Course Materials

Syllabi, Assignments and Student Examples

ENG 1101, Composition 1. (Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2019, Fall 2018)

• Sample Course Syllabus
• Course Website — Major Assignments Page

Since we developed them, in the summer of 2020, I have been using the model course curricula for my First Year Writing courses. I supervised the creation of the English Dept Model Courses and I was the principal architect of the ENG 1101 and ENG 1121 Model Courses.

• 1101 Model Course Curriculum (a daily schedule of activities for all 30 sessions in the semester).

Because our students have diverse backgrounds and interests, I developed 1101 Unit Two, The Reflective Annotated Bibliography, with student choice in mind. That is, I work closely with students to help them find a research question that truly interests them.

To find a research topic, I ask students to write reflective responses to a few questions:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. What were you interested in as a child? What happened to that interest? (How has your interest changed and grown?–or–if your interest disappeared, why? And what took its place?)
            2. What do you wish you’d been taught in high school?
            3. What do you research on your own? In other words, what do you google or look up on Wikipedia in your spare time? 

Students are then asked to look through their responses to these questions. What topic interests them the most? From there, we narrow down their topic into a guided research question, using the following in-class writing exercise:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. For the next 5 minutes, write down everything you know about this topic
            2. Now, for 5 more minutes, write down everything you want to know about your topic. 
            3. Spend 10-15 minutes researching this topic on the internet. Write down what you learned. 
            4. Now, write 2-3 questions regarding what you still want to know about your topic. 

This exercise helps students narrow down their focus, while making sure their question isn’t something that can be answered with fifteen  minutes of internet research. Students have gone on to ask such questions as:

• • • • • Why do victims of domestic abuse return to their abuser?
        • What are the barriers to a three-party political system in the USA?
        • What is the role of DNA evidence in death row exonerations? 

After finishing their research and writing a formal research report, students present their findings in the format they deem most effective to reach their desired audience. Here is a link to a series of infographics regarding DNA evidence and exoneration written by a student in this course.

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ENG 1101 LC, Learning Community with Intro to Legal Studies, Composition 1. (Fall 2020, Fall 2019) 

• Sample Course Syllabus
• Course Website-Major Assignments Page

All of the students in this learning community course were also enrolled in Intro to Legal Studies. With this in mind, I revised some assignments to be more pertinent to pre-law learning.

In this course, we see the first iteration of the Reflective Annotated Bibliography, now a major part of the model course curriculum. For 1101LC, I developed a Unit Two assignment called the “curiosity report,” in which students chose a topic with legal repercussions. At least one of their sources was required to be related to legislation.For this course, as with mainstream 1101, in Unit One, students were asked to write a narrative about their own experiences with education. I made these student narratives into an ebook organizing chapters loosely by themes.

After the Unit 1 essays were due, I assigned the following in-class group task.  My hope was that the group work would add to the vibrancy of the classroom, and the problem-solving requirement would introduce students to the process and purpose of research. Here is the prompt:

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ENG 1121, Composition 2: (Spring 2022, Spring 2020, Spring 2019)

• Sample Syllabus
• Course Website– Major Assignments Page

In this course, as with ENG 1101, I have been using the model courses, which I supervised and for which I was principal architect.

• 1121 Model Course Outline 

In 1121, I wanted students to follow their own interests while also furthering their own research skills. I also wanted them to see their writing in a “real-world” context with which they’re familiar. With these goals in mind, I developed the Feature Article assignment, which asks students to “find their beat,” as reporters often do, delving deeper into a topic on which they already have some expertise. For example, if a student is interesting in skateboarding, I might suggest they research the recent influx of preteen girls in the skateboarding scene. Because of their own skateboarding experience, the student will have some idea of where to begin their research.

Because the idea of writing a feature article may be daunting, I prepared a number of slide shows on particular facets of the feature article. These are adapted from the “Mentor Text” section of the New York Times, which interviews Times writers about their writing process. Each slideshow contains some background information on the topic, concrete examples, and some brief writing exercises to help the student put what they’re learning into immediate practice. Some of the topics covered are:

• • • • • Researching your Beat
        • How to Hook your Reader
        • The “Nutshell Paragraph” 

Here is a student feature article on the topic of medical misinformation about women’s experience of pain.

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ENG 1141, Intro to Creative Writing. (Spring 2024)

• Sample Course Syllabus
  
• Course Website

Teaching Creative Writing was a slight departure for me, as I had previously only taught composition courses at City Tech. This course was structured somewhat differently than my composition courses. That is, students were given multiple in-class writing assignments and once every two weeks, they would revise and submit one for grading.

I began the course expecting my students would have working knowledge of the major genres of Creative Writing (Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Playwriting) but I found they did not. With this in mind, I developed presentations, such as this one, entitled “What is Creative Nonfiction?”  

As seen here, my course presentations usually combine some general instruction, and then follow up with in-class writing exercises, so students can see the terms and ideas in action, while getting started on their major unit assignments.

Here is an example of student writing borne of an exercise in this slideshow, which asks students to write about food they enjoy.

Assignment Example, in-class writing:

Here is an example of an in-class fiction assignment designed to promote community and discussion among students, and to provide personal inspiration for fiction writing:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. In groups of 2-3 people (no more and no less,) students draw a picture of a monster. This CAN NOT be a monster they already know. They need to make up a new monster. Together, the group decides on the monster’s attributes
               2. The group gives the monster a name.
               3. They write a little bit about the monster’s history/ backstory.
               4. WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP, write a definition of the word “monster.” 
               5. We convene for a class discussion of their monsters and definitions. We discuss the etymology of monster, which originates from “monere,” to warn.
               6. Individually, students write for 10 minutes, a story or a poem about a monster they remember from their childhood or one of the monster drawings we’ve just completed.

Here is an example of a student response to the monster exercise.