CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence Application 2021-2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

LETTER OF SUBMISSION

2

ABSTRACT

3

COLLEGE AND PROGRAM DEMOGRAPHICS

4

PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

5-8

THE CHALLENGES

5-6

Curricular and Pedagogical Inconsistencies

5

Sizeable Part-Time Faculty Roster

5

Alignment of Online Courses

5

Increasing Dual Credit Enrollment

5

Institutional Effectiveness

6

Legislative Mandates to Developmental Education

6

Professional Development

6

PEDAGOGICAL RATIONALE

7-8

Access and Opportunity

7

Integrating Reading and Writing

7

High-Impact Practices

7

Rethinking Developmental Education

8

Professional Identities and Contingent Faculty

8

EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION: IMPLEMENTATION, INSTITUTIONALIZATION, AND SUSTAINABILITY IMPLEMENTATION

9-14 9-12

Custom Textbook

9

Campus-Wide Common Read

9

Canvas Resources

10

Lecture Series

10

Professional Development

11

INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

13-14

APPENDIX A: ENGL 1301: COMPOSITION I SYLLABUS

15

APPENDIX B: INTRODUCTION TO NCTC’S FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION PROGRAM FROM CUSTOM TEXTBOOK

17

APPENDIX C: INTRODUCTION TO COURSE FOCUS

17

APPENDIX D: INRW 0305 AND ENGL 1301: “RHETORICAL LISTENING” ESSAY

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APPENDIX E: CANVAS RESOURCES

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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August 31, 2021 Re: CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence Application To the Selection Committee: It is with great pleasure that we submit our application for the CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence Award for the North Central Texas College “First-Year Composition Textbook and Common Read Project.” Enclosed in this application is our abstract, college and program description, pedagogical framework, evidence of innovation, and appendices.

We are exceptionally proud of the work that we’ve done over the past four years, and it is our pleasure to share more about this project with the committee. Thank you for your consideration for this honor.

Sincerely, Rochelle Gregory, Ph.D. (Division Chair) Kristen Weinzapfel, MA (Faculty Lead) Jacob Arnold, MFA (Faculty Lead) and The First-Year Composition Committee at North Central Texas College

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LETTER OF SUBMISSION

In fall 2018, the First-Year Composition program at North Central Texas College sought to address seven challenges facing its program: •

Curricular and pedagogical inconsistencies,

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A sizeable part-time faculty roster,

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Irregular online course alignment,

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A robust institutional effectiveness plan,

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Steady dual credit enrollment increases,

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Co-requisite education legislative mandates, and

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An increased demand (but limited funding) for faculty professional development.

That semester, the First-Year Composition faculty launched its “textbook project,” as it became known around campus, to create an invigorating, exciting, and collaborative academic experience for its students and faculty that relied on five key components: an NCTC-specific custom textbook, campus-wide common reads, faculty and student resources in the college’s LMS, a college-wide lecture series, and faculty professional development.

In the four years since the project’s launch, the First-Year Composition program has developed into an exciting and innovative program that has fostered collaboration across the department, disciplines, and college and has promoted equity for its 3000 students across the division’s 200 sections of Developmental English and First-Year Composition on six campuses, thirteen off-site instructional sites, and online. The project has also allowed the division to offer meaningful professional development to its sixteen full-time and 30+ part-time faculty members while meeting the division’s and college’s institutional effectiveness goals.

A four-year review has shown that the “NCTC Textbook Project” has positively impacted student success and achievement, including during a pandemic.

ABSTRACT

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North Central Texas College (NCTC), established in 1924, is the oldest continuously operating community college in Texas, serving approximately 9000 students each academic year. NCTC is an open-admission, two-year college located in Denton, Cooke, Montague, and Young counties. Our campuses cover a service area north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex that spans more than 100 miles and includes more than 800,000 people. As stated in the college’s mission, NCTC is “dedicated to student success through institutional excellence.” NCTC accomplishes its mission and encourages student achievement by providing affordable, quality learning environments and comprehensive student support.

NCTC offers Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS), Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT), Associate of Applied Science (AAS), and Associate Degree of Nursing (ADN) degrees that enable students to continue their education toward four-year degrees at any college or university. NCTC also provides career and technical training, including occupational skills awards, certificates, and associate degrees in fields such as Business Management, Computer Information Technology, Criminal Justice, Cyber Security, Database Management, Electrical Technology, Engineering Technology, Equine Sciences, Farm and Ranch Management, Fire Science, Horticulture, Industrial Mechanics, Machining, Mobile Applications Design, Networking Technology, Petroleum Technology, Radiological and Surgical Technologies, and Welding.

NCTC is committed to providing innovative and affordable educational opportunities for North Texas rural and suburban students. Tuition at NCTC is less than 1/3rd the cost of tuition at a four-year university, and a sizable percentage of students (75%) receive financial assistance, including federal, state, or institutional aid.

Most students (62%) at NCTC identify as white and non-Hispanic, 21% as Hispanic, and 8% as Black. Regarding gender, 56% of students identify as female and 43% as male. NCTC is also committed to increasing minority student enrollment and becoming an “Achieving the Dream” campus.

The English department is the largest division on campus. More than 3000 students are enrolled each fall and spring semester in Developmental English, First-Year Composition (Composition I and Composition II), Technical Writing, Creative Writing, and sophomore literature on 6 campuses, 13 off-campus instructional sites, and online. The department currently employs sixteen full-time faculty and approximately thirty part-time faculty to teach face-to-face, online, and hybrid modalities courses during 15-week, 8-week, 5-week, and 3-week semesters.

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COLLEGE & PROGRAM DEMOGRAPHICS

The narrative that follows summarizes 1) our program’s history and the challenges of the various orientations toward writing at our institution, 2) how our custom textbook and common read project address those challenges, and 3) the principles informing our program’s writing pedagogies.

THE CHALLENGES. In fall 2018, our First-Year Composition program faced seven significant challenges: curricular and pedagogical inconsistencies, a sizeable part-time faculty roster, irregular online course alignment, the need for program-wide institutional effectiveness assessment, steady dual credit enrollment increases, co-requisite education legislative mandates, and an increased demand (but limited funding) for faculty professional development. Meeting these challenges required creative and innovative solutions, and the department’s First-Year Composition faculty were enthusiastically committed to the task.

embedded dual credit instructors teaching high school courses throughout the day. Addressing our program’s curricular and pedagogical inconsistencies would allow the department to provide curricular resources that would support and demonstrate respect for part-time faculty members’ labor and time while providing a meaningful, equitable, and pedagogically sound experience for our program’s 3000 students.

Alignment of Online Courses: On average, NCTC offers fifty fully online sections of First-Year Composition each semester. These courses are capped at 25 students and taught primarily by adjunct faculty members, mostly women. The majority work more than one job while also serving as the primary caretakers for their children, parents, or disabled spouses. Historically, online adjunct faculty at NCTC developed their courses independently, including all curriculum, assessments, and rubrics. These courses were developed without any guarantee of employment and-since online courses needed to be fully developed before the first day of class--without compensation.

Curricular and Pedagogical Inconsistencies: Before 2018, there was little alignment within the First-Year Composition program. Pedagogical approaches, course design, curriculum, and assessment standards varied widely between faculty members’ courses. Also, there was no alignment between Developmental English and First-Year Composition: Developmental English courses relied on current-traditional pedagogical practices with tear-out worksheets and online grammar quizzes, whereas First-Year Composition courses varied between genre-acquisition theory, social construction, Belletristic rhetoric, creative expressionism, and the modes. Across the department’s 16 full-time and 30 part-time faculty members, its writing assignments varied widely regarding their scope, length, and evaluation criteria. While the department invited FirstYear Composition faculty to use the recommended textbook (Composition I: Everyone’s an Author and The Bedford Guide to Writing; Composition II: Arguments about Literature and The Bedford Guide to Writing), only part-time faculty members were required to use them. The situation then became that, while the full-time faculty selected the department textbooks, almost all of them opted to use different ones.

Additionally, online courses varied widely in their organization, curriculum, assessments, and engagement, and, as noted earlier, there was little alignment between Developmental English and First-Year Composition faculty.

