Raise or Raze?

Course Description: I was surprised to see the word “remedial.” I would think that identifying students as “remedial” would create a negative self-affect in them. Wouldn’t it be much better to instead focus on how this course is a stepping stone to what lies ahead? Putting it in a positive light is preferable. This description also states that the students ended up in this class because they didn’t pass a test. So now we have several negative markers including the final phrase “This course will not satisfy graduation requirements.” Not only are the students feeling horrible about themselves, but now they see that this course is a complete waste of their time – AND they have to pay for it anyway!

Course Goals: I don’t like how it says, “successful students should be able to write essays of at least 500 words ….” The goal does not state that all students will be able to write such essays, but that they should be able to. It isn’t a convincing statement. Should implies opinion or suggestion and will is used more definitively as a promise of their capabilities. It just isn’t very promising to say should. And what about the word “successful”? Any course should have as its focus that ALL students will be successful; having such a positive outlook can put learning in perspective in a positive way. Again it leaves students feeling negative about themselves.

Texts: Only one? And I just looked the book up as I’ve never heard of it. It’s about siblings who are raised apart; the text also spans generations and it is about 1938 rural Minnesota. Not sure how this book would be appealing to any students nowaways. There’s nothing personal in it that they can relate to: not the time period, the circumstances, the lifestyle, setting, young pregnancy. The subject matter of the novel is awkward at best. Book selection needs to be considered very carefully.

Course / Instructor Requirements  There is so much verbage here about absences. I wonder if this teacher or the college has had issues with student attendance. It seems very punitive and leaves no room for the students to have lives outside of this class – impossible. And why is dropping this course tied to having to drop every single course at the school!??? I don’t understand their excessive policies. How on earth could the instructor tie attendance to skipping the final!??? Wow this one is very strange. I would think that the final would be a reward for working hard all term; students should be taught to work toward a final goal, an outcome. If this college promotes skipping finals then it is no wonder that they have attendance issues and problems with students not passing requirements.

Academic Integrity. While I agree that it is good to have a section like this in a syllabus, I think the wording here is awkward and needs to be edited.

Grading. Wow, here I see that the breakdown for the final is 20%! How on earth could they just let the final be skipped for attendance!??? What are they trying to teach the students here at this college? When we were going through the Bartholomae book, many different examples of low vs. high stakes writing assignments were presented. I think I like this kind of reasoning. With this grading policy breakdown, I am disappointed that the mid-term and portfolio are only worth 10% each and oddly I have no idea what “10 daily grades at 1% each” means. I would like to see more variety here. Reading tasks, writing tasks, class participation (including actually participating in the class) and things like that.

Assignments/Make-up Test Policy . Why have a section that says “make-up test policy” but there is no such policy??? It’s confusing. Furthermore, this assignment section offers absolutely no flexibility at all. Sometimes things happen and students can’t turn something in on time. There is no sense of understanding; everything is rigid and fixed. Not sure this is the way to go.

Student Responsibilities: This list is also very structured and formal. Things that appear here aren’t reflected at all in the rest of the syllabus. #2 ?????!!!!! Why doesn’t the instructor just take role when class starts? Why add this to a student responsibility list that the late arrival has to tell the instructor after class? Isn’t that the teacher’s job to notice these things? What is the teacher doing that he/she can’t pay attention to what is going on in the class? And what student is going to go and turn themselves in??? .#3 on the list: If the instructor wants students to turn a draft in earlier than the designated due date, then why not restructure the schedule and put the earlier date in? Why not allow for the draft to be due and then the student incorporate some of the writing process activities in here before the draft is due for a teacher to collect? #5: wow! Now the instructor cannot even treat these adults like adults. They cannot decide for themselves if they need to use the restroom; he/she is just outright forbidding it. This is likely to cause resentment from the students.

Course Objectives. Here there is a breakdown of reading and writing. But the reading section is very small and the goals don’t seem very thorough. There is no connection between reading and writing which makes me think that this list is not at all focused in current theory and pedagogy. The lists are dry and boring. It isn’t specific at all; nor is it engaging.

Syllabus by date . One thing that I notice that I like (finally) is the little mini lessons throughout the syllabus. It does seem that the instructor is going to be teaching much needed skills (intro to writing; the writing process; pre-writing; paragraphs….etc etc. But the only text listed under required texts was the novel Evergreen. I think the teacher should have listed this book, too. The title of the book isn’t even shown here, just chapter titles. Now I didn’t say that I liked the topic of every single subheading. I’m not liking the fact that subordination and coordination , illustration??? And why is it paired with grammar??? are taught. Seems sort of random. And why are “paragraphs: due on Sept 11 when it does not say anywhere on the grading breakdown that students will be writing anything less than an essay? Very confusing. Oh my goodness, there are so many inconsistencies in this; useless, strung together RANDOM topic.

Gotta love how it says, “How to average grades” right before the midterm! So there will be math taught by the English teacher. Hooray! What a waste of valuable time. Chapter titles are paired randomly with daily topics throughout. It’s so confusing. I would love to see the instructor teaching things that are relevant to the upcoming essay that’s due vs. random topics.

This syllabus seems steeped in old, outdated pedagogy unfortunately. I wouldn’t use most of it.