Trying a New Approach for Composition Class This Semester

There are lots of conversations about what skills students should have by the time they get out of Composition I and II and general education (GE) courses as a whole. I think this may have been a simpler answer when the majority of first year students were 18, didn't come in with AP credit, or dual enrollment. When the GE curriculum was more rigid, and completed by the majority of your freshmen. This question is harder when many of your students are transfer students, most come in with an associate's degree, and mostly go straight into upper level major courses. Also more and more students who are younger, and taking first year courses DO come in with AP or other credits earned through dual enrollment. So the foundational skills generally taught in first year composition courses potentially don't get covered or get covered very differently, you can't "count" on certain things (content or skills) being taught.

One answer, always, is to start semesters finding out where your students are. An issue with this is the lack of professors who are trained in pedagogy and assessment. Which is where common syllabi and resources often comes in, models for these things to make it easier on professors who come from a variety of backgrounds and teaching levels.

As program coordinator for English and chair of our GE committee, I'm there for a lot of these discussions. I don't have easy answers, but all of this was on my mind as I designed my composition II class this semester. So I tried something different.

First, I themed my class around fairy tales and folklore. I like theming my classes, I think it helps to provide students with a lens to view things. The zombie themed Composition I and II classes this past fall were meh. Some of that was on me, design issues, not having clear enough through lines. A lot of students just didn't like the theme. It was also just a really hard semester with Covid, and the world, and Blackboard went down for us part way through the semester and I moved us to Google Sites, and there was just a lot going on. Students said they found the Google Site easier, but with everything going on it's hard to know what was just the semester and what are areas to fix. 

The next thing I thought of when designing the course was where I wanted/needed students to end up. In Composition I and II the classes are designed around genres and in both they cover narrative then informational/argumentative. In Composition I they do a rhetorical analysis and in Composition II a literary analysis. So, knowing that I wanted the students to be able to complete a literary analysis of a fairy tale or folk tale by the end of the semester, I started thinking of what they needed to be able to do that. 

I designed our first module, narrative, around reading Cinderella. They will look up narrative literary elements. Then read "Cinderella" and annotate the story for those elements. Then they practice writing a thesis statement using TAG (title, author, genre) and a response to the tale. Each of these things are skills I've noticed students struggling with in other classes. They end their narrative module with some creative writing- writing "Cinderella" from the point of view of one of the background characters. When they turn it in, it has to be annotated with the narrative elements, not just memorizing terms, or identifying, but working with idea all unit that not all of them are always worth analyzing, focusing on.

I've noticed across lots of classes students struggling with working with sources. Finding them, choosing them, evaluating arguments, then using them to support their own arguments. For the second module on informative/argumentative the students will have modeled for them, then practice, choosing a journal article on their chosen fairy/folk tale and learning to respond to it, form an opinion, evaluate the argument. We'll walk through an article together first, modeling the skills, then they'll choose their own. Their final assignment will be an annotated bibliography of 2-3 sources. I like to have them write one paragraph similar to a rhetorical precis- identifying the argument of the piece with specific evidence, then a paragraph that tells me how the argument/article supports their argument, how they will use it.

The final module pulls these threads together. They will write a thesis statement on their chosen fairy/folk tale. They will pull evidence from the tale to "show" that. They will use their sources from the previous module to support their argument. They will write a literary analysis of their tale.

I'm hoping that seeing the overview, the end product, the "use" of each product will help them see the skills and result in the transfer of skills. I also hope that the activities I've designed to teach the skills I've noticed issues with in the past helps. There's still a lot of choice built in, which I like having for students. I've beefed up my mini-lesson, model bits, since that's something they said they wanted. They'll have these before they work on their own.

The class syllabus is here, in case anyone is interested.

Students end with a writing portfolio, a chance to reflect and revise pieces.

I've also gone back and forth on ungrading in GE classes. For my upper level students we work on a series of activities throughout the semester that they peer edit, share, as well as send to me. I provide feedback, suggestions for improvement, but no grades. They turn in a comprehensive final portfolio at the end, heavy on reflection and process. But in the GE classes, the students have struggled with ungrading. They've told me it stresses them out, causes anxiety. I want a balance. I want students to focus on feedback, learning, not the grade. I want them to reflect on improvement, revision, writing as a process. I don't want them to feel like their grade is them. I don't want them stressed or anxious. So, while I am ungrading in my uppper level courses, I've made different decisions for my GE classes. Last semester with my face to face world literature I class they had four major writing assignments at the end of each modele. Each was 25% of their final grade. The learning activities that built up to these, taught the skills were done in class, they received feedback on, we spent a lot of time workshopping in class, with writing time built in, and I always would look at drafts, but there were no grades attached to this. This worked because I built in all this class time. The learning activities didn't need a grade attached because the students saw the use. They also knew they could revise any assignment for a higher grade using the feedback they received. It seemed to be a good balance of what I wanted and they wanted/needed. They still chose their own topics, were very engaged, were more focused on the learning. I found last semester that same set up did NOT work with the online composition students. Many just didn't do the activities because there wasn't a grade, they told me they did not see the point despite lessons, announcements, videos where I explained. So, I struggled a lot when thinking about what to do with the online composition class this semester. Part of what I had to consider was the majority of these students are not just choosing a single online class, they are part of an online degree program where all their classes are online in Blackboard. So they prefer that. I wanted them to learn and practice the skills. I did not want them skipping them then performing poorly on the big assignments. So the learning activities all have a grade attached. It's 100 if you do it 50 if you don't, a complete/incomplete system (Blackboard has a I/C grading choice but does not average the math which is why I do it this way). For these learning activities the focus is on the feedback, the learning and improving. These activities are 75% of their grade. So even if English is not their thing, if they're doing the work, trying, they will pass. At my school a C is required to earn credit for all GE classes. The other 25% of their grade is for their major writing assignments, one at the end of each module and their writing portfolio. This means they can raise their C up, they can revise assignments, apply what they learned. 

I admit to being very conflicted about ungrading. I love it, I love using it in my classes, and my English majors have come around and those classes are better. But I admit I can't seem to make it work in the GE classes. So what I keep coming back to is trying to apply the underlying reasons for ungrading and trying to implement those with a framework that the students get, can work within. I think especially in online GE courses I seem to face more obstacles. While my face to face composition students came to really like grade conferences, and I made those work well, online students put on end of year evals that it was my job to grade work and they thought I was getting out of something having them argue for their own grades. I'm not saying you can't ungrade in an online class, or even an online GE class. Just that I don't seem to be able to find a good way to.

I am looking forward to this semester, I think this set up for the composition class will be successful and hopefully fun. We'll see. I think the scaffolding of modules, which is not something I've seen in composition classes, will be very cool.

I'll let you know!