Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

All courses in the composition sequence (WR 115, 121, 122) teach writing as a process, requiring revision over multiple drafts; require 2 instructor conferences; and include principles of citation.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. ADAPT: Read and compose texts for different purposes.

2. INQUIRE: Locate information that will help them in their thinking.

3. CONNECT: Convey and support a perspective.

4. REFLECT: Analyze their own learning in writing.

Students will connect to resources and develop the metacognitive skills they need to succeed in WR 121 and at PCC generally.

Students will develop curiosity about reading, writing, and rhetoric.

Students will transfer their learning to personal goals and larger initiatives that matter to them.

Students will begin to see themselves as contributors to larger conversations.  

• Low stakes writing for the self and the instructor (examples include journals, personal blogs, reflections, writer’s memos)

• High stakes writing for an (imagined or real) audience, i.e., rhetorical projects that have undergone revision and editing (examples include traditional essays, editorials, annotated bibliographies, mixed media presentations)

• A larger volume of low stakes writing (than WR 121)

• At least 1 high stakes writing project

• Apprenticeship and instructor modeling

• Guided practice in class in both reading and writing

• Presentations, class discussion, small group work, peer review/workshop

• Library Orientation with a librarian

• Conferences

Assessment Tasks

ADAPT:

• Read to determine purpose and perspective.

• Write for readers.

• Demonstrate an awareness of the way purpose influences composition in their own writing.

INQUIRE:

• Develop a research question.

• Use key information literacy concepts to guide inquiry.

• Evaluate sources of information.

• Find and analyze information.

CONNECT:

• Develop their own response to a question.

• Provide context for their own and others’ ideas.

• Use evidence and illustration.

• Distinguish between others’ ideas and their own.

REFLECT:

• Articulate and reflect on their own reading process.

• Articulate and reflect on their own search process.

• Articulate and reflect on their own writing process.

• Acquire a vocabulary for discussing writing.

Assessment Tools (the following is not an exhaustive or required list of assessment possibilities, but offers examples of how an instructor might gather information about a student’s learning)

Students’ ability to adapt may be assessed by the following:

• Composition for different readers

• Low stakes and high stakes writing

• Reflective writing

Students’ ability to inquire may be assessed by the following:

• Reading journals

• Research notes

• Annotations

• Annotated Bibliography

• Conferences/conference preparation

Students’ ability to connect may be assessed by the following:

• Essays

• Annotated Bibliographies

• Letters

• Editorials

• Review articles

• Multimodal compositions

Students’ ability to reflect may be assessed by the following:

• Learning journals

• Reading journals

• Writer’s memos

• Letters

• Annotations

• Emails

• Rhetorical situation

• Generic conventions

• Invention/Curiosity

• Reflection/Metacognition

• Writing to learn

• Information literacy

• Non-agonistic rhetoric

• Summary

• Accessing resources

• Habits of successful studentship