On Teaching Composition At The Community College

"This volume is an inquiry into community college first-year pedagogy and policy at a time when change has not only been called for but also mandated by state lawmakers who financially control public education. It also acknowledges new policies that are eliminating developmental and remedial writing courses while keeping mind that, for most community college students, first-year composition serves as the last course they will take in the English department toward their associate's degree. This volume also serves as a call to action to change the way community colleges attend to faculty concerns. Only by listening to teachers can the concerns discussed in the volume be addressed; it is the teachers who see how societal changes intersect with campus policies and students' lives on a daily basis."--Adapted from back cover

Community colleges in the United States are the first point of entry for many students to a higher education, a career, and a new start. They continue to be a place of personal and, ultimately, societal transformation. And first-year composition courses have become sites of contestation. This volume is an inquiry into community college first-year pedagogy and policy at a time when change has not only been called for but also mandated by state lawmakers who financially control public education. It also acknowledges new policies that are eliminating developmental and remedial writing courses while keeping mind that, for most community college students, first-year composition serves as the last course they will take in the English department toward their associate’s degree. Chapters focusing on pedagogy and policy are integrated within cohesively themed parts: (1) refining pedagogy; (2) teaching toward acceleration; (3) considering programmatic change; and (4) exploring curriculum through research and policy. The volume concludes with the editors’ reflections regarding future work; a glossary and reflection questions are included. This volume also serves as a call to action to change the way community colleges attend to faculty concerns. Only by listening to teachers can the concerns discussed in the volume be addressed; it is the teachers who see how societal changes intersect with campus policies and students’ lives on a daily basis.

By translating theory and scholarship into concrete classroom practice in thoughtful and successful ways, Teaching Composition at the Two-Year College addresses the unique and specific needs of the two-year college teacher-scholar who teaches composition. While providing an overview of the current state of scholarship related to teaching composition at the two-year college, it also emphasizes classroom-based concerns, with particular attention to the question most important to many teachers: "Scholarship and theory is all well and good, but what do I do in the classroom on Monday?" The collection includes classic or important theoretical essays in the field (many of them written by two-year college practitioners) followed by essays written by two-year college teacher-scholars that suggest how composition scholarship and theory might translate to the distinctive setting of the two-year college.

Composition directors often have little time to prepare new instructors in methods of teaching writing and to forewarn them of the many daily problems that arise in this challenging work. Teaching College Composition, which can be read in a weekend, goes a long way toward meeting those ends. It provides information on twenty-six topics, from issues of class conduct to methods of critiquing papers to ways of evaluating student work. It also provides approaches to six of the most common writing assignments in first-year composition. Teaching College Composition can also serve as a supplemental text for a teaching of writing course, providing an element of "street knowledge" to the theoretical content.

Students’ Right to Their Own Language collects perspectives from some of the field’s most influential scholars to provide a foundation for understanding the historical and theoretical context informing the affirmation of all students’ right to exist in their own languages. Co-published with the National Council for Teachers of English, this critical sourcebook archives decades of debate about the implications of the statement and explores how it translates to practical strategies for fostering linguistic diversity in the classroom.

While there have been several studies of writing programs at larger, baccalaureate institutions, the community college classroom has often been overlooked. Authors Howard Tinberg and Jean-Paul Nadeau fill this gap with The Community College Writer, a systematic and unique case study of first semester writing students at a community college. Drawing on surveys, interviews, and samples of classroom assignments, Tinberg and Nadeau use their research at one community college to reach out to instructors throughout the nation, fostering communication between community college faculty members in the effort to establish full-fledged writing programs geared toward student success. At the heart of the book are the voices of the students themselves, as they discuss both their teachers’ expectations and their own. Through a series of case studies, the authors reveal the challenges students face as budding writers, and their firsthand experiences with writing programs at the community college level. With this informative study, Tinberg and Nadeau seek not only to encourage dialogue between student and teacher or community college instructors, but to expand the conversation about program improvement to include both two- and four-year colleges, bringing composition faculty together in an effort to improve writing programs in all schools. Included in the volume are seven appendices, including surveys and interviews with faculty and students, making The Community College Writer a comprehensive and practical guide to tackling the issues facing writing programs and instructors.

"A collection of short essays written by and for instructors of college writing that examine life lessons that both students and instructors learn from first-year composition courses"--Provided by publisher.

English Composition Teacher's Guidebook: How to Survive (and Even Thrive) as a Part-time or Adjunct Instructor is a practical and motivational handbook for the multitudes of itinerant English adjunct and part-time instructors who travel between multiple colleges and universities teaching English composition to students from different cultures and age groups. The book offers advice and recommendations that are geared specifically for this audience together with sufficient ready-to-use teaching material for a semester-long first-year composition course. The author uses imagined collegial conversations over coffee and hiking and coaching themes to draw lessons for teachers, beginning each chapter with a vignette based on his experiences hiking in scenic locations. The book contains materials for students that can be projected or copied as handouts, including work on sentence combining and analysis as well as topics, peer response sheets, and assessment rubrics for essay assignments. Both the hiking vignettes and classroom activities are illustrated by photographs which add to the interest and enjoyment of reading this book.

"First time up?"—an insider’s friendly question from 1960s counter-culture—perfectly captures the spirit of this book. A short, supportive, practical guide for the first-time college composition instructor, the book is upbeat, wise but friendly, casual but knowledgeable (like the voice that may have introduced you to certain other firsts). With an experiential focus rather than a theoretical one, First Time Up will be a strong addition to the newcomer’s professional library, and a great candidate for the TA practicum reading list. Dethier, author of The Composition Instructor’s Survival Guide and From Dylan to Donne, directly addresses the common headaches, nightmares, and epiphanies of composition teaching—especially the ones that face the new teacher. And since legions of new college composition teachers are either graduate instructors (TAs) or adjuncts without a formal background in composition studies, he assumes these folks as his primary audience. Dethier’s voice is casual, but it conveys concern, humor, experience, and reassurance to the first-timer. He addresses all major areas that graduate instructors or new adjuncts in a writing program are sure to face, from career anxiety to thoughts on grading and keeping good classroom records. Dethier’s own eclecticism is well-represented here, but he reviews with considerable deftness the value of contemporary scholarship to first-time writing instructors—many of whom will be impatient with high theory. Throughout the work, he affirms a humane, confident approach to teaching, along with a true affection for college students and for teachers just learning to deal with them.