AUBURN UNIVERSITY
SYLLABUS

1.	Course Number: 	CTSE 7530
	Course Title:		Organization of Program--English Language Arts
	Credit hours: 		3 semester hours
	Prerequisites:		None
	Corequisites:		None

	Instructor:		Dr. Susan (Piper) Ferguson
					pipersn@auburn.edu	whiningpoetry@gmail.com
					334-559-9995
					Office hours: Two hours prior to class and by appointment
					I also check email daily.

	Term				Summer 2010
	Day/Time		5:00-8:30 on campus/online

2.	Date Syllabus Prepared: 	August 1998; updated January 2007 and May 2010

3.	Texts or Major Resources:  

	The following are all recommended texts for your reference. For the purposes of this class you will 
	choose one text on which to focus, and you will present an overview with resources to the class. 
Additionally you will have common articles to read (provided by the instructor) and to discuss online.

Appleman, D.  (2000). Critical encounters in high school English: Teaching literary theory to
	 adolescents. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Brooke, R. E. (Ed.) (2003). Rural voices: Place-conscious education and the teaching of writing.
	New York: Columbia Teachers.
Caplan, R. (1984). Writers in training: A guide to developing a composition program. PaloAlto, 
	CA: Dale Seymour Publications.
 	Carroll, P. S. (2004). Integrated literacy instruction in the middle grades: Channeling 
		young adolescents’ spontaneous overflow of energy. New York: Pearson.
Gere, A. R., Christenbury, L., & Sassi, K.  (2005).  Writing on demand: Best practices and strategies 
	for success.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Golub, J. (2000). Making learning happen: Strategies for an interactive classroom. Portsmouth, 
	NH: Boynton/Cook. 
Mohr, M. M., Rogers, C., Sanford, B., Nocerino, M. A., Maclean, M.S., & Clawson, S. (2004).
            Teacher research for better schools. New York: Columbia Teachers College Press.
 	Moore, D. W., & Hinchman, K. A. (2006). Teaching adolescents who struggle with 
		reading: Practical strategies. New York: Pearson.
	Perry, T., Steele, C., & Hilliard, A. (2003). Young, gifted, and black: Promoting high 
		achievement among African-American students. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1983). Literature as exploration. New York: The Modern Language
	Association of America. 
Smith, M. W. & Wilhelm, J. D.  (2002). “Reading don’t fix no chevies”: Literacy in the lives of 
	
	young men.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smith, M. W. & Wilhelm, J. D.  (2006).  Going with the flow: How to engage boys (and girls) in 
	
	their literacy learning.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Valdes, G. (2001). Learning and not learning English: Latino students in American schools.

	Berkeley, CA: Teacher’s College Press.
Wilhelm, J. D. (1997). "You gotta be the book": Teaching engaged and reflective reading 
	with adolescents. New York: Teachers College Press and NCTE.

 4.	Course Description: 

Historical and contemporary overview of the English Language Arts curriculum with emphasis on implications of what the unit of analysis is when ELA programs are organized (and reorganized): i.e., whether ELA programs position students as kinds of person (by race, class, gender, IQ, and so on whether by genetics or socialization, or whatever combination) and as passive, oversocialized persons in kinds of situations (by social structure, SES, economic opportunity, the invitation to crime) or as active persons creating kinds of persons in kinds of situations organized by their intersection with a wider institutional apparatus for sorting and socializing a next generation.  ELA education is defined as comprising all the communication skills, including reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing.  Concepts of synthesis and reform; various program models and components to make the subject attuned to the social spaces where the students who attend a school reside; planning both short- and long-range curriculum design. 

5.	Student Learning Outcomes:

	As a result of their work in this course, students will be better able...

	1.	To analyze curriculum trends in English Language Arts in all areas of communication skills

	2.	To demonstrate an understanding of current curriculum issues

	3. 	To design both short- and long-range planning guides for a specific English Language Arts program

	4.	To synthesize information about curriculum trends in the context of the culture of  the times

	5.	To demonstrate knowledge of the application of NCTE Standards and the Alabama Course of Study in English Language Arts to the contemporary middle school/secondary classroom

6.	Course Content Outline:

	I.	Program Models, Standards, Components and Arrangement

A.	Understanding of current representative approaches to holistic learning and teaching for   
	the adolescent learner 
B.	Synthesizing current curriculum issues and trends 
C.	Taking a stance toward ELA program organization as a means of school change

	II.	Classroom research and application 

		A.  	Training in ethnographic observation
		B.	Understanding of the concept of social space (Mini-ethnography on a boundary between two particular social spaces in Lee County, AL)
		C.	Action research and self study
		D. 	Review of literature
	
	III.	Course literature
	
A.	Personal choice book and presentation
B.	Common article online discussion

	
7.  	Assignments/Projects:

The course is built around a series of tasks to be completed.  Late submission of task assignments may result in a lower grade.  Each class member is expected to participate in activities and discussion assuring maximum benefit for all involved to enhance ownership.  It is assumed that as English majors your work will be carefully edited before it is presented as a final product.

