Sample Syllabus 2: Weekly Calendar

By Matthew Hitchman

Week 1: Introductions and Course Foundations

So much prep and the first day of class has finally arrived!  Take a breath and realize that in this first class your focus is introductions:  to the students, the course, the topic, and the tools you’ll use throughout the quarter. This Autumn quarter starts with a weird half week where you have only one or two days with the students before your first full week. I typically don’t try to fit too much into this week and instead focus on getting them through the syllabus, course expectations, and giving them their first reading/writing work for us to discuss during the first full week.

This calendar offers many options and ideas, though I am fully cognizant that there are many other options and ideas and that you won’t necessarily have time for everything I suggest below.  Like Megan (Sample Syllabus 1) I use a mix of power points and canvas posts, incorporate the class white board, and use social annotation/discussion boards.  At every point, you should adopt what works best for you or use these ideas as launching pads for your own methods.

Day 1 |  Introductions & Syllabus; Introduction to Course Theme; Rhetorical Triangle; Reading Strategies

Before launching into the class details, we do an icebreaker with the class. My back pocket go-to is to have students write the name they’d like to be called in class on the white board.  I make bubbles around groups of three names, ask students to move into the bubble groups and have them make introductions.  They also need to find something all three have in common.  When I pull the class back together, they each have to introduce someone else from their group.

First hour (or more) things to consider doing:

• • Introductions/Ice breaker
  • Library/Writer’s Centers intro
  • Handout Syllabus (I like to print them)
  • Assignment sequence and the moving parts of the class
  • Mention the portfolio, but don’t get into the weeds of it yet
  • Plug the Burke Museum’s Indigenous Walking Tour of campus (I like doing this Fall Quarter especially since many students are new to Seattle. Here’s an extended PDF on the walking tour)
  • Academic integrity and my expectations around use of technology
  • Explanation of participation evaluation
• Matthew’s Note: For me I stress that their participation grade involves in-class participation (which is different from attendance, but is impossible without attendance). It also involves things like smaller stakes writing in class or as homework, timeliness of submitting their larger stakes writing, and, most importantly, their Letter Writing project

Second hour:

• • In class reading and discussion of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Preface” to Braiding Sweetgrass
  • My goal for the “preface” discussion is to introduce reading strategies and to set up the ideas they will encounter in their second reading. I typically do a group brainstorm where we talk about good pre-reading strategies (Pre-Reading and Active Reading).

• Matthew’s Note: I like doing some kind of low stakes reading / writing / mini-discussion on the first day of class so they can get a feel for what the class is going to be like. If this is your first time teaching this class, trying to have a class discussion might be a lot to coordinate. I think it works just as well to assign this “Preface” as homework and just talk about it alongside “Asters and Goldenrod” the next class. I also think it is okay, especially for the two-hour class, to end early on the first day. The real course content begins on day two!
• Short lecture on Becoming a Strong Reader, then I break students into groups to work on a slide that they will present to the class.  The slide asks the group to pull 2-3 quotes from the reading that they found important.  It asks for the group to ask a question and identify something from the reading that they found interesting / infuriating / engaging / fascinating.

Homework:

• • Read and annotate Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Asters and Goldenrod”

• Matthew’s Note: I like this reading as a starting point of the class for a number of reasons. I think the content is relatable for incoming students, the chapter utilizes and blends different genres of writing (personal narrative and expository writing), and it talks about the process and scale of asking good research questions.

• Complete and submit a low stakes intro essay: Mixtape Assignment

Week 2: Reading Texts Closely

Be aware that your class may go through a lot of shifting this week and last.  Some students will drop out, others will add after the first two days.  This is a great opportunity to make sure the students make a connection in the class, someone they can reach out to if they have to miss a class.  The syllabus annotation is a useful tool for students who were not in the class when you walked through it. It’s always helpful to look at all the syllabus annotations and address any questions or concerns to the full class. Also, the material that we work on during the first two weeks is important, but it is not as deeply embedded into the scaffolding of the rest of the class as say, the Stuart Hall reading is in week two. This makes it so students who add late will be able to catch up and not feel immediately lost.