There was also little alignment between Composition I and Composition II online courses. Data showed this lack of alignment had adverse effects on students’ success: From spring 2016 to fall 2018, approximately 50% of the students who earned an A or B in their online sections of Composition I were unsuccessful (earning D, F, or W) in the online section of Composition II. Increasing Dual Credit Enrollment: Our division provides First-Year Composition instruction to more than 1400 dual credit students across 13 off-campus instructional sites. We rely on embedded high school teachers who teach junior and senior English and First-Year Composition in those districts. Dual credit embedded instructors face the additional challenge of meeting their high school employers’ and NCTC’s administrative and curricular demands (e.g., course schedules, class sizes, attendance/ grading policies, roster/grade submissions). Additionally, it can be difficult for embedded instructors to feel included in the department since they often cannot participate (e.g., attending in-service, convocation, division meetings, and professional development opportunities hosted during the

Sizeable Part-Time Faculty Roster: Our program’s lack of pedagogical focus proved incredibly challenging, considering our department’s sizable part-time faculty population. Additionally, the First-Year Composition faculty were concerned about the fair and ethical use of part-time faculty members’ intellectual and emotional labor. It was increasingly difficult to hire and onboard new faculty members to the department and maintain consistent alignment between courses to ensure an equitable and engaging experience for all students. Part-time faculty members might be hired or lose a courses days before a semester began. Also, many part-time faculty members were PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

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workweek) because of their high school campus responsibilities. These challenges raised concerns that the dual credit curriculum did not meet the WPA guidelines for best practices in First-Year Composition. Dual credit students must have a comparable and equitable experience to their on-campus peers with the same academic rigor, critical thinking, and engagement expectations.

Considering these factors, it was essential to create more substantial curriculum alignment between the dual credit courses and curriculum on our college campuses to ensure that rigor was maintained and dual-enrolled high school students and embedded high school faculty were connected to the institution as a whole.

completed their college-credit courses. Therefore, THECB lowered the minimum scores, which moved a significant number of students out of developmental education and into credit courses. At NCTC, specifically, in fall 2017, more than 300 students were moved out of Developmental English and into First-Year Composition.

Second, THECB’s revision to the TSI minimum placement score also coincided with a second major revision to developmental education in Texas: The Texas legislature passed House Bill 2223 that mandates all exit-level Developmental English courses be co-aligned with reading and writing-intensive credit courses. At NCTC, the faculty overhauled the INRW 0310 course to support ENGL 1301: Composition I. Still, NCTC faculty faced several challenges regarding curricular design and alignment to implement HB 2223: Because NCTC’s Developmental English courses relied on currenttraditional models that focused extensively on grammar instruction with little alignment and introduction to academic genres and texts and NCTC did not offer any co-curricular courses that bridged or supported students concurrently enrolled in both Developmental English and Composition I, it would be challenging to foster a sense of continuity and community that facilitated any alignment between Developmental English and First-Year Composition without significant curricular redesign, curricular alignment, and faculty professional development.

Institutional Effectiveness: The necessity to track and measure the institutional effectiveness of course-level outcomes has become more critical in higher education, and writing programs are charged with demonstrating students’ competencies. Identifying outcomes, collecting assignments, assessing the artifacts, and making substantive improvements grew exponentially more difficult as NCTC’s enrollment increased from 2015 to 2019. While the First-Year Composition faculty were committed to promoting student excellence in the classroom, tracking course-level outcomes through department-wide assessment measures proved tedious and frustrating. The lion’s share of the burden also fell primarily on the previous department chair. The current model was untenable and unsustainable.

Legislative Mandates to Developmental Education: Before fall 2017, Developmental English courses (ENGL 0305, ENGL 0310, INRW 0405, READ 0305, READ 0310) were offered within the College Preparatory Studies division. There was no curricular alignment between Developmental English and First-Year Composition, and Developmental English and First-Year Composition faculty had little professional engagement with each other. However, in summer 2017, the college moved all Developmental English courses into the English department to promote curricular alignment and student success. Additionally, that summer, the Texas Higher Education Coodinatinating Board (THECB) and the Texas legislature mandated two significant revisions to developmental education:

Professional Development: NCTC’s English division has 16 full-time and approximately 30 part-time faculty members on 6 main campuses, 13 remote instructional sites, and online. The department’s faculty members have various experiences and educational backgrounds, from Composition and Rhetoric to literature and Creative Writing.

Full-time faculty members had access to professional development funding and opportunities, but half of all First-Year Composition courses were taught by part-time faculty members with few available resources. This background provided a wealth of experience for the department to draw upon but, with few opportunities to collaborate and engage, most faculty were siloed and isolated.

First, THECB lowered the TSI minimum placement scores for Reading, Writing, and Math based on research that showed students were overwhelmingly misplaced in developmental education based on minimum TSI scores that were too high. Instead, reserch showed that, when developmental students were placed into credit courses and provided additional curricular support, they 6

PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

[...] Developmental college students need sustained practice and guidance with nonfiction texts that introduce them to key questions and concepts from different academic disciplines. These texts give them the chance to join the conversation.” We believed that our students, regardless of their prior circumstances, had the skills and aptitude for reading and understanding dense text when given proper instruction and encouragement. Our common reads would be opportunities for that apprenticeship and support.

PEDAGOGICAL RATIONALE. The First-Year Composition program sought to meet the earlier challenges with an approach grounded in current composition theory scholarship and disciplinary best practice.

Access and Opportunity: It was vitally important that our community college students, many of whom are low-income, first-generation, had access to the same high-impact learning opportunities and experiences that their peers had at more affluent, four-year universities. Our approach aligns with the metaphor of higher education as a process that Jenny Stuber describes in her essay, “Inside the College Gates.” Viewing education as a process (rather than a possession) allows educators to offer students the “social and cultural competencies” that prepare them for success outside of the classroom. We wanted our students to access the social and cultural experiences that enrich their writing and lives.

High-Impact Practices: As faculty, we could recall the moments in our college education when we were inspired by a lecture, lesson, or assignment. We remembered those high-impact moments that resonated with us some ten, twenty, or thirty years later, and we sought those experiences for our community college students. Our work would have to align with the five drivers for student success, outlined by Jillian Kinzie and George Kuh in “Reframing Student Success in College: Advancing Know-What and Know-How.” We must:

Our program’s goals--to read and discuss meaningful ideas with invigorated and excited faculty and world-renowned authors--align with a similar point that Patrick Sullivan articulates in his essay, “Measuring ‘Success’ at Open Admissions Institutions: Thinking Carefully about This Complex Question,” when he writes, “Community colleges offer all kinds of students--and especially non-traditional students and students from the most marginalized and financially disadvantaged sectors of our society--what no other college or university has ever offered them before: opportunity, hope, and the chance to build more prosperous and satisfying futures for themselves.”

Develop a comprehensive approach to student success.

To achieve this, we needed to move out of our Developmental English and First-Year Composition silos and work together as a division with readings, textbooks, and assignments that informed and scaffolded on each other. We wanted to collaborate and learn from our colleagues in other divisions--all of us working together toward the shared goal of student success.

Make literature-informed, empirically-driven decisions.

We relied on our collective expertise in Composition and Rhetoric, Writing Program Administration, Developmental English, dual credit, online education, Institutional Assessment, creative writing, and Writing Across the Curriculum to select our common reads and textbooks, to develop the writing assignments and rubrics, and to inform our administrative practices. We understand that our work in the classroom must also be recursive and informed by our assessments and outcomes. We also wanted to develop our disciplinary knowledge with meaningful, engaging professional development that benefited part- and full-time faculty in our division, college, and community. We believed then and now that “rising tides raise all boats.”

Integrating Reading and Writing: We wanted our students to develop as readers and writers into “a community of scholars.” We believed that this could be achieved by reading and writing about challenging ideas and unique perspectives. We also wanted our students to leave our courses feeling accomplished that they had read and understood dense, college-appropriate texts, especially since many of our students confessed in our college-wide surveys that they rarely or never read books for pleasure.

Katie Hern notes in “Thoughts on Selecting Readings” that students can only become stronger readers by reading: “A few short articles on a theme aren’t going to be enough for them to really develop their academic literacy. Students need exposure to different topics, writing styles, levels of challenge; they need texts they work on closely during class and texts that they process on their own.” This is especially true for emerging and developing readers and writers: “One of the reasons students arrive at college under prepared for the reading is that they haven’t been apprenticed to be effective readers across the disciplines.

PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

Enact cultural systems of student success. Our response to the challenges that we faced could not begin and end with our classes; instead, we knew we would present our proposal and project to the Chancellor’s Cabinet and the 7

Board of Trustees and inform them of our successes and missteps along the way. We would seek out articulation agreements with high schools to help their developmental students transition to our college, and we understood that the work we would do prepared students for transfer and into the workforce.

Our project would meet these goals by relying heavily on student writing produced in our courses each semester. Our full- and part-time faculty would rely on our students’ writing when we came together to develop the curriculum and assess its effectiveness. We would emphasize our project’s development and faculty members’ needs during department meetings, in-house workshopping, and professional development. We would engage in ongoing grade norming that brought together the Developmental English faculty, who are now a part of the English division. Our full- and part-time Developmental English faculty would also be invited to participate on the First-Year Composition committee.

Create clear pathways for student learning and success. To accomplish this goal, we sought to create a program that was informed by our collaboration with other divisions on campus and prepared students for the academic expectations they would face at four-year universities when they transfered. We would invite our colleagues across North Texas to our professional development and campus-wide events to promote collaboration between our institutions and build better pathways for students.

We would use this project to integrate our developmental students into the fabric of our program and college and invite them to participate by introducing them to the readings, textbook, and signature assignments, by attending the lectures, and by supporting their faculty with meaningful professional development. We would also facilitate workshops and professional development with area high school teachers to support their work in preparing students for college writing.

Enact a mindset based on student success. We knew that community colleges were the most diverse places in higher education. Our students were coming to the classroom with a wealth of experiences and a knowledge-base that was informed by their work, families, and cultures. We sought to create a program founded on an asset-based framework that focused on what our students could do when given an inspired and inspiring curriculum informed by excited and enthusiastic faculty members.

Professional Identities and Contingent Faculty: In “Not Just a Matter of Fairness,” Jeffrey Klausman addresses the importance of including part-time faculty in all aspects of the writing program to create a coherent program. Because of the size of our part-time faculty population in our FirstYear Composition program, it was imperative that we, too, involve all of our faculty in the curriculum development, assessment, and revision process. It would not be enough to build a program that dictated to our part-time faculty members a textbook. For instance, in prior semesters, part-time faculty were required to use the department selected textbook semester-after-semester with no input or flexibility. In contrast, our full-time faculty could experiment, diversify their course readings, and participate in meaningful professional development. We believed that our part-time faculty should have the same opportunities that our full-time faculty had. Considering that a sizable population of our students would be taught by part-time faculty, it was imperative to our students’ success. To achieve these goals, we were committed to involving part-time faculty deliberately in the department’s curriculum development, assessment, and professional development programming.

Rethinking Developmental Education: The Two-Year College Association, in their white paper on developmental education reforms, offers eight recommendations for developmental writing that informed our project’s development: 1. Involve developmental education instructors, including contingent faculty, in reform design and implementation.

2. Initiate localized research-based pilot programs rather than state-wide changes.

3. Prioritize evidence from local assessments and research on student success.

4. Use multiple pieces of evidence, including student writing, to assess student needs and abilities.

5. Replace multi-choice exit exams with local assessment of student work.

6. Fund and develop strong academic support systems for students.

7. Support ongoing professional development for all developmental educators.

8. Support two-year college English faculty partnerships with area high school teachers.

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PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

In fall 2018, North Central Texas College’s First-Year Composition program launched what commonly and informally became known as “the Textbook Project.”

This project sought to address the department’s key challenges with an innovative and enthusiastic approach focused on improving student writing and engagement while being informed by the disciplinary best practices. At the heart of the project was a commitment to providing our community college students with innovative, imaginative, and inspiring classroom experiences that mirrored their peers’ high-impact opportunities at four-year universities. We believe passionately that all students deserve educational experiences that invite curiosity and promote academic rigor regardless of income, age, and educational background. Our community college students deserve to belong to a “community of scholars,” led by faculty who are prepared, included, and well-respected by our institution.

This project has been led by the division chair, Dr. Rochelle Gregory, who holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Texas Woman’s University; two First-Year Composition Faculty Leads; and First-Year Composition Committee, a diverse group of seven full-time and nine part-time faculty members who teach across the college district on the main campuses, on the off-site instructional sites, and online. We also modeled aspects of our project on a similar approach initiated at one of our partner universities, the University of North Texas, under the guidance of former WPA, Dr. Kyle Jensen.

IMPLEMENTATION. NCTC’s First-Year Composition “Textbook Project” relies on five key features: a custom-printed rhetoric textbook, campus-wide common reads, Canvas resources, an author lecture series, and faculty professional development.

Students purchase the textbook for all of the First-Year Composition courses when they begin Developmental English or Composition I. The bundle includes an NCTC custom version of The Hub (with assignment sheets and rubrics), This I Believe (Vols 1 and 2), Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts. This bundle is available at any NCTC campus bookstore for $117 and is used for Composition I and Composition II (costing approx $60/course). For students in Developmental English, they use this bundle in three courses (costing approx $40/course), and the textbooks meet the learning outcomes in all Developmental English and First-Year Composition courses (see Appendix A for a representative syllabus).

In the preface, students are introduced to NCTC, the First-Year Composition program, and the courses’ yearlong focus (2018-2020: “Environmental Sustainability”; 2020-2022: “The Art of the Essay”). The custom textbook also includes sections that outline strategies for success: “First-Year Composition Focus 2021-2022: Inquiry-Based Writing (What Is an Essay and What Does it Mean to Study the Art of the Essay?),” “On Having Difficult Conversations and Rhetorical Listening,” “Writing in FirstYear Composition,” “Strategies for Success: Understanding Arguments,” “Strategies for Success: Collaboration and Teamwork,” “Reading in Academic Contexts,” “and “Revision” (see Appendix B).

The custom textbook includes the four department-wide signature assignments and holistic rubrics that align the courses’ outcomes and core competencies. These signature assignments and rubrics, developed by the First-Year Composition faculty for use in online and face-to-face courses, promote rigor, consistency, and alignment between the Developmental and First-Year Composition courses (see Appendix C). Because the custom textbook is revised every academic year, all full- and part-time Developmental English and First-Year Composition faculty are invited to collaborate each spring semester to revise the preface by revisiting the four signature assignments, adding and incorporating additional resources and models for students, and revising the assignment rubrics.

Custom Textbook: A foundational aspect of the “Textbook Project” is the custom textbook, published by Macmillian, that opens with an NCTC-specific preface and is followed by a rhetoric textbook, The Hub, by Peter Adams.

EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

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obligation to mentor and nurture new academics in the field.

The second part is a custom version of the rhetoric textbook, The Hub by Peter Adams, that is used in all Developmental English and First-Year Composition courses, encouraging students to be familiar and confident with the course readings and course design.

Therefore, we are committed to providing support and resources to help our faculty in the face-to-face and online classrooms. These Canvas resources include model syllabi, lesson plans, content pages, video lectures, reading quizzes, discussion boards, and rubrics. The Canvas resources also align with the course outcomes for seamless data collection and with the WPA Outcomes Statement for FirstYear Composition. These resources communicate department expectations and onboard faculty quickly into the department that, in turn, creates a more robust, engaging, and seamless learning experience for students (see Appendix E). Respectful of their intellectual property and emotional labor, our department compensated partand full-time faculty and students for the content they produce that is shared in Canvas.

Campus-Wide Common Reads: As part of students’ experiences in First-Year Composition, all students in Developmental English, Composition I, and Composition II participate in a campus-wide common read. Selected for a two-year cycle by the First-Year Composition committee, the common reads are to build on high-impact learning practices by promoting an interdisciplinary approach to First-Year Composition that infuses enthusiasm and collaboration across campus.

From fall 2018 to summer 2020, in conjunction with the theme of “environmental sustainability,” students in Developmental English and Composition I read Jayson Lusk’s Unnaturally Delicious: How Science and Technology are Serving Up Superfoods to Save the World. In Composition II, students read Paul Kingsnorth’s Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist.

Our First-Year Composition faculty develop and revise the Canvas resources to reflect the new focus and common reads, and they are regularly revised based on faculty and student feedback. Faculty are encouraged to use as such, and modify the resources as they deem appropriate. The Canvas resources provide part-time and new full-time faculty members with a seamless introduction and integration into our program, and because both full- and part-time faculty were familiar with Canvas considering our integration of the platform into our program, we were also able to pivot smoothly online due to the pandemic in March 2020 and subsequent semesters with as little disruption as possible to students’ course experiences due to the pandemic.

