TEACHING CONTENTS:

Teaching Philosophy
Course Rationale
Course Progression
Student Assessment
Sample Paper
Sample Grammar Revision

From My ENG 102 Site:
Course Policies
Daily Assignments
All Major Assignment

My version of English 102 was originally developed as part of an overall English Composition curriculum revision I conducted as an Associate Professor at Valley Forge Military College.  The initial challenge in revising it for use at Montco was adding in units dealing with poetry and drama as required under the old English 102 course description: " ENG 102 continues the process begun in ENG 101 of developing in the student the values of written communication. Emphasis is placed on organizing specific kinds of evidence to support sensible conclusions. Selections from a variety of materials (fiction, poetry, drama, magazines, etc.) provide the stimulus for discussion and writing. Research techniques are included." I was advised that the Department expected all 102 courses to include poetry and drama, although the requirement for magazines was, for reasons unknown, considered optional. To deal with these requirements, I created a poetry and drama unit featuring Poe's poems and Bernard Pomerance's play The Elephant Man (1977). While the Poe readings went well (and survive in the current version of the course), The Elephant Man proved to be a bit abstract when compared with the more social or psychological issues of the rest of the readings. Worse, the students universally despised it.  When I taught the course again, I substituted George Dibdin Pitt's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1928), a choice I regret because, frankly, the play was not very good nor sophisticated.  Perhaps most problematic was that the required unit cut into the time needed to properly undertake the research paper.

            Fortunately, working with the Freshmen Committee of the English Department to address concerns raised about the transferability of English 102, I was able to help rework the course description for the course to give instructors greater flexibility by removing the mandate to teach four literary genres (or any literature at all).  That change allowed me to cut drama completely from the course and shrink the Poe segment into a three-day unit, allowing more time for the research process as a result.

            As the College began to focus more on assessment, I also added specific learning outcomes to the major paper topic descriptions so that students would know what the purpose of the assignment was in relationship to the course goals.  As I started to explore grading papers electronically, I noticed that students on the whole do not understand how to use their word processing software effectively, so I created a podcast for iTunes University on using MS Word that addressed the specific skills I believe writers should have.  I added requirements to the final paper checklists to have students use these skills.  Finally, this semester I started to use the rubric that I initially drafted for the Department's assessment plan as part of the grade feedback to students, giving them an additional measure of their skills.

            Finally, I opted to change the film used in the second unit from Alien to 28 Days Later. This decision was based on a recognition that today's students find the dread that builds throughout the first half of Alien to be far too slow for their tastes, a problem that is amplified by the fact that I have to show the film over the course of two class periods, leaving them underwhelmed after the first day's viewing.  On a personal level, after four years and approximately 70 viewings of the film, I needed a break to keep my own interest level up.  28 Days Later provides the thoughtful subtext I want in a class film but with the high speed editing that today's students expect.  I also have not solidified any specific views of the film yet, meaning that students can see their ideas affecting my own thoughts of the film, an experience that gives our class discussions and attempts at persuasive arguments more energy.