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"" ESL 118-04"

ESL 118

Tuesdays & Thursdays 2-3:15 PM CRT 303 ESL 118-05

Tuesdays & Thursdays 3:30-4:45 PM CRT 303"

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COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

English 101/ESL 118 is designed to be a semester-long immersion in collegelevel reading and w riting. This course asks you to do a lot of reading and writing in the English language. You will be reading and rereading a range of challenging texts, and you will be writing and rewriting a significant number of responses to these texts. This section of ESL 118 invites you to form meaningful relationships with your peers. Research shows that students and teachers who are able to co-create strong classroom communities often enjoy increased learning retention, deeper engagement and a better understanding of course materials, and report greater overall satisfaction.

A Short Guide to ESL

Practices & Policies

Learn about tips to success in ESL 118 and core components of the course.

Learn how this course will operate, and how your grade will be assessed.

Portfolio Assessment

This section introduces you to portfolio assessment and the goals and outcomes.

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pay attention & engage

" Put away your cellphones, Facebook conversations, iPads, and pay attention to our class conversation. Listen...really listen to what your peers are saying. Read or watch the news every nightopen your eyes to the world. Do not expect me to provide you with all the answers because I dont have them. "

ask for help

This class will feel fast-paced. ESL students often tell me at the end of the semester that they wish they would have asked more questions. Please do not be afraid to ask questions. If you cant understand me, come to me after class and let me know. Come to my office hours early and often. Students who come to office hours always do better in class.

Core Course Components Attendance and Community Building: Prepare for

class, contribute positively to creating a supportive classroom community. Arrive on time, be a good listener, and share your thoughts through writing and speaking. Your final grade will be based not only on your individual abilities, but also on your efforts at helping your peers succeed.

Daily Writing Assignments:

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting somethinganythingdown on paper.Anne Lamott

Every class I will give you a writing assignment. Some of the assignments are short, and are designed to help you write to understand, which is less formal. Other assignments will be more formal, and with these essays you will be writing to communicate. You will keep copies of all your essays to reflect upon your composing strategies and decisions.

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COURSE PRACTICES
Assignments You will write every day. Sometimes you will write a lot, sometimes a little. Assignments in ESL 118 will not give you a single question to answer, but will ask you to think critically and deeply about the texts we read." Feedback Because you do so much writing, it would be impossible for me to comment on all your work. You will receive feedback from me on the essays where you are writing to communicate.

Course Texts While we will analyze published texts, the primary texts in this class are the ones your write! This practice will help you identify your own compositional strategies while also learning from your peers habits.

Arriving to class on time U.S. Americans value punctuality, and being late to class is considered disruptive and disrespectful. Students are expected to arrive to class with enough time to get ready to work when class begins.

Discussions and Participation Class discussions are intended to enact the process of critical inquiry that you will carry our in your writing and reading. I cannot guarantee the quality of discussionsthat will depend on you and your peers. Required Texts: A Students Guide 2013-2014 DK Handbook 3rd edition Both are available at the bookstore

Critical Thinking We will work a lot on our critical thinking skills. I will encourage you to go beyond pointing things out to asking questions and answering, why does this matter, and for whom? Required Materials: Access to: a computer e-mail (UWM and Gmail accounts) a printer, copier, and stapler
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COURSE POLICES
ATTENDANCE Students who miss FIVE OR MORE classes will fail the class. There are no excused absences, so save your absences for emergencies, holidays, or illness. There are no exceptions to this policy and I cannot change it, keep track of your own absences (I will not do this for you). If you arrive to class more than 5 minutes late, I will give you ! an absence. LATE WORK I do not accept late work. I do not offer comments on late work. If your work is late, it is late. Someone once told me I was a tough teacher. I said, just wait until you have a boss. PORTFOLIO
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The final portfolio will hold final versions of three essays you have prepared from the materials you have written and revised over the semester. Two of the essays will be interpretive essays, selected from those you have written and revised in response to the readings. One essay will be a reflective essay, in which you describe the work you and other writers in class have accomplished during the semester. During finals week, two members of the composition faculty (other than your instructor) will review your portfolio and assess it either pass or fail, using the English 101/ESL 118 Course Goals and Outcomes (printed in The Student Guide). If the two portfolio readers disagree, a third reader resolves the disagreement. The portfolios are then returned to your instructor, who will determine your final course grade within the range allotted by the portfolio reviewers.

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GRADES Grades in English 101/ESL 118 can be a bit confusing. This is because you have your final portfolio: the project youve been working up to all semester long, which will be sent to a committee of English teachers who will read your essays alongside the Goals and Outcomes (which you can find on page 6 of your Students Guide, and determine if your work meets these goals (pass) or does not meet them (fail). If you pass, you are then eligible to receive a letter grade ranging from A to C. If you fail, however, then you are only eligible to receive a grade from C- to F. So lets say your portfolio passes review. Whoo hoo! Thats great, but how is your final grade determined? What if youve done what you believe to be Alevel work and then fail portfolio? How about if youve done D-level work and pass portfolio? Both these scenarios have happened in my classes (and in other teachers classes). The problem with grades in this particular class is that your work is often quite subjectivequantifying your progress is more difficult in a class like this. Still, I know youll want to know how well or poorly youre doing and would like a way to monitor your progress. Because grades are very important, and because in ESL 118 theyre not a cut and dried affair, we will devote an in-depth discussion to evaluation and expectations so everyone knows how theyll be evaluated and what is expected of each student. This discussion will take place on D2L. Instructor: Mr. Andrew G. Anastasia e: andrewa@uwm.edu (best way to contact me) t: @aganastasia Office: Curtin Hall 516 Office Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays from 3-5 p.m. and onlinego to D2L, click on chat and navigate to the link that corresponds to the day.
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Additional Policies and Resources

Plan ning f or un ive rsity su ccess University educators estimate that, in order to succeed, a typical university student needs to spend at least two (2) hours studying outside of class for every one (1) hour in class (during a semester-long class). Non-native speakers of English need much more time to read and write than native speakers of English do. Therefore, you should plan your weekly study schedule to allow yourself at least four (4) hours of study time for every one (1) class hour (credit or noncredit class hour) in your university classes. Stu de nt S uccess Ce nter at UW M Visit the Student Success Center in Bolton 120. Make an appointment with a mentor. A mentor is a friendly and helpful UWM student who has been at UWM for a couple of years already. You can meet with a mentor on a regular basis. Here is the website for the Student Success Center, full of helpful ideas and resources for connecting with friendly people and succeeding academically at UWM: http://www4.uwm.edu/ssc/index.cfm Accom m oda tion for re ligious observa nces Students may complete course work they miss because of a religious observance. If you have a religious observance that will require you to miss a class or a conference, please communicate with me about this as soon as possible. W ritin g Cen ter The Writing Center is the best source of guidance after you have consulted your instructor. Their main office is in Curtin 127, and here is their website: http://www4.uwm.edu/writingcenter/. When you go to the Writing Center to discuss a writing assignment, take your course syllabus and anything else your instructor gave you with details about requirements and expectations for the writing assignment. Access ibility for stu de nts with disa bilities If you will need accommodations to meet any of the requirements of this course, please communicate with me about this as soon as possible. An important resource for students with disabilities is the Student Accessibility Center: Mitchell 112, (414) 229-6287, http://www4.uwm.edu/sac/index.html. Link to im porta nt UW M policie s and resou rce s http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/news_events/upload/SyllabusLinks.pdf

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