English 102 Instructor’s Site

This web site is a resource for English 102 instructors at West Virginia University. It includes Joining Academic Conversations: English 102 (the English 102 Instructor’s Manual), as well as policy materials, course designs, and exercises contributed by experienced instructors. This site helps instructors design their English 102 courses, develop and adapt activities, and refer to posted policies. The Instructor’s Manual is below. Click here for additional policies, course designs, and excercises.

Joining Academic Conversations: English 102

Many 102 teachers have expressed an interest in strategies and activities that incorporate Joining Academic Conversations, one of the required textbooks for this second year undergraduate writing course. The following is a collection of assignments which use the JAC. Some are designed for a single activity; others provide an extensive lesson plan for a major writing assignment, often covering weeks of work. As a teacher assigned to English 102, we ask you to spend time with JAC and this manual before you begin designing your own syllabus for the upcoming year.

The assignments found here are all “works in progress” and are being shared with you so you have some models for designing your own assignments. The instructors who have contributed them are giving permission for you to use them in part or whole. Note that the strongest assignments clearly explain the purpose, the lesson plan, and the evaluative criteria (or assessment/grading system). In some cases, the assignment also contains an introduction intended for other instructors. In others, the assignment is directed solely to the 102 student.

Two versions of the Instructor’s Manual are available; this web-based version is the complete Manual. A PDF version of the manual is available at the bottom of this page. Individual exercises are linked to this page in Microsoft Word format. Printing costs required us to limit the number of assignments included in the printed version, but we believe it offers a good representation of the assignments contributed this year.

We hope you will continue to share your lesson plans and activities with one another.

– Amy Colombo and Jo Ann Dadisman, editors, April 18, 2007

Goal 1: Understanding Writing as a Process

Goal 2: Argue Effectively and Persuasively in a Variety of Contexts Goal 3: Explore and Evaluate Ideas Goal 4: Integrate Research Effectively Goal 5: Know the Rules Multiple Goals

PDF version: Preface , Table of Contents , and Complete Manual .