From fall 2020 to summer 2022, in conjunction with the theme of “the art of the essay,” students in Developmental English and Composition I are reading This I Believe, Vols 1 and 2. In Composition II, students are reading Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier.

We introduce developmental writing students to the common reads, rhetoric textbook, signature assignments and rubrics, and assignments in their Developmental English courses. Our goal is to integrate our emerging writers wholly into our campus community and help them feel more confident with the course readings and design when moving into their college-credit courses. Faculty are currently reviewing texts for the 2022-2024 cycle with a commitment to selecting texts from authors who identify as BIPOC or LGBTQIA.

Lecture Series: As part of our First-Year Composition program, we bring the common read authors to campus each year to meet with students, faculty, staff, and the community. These lectures create an authentic experience for students that we believe inspires them to think critically as they engage with the classes’ texts. As a mid-size community college, it can be challenging to bring highprofile authors to campus, so by partnering with our textbook publisher, we can provide these lecture events for free while supporting our program’s commitment to engaging and meaningful experiences for our writing students.

Canvas Resources: As part of the division’s commitment to supporting our part-time faculty and treating them respectfully, humanely, and professionally, all English faculty are provided with course-specific resources in Canvas to support their work in the classroom. We understand the intellectual, emotional, and physical labor that goes into creating a meaningful and rigorous curriculum for our First-Year Composition students. We also understand that many part-time faculty members are hired quickly before the semester begins and that their course loads are subject to enrollment. We also believe that we have a professional

In October 2018, we hosted and recorded a Skype interview with Paul Kingsnorth, author of the ENGL 1302 common read, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist. (Mr. Kingsnorth was scheduled to attend the campus in April 2020, but we had to cancel it due to the pandemic.)

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EVICENCE OF INNOVATION

Professional Development: By collecting a $7 royalty from the custom textbook for the NCTC preface (at approximately $.10/page or the equivalent at the campus copy machine), we have collected more than $40,000 in royalties from our NCTC-specific textbook to support campus-wide First-Year Composition and Writing Across the Curriculum professional development opportunities for all NCTC part-time and full-time faculty. Our part-time faculty have access to funding to attend conferences and are compensated for their participation at in-house professional development.

We have also had so much interest from the community that we have invited students in Rhetoric and English graduate programs in North Texas and adjunct faculty from surrounding community colleges to attend.

We published the interview on YouTube, where it is publicly available and has been viewed more than 5000 times: https://youtu.be/1qc8sULoa-4.

In August 2019, we hosted Professor Michael Palmquist, author of Joining the Conversation, on campus for our college-wide in-service to discuss writing-intensive courses and linking writing across the curriculum to critical thinking. This workshop was open to all NCTC full- and part-time faculty and helped our faculty develop assignments that invite students to “write to engage” and find a middle ground between “writing to learn” and “writing in the disciplines.”

In October 2019, we hosted a professional development workshop with Dr. Krista Radcliffe that focused on teaching faculty how to work with students to engage in rhetorical listening. This free event was open to all NCTC full- and part-time faculty, staff, and administration to attend. We also shared the event on the WPA listserv and invited any interested part-time and graduate students in the area to attend the all-day workshop at no-cost. Each participant received a copy of Dr. Radcliffe’s book, breakfast, and lunch, and we discussed strategies for employing rhetorical listening in our classrooms when working with students. The FirstYear Composition faculty used this workshop to develop a signature assignment in Developmental English and Composition I (see Appendix D).

In March 2019, we hosted two on-campus events with Professor Jayson Lusk, author of the Developmental English and Composition I text, Unnaturally Delicious, led by two NCTC faculty members and attended by more than 400 faculty, students, staff, and community members.

In April 2021, we hosted an online Zoom event with the author of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Jaron Lanier, available to all students, faculty, staff, and the community. The event was led by an English faculty member and is available to watch in students’ Composition II courses.

In August 2020, the First-Year Composition program hosted an online workshop with Peter Adams, author of The Hub, to discuss co-requisite writing education and embedding student success lessons and resources to help students navigate higher education and their writing courses.

The First-Year Composition faculty are excited to welcome world-renown author and scholar Temple Grandin to campus in April 2022. Students are currently reading and writing about her essay, “Thinking in Pictures,” published in This I Believe, Vol 1. The event will also be recorded and published online and will be open to all students, faculty, staff, and the community.

EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

In February 2021, the First-Year Composition program hosted Dr. Baburhan Uzum from Sam Houston State University for our department’s full- and part-time faculty members to address the theory and practice of teaching English language learners.

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Part-time faculty members who attended the event received a $100 stipend for their time and participation.

In June 2021, we led two in-house professional development events online, “Building Engagement in Online Courses” and “Compassionate Pedagogy.” These events were hosted by full-time and part-time faculty members, who were compensated each with a $500 honorarium for their leadership and expertise. Full- and part-time faculty members who attended the two events received a $100 stipend for their time and participation.

In February 2022, Professor David Blakesly will be hosting an all-day workshop on teaching terministic screens in the First-Year Composition classroom. This event will be open to all full- and part-time faculty, staff, and North Texas colleagues. Part-time faculty members who attend the event will receive a $100 stipend for their time and participation.

Because we had to cancel our professional development scheduled for fall 2020 due to the pandemic, the First-Year Composition faculty voted unanimously to donate the allocated funds ($10,000) to support emergency scholarships to students affected by Covid-19.

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EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY. The “Textbook Project” has shown that for students completing their First-Year Composition courses, they have demonstrated continuous improvement and success that we have observed through effective, ongoing assessment.

We measure student success (A, B, or C) through department-wide, in-house assessment of student artifacts.

variety of texts”) has improved from 1.71 to 1.84.

In Composition II, regarding Student Learning Outcome 5 (i.e., students will “apply the conventions of style manuals for specific academic disciplines”) has improved from 1.60 to 1.91.

Regarding our students’ grade distributions, our student success data from the pilot’s launch in fall 2018 until spring 2020 has shown continuous improvement from 79% in 2016-2017 to 2019-2020, with 83% of students completing Composition I and II with an A, B, or C.

Regarding our course-level assessments, we align our courses’ outcomes in Canvas, gather data, and conduct grade norming workshops to make decisions to improve student learning while meeting our accreditation requirements.

Our student learning outcomes and grade distributions data did not account for the 2020-2021 academic year when our offerings went online due to Covid-19. Still, our success data were acceptable: Both student outcomes (approximately 1.75 in all areas) and grade distributions (75%) were in keeping with similar trends throughout the college. We believe that this data reflects the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and the challenges students faced in an entirely online environment, but it also shows our faculty’s dedication and commitment to student success during these difficult times.

We also hold regular meetings each semester with First-Year Composition faculty to revise lessons, assignments, and rubrics. We have added additional content pages to the custom preface based on instructor feedback, revised discussion boards, clarified signature assignment directions, and revisited the verbiage in the rubrics to be more consistent with department nomenclature. We have used this data and feedback from students and faculty to lead in-house professional development workshops on grade norming, curriculum development, online engagement, and utilizing best practices in writing program administration.

We have also used this work to develop alternative placement methods (we call “Multiple Measures Assessment”) that launched in fall 2021, informed by research on self-directed and holistic placement, and we have been able to keep our class sizes reasonable at twenty-two students per course on average.

This work has been so effective and well-received by faculty members, division chairs, and upper administration that we have led workshops over the past four years on utilizing inhouse assessment of student artifacts and tracking learning outcomes as part of the college’s institutional effectiveness strategy. We also developed college-wide assessment methods and rubrics for core competencies (i.e., communication, critical thinking, teamwork, social responsibility, personal responsibility, and empirical/ quantitative analysis) for all AA and AS degree programs.

Students’ responses have been overwhelmingly positive to our textbook project--as articulated in class, their semester reflections, and their course evaluations. For example, one student in Composition I wrote about the course design, readings, and signature assignments:

Regarding our course-level outcomes, we have shown that our “Textbook Project” has let to improvement throughout the program. For example,

“I think that this semester was one of the most beneficial English courses I’ve taken to date. With the combination of discussion posts, assignments, and engaging feedback, my confidence in my writing has improved.

