Department of English

English W501: Professional Seminar in the Teaching of Composition meets twice weekly—once as Consulting Group (as scheduled by your Consulting Group Leader) and once as a full seminar taught by the Director of Composition.

The proseminar has three primary goals:

• support you as you teach English W131 in IU’s Composition Program
• cultivate your identity as a university-level teacher
• enculturate you into the field of rhetoric and composition, including theoretical and pedagogical issues related to writing and the teaching of writing

Both practically and theoretically, our proseminar will extend discussions about teaching composition begun during the required week-long orientation in August. In both the seminar and consulting groups, we will address strategies for teaching writing, the analysis of written and visual texts, leading discussions, commenting on papers, and handling classroom challenges. Along with these matters, we will also discuss the larger questions that frame the teaching of composition and its disciplinary core, especially the question of what, exactly, first-year composition does—or should do—for our students. Pertinent reading about these matters will be assigned for each of our meetings.