Here at City Tech, we have two classes in our First Year Writing structure. These are ENG1101 (Comp 1) and ENG1121 (Comp 2) . There are a few versions of 1101, but they are all meant to get students ready to enter 1121. When you teach these classes, you are required to teach in alignment with our departmental learning outcomes and to use our syllabus templates. We would also like you to design your assignments using our unit guidelines.
You are encouraged to try out our model courses, but these are not required. These are fully developed semester-long curricula that include major and low-stakes assignments, as well as in-class exercises. They are there to support you! You can use assignments you like and substitute your own assignments for others that don’t work so well for you. However, we strongly suggest that faculty new to City Tech use the model courses their first semester here.
In all aspects of FYW at City Tech, we welcome feedback. We would especially love to see examples of unit or daily assignments that have worked well for you here at City Tech that you’re willing to share with other faculty!
WHO WE ARE:
Rebecca Mazumdar and Carrie Hall are co-directors of First Year Writing. We can be contacted at firstyearwriting@citytech.cuny.edu. We also have a First Year Writing website where you can find out about upcoming events and important news. Additionally, we have a Composition Skills Site, with a great deal of useful information for students and faculty on writing skills, as well as college readiness. If you’re teaching the 1101CO or ML, we encourage you to get in touch with the coordinators of those programs.
WHAT WE DO (AND WHAT WE DON’T)
The Office of First Year Writing supervises “mainstream” English 1101 and 1121 courses (see 1101/1121 Overview for more info on what that means.) We’re here to help you with questions about syllabi, teaching and curriculum design for those courses. We also may be able to help you with some student issues. We can’t help you with technical issues like getting your CUNY First or email accounts set up. We can’t help you with Open Lab, Blackboard or payroll. Sorry! If you have a question about teaching FYW, feel free to contact us first. We might not be able to answer it, but we can direct you to those who can.
We also work closely with other departments, like the co-req, the ML, First Year Programs and math to develop curricular initiatives to help our students in all facets of their lives at City Tech.
Here in the English Department, we develop curricula and we provide workshops, always optional and usually paid, for faculty on topics that may be of interest to them.
FIRST YEAR WRITING COMMITTEE
There is also a FYW Committee. This group meets once a month to discuss issues of importance to FYW at City Tech. The committee votes on important curricular matters (like the course descriptions and unit guidelines) and also talks about issues that may be coming up in our classrooms (like attendance or distribution of online vs. in-person courses). Membership is open to full-time and part-time professors. If you are interested in joining, please contact us!!
