Composition Program

Best Practices in Teaching ENGL101

We expect that teachers of ENGL101 will design classroom experiences based on the assumption that students must be active agents and stewards of their own education.

We list below several teaching practices that for us exemplify this pedagogical attitude. Not all teachers will employ all of these practices, employ these practices equally, or employ them in the same way. (The list is meant to be suggestive but not exhaustive.)

• Class meetings and syllabi that make the students' own writing a central focus of the class
• Opportunities for guided, informed peer review -- individually and/or as a class -- by students of other students' writing
• Class meetings that draw on student input to construct knowledge rather than only present information to students
• Assignments or activities that allow students themselves to become teachers
• Assignments and activities that emphasize collaborative inquiry and knowledge-making
• Assignments and activities that promote discovery, experimentation, problem-solving, and/or reflection
• Classroom sequences that allow students to put teachers' recommendations into practice, through brainstorming, writing, active reading, and/or revising
• Assignments and activities that validate and allow students to draw from experiences that are important in their lives outside the composition classroom
• Class meetings or other forums which encourage, authorize, and reward the contributions of many different students, and/or multiple points of view
• Written feedback on drafts and essays that emphasizes and supports the student's role in reconsidering and revising his/her writing