Abstract

We are seeking funding for a one-day workshop in August for English department members to develop a proposal for a substantial revision of our core curriculum courses (ENGL 111 and ENGL 112). Our aim will be to draft a proposal for a new sequence of courses that incorporates inquiry-based models to enhance student reading and writing and that actively involves students in doing the work of the field of English studies. This workshop will allow department members a concentrated portion of time to focus concerns and ideas and work out proposals (course descriptions, goals, and ideas for implementation) for the rest of the department to consider at a faculty meeting in September and then revise and develop in a follow-up meeting in January.

Although the workshop itself is only one full day, the stipend we request takes into account the large amount of preparatory work for the participants: compiling a bibliography of appropriate readings; polling and communicating with local high school English teachers on their requirements for students; reading the portfolio of selected articles; drafting proposals for the meeting, and considering the implications of any changes we make to the core curriculum.

Rationale / Need for the project

In light of the current revision to the University’s core curriculum, the English department, for the past several months, has devoted a large portion of our monthly (now often twice-monthly) meetings to reimagining possibilities for our core courses. We are considering moving toward a curriculum that more actively and consistently promotes learning through inquiry-based instruction. A central part of an inquiry-based curriculum, as we understand it, asks students to exercise more ownership over their own learning and to gain knowledge in doing the work of the field.

As presently constructed, ENGL 111 and ENGL 112 are writing courses that incorporate an inquiry-based model for learning in the writing process as one of our primary goals is to teach writing as itself a mode of inquiry. In both the first and second course, the writing process is presented to students as a set of skills to be adopted. In other words, the instructor models the writing process and students are expected to imitate it. What the Department wants to explore is how the revised course sequence will enable students in the second course to build on the knowledge gained in the first course and develop their own writing processes. In this way, we hope that the revised sequence would move students to higher levels of conceptual understanding and encourage them to become actively involved in the processes through which they become better writers. We are also interested in examining inquiry-based learning models for teaching critical reading, for we haven’t yet, as a department, discussed in great detail our methods for teaching reading. It is reading that is getting particular attention in the recent academic literature, however, with Robert Scholes (1998) among others calling for more attention to reading in first-year courses, since students, surprisingly, often arrive at college with weaker reading skills than writing skills

Furthermore, we need to discuss how the second course can more deliberately and systematically introduce students to the types of reading and writing done by those working in the field of English studies. We want to talk about how we might more effectively incorporate the writings of literary scholars in the second course and how we help students learn to do the work of scholars of English.

At the center of this undertaking is how student learning will be affected. We are concerned that students receive the most effective instruction in reading and writing in our core courses, that they be prepared for college-level critical reading and academic writing, and that they experience the ways that literature and writing matter to their liberal arts education and future lives.

We have completed the first step in the process of revising the core sequence. The English department has met in small groups to discuss the problems with ENGL 111 and ENGL 112 as presently conceived. We’ve conducted lengthy discussions on Blackboard and in department meetings, and in February, the Department voted to begin to propose revisions to our core courses. The Bush grant will enable us to move to next level in our discussions by providing the Department with the resources to conduct preparatory research into inquiry-based instruction in the teaching of writing and reading and to gather, as a department, for sustained discussion and debate. The workshop will provide a block of time devoted solely to developing specific goals and objectives for our courses.

Goals and Objectives

Our ultimate goal for the workshop is to create at least one solid proposal for a two-course sequence that is inquiry-based and more effective for reading and writing instruction. To do this, we will need to accomplish goals along the way. We need to reflect on various “wrinkles” our revision might cause: the effects of offering core versus core-area courses; the implications on the Common Text program; implications for English majors, especially those in the Secondary Education licensure program; possible complications for students studying abroad; the affect on faculty teaching load and on the use of adjunct lecturers in our core courses.

Project Activities

The primary activity of the workshop is discussion of our concerns, discoveries, and ideas. The morning will be allotted to sharing ideas and concerns on inquiry-based learning models for writing and reading instruction, and to considering the implications of any changes we make to the core curriculum. After lunch, discussion will focus on implementation of ideas: creating course descriptions, goals, and examples of inquiry-based learning assignments for the two-course sequence.

Preparation for the project

May-June 2004: Department members will be asked to contribute suggestions for readings, and we will compile a bibliography of recent articles on reading and writing processes, and on inquiry-based models of learning in writing and reading courses, as well as course descriptions from comparable schools. In addition, we will poll English teachers from the primary feeder high schools for St. Thomas to determine what exactly they are teaching—what texts they’re reading, what writing assignments they’re giving, what grammar instruction they provide, in order to build upon and complicate what they have already done.

June-July 2004: Workshop participants will read the materials in the bibliography and, individually or in small groups, develop their own course ideas.

August 2004: Workshop participants arrive with a list of questions and concerns, thoughts from their reading, course descriptions and goals, and ideas for inquiry-based learning activities.

Evaluation and Dissemination

Proposals will be presented in our September department meeting, giving faculty time to mull them over in preparation for a follow-up session in January. Since this is the first step of a larger process of revising our core curriculum offerings, dissemination of our findings from the workshop are limited to the department at this time.