The following guide is designed for faculty who are teaching  WR 111 or WR 112, our courses for English language learners (ELLs), for the first time, or who would like to refresh themselves on our curriculum. WR 111 is an ELL academic writing course designed to orient students to the university, while WR 112 is a critical literacies course taught from an explicitly antiracist perspective. Both courses satisfy general education (Hub) requirements for students, and both courses are pass/fail, which enables students to take risks, try new kinds of writing, and not worry about grades in their first or second semester at BU.

Students place into these classes on the basis of an interactive metacognitive placement they take remotely the summer before their first semester; the result of the placement is highly recommended, though not required. We offer placement conferences with students via Zoom to discuss their placements if they have questions, but we do strongly suggest that students who place into WR 111 begin the curriculum at that level. Once students have passed WR 111, our expectation is that they will then take WR 112 before moving on to WR 120–first-year composition. Students who pass WR 112 may go straight into WR 120.

We hope that students will think of WR 111 and WR 112 as engaging, literacy-rich Hub classes which help prepare them for the reading, writing, and speaking demands of their other BU coursework–and we hope to have a great time with them, discussing and writing about some exciting and relevant topics, along the way.

Teaching WR 120 instead/in addition? Start here.