	1.  	Vision Statement: Each student will describe and discuss her/his vision of an English Language Arts program that works at both the community and school levels and must react to the postings of classmates’ vision statements, including explaining what in her/his experience led the student to react in the ways she/he did.  

	2.  	Mapping Project. Each student will map Lee County, AL by areas: residential, commercial and industrial sectors, major highways, roadways, public works, schools hospitals, and shopping centers, keeping track of her/his assumptions about the county.  The students will then add to their maps house prices and other evidence of have and have-not relations to wealth (e.g., identify amenities that come with neighborhoods:  look for private schools, tutoring services, check-cashing storefronts, pawn shops, expensive restaurants, Mom and Pop restaurants, corner stores, supermarkets, shopping malls).  Students will read the Auburn-Opelika News throughout the course, listing all education-relevant issues and identifying the tensions that seem to organize the reporting.  This newspaper reading will include adding three newspaper facts, spatially located, to the maps of Lee County.  Students will write 300-600 words on the distribution of educational resources on their maps of Lee County, including explaining why educational performance should be so easily tied to economic opportunity–being precise and being wary of sounding like what they have identified as problematic in newspaper coverage of the county.  Students will then write 1-2 pp on the assumptions they made in filling out maps the first class meeting and how those assumptions are confirmed and challenged by the student’s findings so far.  Students will then map Lee County by crime statistics, being careful to specify what crimes happened where and identifying the proximity of police and emergency health services; during the same work session, students will add positive facts to the maps:  parks, wedding halls, festival sites, places of worship, and so on.  Students will write approximately 500 words on what belief systems support these facts and their distribution, and what are their consequences for education.  After redoing and enhancing the educational data on their maps, students will write a final 500-1,000 word reflection in response to the following questions: How can we explain the ties between social spaces and the workings of the mind?  Can we really read social spaces?  Is this what we want to do as organizers and reorganizers of English Language Arts programs?  Is there another way to go?

	3.  	Mini-ethnography.  Each student will identify a boundary between social spaces that is in a geographic location served by the school for which the student will carry out assignment 4, below.  The student will prepare to spend time as an ethnographic observer in that space by studying and participating in class discussion of Shirley Brice Heath’s ethnographic research as an example of ethnographic observation and writing.  The student will make one to three trips to the boundary s/he has selected, will get out of her/his car, and will observe on both sides of this boundary for a minimum of two hours on each side of the boundary.  The student will make notes during and/or immediately after each of these ethnographic observations and will then represent this boundary and the social space on either side of it using ethnographic methods of observation and writing.  

	4.  	Calendar: Each student will prepare a year-long, detailed curriculum guide (an option includes a semester plan for the block schedule).  This plan will cover the area(s) that the student teaches or will teach in a middle or high school (or community college, by arrangement with the course instructor). This plan should include the requirements necessary based on grade level requirements from the Alabama Course of Study and the NCTE Standards, thorough and coherent uptake of the approaches represented by the course texts, and a rationale for the approach selected that demonstrates understanding of the social spaces where students who will participate in the course(s) reside.

	5. 	Review of Literature.
		Choose a topic relevant to program design that is of interest to you (for example: English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom).  Develop a review of literature that includes at least twenty-five sources (books, journals, articles, etc.) at least twenty of which must be no more than ten years old.  Doing this will help you as you begin to develop your review of literature for your dissertation.  You will make copies for each class member so that each student will have a resource collection of current literature.  

	6.	Book Study Presentation.
		You will choose a book from the references at the beginning of the syllabus, or you may use another
		book of interest with my approval.  You will become the expert on the book so that you may share 
		the information with other class members on your presentation date.  You will write a one page 
		summary (with reference) to distribute to each class member.  You will also present the material in 
		the book in a way of your choosing (digital presentation, Power Point, class participation in an 
		activity, etc).

	7.	Threaded Discussion. On the weeks noted on the course calendar students will participate in 
		threaded discussion online.  Each student will be responsible for reading the articles posted on the 
		course site online, and contributing to the discussion thread for that week (the instructor will provide 
		the prompt each week).  Each student must also respond to the posts of at least two other 
		classmates.  The deadline for each discussion will be posted with the prompt, and will typically be 
		one week after the assignment is made.  

