ENGL 101: Integrated Reading and Writing

A. Writing Assignments

Textbooks1. For Integrated Reading and Writing, both textbooks (Introduction to Academic Writing [IAW]

and Developing Composition Skills [DCS]) are to be used in accordance with the specifications in the blockbook (ENGL 101). The midterm and final exams will be testing the content covered in these two textbooks.

2. Students will learn to write at the paragraph level. They will learn how to write narrative, descriptive, logical division of ideas, analyzing process paragraphs.

Topics for writing

3. The writing topics for this course will be general topics.4. The related instructors can suggest the writing topics to the Course Coordinators at the beginning

of the semester; however, the Course Coordinators will select the topics (5 topics for each mode of writing) and announce them to the instructors.

5. It is better to do the selection and announcement of the writing topics to the related instructors at the beginning of the semester.

6. Students can select and write on one of the given topics (among 5) that they are interested in.7. For practice paragraph writing, the instructors can use the topics mentioned in the two writing

textbooks. 8. The final writing exam topics are selected by the Course Coordinators and will include topics

other than those given to the students during the semester.

Writing approach9. The approach to teaching writing is process writing.10. For the first three writing assignments, the students should be given the topics in one class

session, have another class session for writing their brainstorming /outlining, and have one class session for writing the draft. The final version should be done at home. This will give the students enough time to write their paragraph. However, to make sure that the students are not plagiarizing or having assistance in writing the final version of the paragraph, the students must be informed that they need to stick to the ideas they included in their draft (which was done in class). Minor changes to the draft to improve it are expected, but changing half or more of the draft is not acceptable.

11. For the writing assignments 4 & 5, the students should be given the topics in one session and should write the paragraph in 3 class sessions: one session for brainstorming and outlining, one

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for writing the draft, and one for writing the final version (after the teacher has given her/his feedback).

12. The weights for the 5 writing assignments are 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 6% respectively (a total of 20%).

Rubrics13. There are two rubrics for grading the assignments of this course. Rubric 1 is used to grade

assignments 1-3. Rubric 2 is used for assignments 4 & 5. 14. The use of rubrics should be discussed in class and students should become familiar with them.

The rubric should be attached to the student assignment for them to see their grade. This will also help them to learn about their areas of strength and weakness in writing skills.

15. Instructors should check their consistency in marking by grading a few student papers together.

Giving feedback to the students16. Instructors should be available to their students to discuss/explain any questions they may have

regarding their assignments and their grades.

Late submission/missing a session17. Students should submit their final copy (for assignments 1-3) on the date specified by the

instructor. 18. Students should bring a valid reason for submitting their work late. If there is no valid reason, the

instructors can deduct 5 points off the student’s total mark for that assignment.19. If a student misses any writing assignment session (brainstorming & outlining, writing the draft,

writing the final version [for assignments 4 &5]), she/he should be given a chance to do it in another time in a supervised condition.

20. Missing of any assignment writing session and not making it up will result in not receiving the mark for that portion. That is, if a student does not do the brainstorming & outlining and writing the draft in class and does not make up for them, she will not receive any points for them in the rubric. For the final version, if it is not submitted at all, the student will not get any mark for that assignment.

21. Instructors should keep a record of their students’ assignment marks.

B. Worksheets and Quizzes 1. Instructors should prepare worksheets for students to give them more time to practice working on

different items covered in each chapter. The worksheets will help students to prepare for their quizzes.

2. There will be 5 quizzes for this course (8% of the HQAP for the IRW component of the course). After finishing each three-week block, there will be a quiz to test students’ understanding of the content of the chapters covered.

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3. The format of the questions in the quiz should resemble that of exercises covered in the covered chapters. It should include both short answer and some multiple-choice questions.

4. As much as possible, instructors should check the quizzes of their colleagues to ensure there is a consistency in the difficulty level of their quizzes.

5. The graded quizzes should be returned to the students as soon as possible (maximum in a week time). Instructors need to go through the questions/answers in class.

6. If any student missed a quiz due to a valid reason, the instructor should give her/him a chance to take the quiz (another version) in the earliest time possible. If the excuse is not valid, the teacher should put the letter A for that quiz to indicate that the student was absent (the letter A is not counted as a mark). However, repetition of such incidence will result in receiving a zero for the missed quiz.

7. Instructors should record their students’ quiz marks.

General:1. Instructors should follow the syllabus and weekly planner in the blockbook to ensure the necessary content is covered on a weekly basis.2. Emailing will be the main means of communication between coordinators and instructors. Faculty should ensure to stay in touch with coordinators and read emails on a daily basis.3. Instructors should feel free to approach coordinators regarding any problems they might experience or suggestions they might have during the course.

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