My class has six assignments parsed out over two assignment sequences. Our first assignments focus mainly on close reading, audience, message, and course concepts. Since the first paper is due this week, we take time in the first class of Week 3 to talk about the class rubric for grading, how the class is graded (70% for the final portfolio, which means students cannot figure their grade from what’s on Canvas throughout the quarter.  It’s worth noting this out loud so they don’t freak out at any point).

One other thing to note about how I design my class: for a two-hour class I try to have the first half of the class be about open discussion and responses to the texts we’re reading. The second half of the class is then more focused on writing skills and their actual writing assignments. This holds mostly true for the first part of the quarter, but by the end when they are working on their own genre translation projects it tends to get a little looser. For one-hour classes, I just break that into days (e.g. M and T are reading discussion days, W and Th are writing workshop days).

Day 1 |   Reading Discussion, Building Summaries

First Hour:

• Have a discussion about discussions. To have this discussion I ask students to respond as a class to two questions and I take notes [side note: Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan’s book The Teaching Archive’s intro has a great bit about the value of discussion in literature classrooms which I think transfers well to the comp classroom]:
  • What are the goals of an in-class discussion? What are some of the things we are trying to accomplish?
  • What are some of the practices we can engage to help us work toward these goals? What are some useful norms and expectations when it comes to class discussion?
  • Here’s a more structured version of this activity that is helpful, too: Co-Creating Community Agreements Via Google Doc
• Discuss Kimmerer’s chapter “Asters and Goldenrod.” This is the first real class discussion. If the room allows it, I try to have us circle up so they are looking at each other, not just me. My suggestion for discussion is to tell students we will start with explication (what is her argument) before we go into response (what did we think about it). It’s helpful to think about structuring the discussion somehow. Here are some examples of how to structure a discussion:
  • Have students prepare responses to discussion questions that I post before class
  • Ask students to prep their ideas by freewriting about at least two discussion questions. When the freewriting time is over, I randomly pick a student to start our discussion with one of their responses. My job as a facilitator is to note main insights/themes of the conversation, pose follow up questions, take class notes, and decide when to move onto the next question.

Second hour:

• • Building summaries of “Asters and Goldenrod.” I start by handing out their first assignment prompt: Summary and Rhetorical Analysis Prompt

• Matthew’s Note: Whenever I hand out a new prompt, I usually have students read through it first and then tell me what it is they need to accomplish and I’ll write it on the board. Obviously if they miss anything I will add it, but this helps them practice how to read assignment prompts on their own.

• • I will start by doing a mini-lecture on these notes: What’s in a Summary and then I will turn it into a class workshop where we try to build notes toward a summary. Here’s an example: Think-Pair-Share.docx

• Matthew’s Note: A think-pair-share is a cutesy name for a really helpful teaching tool! I use them a lot especially if I feel like I’ve been talking at them for too long. It’s helpful to get students talking and I think it’s okay that not everything they talk about will be shared with the whole group.

Day 2 |  Reading discussion, Metaphors, Rhetorical Analysis

First hour:

• Lead-in to rhetorical analysis. I like to start talking about rhetorical analysis by demonstrating what close attention to a text might look like through a class activity. Here is one I developed for the Kimmerer chapter: Teaching Metaphor with Kimmerer

Second hour

• • Start to build a rhetorical analysis for Kimmerer’s chapter.
    • Here is a class workshop on performing a rhetorical analysis. The answers have been filled in from a different class I taught to illustrate how it works, but you can remove those and fill them in for your reading: Rhetorical Analysis Worksheet
  • Since their papers are due at the end of the week, I try to leave some time in class for them to get work done on their papers and ask questions if they have any. We’ve done sample summaries and analyses at this point, so student should feel pretty comfortable going through the process of writing their own.
  • Assign the next reading: Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding.” When I assign something so difficult, I generally try to help walk students through it with reading questions (with page numbers) that help to identify the main ideas I’d like to focus on.

• Matthew’s Note: When I assign the theory reading I take time in class to stress that this reading is difficult and they will likely struggle to understand it. I tell them that my goal is for them to set aside some time and wrestle with it but be okay with it if they don’t totally understand it. That is what class is for, to break down and understand this difficult reading. I also try to justify assigning it by saying that they will likely encounter difficult readings in future classes and there won’t be as much class time dedicated to understanding it, so this is practice and they won’t be tested on their comprehension.