8. Rubric and Grading Scale:

All tasks must be completed to earn a passing grade.  The following scale, based on a 10% scoring system, will apply:
	
		Vision statement		5% 
		Threaded discussion		10%
		Book study presentation		20%	
		Review of literature		20%	
		Mapping project		20%
		Mini-ethnography		20%
		Calendar			5%

	Grades are calculated on a 10 point scale.
		A = 90 - 100
		B = 80 - 89 
		C = 70 - 79 
		D = 60 - 69
		F = 59 or below

9. 	Class Policy Statements:

•	Attendance: Although attendance is not required, students are expected to attend all classes, and will be held responsible for any content covered in the event of an absence. 
•	Excused absences: Students are granted excused absences from class for the following reasons: illness of the student or serious illness of a member of the student’s immediate family, the death of a member of the student’s immediate family, trips for student organizations sponsored by an academic unit, trips for university classes, trips for participation in intercollegiate athletic events, subpoena for a court appearance, and religious holidays. Students who wish to have an excused absence from class for any other reason must contact the instructor in advance of the absence to request permission. The instructor will weigh the merits of the request and render a decision. When feasible, the student must notify the instructor prior to the occurrence of any excused absences, but in no case shall such notification occur more than one week after the absence. Appropriate documentation for all excused absences is required. Please see the Tiger Cub for more information on excused absences. 
•	Make-Up Policy: Arrangement to make up a missed major examination (e.g., hour exams, mid-term exams) due to properly authorized excused absences must be initiated by the student within one week of the end of the period of the excused absences(s). Except in unusual circumstances, such as the continued absence of the student or the advent of university holidays, a make-up exam will take place within two weeks of the date that the student initiates arrangements for it. Except in extraordinary circumstance, no make-up exams will be arranged during the last three days before the final exam period begins.
•	Academic Honesty Policy: All portions of the Auburn University student academic honesty code (Title XII) found in the Tiger Cub will apply to university courses. All academic honesty violations or alleged violations of the SGA Code of Laws will be reported to the Office of the Provost, which will then refer the case to the Academic Honesty Committee.
•	Disability Accommodations: Students who need special accommodations in class, as provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act, should arrange for a confidential meeting with the instructor during office hours in the first week of classes (or as soon as possible if accommodations are needed immediately). The student must bring a copy of their Accommodations Letter and an Instructor Verification Form to the meeting. If the student does not have these forms, they should make an appointment with the Program for Students with Disabilities, 1288 Haley Center, 844-2096 (V/TT).
•	Course contingency: If normal class and/or lab activities are disrupted due to illness, emergency, or crisis situation, the syllabus and other course plans and assignments may be modified to allow completion of the course. If this occurs, an addendum to your syllabus and/or course assignments will replace the original materials. 

•	Professionalism:  As faculty, staff, and students interact in professional settings, they are expected to demonstrate professional behaviors as defined in the College’s conceptual framework. These professional commitments or dispositions are listed below:
o	Engage in responsible and ethical professional practices
o	Contribute to collaborative learning communities
o	Demonstrate a commitment to diversity
o	Model and nurture intellectual vitality

10.  Justification for Graduate Credit: 

This course focuses on helping students develop in-depth understandings of issues related to English Language Arts programs, models, components, and standards.  Course objectives, content, requirements, and evaluation are based 
upon the assumption that enrolled students will be either (a) certified teachers seeking advanced state certification in
English Language Arts or (b) prospective teachers enrolled in the department.

11. Calendar

May 24	On Campus 	Intro to Program Design
Ethnographies
Mapping
Choose texts and presentation dates	
May 31	HOLIDAY		
June 7	Online 	Common Article Discussion	
June 14	On Campus	Who are my students?
Action Research
Writing a Review of Literature	
June 21	Online	Common Article Discussion	
June 28	On Campus	Designing Programs to Meet Diverse
Needs
Book presentation:
Book presentation:
Book presentation:
Book presentation:	
July 5	HOLIDAY		
July 12 	Online	Common Article Discussion	
July 19	On Campus	Choosing Classroom Resources
Planning Classroom Activities
Turn in review of literature
Book presentation:
Book presentation:
Book presentation:
Book presentation:	
July 26	Online	Common Article Discussion	
August 2	On Campus	Mini-ethnography due (present findings)
Mapping study due (present map)
Distribute review of literature to other class members (bring 9 copies)	
August 3-5	FINAL EXAM 	Submit Calendar
Submit revised work