Note: The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.

Another note: All academic work must meet the standards contained in A Culture of Honesty. All students are responsible for informing themselves about those standards before performing any academic work.

And another: I am required to say these things on my syllabus.

TEXTS
Smagorinsky, P. (2008). Teaching English by design: How to create and carry out instructional units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Conceptual units from the Virtual Library of Conceptual Units

Chapters from a book to be published in early 2010:
Smagorinsky, P., Johannessen, L. R., Kahn, E., & McCann, T. (in press). The dynamics of writing instruction: A structured process approach for the composition teacher in the middle and high school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fun Fact
"syllabus": Syllabus began life as a printer's error in a 15th-century edition of Cicero's Epistles to the Atticans. In this work Cicero had written "indices . . . quos vos Graeci . . . sittubas appelatis," meaning "indexes, which were called sittubas by the Greeks." The printer misprinted "syllabos" for "sittubas" and syllabos, later slightly changed to syllabus (instead of sittubas), became a synonym for index. Its meaning of index or table of contents was later expended to mean "an outline or other brief statement of a discourse, the contents of a curriculum, etc." Source: The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to teach you how to plan instruction in secondary school English/Language Arts classes. Keep in mind that no single course can teach you every thing there is to know about teaching. A rigorous pre-service education can provide important preparation for teaching, but you'll learn much on the job that simply isn't available in a college course. But this course can provide you with a framework of knowledge that will help you in making instructional decisions once you are on the job, if you are willing to work hard enough, read the materials, and apply knowledge from the course to the projects you do.

Our primary task in ELAN 7408 will be to learn how to design instructional units of 4-6 weeks. After the first few sessions, we will devote time each week to a workshop in which you design a unit of instruction based on principles derived from the assigned readings and class discussions. Specific responsibilities in designing this unit are described in the Course Projects section of this syllabus.

COURSE PROJECTS
Your grade for this class will be based on an average of two components of the course:
1. A whole conceptual unit of instruction, which is due at the end of the course, is worth 50% of your grade, and will be evaluated according to this rubic. Either individually or in collaboration with one or two other students, you will prepare a teaching unit encompassing about 4-6 weeks to be used in student teaching. The unit will organize literature around a concept as described in Teaching English by Design. The unit will include the following components:

Inventory
Rationale
Goals/Rubrics
Materials
Introductory Activity
Specific lessons and activities

2. The production of different segments of this unit during the process of the course. These include the rationale, goals/rubrics, introductory activity, and a one-week sample lesson. Each of these may be revised and averaged in with the grade provided for the total of these segments. With the four different segments, each eligible for a revision, you might have between 4 and 8 items included in this portion of your grade. Regardless of how many, the averaged total of these assignments will be worth 50% of your grade.

HELPFUL STUFF ON THE WEB
You will find model units available at the Virtual Library of Conceptual Units. You should download units listed in red for models of good unit design. In addition, these units will serve as instructional tools when we go over how to produce various components (rationale, goals/rubrics, etc.) of your own units. Specific information on how to develop each of these components will be provided during the semester.

You should bookmark the URL for the UGA English Education website. The website includes online versions of the grading rubrics, Quality Assurance Contract, and other information important to your success in your courses. You should also bookmark the Outlines for Conceptual Units, the Resources for Designing Units, and the Activities that Promote Discussion pages, which will help you both in this class and in your subsequent teaching in the area of unit design.

CLASS SCHEDULE
Week 1: August 17: Introduction

Week 2: August 24: Students' Ways of Knowing, Scaffolding Students' Learning Processes
Readings for August 24: Teaching English by Design: Foreword, Preface and Chapters 1 and 2

Week 3: August 31: Alternatives to Teacher-Led Discussions, Planning the Whole Course
Readings for August 31: Teaching English by Design, Chapters 3 and 4 AND Activities that Promote Discussion Links Page

Week 4: September 7: LABOR DAY-NO CLASS
During this week, you should begin to read the Outlines for Conceptual Units and select units from the Virtual Library of Conceptual Units to serve as models for your work this semester. I also suggest consulting the Resources for Designing Units, and draw on them when designing your unit.

Week 5: September 14: Goals for Conventional Writing Assignments, Goals for Unconventional Writing Assignments
Readings for September 14: Teaching English by Design, Chapters 5 and 6 AND Virtual Library of Conceptual Units --Goals

Week 6: September 21: Responding to Student Writing, Why Conceptual Units?
Readings for September 21: Teaching English by Design, Chapters 7 and 8

Week 7: September 28: The Basics of Unit Design, Your Unit Rationale
Readings for September 28: Teaching English by Design, Chapters 9 and 10 AND Virtual Library of Conceptual Units --Rationale and Materials
Goals/Rubrics due

Week 8: October 5: Outlining a Unit, 12. Setting up the Construction Zone
Readings for October 5: Teaching English by Design, Chapters 11 and 12
Rationale due
Goals/Rubrics revisions due

Week 9: October 12: Introductory Activities
Readings for October 12: Teaching English by Design, Chapter 13 AND Virtual Library of Conceptual Units --Introductory Activities

Week 10: October 19: Down and Dirty: Daily Planning
Readings for October 19: Teaching English by Design, Chapter 14 AND Virtual Library of Conceptual Units --Daily Lesson Plans
Introductory Activity due
Rationale revisions due

Week 11: October 26: Teaching Writing I
Readings for October 26: The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, Chapters 1 and 2
NOTE: I HAVE TO BE IN NYC (FORDHAM UNIVERSITY) ON THIS DATE, SO YOU MAY WORK ON YOUR OWN OR WITH YOUR WORK GROUP. BUT PLEASE WORK.

Week 12: November 2: Teaching Writing II
Readings for November 2: The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, Chapter 3 & 4
One-week sample lesson due
Introductory Activity revisions due

Week 13: November 9: Teaching Writing III
Readings for November 9: The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, Chapter 5 & 6

Week 14: November 16: Teaching Writing IV
Readings for November 16: The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, Chapter 7 & 8
One-week sample lesson revisions due

Week 15: November 23: NO CLASS (CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH [NCTE], PHILADELPHIA)

Week 16: November 30: Teaching Writing V
Readings for November 30: The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, Chapter 9

Week 17: December 7:
Last class at my house: Final Units Due!

Calendar, Fall Semester 2009
Registration Aug. 14, F
Classes begin Aug. 17, M
Drop for undergraduate-level courses (1000-5999) Aug. 17-20, M-Th
Add for undergraduate-level courses (1000-5999) Aug. 17-21, M-F
Drop for graduate-level courses (6000-9999) Aug. 17-24, M-M
Add for graduate-level courses (6000-9999) Aug. 17-25, M-Tu
Holiday (Labor Day) Sept. 7, M
Midterm Oct. 8, Th
Withdrawal Deadline Oct. 22, Th
Fall Break Oct. 30, F
Last Day of Classes (prior to Thanksgiving Break) Nov. 20, F
Holiday (Thanksgiving) Nov. 23-27, M-F
Classes Resume Nov. 30, M
Friday Class Schedule in Effect* Dec. 8, Tu
Classes End Dec. 8, Tu
Reading Day Dec. 9, W
Final Exams Dec. 10-11, Th-F & 14-16, M-W

Commencement Dec. 18, F
Grades Due Dec. 18, F, 7 p.m.
*Note: The University shall operate a Friday class schedule on Tuesday, Dec. 8. This is done to equalize the class minutes between MWF and Tu-Th classes and to provide an equal number of class meetings for courses which may meet only once per week.