English 409.4
Using Technology to Teach Writing in the Middle School and High School
Fall 2005
Alternating Saturdays 9:00 am - 2:50 pm
8/27,  9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19 12/3
(These dates can be negotiated.)
410 stv

Jim Kalmbach (kalmbach@ilstu.edu)
421H Stevenson 438-7648, home: 454-8017
http://www.ilstu.edu/~kalmbach
Office Hours: MWF 2-3, after class, and by appointment.

Class web site: http://www.english.ilstu.edu/kalmbach/4094
Class blogging site: http://eng4094.cas.ilstu.edu (for sharing material)
Class listserv: eng 409-l (announcements only)

Visit our online publication: TWT: Teaching Writing with Technologolgy

Texts

Texts	Web sites	Click to Order
Selfe, Cynthia. (1999). Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention. Edwardsville, IL: SIU Press. An old book but so important for teachers that I keep coming back to it.	Book website Cynthia Selfe (but she has moved to OSU so look for an update.)
Takayoshi, Pamela and Huot, Brian. (2003). Eds. Teaching Writing with Computers: An Introduction. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Named the outstanding book in computers and writing studies, 2003.	Book website Pam Takayoshi Brian Hout
Wysocki, Anne Francis, Johnson-Eilola, Johndan, Selfe, Cynthia, and Sirc, Geoffrey. (2004). Eds. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Provo: Utah State University Press. Ann Wysocki designed my book cover and wrote the best piece of new media scholarship (the bookling monument) that I know of. Johndan, as an undergraduate at MTU, was a student in my visible rhetoric class.	Book website Anne Wysocki Johndan Johnson-Eilola
Gee, James. (2004). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Every year I pick one hot new theory to read and you can't get any hotter than Gee's book. This unit will not be a celebration of gaming but an attempt to discover what teachers can learn from all of this new interest in gaming and learning.	Book Website James Gee
For one week (November 5), we as a class will pick the topic and readings (which will probably be web-based). Possible topics include: online portfolios, online writing centers, new media/e-literature, hypertext, distance education, 1 to 1 computing, Copyright and FEREPA issues, etc.

For each of the above reading, three people will act as discussion coordinators. Your jobs will be to generate lists of open-ended questions and/or activities that will focus our discussion. In addition, for each the reading, everyone in the class will post a reflective response to the reading on our class blogging site (http://eng409.4.cas.ilstu.edu).

Teaching with Technology Demonstrations
Over the next five class periods, three people each demonstration of a classroom activity that you have done or would like to do using technology. You will each have about 30 minutes. I am assuming most of you are familiar with these demonstrations from the writing project and other classes. An effective demonstration does not lecture, but involves the class in a hands on activity and gives them a handout we can take home and use.

Projects
In addition to readings, you will do four projects. I have picked two projects: a technology and teaching with technology autobiography, and a gathering of internet resources on teaching with technology but I can talked out of that one, the other two will be based on your background, interests and goals for the class. Learning about these things will be a major goal of our first meeting.

Teaching with Technology Autobiography
Your first project will be to write a “Teaching  with Technology Autobiography.” You will post your autobiography to our class blogging site (http://eng409.4.cas.ilstu.edu) by September 8 so that everyone can read them. We will talk about the patterns that we see in the autobiographies in class on September 10.

Final Project
I want everyone to do some sort of sustained project involving any aspect of using technology to teach writing. I am open to any sort of a project; my one requirement is that the project advances your career in some clear way. If you are a high school teacher, you might write a paper for presentation at IATE or for publication, you might prepare a web site for a new unit you are working on, or a syllabi and proposal for a new technology-related class. If you are a graduate student in the English department, you might pick a project that moves you closer to graduation.  You will present your project during our last class.

Course Portfolio
You will each put together a portfolio of all of your work in the class with a reflective introduction. We will negotiate the form of this portfolio as the semester goes on.

Life Gets in the Way Policy
I recognize that all of you are busy people with many other commitments. I therefore have a Saturday class, "life gets in the way" policy. When the demands of work and family get to be too much, you can miss any one class this semester without feeling guilty. Of course, you still have to do the reading, write the response, do the project, etc. so it isn't really that great of offer, but still: no guilt. I realize that circumstances may be such that you have to miss more than one class; however, I will make you feel guilty as heck about doing so.

A Note on Grading
Your grade in the class will be based on the quality of your participation, on completing the various class activities, and your final project. Nothing you do in the class will have a letter grade attached to it. This is not a political statement, but a personal one: I just hate to grade things. I will, however, try to provide as much evaluative feedback as I can during the semester, and if you are ever feelings nervous about how you are doing, please stay after class and I will be happy to discuss your work with you.

Saturday Schedule
Here is how we will organize a typical Saturday:

• 9-10-10:30 Session A (usually in stv 410) discuss readings, start demonstrations
• 10:30-10:45 Break
• 10:45-12:15 Session B (place will vary) demonstrations and project sharing
• 12:15-1:00 Teaching with Technology Working Lunch: Stories from the front
• 1-2:50 Session C (Usually in stv 408) More project sharing, computer explorations, and project work.

We have a big class and lots to do so expect to be in the class until 2:50 most Saturdays.

Separated at birth?