Instructor: Cathlena
Martin
Email: cathlena@ufl.edu
Section: 4894
Office: Turlington 4413 or Image Lab on 4th
Floor of Rolfs Hall
Office Hours: If you need me, stay after
class any Thursday or schedule an appointment through email.
Mailbox: 4301 Turlington
Classroom: Mat 2 Tuesday period 6 and Thursday
periods 6/7
Class website: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/cmartin
Class Gradebook: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/~cmartin/gradebook/
Class listserve email: f04-4894@clas.ufl.edu
To sign up on the listserve, email f04-4894-request@clas.ufl.edu. Be sure and type "subscribe" in the body of the email text to sign up. If you email f04-4894@clas.ufl.edu, you will be emailing the entire class, but will not be subscribed. After you have emailed f04-4894-request@clas.ufl.edu with “subscribe” in the body of your email, you will receive two follow-up emails. One will contain further directions for you to follow to confirm your listserv activation. Please follow the instructions in the email.
Course Overview:
This course is designed to better acquaint elementary education majors
with the types of writing they will teach and engage in as professionals.
We will develop and employ strategies for narrative, expository, and persuasive
texts. In addition, we will develop more general strategies for inventing,
arranging, and refining the style of our texts. Though a couple of the
assignments will ask you to reflect on your views about teaching writing,
most will ask you to actually write creative and professional texts for
specific audiences and purposes. Finally, this class will approach writing
as a rhetorically-driven process, and thus will introduce you to a limited
amount of rhetorical theory.
You are expected to be familiar and fluent with the conventions of standard written English. Those needing extra help with such conventions should also purchase a writing handbook and be prepared to visit the Writing Center.
Course Objectives:
1. To learn and practice applying strategies for writing narrative, expository,
and persuasive texts, while also applying technology to teaching.
2. To practice adapting writing to specific public and professional audiences,
namely parents, counselors, administrators, and other teachers.
3. To learn conventions for several professional documents commonly written
by teachers. These include correspondence and a curriculum plan.
4. To learn techniques for improving stylistic clarity, concision, cohesion,
and coherence.
5. To share ideas, philosophies, and teaching strategies related to language
arts and writing.
6. To incorporate technology into your lesson plans and student activities.
Texts: The following books will be available at Goerings, but you may buy them anywhere you like:
Sawyer, Ruth. The Way of the Storyteller. New York:
Penguin, 1942, 1976.
Codell, Esme Raji. Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year.
Chapel Hill:
Algonquin Books, 1999.
You will also need to purchase or find a copy of The Book of Lulu, which is an interactive book and will be availible in CD or DVD format as opposed to a bound book. It can be found on Amazon or many game stores and bookstores or purchased from the parent company Organa.
I will post some materials on-line. You will find a link from the course’s schedule web page that opens another window in Adobe Acrobat or leads you to a different website. You are responsible for reading and printing out the material so as to have it in-class when we discuss it.
Class Policies and Requirements
Attendance: You, as future teachers, will not have the luxury of skipping classes once you are in a classroom setting. Therefore, to learn professionalism and because class attendance is critical to your understanding of class material, you are allowed only three absences over the course of the semester. After three absences, your final grade average will be dropped a letter grade for every day missed. A missed one-hour class counts as one absence. A missed two-hour class counts as two absences.
You are responsible for contacting a classmate or me to find out what material you missed and any work that was assigned. If work is due in class on the day of the absences, the work is due in my mailbox before class. Tardies (arriving late in class or departing class early) are not acceptable because they are disruptive, and, beyond any excused tardies, class participation grade and overall grade will be affected (3 tardies = 1 absence).
If you participate in a university-sponsored event (music, theater, field trip, or athletics), you must provide me with documentation from an appropriate authority.
Class Participation: In addition to attending class, you are also expected to contribute class discussions and participate in workshop sessions with your peers. Learning is not a solitary process, but one that necessarily involves others and I thus consider class participation a very important part of achieving this class’s goals.
