Rasmussen

Cory Rasmussen
Dr. Barnard
Syllabus Rationale
2,053 Words
12 May 2016
Syllabus Rationale: English 103: Writing About Food
This composition course blends writing, which some people like, and food, which just
about everyone likes. I mean, what eighteen year old doesnt eat? When reflecting on his failures
in school, Mike Rose proposes, Why work hard in a class that didnt grab my fancy? (Rose
30). English 103: Writing About Food is designed for a variety of students: culinary arts majors,
food critiques, and/or people who just want to improve their sensory within their written craft.
With a topic so widely accessibleeveryone has had experience with foodit is my wish that
the course will interest students and strike their fancy. This course has been created for
enjoyment, and I hope it will be appetizing to students.
The Home Page of the syllabus provides a description of the course, course objectives,
Chapmans policies, and a button to access the rest of the syllabus. For my objectives, I wanted
to keep them simple and relative to the course, finishing them with Cook something delicious,
which probably wouldnt be found on typical composition syllabi. The policies are included on
the first page to demonstrate their importance, as I want all students to feel welcome.
This page contains relevant information to understand the course and buttons to access
specific areas of the syllabus. The mandatory text is They Say, I Say, by Gerald Graff because of
the templates inside and its accessible language. I dont want to box student writing and stifle
creativity, but since many students are coming from different writing levels, I want to provide a
resource that gives structure to writing, hoping that the structure will travel into the various
disciplines my students go into. To avoid the complaint that this composition class feels more
like a literature course, I only ask that students select one book from the list of food books. I also
ask that students watch one of the movies listed so everything isnt based on text.
The weekly schedule is full and may seem daunting at first, but I feel it will be a valuable
resource for students to keep track of assignments and due dates. Because there is so much
information, the first day will be influenced by Linda Haas idea in Quick Hits to start discussion
with students reviewing the syllabus in small groups (I will have printed copies for anyone
without a laptop) and presenting concerns, questions, and suggestions (Bender 12). While my

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teaching style has always been that of a detailed planner, I am flexible to the class concerns and
want the students to understand the syllabus and realize that I want them to enjoy this
experience.
A criticism that may arise from colleagues is the lack of published essays assigned for
readings, especially since the mandatory text is brief. Although I also provide articles throughout
the semester that will be dissected and analyzed for rhetorical methods, my course is centered on
student writing and essays, rather than long works, since trusting developing writers to make
decisions is crucial (Tchudi 19). Because of this philosophy, there are multiple weeks dedicated
to whole-class workshops. In fact, one entire week is dedicated to establishing workshop roles
and responsibilities because in Ian Barnards article, he warns that Teachers cannot expect
students to perform effectivelywithout adequate training, modeling, and discussion of whole
class workshops (Barnard 128). The rationale for spending this much time on students evaluating
student work is because Barnard also argues that students learn better and [do] more when they
[learn] from their peers as well as from an instructor (Barnard 125). I want my course to be
strong in both peer support and instructor support.
Aside from workshops, one activity that I will often do in my class is to jigsaw articles
that relate to various food topics. After instructing students how to explore the rhetoric used by
authors to evaluate, analyze, and synthesize articles, students will be placed into groupsa
different article for each groupand discuss the assigned article. Then, after discussing the
rhetoric of the article, students will join a different group to share the synopsis and findings of
their article. In Yueh-Min Huangs study about cooperative learning, Huang writes, Since
jigsaw-based cooperative learning activities distribute tasks to all the members in the group, they
not only increases student interaction, but can also get all the students to participate in the
learning activities, thus enhancing the cooperative learning effects (Huang, Liao, Huang, and
Chen 130). No student is left behind in the jigsaw activity because the expert of article A, for
instance, then joins a group and shares the findings with the experts from articles B, C, and D.
This activity is also a blessing when time is limited and there is a wealth of articles available.
Prior to this Teaching Composition course, I had been somewhat anti-portfolios because
of the amount of paperwork involved and because I also wasnt a sure student would take an
assignment seriously if it only received credit/no credit. I also didnt initially agree with Dr.
Barnards take on not assigning specific grades during the semester. I put myself in the students

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perspective. As an undergrad, conditioned by high school grades, and GPAs, and entrance
expectations, Id freak. But, after various readings, my philosophy on grading shifted. In
Kathleen Jones article on grading, she writes, I resist the urge to give them one. A grade is a
final judgment, and any single piece of writing in the portfolio is only part of a process that
should encourage risk taking and experimentation (Tchudi 259). Therefore, 30% of the course
grade is based on credit/no credit assignments. I do specify that these assignments must be
created in good faith, and I would pass out examples of what would receive credit so students
understand the expectation.
The class portfolio is worth the most, at 40% of the total grade. This portfolio will
contain a variety of assignments completed in class as well as revised copies. If students didnt
do well with the credit/no credit assignments, the portfolio allows students to still complete,
revise, and polish the assignments to improve their grade by the end of the semester.
Although the 2 major paper assignments are worth 20% of the grade, both set at 10%,
students wont see this actual grade unless they come see me during office hours. Jean Ketter has
an argument as to why this is important. She writes, students view grades as indicating whether
their ideas agreed with those of the professor, with those of the respected authority (Tchundi
114). I dont want my grade to be the only grade that influences them. This is important for not
just low scores, but I also wouldnt want a student who earned an A on the major paper not to
revise and try to make it better because it earned an A. There is always room for improvement.
These papers will be graded based on a rubric, and students will have the opportunity to revise
one of the essays for a higher grade, since I have a new understanding that the process of a work
is more important than the end product, especially if I want students to experiment and develop
their craft.
The 10% participation category is reflective of the whole class workshops. I do feel it is
important that students orally communicate, shy or not, and that the goal of an educational
system isnt to create working automatons that only produce written work. However, since
students need to bring a print out of their comments for the student being work shopped, they
may earn their participation points by reading off their sheet and igniting discussion. This can
assure shyer students that they can be successful within this grade category, without the fear of
being cold-called.

