This class in applied writing program administration will engage these competing, often conflicting, and sometimes unrealistic or even unreasonable expectations of the WPA. The members of CCR 760 will participate in a politically charged task presently facing its writing program: crafting authentic sentence-level pedagogy in a common curriculum. As a participant in this class, you will--
1. Read some contemporary administrative documents from SU concerning institutional desires for legislating sentence-level writing pedagogy.
2. Read some history of the cultural desire for sentence-level writing pedagogy.
3. Read some arguments against sentence-level writing pedagogy.
4. Read some accounts of successful sentence-level writing pedagogy.
5. Read some theory of writing program administration to see what sorts of methods and philosophies are recommended or rejected for tasks such as ours.
6. Sign onto WPA-L. (To LISTSERV@LISTS.ASU.EDU, send the message sub WPA-L, with no other words in the body of your text.) Once on the list, talk as seldom as possible--preferably never. Use WPA-L as a place to discover what quotidian and recurring issues WPAs wrestle with and how they talk about them--not as a place to participate in the co-construction of knowledge. Lurk.
7. Keep a journal of your thoughts about sentence-level pedagogy and about how it dictates, mediates, and/or reflects the relationship of the writing program to the university; write a synthesis of your observations.
8. Participate in one of the following class projects:
a. Study pedagogical artifacts (e.g., syllabi and textbooks) and institutional events (e.g., coordinating groups, consulting sessions, and committee meetings), specifically asking how they address sentence-level pedagogy; write a report of your observations.
b. Interview and/or survey university stakeholders and powerbrokers about their desires for and experiences with sentence-level writing instruction; write a report of your findings.
9. Participate in one of the following class projects:
a. Write a new section on "sentence-level pedagogies" for the Writing Program Teachers' Handbook .
b. Plan, conduct, and evaluate a Writing faculty development workshop on sentence-level pedagogies.
c. Submit a prospectus for legislating sentence-level writing pedagogy to the Lower Division Committee and the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
d. Write a report on the possibilities for, limitations of, and perils of sentence-level writing pedagogy to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the university.
Some questions will inform all our inquiry in the course, e.g.,