaker

April 24, 2004

Reflective Journal sharing

Essay presentations:

1. “Reading-Writing Relationships in ESL Composition “

(Ferris and Hedgcock, Chap 2)

2. “Structural Linguistics and Systematic Composition Teaching to Students of English as a Foreign Language”

3. Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education”

4. Teaching Composition in the ESL Classroom”

5. “What Unskilled ESL Students Do as They Write”

6. “Reader-Writer Responsibility “  

_______________________________________________________________               

Open discussion of Tales, p.1-48

Lesson Plan workshop

Grammar issues, Reading TBA       

May 1, 2004

Open discussion of Tales, p. 49-82

Lesson Plan workshop

Grammar issues, Reading TBA       

Midterm evaluation        

May 8, 2004

Reflective Journal sharing

13.  “Reciprocal Themes in ESL Reading and Writing”

14. “Toward an Understanding of the Distinct nature of L2 Writing”

15. “Responding to ESL Students’ Texts”

16. “Issues in ESL Writing Assessment”

17. “Contrastive Rhetoric in Contrast”

Open discussion of Tales, p.83-134

Lesson Plan workshop

Grammar issues, Reading TBA       

May 14, 2004   

Student Research Day

May 15, 2004

Reflective Journal sharing

Presentations of essay summaries

________________________________________________________________

Open discussion of Tales, p.135-162

Lesson Plan Sharing

Closing issues, grammar and other       

Due dates:

Students are required to read everything that will be discussed in any session after the first one.  With the essays for the presentations, all students should read their introductions and conclusions and have a general idea about the gist of the essays.  All reading concerning grammar and Tales need to be read thoroughly before class.  A reflective journal entry will be due in the morning of each class.  All students need to have two copies of a draft of their lesson plans by May 1 and both the presentation essay and the lesson plan are due in the last class.  Everyone should be prepared to summarize your presentation essay during the last class session.        

Acknowledgement: 

I would like to thank Dr. Anjali Pandey for her help in preparing this syllabus.  In addition to providing me with suggestions and feedback, she also provided me with the wording for some of the more technical aspects of teaching a course students need for accreditation.