Quizzes: I reserve
the right to give quizzes at any point in the semester.
Quiz
University and Departmental Policies
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the unacknowledged borrowing of someone else’s work and is a serious offense with serious consequences. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade on the paper in question and can possibly result in a failure for the course. Please consult the University of Florida’s Honor Code for a thorough description (www.dso.ufl.edu/stg/code_of_conduct.html). Academic honesty requires that all work presented in this class be the student’s own work. Evidence of collusion (working with another student or tutor) or plagiarism (use of another’s ideas, data and statement without acknowledgment and/or extensive use of another’s ideas, data and statements with only minimal acknowledgment) will lead to the procedures set up by the university for academic dishonesty in the Honor Court. There is a clear distinction between learning new ideas and presenting them as facts or as answers, and presenting them as one’s own idea. Unless the work assigned is specifically designed to be completed in groups, all work must be individual.
Essentially, plagiarism means to present the ideas
and/or words of someone else as one’s own. You commit plagiarism
if you use (without credit):
~Any part of another person’s essay, speech, or ideas
~Any part of an article in a magazine, journal, newspaper; any part of
a book,
encyclopedia, CD-ROM, online WWW page, etc.
~Any idea from another person or writer, even if you express that idea
in your
own words.
~Any image from a print or online source.
UF Computer and Software Requirement: The following is the official UF policy on the student computer requirement: Access to and on-going use of a computer will be required for all students to complete their degree programs successfully. Effective with the Summer B 1998 term, the University of Florida expects each student entering the junior year, as well as each student new to the university, to acquire computer hardware and software appropriate to his or her degree program. Competency in the basic use of a computer is a requirement for graduation. Class assignments may require use of a computer, academic advising and registration can be done by computer, and official university correspondence is often sent via e-mail. While the university offers limited access to computers through its computer labs, most students will be expected to purchase or lease a computer that is capable of dial-up or network connection to the Internet, graphical access to the World Wide Web, and productivity functions such as word processing and spreadsheet calculation. Refer to the UF Computer and Software Requirement page for any questions (http://www.circa.ufl.edu/computers/) as well as the CLAS computer policy (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/clasnet/student-computers/).
Classroom Dynamics: Because class participation relies heavily on individuals feeling comfortable expressing their opinions, you must always show respect for the diversity of opinions expressed in this class. You must also demonstrate respect for gender, racial, class, and ethnic differences among your colleagues and instructor.
Harassment: Every student in this class is expected to participate in a responsible and mature manner that enhances education. Any conduct that disrupts the learning process may lead to disciplinary action.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.
Challenging a Grade: Any complaints about separate assignments should be addressed to me and not to the English Department. If you have any complaints on the final grade, you may see me or email me. If you find that you still have complaints after our meeting, you may express your complaints on a form in the English Department Office (4012 Turlington). The form and accompanying course material will be given to Sid Dobrin for further action. A review committee may decide to raise, lower, or keep the originally assigned grade. This decision is final. The material submitted will remain on file in the English Department Office.
Grades
You'll need your Gatorlink ID and password in order to access your grades
through my online gradebook. Please keep a running total of your grades
for yourself in case I miscalculate or there is a technical difficulty
with the gradebook.
Your final grade will be calculated in the following
manner:
Participation & Attendance 10%
In class assignments and homework 5%
Blog 10 %
Story 10%
Literary Narrative 10%
Performance Letter 10%
Technology Report 20%
Technical Writing 25%
Grading Scale:
Grading scale for your final course grade:
A: 90-100 C: 70-76
B+: 87-89 D: 60-69
B: 80-86 E: 0-59
C+: 77-79
The University of Florida does not use “minus” grades. So you can’t receive a B- as your final grade for this course. However, other class work may receive minuses to allow for a more precise evaluation of the quality of your work. Rounding up for final grades is not an absolute.