The amount of engagement with each assignment has, in my opinion, the best takeaway from this class. Looking back at the rhetorical listening unit, I’ve learned how to take in the information I’ve read or heard more effectively by finding what premise(s) the author is coming from. I enjoyed writing about Prejean’s essay because I wasn’t only captivated by her writing and the experiences she had and considering what came to be that influenced her actions.”

In Composition I, regarding Student Learning Outcome 1 (i.e., students will “demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative writing processes”), our data shows that our program has improved in this area from 1.73 (on a 2.0 scale) to 1.84 (on a 2.0 scale).

In Composition I, regarding Student Learning Outcome 2 (i.e., students will “read, reflect, and respond critically to a variety of texts”) has improved from 1.65 to 1.84.

In Composition II, the Student Learning Outcome 2 (i.e., students will “read, reflect, and respond critically to a EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

13

Both full- and part-time faculty have also responded favorably to the project:

“As an online adjunct instructor and a work-from-home mother of a 2-year old amid a pandemic, something I most appreciate about the ongoing First-Year Composition project is the amount of time and effort I am now able to focus on student engagement, which ranks at the top of my list because fostering connections with students can be challenging in an online setting.”

“Our department’s First-Year Composition project has been extremely beneficial to me as a full-time instructor and to my students as well. The common reads, custom textbook, and signature assignments create a sense of community and equity. I have benefited from the constant collaboration with my colleagues as we come together to choose themes, create assignments and rubrics, and attend professional development. I have noticed tremendous growth in my teaching style and ability to listen and learn from others since the project was implemented. From listening to my students, I’ve learned they appreciate knowing that all NCTC students across all campuses are reading, discussing, and writing about the same issues. They can make meaningful connections between what we discuss in the common reads and what they learn in their other courses.”

“Through the First-Year Composition project, I can equally focus my time and attention on my students and my child. I feel that the First-Year Composition project has benefited my instruction in this way, and I look forward to continuing the project for the NCTC English division for years to come.”

In closing, we are excited by the enthusiasm for this project to further our program’s sustainability, as demonstrated by our students and faculty. We are committed to our students, profession, and division, and we believe that this project demonstrates the opportunities available to our students, regardless of their income, age, or educational background.

This project shows what is possible with collaboration, ingenuity, and a commitment to ethical and equitable disciplinary practices.

“As a full-time faculty member, I appreciate the sense of community, continuity, and cohesiveness established in our First-Year Composition courses. Students and faculty alike are working towards success through using a custom-printed rhetoric textbook, common reads, Canvas resources, author lectures, and faculty professional development. In our custom-printed rhetoric textbook, we have assignments specific to North Central Texas College. Not only do our students have a sense of continuity between our textbook and master courses in Canvas, but they can recognize the blueprint for success laid out before them. Often, textbooks are never opened in a course and therefore deemed a waste of financial resources and time spent reading. Our First-Year Composition students consistently express their appreciation for this textbook and credit it for their success on their major course assignments. This sense of inclusion is also paramount among faculty -- adjuncts and full-time instructors alike.

We are all working towards a common goal rather than a splintered approach that often leads to conflicting objectives. As a result, we all benefit from our collective strengths and learn from our collective weaknesses.”

We close the preface with a quote from Fred Newton Scott as a reminder to both students and faculty of the significance and importance of our charge in First-Year Composition: “We are not here to drill pupils in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but to bestow upon them the potentiality of service of thousands and perhaps millions of their [people]—to develop in them the power to move humanity to noble deeds by the communication of the truth. If there is in the teaching profession a higher or a more stimulating function than that, I do not know what it is.”

“Without fearing if my content is rigorous enough, or even too rigorous, as an adjunct instructor, I can focus 100% of my efforts on helping my students achieve their learning outcomes instead of setting the Outcomes.

Since the Canvas resources are not prescriptive, each instructor adds their unique voice and pedagogies while maintaining a unified structure throughout the department.”

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EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

APPENDIX A: ENGL 1301: COMPOSITION I SYLLABUS The following is a selection from the course syllabi for ENGL 1301: Composition I. Course Name & Number: ENGL 1301 (Composition I) Course Description (NCTC Catalog): Intensive study of and practice in writing processes, from invention and researching to drafting, revising, and editing, both individually and collaboratively. Emphasis on effective rhetorical choices, including audience, purpose, arrangement, and style. Focus on writing the academic essay as a vehicle for learning, communicating, and critical analysis.

Textbook and Materials / Package Components Short Title: CP THEHUBDVA NCTC&ACH&THIS&V2&10 ISBN-10: 1319383351 ISBN-13: 9781319383350 The bundle includes an NCTC custom version of The Hub (with assignment sheets and rubrics), This I Believe (Vols 1 and 2), Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts, and online access to Achieve. This bundle is available at any NCTC campus bookstore for $117 and will be used for ENGL 1301 and ENGL 1302 (costing approx $60/course).

Program Purpose Statement. NCTC seeks to implement its goal of providing quality freshman and sophomore level courses in arts and sciences that parallel the lower division offerings of four-year colleges and universities by offering a coherent sequence of courses with appropriate breadth and depth to prepare a student for transfer to a university.

Read, reflect, and respond critically to a variety of texts.

•

Use Edited American English in academic essays.

•

Critical Thinking Skills (CT): creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information

•

Communication Skills (COM): effective development, interpretation, and expression of ideas through written, oral, and visual communication

•

Teamwork (TW): the ability to consider different points of view and to work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal

•

Personal Responsibility (PR): the ability to connect choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making [Rev. 5-2014 THECB]

“B” Work: This is good work and delivers substantial information—that is, substantial in both quantity and interest-value. It is well-developed and unified around a clear organizing principle that is apparent early in the piece.

There is evidence of the writing process.

B+ = 87 B = 85 B- = 82 B-/C+ = 80

Student Learning Outcomes. Students who successfully complete English 1301 will meet the following learning outcomes: Demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative writing processes.

“C” Work: This is an average piece that is generally competent in its development, organization, style and tone, and mechanics. It meets the needs of the assignment, has few mechanical errors, and is reasonably organized and developed. This piece also shows some evidence of the writing process.

Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution.

APPENDICES

•

Evaluation.

“A” Work: This writing is excellent and demonstrates excellence in development, organization, style and tone, and mechanics. There is clear evidence of the writing process (invention, drafting, revision, editing, and proofreading).

A = 95 A- = 92 A-/B+ = 90

Departmental Purpose Statement. The English department provides quality instruction to students pursuing their academic and career goals.

•

Write in a style appropriate to the audience and purpose.

Core Objectives. Courses in this category focus on developing ideas and expressing them clearly, considering the effect of the message, fostering understanding, and building the skills needed to communicate persuasively.

Courses involve the command of oral, aural, written, and visual literacy skills that enable people to exchange messages appropriate to the subject, occasion, and audience.

Prerequisite: Satisfactory placement test score or passing grade in INRW 0305.

•

•

15

C+ = 77

C = 75

C- = 72

C-/D+ = 70

“F” Work: This work fails in all aspects of the evaluation criteria. There is no evidence of the writing process, and the paper fails in all aspects of development, organization, style, and mechanics.

F (work submitted and attempted) = 55 F (no work submitted or attempted) = 0

“D” Work: This is below-average work that lacks development and is not effectively organized to facilitate the reader’s understanding.

The paper also shows little or no evidence of the writing process.

D+ = 67 D = 65 D- = 62

Course Schedule. All work to be submitted to Canvas.

WEEK 1 WEEK 2

LESSON 1: Course Introduction LESSON 2: Introduction to the Art of the Essay

WEEK 3 WEEK 4

LESSON 3: Active Reading and Introducing the Personal Essay LESSON 4: Reading Strategies and Writing the Personal Essay

WEEK 5 WEEK 6 WEEK 7 WEEK 8

LESSON 5: Critical Reading and Refining the Personal Essay LESSON 6: Introduction to Rhetorical Listening LESSON 7: Researching the Rhetorical Listening Essay

WEEK 9

LESSON 9: Drafting the Rhetorical Listening Essay and MLA Documentation

WEEK 10

WEEK 13

LESSON 10: Submitting the Rhetorical Listening Essay and Editing LESSON 11: About Working in Teams LESSON 12: Drafting the Introduction, Conducting the Interview LESSON 13: Drafting, Reviewing, and Revising Essay

WEEK 14

LESSON 14: Finishing Up the Essay

WEEK 15

LESSON 15: Submitting the Collaborative Project End-of-Semester Reflection and Revision

WEEK 11 WEEK 12

FINAL EXAM

LESSON 8: Writing the Rhetorical Listening Essay

APPENDIX B: INTRODUCTION TO NCTC FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION PROGRAM FROM CUSTOM TEXTBOOK

Welcome to English Composition at North Central Texas College! You’ve signed up for Integrated Reading and Writing (INRW 0305), Composition I (ENGL 1301), or Composition II (ENGL 1302). We are excited that you’ve enrolled in the course and that you’re here at NCTC.

