Welcome to English 725! In this course, we'll think about how to integrate teaching writing with other literacy skills like composing multimedia, reading, speaking, listening, and viewing. We will focus on composing writing and multimedia works, although it is difficult and even undesireable to attempt to separate literacy skills and practices from each other. 

We’ll learn about how English teachers meet the needs and interests of a richly varied population of students. We will review standards systems for English teaching, construct and critique teaching documents, and discuss and apply the work of master literacy teachers and theorists.  

Working collaboratively, we will examine and compare philosophies of English teaching and learning, and we will develop approaches to writing and literacy instruction. We will discuss theoretical, pedagogical, and practical ideas for teaching writing in large and small groups, engage in reading and composition exercises, produce and practice instructional activities and assessments, and evaluate teaching approaches. Successfully completing this course (which fits together with English 726) will help you recognize and affirm literacy skills and practices, and to consider how they can help your future students write, compose, comprehend, describe, analyze, and evaluate various texts.

This course is open to all students with Junior or Senior status, and required for all English Teaching majors.

Fall 2024 Detailed Description:

How can we talk about environmental crisis? What words can we use to represent the natural world—and human interactions with it? Is it possible to describe nature without cultural projections? How can language change vision, policy, action? In this course, we will grapple with the urgent need to articulate environmental issues by reading contemporary ecocritics who are inventing vocabularies to do so, such as Rob Nixon on “slow violence” and Stacy Alaimo on “trans-corporeality.” We’ll also read 19^th-21^st century nature writers, poets, and fiction writers who write about different environments from different perspectives, shaped in part by race, gender, and indigeneity, from Henry David Thoreau and Mary Austin to Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, Joy Harjo, and Octavia Butler. We’ll explore ecofeminism, environmental justice, postcolonial ecology, and the concept of the Anthropocene.

Writing intensive. Satisfies a post-1800 literature requirement for English majors. In fall 2024, this class fulfills a DH (Digital Humanities) requirement for the TBD major. ENGL 736 is an approved elective for the Sustainability Dual Major. Undergraduate students taking this class for Women’s and Gender Studies credit will write papers that focus on women writers or on gender and the environment. Graduate students taking 897N will write a graduate-level research paper; those taking 897N for credit towards a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies will also write such a paper and will focus their written work on women writers, ecofeminist theory, or gender and the environment. Finally, ENGL 736 is a good choice for honors work. If you are an Honors-in-Major English student and would like to take this as an honors course, please talk to me during the first week of class.

This course satisfies the Literature after 1800 requirement for English Majors. 

This course satisfies one of two Post-1800 Literature requirement for English LIterature, English/Journalism, English: TBD, English/Law 3+3 Majors. 

This course may count as one of two Literature courses taken at the 600/700 level for English Teaching majors. 

This course satisfies the DH Component requirement for ENGL:TBD majors. 

This course may be taken for Capstone credit by general ENGLISH majors following requirement guidelines in place prior to Fall 2023. Fill out a Capstone Declaration form (available in the main English office,  Ham Smith 230F) if you wish to declare it as Capstone. 

This course satisfies the Literature before 1800 requirement for English majors following degree requirements activated in Fall 2023. 

This course counts as one of two Pre-1800 Literature courses for English Literature, English:TBD, English/Journalism, English/Law 3+3 Majors. 

This course may count as one of two English Literature courses taken at the 600/700 level by English Teaching majors. 

This course may be taken for CAPSTONE credit by English/Law, English/Journalism and English majors following degree requirements in place prior to Fall 2023. Pick up a Capstone Declaration Form in the main ENGL office (HS 230F) if intersted in this option.