Welcome & Section Syllabus

Education 140, Literacy: Individual and Societal Development

Tracie Wallace, M.A.

5648 Tolman Hall

gsitracie@gmail.com

Office hours: By appointment

Welcome to ED 140! I look forward to working with you this semester as we discuss literacy and its history and social implications. We will meet on Thursdays, 12:30 – 2:00 in room 2325 Tolman Hall.

Fieldwork troubleshooting

Our section is largely comprised of students working at St. Martin de Porres (SMDP) Elementary School and we will devote time each meeting to troubleshoot and touch base about your field work. Working with young people has many challenges and rewards and we will hopefully spend time talking about both. Please come prepared to ask questions, offer advice, or share wonderful success stories.

Reading Discussion

Our section meetings will mostly be made up of discussion; I will rarely lecture. Each week you will be group and assigned one of the week’s readings. You are welcome to choose your own groups as long as you are mindful of others. Your group will be responsible for leading the group thorough a general overview of the literature, positing a few key discussion questions and facilitating group discussion. These questions can relate solely to your assigned reading or can tie more broadly to themes and issues raised in the class.

If there are specific issues or theoretical questions that you have in the course, please let me know and I will do my best to address them. If your questions are not in my specific areas of expertise, chances are good I know someone who can provide answers. If you are interested in exploring a topic in class further and you would like recommendations for readings or resources, please let me know. I love this stuff.

Reading

I think it is incredibly important that you keep up with the reading. Our class and section do not meet long enough for you to be given the information embedded in the literature. I expect you to arrive at section having completed all the required reading and prepared to discuss it. Discussion is the fun part and you need to be armed with knowledge to engage critically with the reading.

Blog

I have created a blog for our section at http://ed140fall11tracie.blogspot.com/ Please subscribe to our class blog. Every week you will be required to write a minimum of 250 words in response to one of the questions posed about the reading. If you wish to respond to another student’s post, please make sure that your response is relevant and cogently makes reference to the reading; it is not an opportunity to comment blindly without completing the reading. If you wish to create a question of your own to respond to, please obtain permission from me first via email. I will read through all the blog postings before our section meeting on Thursdays and will address issues, questions, or brilliant points then.

Attendance

Yes, I take attendance. Yes, it matters. Come to section. If you cannot, let me know as early as possible. Participation also matters. Yes, I pay attention. Come in ready to engage.

GSI Stuff

The best way to get in touch with me is via email. I will check my email once in the morning and once in late afternoon/early evening. Please allow 24 hours for a response. I will try to answer you more quickly than that, but I cannot guarantee that I can. If your question requires a lengthy response, I may request that you set up an appointment with me so we can discuss it more fully.

Please use the assignment and field note log (found under Assignments on bspace) to track your work. I will not answer emails during the final push of the semester asking how many field notes you have turned in.

I have another class immediately following ED140. If you need to speak with me, please come to class/section early. Otherwise, email me and we’ll set up a time to meet up.