Week 3: Theoretical Foundations and Close Reading

In Week 3, we read our “center of gravity” piece for the quarter.  For this sample syllabus it is Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding.” This is the reading that we refer back to all quarter long; it lays the foundation for our extended inquiry.  It gives us the terms and ideas we draw from the readings that follow and really makes clear the class theme/topic.  If you have a reading that does this work, we recommend slotting it here and allowing some time for student reaction/discussion that might be slightly less structured.

Note on theory readings: As I stated in the above framing, I think students in a 100-level comp class can basically deal with one difficult theoretical reading. It can be really cool for them to feel accomplished and gain some confidence in reading difficult material, but assigning it takes some real work in class to make sure they feel like they have a handle on the ideas. Once they get past the fact of the difficult language, syntax, etc., I find that students really like trying to apply theory in their writing. My suggestion is that you choose the piece of theory you are okay spending eight weeks talking about and that you know pretty well. I’ve done versions of this basic format with Foucault’s panopticon, Nancy Fraser’s “Climates of Capital,” a chapter from Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake – it is up to you. You’ll just want to think about how students are going to be applying the concepts in the essay to their later writing.

Day 1 |  Dealing with Difficulty, Stuart Hall

First Hour:

• Start small with the Stuart Hall. My first goal with a theory reading is for them to get comfortable with some of the ideas and terms. For this reading, I’d start with something as simple as “let’s describe the parts of the process of Stuart Hall’s encoding and
• I also sometimes use this semi-unhinged slides presentation of Hall’s argument to talk through an example of the encoding/decoding process: Encoding_Decoding I try to make part of this presentation a little silly in order to combat the idea that theory must be really austere and pretentious, I think it helps students warm up to talking about it

Second hour:

• Handout the MP1 and MP2 prompts. At this point in the quarter, we are starting the work that is going to be scaffolded throughout the rest of the quarter. It is helpful for students to know how their work from this point on is going to aim toward that final MP2. It is also helpful for them to see how Hall’s ideas are going to be important for their work later in the quarter.
• After the first discussion I give them the reveal that they can see my notes for the Hall reading. I recommend this for difficult theory reading because students can see how I am translating and reverse outlining Hall to myself. I don’t like to give this right away because I think it takes away from students struggling with it on their own first: My Notes on Stuart Hall’s Encoding_Decoding
• Introduce their close reading prompt:  Close Reading

Day 2 |  Continuing Hall, Close Readings

First hour:

• Now that we’ve got a handle on the broad strokes of his argument, I have us explore some of the nuances of his argument.
• One activity I do is that I will assign questions to small groups and have them work to answer their particular questions. After a set amount of time, I will ask them to come up to the board and write down quotes and page numbers that help us answer the question. Then, as a whole group we work through them question by question. (I generally do not get through this in an hour and need to take a break mid-activity and return to where we left off). Here are examples of the types of questions I assign students:  Discussion Questions on Hall

Second hour:

• Continue the Hall discussion from the first hour
• Practice Close Reading. I like to walk through the process of completing a close reading by choosing a passage we’ve already spent some time on. Here is an example from a class where students were reading Amitov Ghosh: Sample Close Reading
• Assign Hanif Abdurraqib’s first four chapters to They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Abdurraqib, Ch 1- 4 When I assign this reading, I also have students listen to or watch the pieces he is talking about Chance, Bruce, Carly, Prince
• Assign Brooke Borel’s introduction to The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking: Borel, The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking FULL Introduction What I like about this piece is it gets students thinking about composing as a series of choices that impacts the legibility and credibility of what their writing, rather than seeing statements as either purely true or purely false.

Week 4: Prep for MA1, Library Resources

During this week we are looking at a reading and practicing applying the ideas from Hall. After working through Hall, students are happy to read something like Abdurraqib (even if they find Chance the Rapper a little cringey). This is also the week where I connect them with the UW Libraries so they can start practicing conducting a little research into a piece of media of their choice. I find this piece by Brooke Borel Chicago Guide to Fact Checking to be a good starting point for thinking about conducting research. Because we are looking at Stuart Hall’s essay, their research topics are about a piece of media of their choosing. I want them to research the production and reception process of a piece of media and write an analysis of it using some of Hall’s concepts.