Below is the introduction to NCTC’s First-Year Composition Program from the custom textbook. The entirety of the document can be accessed here: ​​https://tinyurl.com/2s3uusne.

We’ve designed this course in keeping with the college’s mission and values statement: NCTC Mission: North Central Texas College is dedicated to student success through institutional excellence.

NCTC Values Statement: North Central Texas College is accountable to its students, colleagues, and the community and holds the following values to be fundamental: an affordable, quality education; stimulating learning environments; integrity; innovation; cohesive relationships; and encouragement.

This course is part of a year-long study of a common theme that centers around students’ writing and reading interests.

This custom rhetoric textbook is bundled with our 16

APPENDICES

year-long common reads and with an access code for additional resources and support. At the end of this semester, we encourage you to sign up for the next course in your communication core, so you can continue to use these texts in the spring and summer semesters. Completing your First-Year Composition (FYC) courses within an academic year will save you money on books, and research shows that students are more successful if they take FYC courses in succession and early in their academic careers. (So, be sure to keep your access code.)

We hope that our year-long theme and common reads encourage you to develop a “community of scholars” with each other--adding energy, excitement, and urgency to your writing courses. Your English faculty members at NCTC are committed to your success. We all want the best from you and the best for you. We’re excited to explore this topic together in a series of invitational, rigorous courses that inspire your curiosity.

“We are not here to drill pupils in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but to bestow upon them the potentiality of service of thousands and perhaps millions of their [people]—to develop in them the power to move humanity to noble deeds by the communication of the truth. If there is in the teaching profession a higher or a more stimulating function than that, I do not know what it is.”

-- Fred Newton Scott

This bundle consists of a custom writing textbook, the common reads, and access to the online course materials.

With this bundle, we also created specific courses in Canvas designed to meet your needs. Our goal is to align our multiple campuses, dual credit sites, online courses, and developmental courses to provide you with an academically rigorous and meaningful experience. As an added benefit, proceeds from sales of the textbook will be used to bring the authors to campus.

APPENDIX C: INTRODUCTION TO COURSE FOCUS

This custom textbook is specific to NCTC and is composed of two parts: •

The first part, the preface, includes a description of the course outcomes, required writing assignments, and assessment rubrics. The assignments facilitate alignment between the composition courses and provide consistent experiences that scaffold from one semester to the next. Your instructors have collaborated on course design, assessment, and best practices for our diverse students, and we have designed this custom preface so that the assignme nts are open-ended and that the rubrics are holistic that will complement your class’s interests, your instructor’s expertise, and the department’s goals for consistency, transparency, and rigor.

•

The second part is a writing and rhetoric textbook, The Hub. For this custom textbook, we’ve carefully selected the chapters that we believe are relevant to our students. Because INRW 0305 students use the same text as students in ENGL 1301 and ENGL 1302, we hope that all students moving through the communications core feel more confident with the course readings and course design.

Below is the introduction to the 2020-2022 course focus, the Art of the Essay, as presented in the custom textbook. The entirety of the document can be accessed here: ​​https://tinyurl.com/2s3uusne.

The common reads are books related to the year’s selected theme. Each spring semester, the college will invite your texts’ authors to visit with students and answer questions written by students in First-Year Composition.

APPENDICES

17

First-Year Composition Focus 2021-2022: Inquiry-Based Writing (What Is an Essay and What Does it Mean to Study the Art of the Essay?)

The answers to these questions are going to inevitably lead to more questions. Good. That is exactly where we want to begin. Thinking begets thinking. Once we’ve thought through the questions we need to ask, we will begin to write about what we find. That cycle is a perfect circle. There will never be a point where we are done learning. Nor will we ever have written enough essays to call it quits. We will practice writing something new, something that might not work, something that causes a viewer to be influenced. In doing so, we will learn how to wade through the wild nature of bias, the crisis of 24-hour information overload, the digitally connected world, and our own minds.

If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act--truth is always subversive. - Anne Lamott

You might be wondering why we are going to study essays so closely. Where and how could they possibly serve us in the future after our final term paper has been submitted?

The type of nonfiction writing we are going to explore belongs in all of our lives at all times. We can serve whatever occupation, role, industry, lifestyle, or job by writing through the beautiful issues and challenges we face. By studying the art of the essay, all of us have the chance to practice serving our communities and deepening our understanding. Find a field of study that is perfect and in no need of innovation. Can you think of any community that is not in need of development and progress? Search for a person who knows everything. We need essays now more than ever so we can continue to grow and change as individuals and as a society.

Art is a human activity. It is the creation of something new, something that might not work, something that causes a viewer to be influenced. Art uses context and culture to send a message. Instead of only a contribution of beauty or craft, art adds intent. The artist works to create something generous, something that will change us. - Seth Godin In the introduction for the Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, Scott Russell Sanders says that the term essay “suggests an experiment, a testing, a weighing out.” He follows: “Experiments in language are messier than experiments in laboratories, because words do not parse the universe as neatly as numbers do, but the spirit behind both kinds of experiment is the same: to discover a tentative truth” (xvii).

More specifically, this theme gives us the chance to create something in school that is meaningful. Too often, we learn that essays look, feel, and sound the same. We’ve grown comfortable because they follow a formula. See if this sounds familiar: Introduction with a thesis and two or three sentences, then three body paragraphs with topic sentences and evidence, and finally a conclusion with two to three sentences that restates the thesis. We know how to write that essay in our sleep. There is no challenge or room for individuality there, no need for intention or art. But true essays are wild and diverse. They are built intentionally sentence by sentence and serve the unique purpose of the task at hand. Essays are built by people who are fearless enough to question and seek answers from all different perspectives. The end result is an experiment with words that details the adventure the writer went on to find all of the tentative answers to the questions they asked.

Throughout INRW 0305, ENGL 1301, and ENGL 1302, we will reintroduce ourselves to the art of the essay. Our definition will become: an essay is an artful way to discover, to seek, to explore. It is a chance to question what we think we know.

We will take risks and be vulnerable in order to connect with others and add something new to our world.

By focusing on The Art of the Essay as our theme in First-Year Composition, we will begin to wonder about everything again. To do so, we must establish a foundation on which to build our understanding of essays themselves. Think about the following questions: •

Why do we write?

•

What is an essay?

•

How can essays serve my community?

•

What can I learn from writing essays?

•

Can essays be art?

At the core of our theme is the essence of writing nonfiction itself. We have the chance to examine all aspects of our reality and to respectfully question everything. To write a real essay is a risk, but it is one that is always worth taking.

18

APPENDICES

The good news is that we don’t have to do this alone. Essays provide us with an opportunity to engage in the art of listening to others. They encourage us to think about complex issues that others have experienced and add to the conversation. They are an invitation to gather new perspectives and challenge all of our collective thoughts.

About Rhetorical Listening. It’s helpful to start with the challenges that we face when we seek to understand.

Scholar I. A. Richards argues that rhetoric is “a study of misunderstanding and its remedies.” This view suggests that communication is difficult, and because we’re limited to our words to convey complex thoughts, emotions, and desires, we’re all prone to stumble and grope a bit in the dark.

We are so excited to write alongside you and to explore the art of the essay. Don’t let this opportunity to write on topics that you’re passionate about pass you by. In school and in life, they don’t present themselves very often. Every essay we write from now on is a chance to discover something new, a tentative truth. There is no longer an excuse to not write and revise until something incredible shines through.

Our First-Year Composition classes are now a testing ground.

Let us capitalize on this occasion and learn to wonder by writing again., and writing assignments in ENGL 1301: Composition I.

To overcome these misunderstandings, one remedy suggested by Wayne Booth, another famous rhetorical scholar, is that we engage in “rhetorical listening.”