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In his book, Teaching Composition as a Social Process, Bruce McComiskey writes that

[T]eachers ought to articulate the kinds of activities they want their students to perform outside
the classroom, and they should design pedagogical techniques that develop skills in their students
consistent with these future activities (McComiskey 113). This was my goal in creating the
assignments for my course.
I only have two major papers because I want students to process the papers and develop
them throughout the semester. The first paper, Battle of the Brands, builds off of the two
restaurant review assignments in order to demonstrate how to infuse active field research and
experience with an essay. Having students start writing with a small scope (the restaurant
reviews) allows them to then focus on the larger piece. My purpose for expanding on these small
assignments and revising them into a major paper is because [r]evision might be considered the
most important stage in the whole writing process, the stage where raw material is turned into
coherent, readable communication with focus and shape. It is also the stage that many student
writers misunderstand or just dont allow time for (Leahy 51). Since students have already
created the research and some analysis, they have already made time for the grunt work of the
assignment and can focus on the development of the new prompt associated with the tasks they
have already completed. The second paper, Journey of Food, is a little longer and challenges
students to juxtapose the lessons learned in the novel that they select and their own experience
with food and social gatherings that include food. This is considered their source research paper
and will include personal experience, formatting from They Say, I Say, and examples from both
the student chosen text and movie.
The purpose behind the restaurant reviews is an attempt to turn a generation of Internet
Keyboard Warriors into rational thinking adults who can vocalize their frustrations in a rhetorical
and sane way. Reviewing the service and quality of food at a restaurant is a great way to take
something students are already experiencing and bring it into the academic round. Bruce
McComiskey claims that It should come as no surprise that students write best about subjects
that impact their lives everyday (McComiskey 56). Writing about foot and reviewing places
they are already eating is a great way to bridge my academic classroom with what they are
already doing. Students might be concerned with being able to go off campus to complete this
assignment, but I dont specify where they have to go (other than brand rivals), and the cost of a
meal (which they need anyway) is a lot cheaper than adding another textbook to the list.

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The video review may seem to be thrown in, and thats a fair judgment, but I thought it

was important to provide students with a media resource since the class is heavy on articles,
short responses, and active research at restaurants. The selection of videos is diverse, and I hope
students can find something interesting to watch. Id be open to students choosing a video thats
not on the list, but it needs to be something they have not seen before. Or does it? They may be
able to convince me.
Creating my About Me page, I am reminded of Mike Roses experience with his teacher,
Jack MacFarland who hooked him and provided a role model that wasnt shaped on physical
prowess alone (Rose 34). I think the most important thing a teacher can do is try to reach out to
students and make them aware that you not only care, but are in this profession for the greater
good, and not, for summers off. One way to do this is to establish your personality. Thats what I
want my About Me section to do. Whereas the tone in the majority of my syllabus is
authoritative and business orientated, the About Me section is more lighthearted. I comment that
this is my first year teaching a college composition course, which might be a mistake on its own,
but I also reveal that I have been an educator for eight years. This information, along with a brief
snippet of how I always wanted to be an educator since high school is next to a slideshow of
pictures that show my nerdy, quirky, and hopefully less threatening personality as an educator,
which I think is something a first year composition student might appreciate. It is freshwo/man
year all over again, after all.

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Works Cited

Barnard, Ian. Whole Class Workshops: The Transformation of Students into Writers. Issues in
Writing. Pg. 124-125. Print.
Bender, Eileen Teper. Quick Hits: Successful Strategies by Award Winning Teachers.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994. Print.
Huang, Yueh-Min, Yi-Wen Liao, Shu-Hsien Huang, & Hsin-Chin Chen. A Jigsaw-based
Cooperative Learning Approach to Improve Outcomes for Mobile Situated Learning.
Journal of Educational Technology & Society. 17.1 (2014) 128-140. JSTOR. Web. 11
May 2016.
Leahy, Richard. Conducting Writing Assignments. College Teaching.50.2 (2002) 50-54.
JSTOR. 10 May 2016.
McComiskey, Bruce. Teaching Composition as a Social Process. Logan, UT: Utah State UP,
2000. Print.
Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of
America's Educationally Underprepared. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print.
Tchudi, Stephen. Alternatives to Grading Student Writing. Urbana, Ill: National Council of
Teachers of English, 1997. Print.