Course News
ENG1101: Book Recommendations
ENG1121: Ongoing Discussion Related to Defining the Course
Professional Development Update
Roundup from November’s Workshop on Innovative Uses of the Open Lab in FYW Courses at City Tech
City Tech Open Classroom Initiative (stay tuned!)
FYW@City Tech: Resources and Sample Assignments
Book Recommendations for ENG 1101
At October’s FYW Professional Development Workshop, several instructors expressed their interest in having a list of Recommended Books for the ENG1101 course. In an effort to respond to this request, FYW@City Tech is compiling information about full-length monographs that have been used in ENG1101 courses at the college. Professor Harris very generously contributed the following to the ongoing list of Recommended Books:
1. Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University (2009). [C. Harris/Nov. 2013]
As a journalism major at Brown University, Kevin Roose, who grew up in a secular Quaker family, is curious to bridge what he calls the “God divide” in the United States and lands on the idea of enrolling for one semester at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Roose decides to go undercover–to hide his secular orientation in order to learn about the “authentic” experience of evangelical student life. Embarking on a bold project of undercover journalism, Roose relates his experiences with Liberty students, at times funny, at times poignant, both in and out of class. There is a surprise aspect to the ending (I won’t spoil it!) that adds to the book’s suspense and keeps students reading to the end.
I chose this book in part out of personal interest after an uncle recommended it to me. He, like my father, grew up in Lynchburg, which is like a second hometown to me. I grew up knowing firsthand about Jerry Falwell and his college and out of curiosity attended services at Thomas Roads Baptist Church. I remember in the Seventies when he bought Chandler Mountain and renamed it Liberty Mountain before construction of the college was underway.
In Spring 2012 I taught Roose’s book in three sections of ENG 1101 and was surprised to learn how enthusiastically the students received him. Students are drawn to him I believe because of the undercover nature of his project, his humor, and his fair mindedness. The book struck a deep a chord with Muslim students in particular, who identified with Roose’s need to hide aspects of his religious identity to fit in. (See my textual analysis essay assignment, the wording of which I modeled after the ENG 1101 Final Exam.) In November 2013, Roose spoke to my students in ENG 090W. I was delighted by their questions, which kept the conversation going nonstop for the full 75 minutes.
Roose’s idea-rich book provides students with the vocabulary to talk about different kinds of institutions (public vs. private, secular vs. religious, commuter vs. residential), to understand the hierarchy within an institution, and to see City Tech in relation to other colleges and universities. It also allows students the occasion to write analytically about their own experience.
2. Patricia Klindienst, The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans (2006). Read the Prologue. (PDF) [C. Harris/Nov. 2013]
Master gardener Patricia Klindienst, who also teaches creative writing at Yale University, toured the United States in order to interview a variety of ethnic Americans on their gardening practices. She learns that gardening helps people who might otherwise feel “transplanted” or alien maintain their culture and create community. Gardening thus takes on political significance and enriches our sense of democracy. In her Introduction she tells how she discovered the family secret of her own Italian-American clan that led her to this project.
With every chapter Klindienst includes a brief history of the culture explored, from native Americans in New Mexico to the Gullah people off the coast of South Carolina to Polish-American vinters and Japanese-American in Washington State. Each chapter stands on its own but gains in depth when read as part of the whole book. I taught this book twice in ENG 1101 as part of a Learning Community with Biology in tandem with field trips to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We read the first two or three chapters together, and then students chose one of the other chapters as part of a research project.
3. Wangari Maathi’s memoir Unbowed (again, as part of a Learning Community with Biology) [C. Harris/Nov. 2013]
This fascinating memoir, written by the founder of the Greenbelt Movement in Kenya and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner (who worked with Al Gore on environmental issues in Haiti), is particular poignant for me to think about since Maathi has died since I last taught it. I had students read several chapters as a way to teach them how to write a summary for the ENG 1101 final exam. In Fall 2007 I also took students to hear her speak when she came to the Natural History Museum in Manhattan. This book would pair well with writings by Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong go as Maathi connects environmental justice with colonial makes the case for that environmental damage caused by colonial practices cannot be healed without educating the people on their own history and culture.
An online forum for discussing current and possible definitions of City Tech’s Advanced Composition Course, ENG1121
Please join us in the Faculty Commons (Namm 2nd Floor) on Wednesday, Nov. 20 from 12-1 for a discussion of Innovative Uses of the Open Lab in FYW Courses at City Tech. The event is being co-sponsored by the Computer Technology and Facilities Committee and will feature presentations by Professors Patrick Corbett, Thomas Wilk, and Jody Rosen.
The focus of this well-funded center is to help student writers learn about the authority of not just written texts but especially the sites and material they find on the WEB. It also hopes to allow students to practice working on multimedia projects, furthering their understanding of authority and engendering creativity as well. Ultimately, the center wants student writers to move from being mere analyzers of text to being creative producers of such material. The larger goal finally is to emphasize deliberation and to move society to one that deliberates much more thoughtfully on the issues that confront it. The question I have is: what kind of model for learning do we seek in our writing classes?
What Is First Year Writing @ City Tech?:
Introductions, Suggestions, Thoughts
Wednesday October 23, 12:00-12:30 in the Faculty Commons
Thursday October 24, 12:00-12:30 in the Faculty Commons
Please join First Year Writing @ City Tech to learn more about the First Year Writing Program, the various writing-related resources available to faculty, and to share your thoughts and suggestions regarding how we can build a better writing program at City Tech.
Faculty across the college—and particularly those who teach ENG1101, ENG1121, or other writing intensive courses–are invited.
Innovative Uses of the Open Lab in First Year Writing Courses
Wednesday, November 20, 12:00 – 1:00 in the Faculty Commons
Composition and ESL: Some Useful Resources
Compiled by Johannah Rodgers for the First Year Writing Program @ City Tech
Raimes, Ann. ESL Grammar Tip Sheets
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_AWsp3ol_kVOTU5YWI1MTUtZDRjYi00MjNjLTkwMzgtOTJiMGM2ZTNiNTA1/edit
Raimes, Ann. What ESL Students Do As They Write
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_AWsp3ol_kVNGUwMDQ1MmEtODgxOS00ZGI5LWJiYTQtMzUyMzE0NGMwOThi/edit
Matsuda, Paul Kei
Reading an ESL writer’s text.
Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal 2(1), 4 – 14.
http://sisaljournal.org/archives/mar11/matsuda_cox/
Ferris, Dana _Treatment of Error in Second Language Learning_
http://books.google.com/books?id=SxFaAAAAMAAJ&q=error&dq=error&cd=1
Please feel free to post your thoughts, suggestions, and resources for teaching writing at City Tech!
Some Questions About Literacy Practices and Writing Instruction at City Tech and Beyond
Johannah Rodgers
Assistant Professor, English Department
New York City College of Technology/CUNY
August 2012
Program-Specific Questions
1. What approaches to writing pedagogy best serve the needs of the City Tech student body?
2. What types of writing practices and assignments are most appropriate or necessary for our students?
3. What is “academic” or “college” writing in our institutional context
More General Questions
4. Is the City Tech undergraduate population unique or may these students be representative of more widespread trends in literacy experiences and practices?
5. What does it mean to be able to write in the context of current technologies and literacy practices?
6. How might these literacy practices, as well as other socio-cultural and educational trends, be changing definitions of “academic” or “college” writing?
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