Rhetorical listening means that we aim to do more just to win an argument; instead, rhetorical listening is about listening to understand, comprehend, or, in the Platonic sense, strive toward “Truth” with a capital T. We can’t grow as students and scholars if we only listen to voices that we agree with or to people who have similar backgrounds.

Rhetorical listening means that we aim to do more just to win an argument; instead, rhetorical listening is about listening to understand, comprehend, or, in the Platonic sense, strive toward “Truth” with a capital T. We can’t grow as students and scholars if we only listen to voices that we agree with or to people who have similar backgrounds.

APPENDIX D: INRW 0305 AND ENGL 1301: “RHETORICAL LISTENING” ESSAY’ Below is an illustration of an assignment students might complete in preparation of the major assignment. The entirety of the course can be accessed here: https://nctc.instructure.com/courses/45133.

Krista Radcliffe explains that rhetorical listening is a “stance of openness” that a person may choose to assume (1). To engage in rhetorical listening, you might consider “probing for common ground” (Booth 11). You must also consider your own motives, and those of others: “Understanding means more than simply listening for a speaker/writer’s intent ... or for our own self-interested intent. Instead, understanding means listening to the discourse not for intent but with intent” (Ratcliff 15).

For this assignment, you will reflect on an essay from the common read and engage in rhetorical listening to learn more about others’ experiences and the sociological, political, economic, and historical circumstances that shape those experiences.

APPENDICES

19

events that shaped the writer’s life.

It is important as curious scholars that we engage in “rhetorical listening” and “rhetorical reading” to move toward a better understanding of others’ viewpoints.

Dr. Radcliffe explains that when engaging in rhetorical listening, agreement is not necessarily the goal. We often disagree with each other; however, rhetorical listening means that we recognize others’ points of view as different and work toward understanding, not agreement (Ratcliff 33).

Select an essay from This I Believe (volume 1 or 2).

•

Research, reflect, and explore the sociological, political, economic, and historical circumstances that shape those experiences.

•

Assignment Requirements.

• INRW 0305: 500 words • ENGL 1301: 1000 words • Include a title Strategies for Success: Writing a Rhetorical Listening Essay Dr. Radcliffe offers these guiding principles when engaging in rhetorical listening: Rhetorical listening means that we promote an understanding of self and others. In other words, when thinking about how we promote understanding, think about the essays that led you to new insights.

What essays were surprising to you?

•

Which made you feel uncomfortable, anxious, or frustrated?

•

What belief or “truth” in those essays made you feel that way?

•

How does privilege shape the writers’ experiences? Your experiences?

•

How do their experiences differ? What “points of tension” do you observe?

•

Do any strategies, remedies, or opportunities exist that promote understanding of these commonalities and differences?

Rhetorical listening means that we analyze claims as well as the “cultural logics” of these claims. Cultural logics are ways of thinking or the guiding principles, values, beliefs, or ideas that people share. Some important points to consider regarding our cultural logics:

Write a rhetorical listening essay that seeks to undestand the writer’s beliefs considering those circumstances. In your assignment, be sure to reference essays from This I Believe.

•

What sociological, political, economic, and historical circumstances shaped the writers’ lives? Your life?

Rhetorical listening means that we locate dentifications across commonalities and differences. In other words, how do writers’ experiences and perspectives differ from each other and your own? What similarities do these authors share? What commonalities do you see?

About this assignment. For this assignment, you will use the readings from This I Believe to engage in rhetorical listening.

Specifically, this assignment invites you to assume a stance of openness to others’ experiences and to understand the larger context that shapes those experiences. In order to complete this assignment, you will: •

•

•

Cultural logics are reinforced within communities. For example, they may be reinforced in the books we read and the stories we tell.

•

Cultural logics or values are not fixed: they change over time and from place to place.

•

We also experience different cultural logics at the same time. This can create conflict or tension within our communities or within ourselves.

Here are a few examples of different cultural logics: •

Rhetorical listening means that we proceed within an accountability logic. In other words, when thinking about an accountability logic, think about the circumstances or 20

Politics: Republicans / Democrats / Libertarians / Greens • Republicans: Evangelical / Tea Party / Moderate • Democrats: Democratic Socialist / Progressive / Moderate

•

Economics: Capitalists / Socialists / Fascists

•

Religion: Christianity / Islam / Judaism / Buddhism

•

Race: White Supremacy / Colorblindness / Multiculturalism / Critical Race Studies

APPENDICES

Evaluation Criteria (“Rhetorical Listening” Essay)

CONVENTION (STYLE & MECHANICS)

COHERENCE (ORGANIZATION)

INSIGHT (DEVELOPMENT)

PURPOSE (DEVELOPMENT)

ACCOMPLISHED

EMERGING

AVERAGE

BELOW AVERAGE

FAILING

The essay thoroughly identifies and summarily overviews the different points-of-view.

The essay consistently identifies and overviews the different points-of-view.

The essay often identifies and overviews the different points-of-view.

The essay hints at identifying and overviewing the different points-of-view.

The essay does not identify and overview the different points-of-view.

The writer thoroughly develops all of the points with examples from research.

The writer develops most of the points with examples from research.

The writer develops some of the points with examples from research.

The writer develops a few of the points with examples from research.

The writer develops none of the points with examples from research.

The writer thoroughly engages in rhetorical listening throughout the essay.

The writer consistently engages in rhetorical listening throughout the essay.

The writer often engages in rhetorical listening throughout the essay.

The writer hints at engaging in rhetorical listening throughout the essay.

The writer does not engage in rhetorical listening throughout the essay.

The essay consistently draws insightful observations from readings/research specific and relevant to the essay’s purpose.

The essay often draws insightful observations from readings/research specific and relevant to the essay’s purpose.

The essay occasionally draws insightful observations from readings/research specific and relevant to the essay’s purpose.

The essay rarely draws insightful observations from readings/research specific and relevant to the essay’s purpose.

The essay does not draw insightful observations from readings/research specific and relevant to the essay’s purpose.

The essay’s organization and coherence are overwhelmingly consistent and logical.

The essay’s organization The essay’s organization and coherence are and coherence are often occasionally consistent consistent and logical. and logical.

The essay’s organization The essay does not and coherence are rarely demonstrate a consistent, logical, and consistent and logical. coherent

The essay consistently demonstrates conventions of academic writing (i.e., thoroughly developed introduction, discussion sections, conclusion).

The essay often demonstrates conventions of academic writing (i.e., well-developed introduction, discussion sections, conclusion).

The essay occasionally demonstrates conventions of academic writing (i.e., occasionally developed introduction, discussion sections, conclusion).

The essay rarely demonstrates conventions of academic writing (i.e., rarely developed introduction, discussion sections, conclusion).

The essay does not demonstrate conventions of academic writing (i.e., no introduction, discussion sections, conclusion).

The essay consistently demonstrates an ability to engage in rhetorical listening.

The essay often demonstrates an ability to engage in rhetorical listening.

The essay occasionally demonstrates an ability to engage in rhetorical listening.

The essay rarely demonstrates an ability to engage in rhetorical listening.

The essay does not demonstrate an ability to engage in rhetorical listening.

The essay consistently utilizes the conventions of academic prose, which include spelling, formatting, mechanical correctness, and citation practices.

The essay often utilizes the conventions of academic prose, which include spelling, formatting, mechanical correctness, and citation practices.

The essay occasionally utilizes the conventions of academic prose, which include spelling, formatting, mechanical correctness, and citation practices.

The essay rarely utilizes the conventions of academic prose, which include spelling, formatting, mechanical correctness, and citation practices.

The essay does not utilize the conventions of academic prose, which include spelling, formatting, mechanical correctness, and citation practices.

APPENDICES

21

Model Rhetorical Listening Paper

Below is an example of a rhetorical listening paper written by Ashlyn Fowler in Fall 2020 for Professor Danielle Wagner’s ENGL 1301 course. Fowler’s essay is an exceptional example because she identifies and explains how the Vietnam war and the attacks on September 11, 2001 shaped Frank Miller’s views on the American flag. Fowler demonstrates very well here that she is listening to understand Miller’s point of view, even if she does or does not agree with it.

Fowler also does an excellent job using outside sources to support her analysis and documenting those sources within the paper. Finally, Fowler presents her analysis in a clear, academic voice that is free of mechanical and grammatical errors. Consider Fowler’s essay as an example when writing your own rhetorical listening paper.

Fowler’s essay is shared with permission and compensation.

