This course provides an overview of the key theories and methods that have informed writing instruction, assessment, and curricular design since the emergence of the process movement in the late-1960s. The “process” approach shifted focus from the formal features of a finished writing product to the process writers undergo to produce effective writing. The movement opened space, furthermore, for conversations about student voice, self-expression, political resistance, and exclusion.

We will explore and challenge composition theories that have evolved out of and in response to the process movement. The breadth of such work, among other things, pays greater attention to the challenges of teaching within “diverse” classrooms; to the social dimension of writing in various genres and contexts; to new media and multimodal compositions; and to the possibilities of service learning and community-based writing initiatives.

In practical terms, students will be expected to, among other things, write weekly position papers in response to course readings, write a teaching-related course paper, and complete a curricular design project.

This course encourages lively dialogue about the teaching of writing with the hope of collectively clarifying and enriching our teaching practices (or aspiring practices) in relation to the history of composition theory and practice, within the constraints of our various institutions, within the political climate of classrooms, schools and communities, and with respect to our personal convictions about what it means to teach writing in a specific place and time.

(Please note that this is a service learning course associated with the Phoenix Project. You will have the option to work three to four hours each week in a Seattle-area classroom, and receive two hours of course credit by enrolling in Education 401. Please e-mail your instructor for more information.)