Although teaching writing might seem like a fairly straightforward endeavor, the field of composition was and is marked by vigorous debate about proper methodologies and pedagogies. We will start with a historical overview of how composition as a method has been viewed and taught at the secondary and university level. With that contextualization in mind, we will then explore the dominant composition theories that have developed over the past sixty years (or so).

Teaching someone how to write is not a neutral act. We will discuss how these different perspectives on teaching writing reveal political and sociocultural assumptions, situations where these assumptions are/are not problematic, and places of strategy for circumventing deleterious effects.

Throughout the course, we will consider how the above applies to teaching writing in a theoretical sense as well as what these considerations look like in high school and university writing situations. In short, the aim is for you to leave this class with theoretical attitudes and pedagogical strategies that will help you be a successful writing teacher.

Class Assignments:

You will write and produce short response papers, a take home midterm essay, an ethnographic observation, a group project based in one of the theories of composition we study in class, and a teaching portfolio.

Class participation is also a factor in your grade and will be key for keeping up with the many theories we will be studying.

Required Books:

Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader; 3rd Edition – ed. Victor Villanueva

ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-8141-0977-9

Other readings will be available online.