Day 1 | Choosing a Topic, Preliminary Research, Applying Hall to Another Text

• Now that they have an understanding of the main theoretical concepts of Hall, we try applying them to a text like Abdurraqib’s. When talking about the content of the chapters, I ask them to bring in Hall’s concepts to talk about how Abdurraqib is attending to the encoding and decoding process through music journalism.
• In the second hour I lecture briefly on Developing a thesis from a line of inquiry.  Before class, I compile all the questions and lines the students have identified as interesting to show what a Line of Inquiry is.  I teach the 6-step Line of Inquiry to Thesis Method to give students a tool to use throughout their time at the U when they need to make an intelligent, contained argument.
• With all their work projected, I link students to an online worksheet, ask them to pick something of interest, and work it into a claim/thesis using the 6-step method.
• A typical assignment for this week would be an annotated bibliography where they practice building citations and annotating the citation with an explanation of what the source covers, how it relates to their project, and how it relates to the other sources.
• I like to do an alternative assignment where rather than annotations, students make “groupings”. The idea here is that students start thinking about how the sources relate to each other and make groups based on those connections. They then have to write a justification and explanation as to why they grouped them in this way.  MPs: Bibliography Prompt

Day 2 |  Library Workshop

• I use the attached Library Research Workshop to teach source evaluation, determining a scholarly article, doing advanced searches, and using databases as an intro to the UW libraries. The OWRC has 8 packets of different types of articles that are essential to the activities.  I coordinate with Kathleen Collins at the library to pick these up before class (kcollins@uw.edu).

• To reinforce what we do in class, I assign the UW Library Research 101 google module.  Following this module using keywords from the concept map they constructed will teach students how to find and cite a scholarly source.  Feedback is always that this module is extremely helpful.  I have also had students do the module in class–your choice.

• I also try to either walk through the work they need to do on their papers in class or offer them a sample assignment. Here is a sample assignment I generated for the bibliography assignment: Sample Bibliography assignment
• For homework, I assign them Dodie Bellamy’s essay Phone Home and ask them to watch the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Week 5: Working with Sources, Quote sandwich

During this week students are fully into their MP1s and likely need time to work on their projects. I find that if the things we are doing in class aren’t directly tied to the midterm papers, it’s hard for students to totally focus on them in class (which makes sense!). I like assigning this Dodie Bellamy reading Dodie Bellamy Phone Home. It’s heavy and I don’t necessarily recommend it for everyone, but I always have a couple students tell me it’s their favorite essay they’ve read in an English class.

Quarters are too fast! It is unlikely students will be able to conduct substantial research for a research paper within the space of a quarter among all the other things they need to practice in a composition class. It can be helpful to think about how to scale back a research project in this context. Last week, the work with the UW libraries helped to frame this process, and in this week we’re going to have to jump right into working with sources.

Working with sources is a great way to have discussions about citational politics, how to synthesize information across multiple sources, and integrate evidence into their complex claims.

Day 1|  Making connections across sources, Synthesis, and Citations

• I usually spend the first half of the class discussing Bellamy. With an essay like this where there are some experimental things Bellamy is doing, we try to return to our practice of close reading. I think an essay like this is a good one to talk through reader response. Also, I like asking them about how Bellamy is decoding E.T. since it is such an idiosyncratic engagement with the film – does this fit into Hall’s argument?
• Dive into their MP1 Drafts: MP 1_ Research Proposal

Day 2| Quoting and Working with Sources, Quote Sandwich

• On this day, students have gathered their sources, thought about the relationships between these sources, and are ready to start building paragraphs that synthesize information in drafts of their MP1s
• Here is a MEAL Plan paragraph framework that I use to teach how to write expository paragraphs. Using “Main Idea” sentences can be a good way to highlight the connections across sources. Then, after walking through the evidence and analysis they have for these connections, they can “Link” those ideas back to their complex claim which they built in week 6. This MEAL plan framework works well for teaching quote sandwiching.
• I generally find that at this point in the quarter it is helpful to leave some time in class for students to get work done on their paper. I also tend to circulate so I can answer individual questions as they come up.