Ashlyn Fowler Professor Wagner ENGL 1301.0501 2 November 2020 Stars and Stripes: The Controversial Pattern of Patriotism

Throughout the ages, people have chosen objects to represent their beliefs and way of life. Scots and Irish alike don clan tartans, Nazis wore swastikas, and 4H students have a particular affinity for the four-leaf clover.

However, there is one symbolic object that plays an increasingly controversial role in our everyday lives. Display it, carry it, burn it, revere it, acknowledge it as your own, or reject it as a symbol of outdated sentiment, the American flag and the question of what it represents is a culturally relevant topic as we continue to see people take different stances on how they respond to the stars and stripes. In his essay “That Old Piece of Cloth,” Frank Miller lays out his own journey in determining the value of the flag in his own life. Surrounded as a boy by veterans of both wars and social revolutions, his original contempt for the symbolic material was transformed into admiration after experiencing the events of 9/11 (161-163). He believes in the American flag as a symbol of ideals and patriotism that are crucial to our country’s survival.

To understand Miller’s thinking’s shift and eventual outcome, we must grasp the historical and sociological implications of the age that Miller grew up in prior to the attack on September 11th. The ‘60s, an era of radical movement, was a historically tumultuous time. In 1962, JFK was assassinated. In 1963, Americans saw Martin Luther King Jr. delivering what would become a historically significant speech. People from all over gathered in streets and occupied buildings to protest the Vietnam War and bring attention to the civil rights movement. In addition to the free-thinkers who rode the emotional roller coaster of societal belief, Miller was surrounded by those who had served in the military, mentioning that even his parents were “WWII veterans. FDR era patriots” (161). The circumstances for soldiers returning home after World War II were very different than those returning from the Vietnam War. Post-WWII, the United States had an economic boom, and the nation relished in the victory. Soldiers were welcomed home with excitement.

However, those returning from the Vietnam War experienced a different homecoming. The Vietnam War was seen as a lost cause, and soldiers were not welcomed home with the same enthusiasm of a nation experiencing a victory. In an article for Vietnam, James Wright summarizes the feeling well: “Most Americans did ignore them--many disliked them for what they represented, and some feared them for the dark anger they believed the veterans harbored. One reporter wrote of the returning veteran, ‘Silently he is slipping thru the back door of the nation which sent him to war.’” As a result, Miller grew up in an environment where, between the flower-power and anti-war movement and the Vietnam War outcome, excessive devotion and seemingly misguided patriotism produced a 22

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skeptical view of any symbol of undying loyalty and devotion. In recalling how he felt toward the flag, he says it was “just another symbol of a generation’s sentimentality, of its narcissistic worship of its own past glories” (162).

In contrast to the aforementioned influences, the post 9/11 setting was significantly altered by the historical event and the sociological impact that followed the attack. Historically, September 11, 2001, is not a date any could forget easily. The country experienced horror first hand, watching as the twin towers collapsed in ruins. According to The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Report), “the nation suffered the largest loss of life—2,973—on its soil as a result of a hostile attack in its history. The FDNY suffered 343 fatalities— the largest loss of life of any emergency response agency in history. The PAPD suffered 37 fatalities—the largest loss of life of any police force in history. The NYPD suffered 23 fatalities—the second-largest loss of life of any police force in history, exceeded only by the number of PAPD officers lost the same day” (311). The attack was monumental to the entire nation, affecting people far and wide, both emotionally and physically. America had never experienced terrorism on such a scale before, marking it as a historically devastating day. Emerging from an upbringing steeped in the abstract, Miller was confronted with the solidity and face-to-face experience of an event that challenged his belief, prompting him to reconsider his opinion of the flag. He says, “All of a sudden I realize what my parents were talking about, all those years” (162). The shift in his belief is palpable within his essay.

In the same way, the sociological impact of 9/11 had a vast impact on the way society viewed the flag. In the days following the attack, it was deemed odd--unpatriotic even--not to have a flag flying. The red, white, and blue banner could be seen everywhere amidst the rubble, a beacon of hope in the gray desolation of wreckage. Alan Alda wrote, “As you walked the city in the days following the attack, you would see dozens of flags thirty stories high in the windows of apartment buildings. People had pasted the flags to their windows on the chance that someone would look up and know that someone else was pulling for them. During these weeks, the flag had stopped being an expression of particular political leanings. It belonged to all of us again” (Alda 2:33:22). Miller’s presence in New York during this time would put him in a position to see first-hand the social inclusion of the flag as a symbol of hope and survival, impressing on him the importance of the object. Indeed, he wasn’t alone in this feeling: Julian E. Barnes, in an article for The New York Times, notes the gargantuan number of flags purchased just after the event, reporting that “Americans started buying flags hours after the attacks. Wal-Marts sold 116,000 flags on that Tuesday and 250,000 on Wednesday, compared with 6,400 and 10,000 on the same days a year earlier. By Friday, 14 September, Wal-Mart was running out, but still sold 135,000.” The flags represented togetherness, something America yearned for the dark moment of history they were experiencing.

Now, nineteen years later, there are many who oppose the flag, believing it to be an unjust representation of liberty. Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, is at the forefront of the discussion, having led the way to many debates on the topic by refusing to stand for the national anthem. Steve Wyche, a reporter for the NFL media, quotes Kaepernick saying, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” In a more aggressive approach, BLM and Antifa members burned an American flag in Portland following a far-right rally (Cinone).

From these examples, we can see a wide variety of feelings attached to the flag. Regardless, the flag is still seen by many as a representation of ideals and patriotism. The stars and stripes are woven into our society in a multitude of ways. Many different sporting events open with the national anthem, an American flag present and at the center of attention. Much of our currency bears a depiction of said flag. Spouses of deceased service members are presented with an American flag in honor of the sacrifices their loved ones made in the name of the values represented by “Old Glory.” To many, the image of the flag remains as a symbol of liberty and ideals. Miller states that he sees “something precious” in the stars and stripes, “something perishable” (163). In a day and age when the monuments representing our nation’s history are objected to and removed from public spaces, Miller’s concern for the flag becomes tangible. As the seasons of our nation change, so will the view of the flag. The pendulum of belief will continue to sway, and Americans will continue to search for the line between patriotism and blind devotion. For Miller, the American flag stands resolutely, a symbol of unity.

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Works Cited “The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11

Report)” U.S. Government Printing Office, 22 July 2004, pp. 311. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/

GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf

Alda, Alan. “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself.” Narrated by Alan Alda, Audible, 2007. 2:33:22-45. Audiobook.

Barnes, Julian E. “A Nation Challenged: Proud Spirits; As Demand Soars, Flag Makers Help Bolster Nation’s Morale.”

The New York Times, 23 September 2001. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/business/nation-challengedproud-spirits-demand-soars-flag-makers-help-bolster-nation-s.html Cone, Danielle. “UP IN FLAMES ‘Black Lives Matter and Antifa Rioters’ BURN an American Flag During Portland Unrest After Proud Boys Gathering.” The Sun, 27 September 2020. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12782539/ black-lives-matter-antifa-rioters-burn-american-flag/ Miller, Frank. “That Old Piece of Cloth.” This I Believe II, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman, Picador, 2008, pp. 161

163.

Wright, James. “A Generation Goes to War: The Sour Public Opinion About the War Led to Distaste for Returning Veterans.” Vietnam, vol. 30, no 4. Dec 2017, p 44+. Gale OneFile: U.S. History, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ A506828366/PPUS?u=txshracd2531&sid=PPUS&xid=75bb000e. Accessed 23 October 2020.

Wyche, Steve. “Colin Kaepernick Explains Why He Sat During National Anthem.” nfl.com, 27 August 2016. https://www.nfl.com/news/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem0ap3000000691077

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APPENDIX E: CANVAS RESOURCES All full- and part-time faculty have access to resources in Canvas, including lessons, assignments, discussion boards, and rubrics. Along with these lessons are “Notes to the Instructor” that aim to provide a theoretical and practical rationale for the program’s First-Year Composition curriculum. Below are examples of resources available to all faculty in Canvas. The entirety of the courses can be accessed here: https://nctc.instructure.com/courses/45133 and https://nctc.instructure.com/courses/45134.

Composition I Model Resources.

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Composition II Model Resources.

EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

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Composition I “Notes to Instructor”

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EVIDENCE OF INNOVATION

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