Week 6: Conferences

Conferences are held twice a quarter and you can cancel one two-hour class or two one-hour classes each time you hold conferences. There are many ways you can use conferences (discussed below), but typically conferences consist of 15-minute one-on-one meetings with each student in your class. You can hold these in your office or a public study space on campus like in Suzzallo 102 or the Henry Art cafe.

Some options for conferences are to use them as a way to give feedback on a draft of a Major Paper, hold longer group conferences where students give each other peer feedback (what we model below), or use conferences as a way to brainstorm project ideas at the beginning of a sequence.

Day 1 | Peer Review, Reading discussion

• This is a short week because of conferences! During the class before conferences it is a good idea to set up expectations for conferences and handle the logistics (where to meet, conference time sign-up, the importance of being on time, etc.).
• Because our conferences for this class are built around peer review, it takes a little prep work. First, I need to set up the groups. I aim for groups of three, but often need to make one group of four. Conferences are 15 minutes per student so my group conferences are scheduled for 45 minutes. Next, I need to make sure students distribute their MP1 drafts with each other. This is a good thing to have happen in-class so you can troubleshoot any issues. Finally, I assign roles and a peer review worksheet for the students to complete in preparation for the conferences.
• As an optional (but helpful!) activity, I sometimes leave time in class on this day for students to introduce to their small group their assignment (e.g. what their MP1 issue and genre translation was). They can also use this as a time to request particular forms of feedback.
• Tip: when students sign up for conferences, make sure to build in bathroom/food breaks. With 23 students you don’t want to end up with nearly 6 hours of uninterrupted conferencing time.

Day 2 | Class canceled for Conferences

• During conferences, I ask that students read and prepare comments beforehand. Each conference goes by fast so it is important to be a good time keeper and make sure you cover what you need to in the allotted time.
• Conferences feel busy and time-consuming for you, but students will have some extra time this week to work on incorporating yours and their peers’ feedback into their final MP1s.

Week 7: Working with Genres, Translating Ideas

This is a big transition week. We’ve just done conferences so it has been a while since the class has been together. They’ve also just finished their midterm paper and are probably feeling a little exhausted from that. It is important to note this and to hold what can feel like a new “first class.” It can be helpful to have activities like mid-quarter check-ins and reflective writing.

That said, the quarter is still moving fast! This is also the week were we jump into our MP2 work (this is often part of the conversation during conferences).

Day 1 |  Genre Production, Genre Awareness

• I always like to take time to mark the fact that students just turned in their midterm paper. I generally do some type of in class reflection on how the process went for them and to have an open sharing moment at the start of the class where I invite them to talk through what was difficult, what was surprising, what readings/activities were the most helpful.
• Because they are going to need to compose in a genre of their choosing, I like to do an activity where they practice writing in different genres. Here is a completed hand out that I give to students where they need to use different genres to respond to a situation: Genre Production Activity
• Assign the genre study assignment: Genre Study

Day 2 |  Genre Study

• There is a difference between being a consumer of a genre and being a producer of a genre (Hall is helpful here, too!). Sometimes students consume a genre so much that they feel it will be easy to produce, and are surprised to find out how hard it is! (I’ve found this is the case with things like podcasts and explainer videos). Other times students are really fluent producers of genres but have a hard time explaining what the rules / expectations are of these genres (this can be the case for social media, essays, texting).

• The purpose of the genre study is for students to consume samples of a genre like a producer, asking questions like how is this made? What choices went into it? What are the different modes of communication that are being used? How are the authors stitching together the “truth” of their story through “facts”?

Weeks 8 & 9:  MA2 prep, Workshopping, and Conferencing

The end is in sight!

Week 8 |  Workshopping on MP2s

• For this week, I ask each student to prepare a “Bar Stool Pitch” with their idea for the MA2.  This is the setting:  they’re in a crowded noisy place and the person next to them asks what they are working on.  How do you answer amidst all those distractions?  Briefly, with some interesting tidbits, and showing your own interest!  Students complete a slide with their pitch, practice it in pairs, then we arrange ourselves in a circle and they present to the class.
• In Autumn 2024 this week lines up with Veteran’s Day and if you have a MW class then there is only one class time they have this week before turning in their MP2s. So it can be a good time to leave open some class time for them to do work, ask questions, etc.

Week 9 |  Peer Review and Conferences on MP2s

• I like to do in-class “read arounds” where students bring working drafts of where they are with their MP2s, list out questions they have, and, potentially, a sample of their final genre piece. Then, for an hour in class, students read and give feedback on as many papers as they can. This way people become familiar with each other’s projects and they receive feedback from multiple peers.
• Conferences this week can be individualized to help students negotiate any difficulties they are having with their MP2s.

Weeks 10 & 11: Final Portfolio

The portfolio is a large assignment with many moving parts. It is also worth 70% of the students’ grades so it is likely to cause some anxiety. It is going to be important to use in-class time for students to be able to figure out which questions they have and to answer them for the whole class so you are not having to answer them 23 separate times.

Things you’ll have to explain that you might consider building activities around are: what are these four course outcomes and what role do they play in the portfolio? How do I select my showcase pieces and what does “substantial revision” look like? What is the “critical reflection” and how should I go about writing it? What are the assignments that make up the compendium and how should they be uploaded / formatted in the portfolio? How is the portfolio going to be graded and how should we interpret the portfolio grading rubric?

Week 10 | Portfolio introduction, Outcome Workshop

• One thing that is helpful to complete in this time is an activity that helps students make sense of the PWR course outcomes. I often do a two-part outcome activity where I break the class into four groups. First, I assign each group a portion of our quarter (group 1 takes weeks 1-3, group 2 takes 4-6, etc.). I have them go up to the board and list as many readings, assignments, activities, and discussions as they can remember doing during these weeks. This generates an impressive list of things they’ve accomplished (fun for them to behold!). Next, I assign each of the group one outcome and ask them to pair readings, assignments, activities, and discussions to parts of their outcome. For this, I have them work on a Google Doc that is shared with the class. This document becomes a useful resource both for generating ideas for their critical reflection and for helping to make sense of the outcomes.
• Another important activity is to make sense of the PWR 100-Level Portfolio Rubric in class. This document can be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing (especially because it is the first rubric in the class where students are actually being graded on a 4.0 scale). I have my students read through the rubric and together as a class I have them name “what is required in order for your portfolio to qualify for the highest grade category?” Through this process questions will naturally arise like “what does having your showcase pieces be ‘substantially revised’ actually look like?” This is a change for you to clarify (or for you and the class to come to a collective understanding of) how you are going to grade and gauge things like “substantial revision.”

Week 11 | Portfolio Workshop, Ask Me Anything, and Evaluations

• I ask students to bring a short assignment that they want to revise for the portfolio to class.  In class, we walk through a revision to the Outcome of their choice. A worksheet on the process is attached. In my comments in every paper, I add a section that starts:  “If you choose to revise this assignment for the portfolio, you might consider…”  This gives students a starting point and a touchstone.  If I’ve made similar suggestions on more than two papers, focusing on those issues will make a great revision.
• Then I allow time for students to quite literally:  Ask me anything (within reason) 🙂 I do this as a Google Form where students can submit questions anonymously and I pull them up on the projector and walk through them. They can be fun, but a little nerve-wracking / vulnerable.
• Before we do course evaluations, I ask students to give some advice to the students taking the class next quarter.  They each get a slip of paper with this on it:  You’ve read a lot, you’ve written a lot, you’ve learned a lot…So, what advice would you give a student starting this class next quarter? Most often the advice is not to do the readings too far in advance!  But these are really useful slips of paper for me (I’ve saved them all) and I share them on the first day of class the following quarter.

I end the class with a discussion of evaluations, which opened for them in the morning.  Have a look at Stephanie’s newsletter about evals before you walk into class so you’re equipped with how they work. I say a few things about evals, how they can be biased and don’t necessarily assess what’s worth assessing.  I also remind them that I am a thinking, feeling human being and whatever words they choose should keep that fact in mind.  I ask them to open up their links and do the evaluation.  When they’re done, they can leave.