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.
Common Elements of WR 111 and WR 112
Class Format
Both WR 111 and WR 112 are small seminar classes with a course cap of 15 students. Our classes typically include a large amount of pair and group work, a great deal of peer review, lots of discussion, and very little (if any) lecture or teacher-dominated presentations. It is expected that students will be working with their peers, sharing their work, and collaborating on classwork and low-stakes assignments from the very first day of the course. Students should also expect to collaborate on group projects and presentations outside of class time, as well. While we do not set aside class time for students to draft their entire papers, it is very common for instructors to ask students to do a quick piece of in-class writing on the first day or two of the semester, to get a snapshot of students’ productive abilities, and then to return to short in-class writing tasks at multiple other points, asking students to exercise their spontaneous writing muscles.
Learning Management System
Instructors are expected to establish some kind of online course “home” (learning management system, online syllabus, etc.) and to specify the link on their syllabi; Blackboard is the BU standard, and a Blackboard site will be created for each course automatically each semester. You will still need to flesh out the Blackboard site and make it available to students, however. If you are using Google Drive, first request that your BU email account be enabled as a Google Apps account; this process happens automatically for students but must be manually requested by faculty. You can then use your Google-enabled BU account to create your course drive. Some instructors like to use Blackboard for everything, including all submission of student work, while others have relatively minimal Blackboard sites that simply contain a link to a Google drive folder or whatever other system works for you.
Class Content/Curriculum
You should plan to “cover” all three of the Essential Lessons for your level over the semester. You may adapt the lesson plans and handouts to your own readings, teaching style, and students’ needs, but the basic goals and sequence of the ELs should generally remain consistent. In general, we discourage the use of textbook-style decontextualized grammar exercises. Other class sessions are typically devoted to discussing the readings and helping students prepare for the major assignments. Many instructors choose to supplement their classes with a selection of our flipped learning modules, which you may assign as homework (including completing the activities, or simply watching the videos, as you prefer) to help introduce or reinforce certain concepts. At your discretion, adapt any of the major assignments, exercises and handouts, or additional resources on this site for your class, or feel free to bring in outside resources as you wish; you do not need to attribute any of these materials, and should feel free to make them your own in any way you see fit.
Both courses need to explicitly teach the so-called “hidden curriculum” for students who are extremely intelligent, highly motivated, very skilled linguistically, but still, in many cases, unfamiliar with the culture of North American higher education.
Formal assignments should have a written assignment sheet, posted on Blackboard or Google drive and shared with students ahead of time. Review guidelines for user-friendly assignment sheets here. Students will write at least one draft of each formal writing assignment and will receive feedback on it from instructors and/or peers. Drafts are required–students may not skip drafts and expect to pass the course. Instructors may choose to give written feedback on drafts or may prefer to give feedback on drafts in conferences (individual or group); you are expected to have a conference with each student at least twice per semester. Note that Writing Program policy is to schedule conferences outside of class time; please do not cancel classes for conferences.
Readings (Selection and Mode)
Because we offer so many sections of WR 111 and WR 112 each year (ranging from 15 WR 111 sections in the fall and 1-2 in the spring to 19 WR 112 sections in the fall and 14-15 in the spring), and because they are taught by so many different instructors, we do try to draw from a relatively standard pool of readings for each class, respectively. Instructors should feel free to supplement our suggested readings with some of their own favorites, or with new texts that feel relevant and important, but please also let the ELL Coordinator know so that we may add your texts to our shared pool for other instructors to use as well.
GenAI Policy
Because WR 111 and WR 112 are pass/fail courses, designed to give students lots of practice writing in low-stakes situations, we feel strongly that in order to pass, students must do their own work: students write in order to learn, and they learn to write by writing, rewriting, discussing their writing, and writing again. On the other hand, GenAI provides a set of tools that our students can take advantage of, beyond mere spell correction, that will go a long way toward helping them shape their own writing for particular sets f readers. For AY 2024-2025, therefore, we will be piloting a new GenAI policy across all sections of WR 111 and WR 112.
Cumulative Portfolio
All students in the Writing Program create, in their first WR course, and add to, in each successive course, a cumulative WR portfolio in Digication that we use for program-wide assessment. You may read more about the portfolio here, but the bottom line is that in the beginning of every course you teach, you must introduce the idea of the portfolio; assign students to create the portfolio (or, if you have some WR 112 students who have previously made a portfolio in WR 111, to give you access to it); and assign the shared first assignment in the portfolio, a literacy narrative. Throughout the course, it is expected that you will be asking students to do a large amount of reflective writing (some of it at home, some in class, much of it not even reviewed by you); students will then be responsible for selecting and posting three of their pieces of reflective writing, as well as one “featured assignment” from your class, to their portfolio by the end of the semester.
Syllabi
Please use the current version of the WR syllabus templates–complete with shared policy language–for WR 111 or WR 112 (as applicable) when creating your syllabus. New instructors will need to submit their draft syllabi for review by a Curriculum Coordinator before the semester begins. All instructors should then submit the final version of their syllabi by the end of the first week of the semester.
All required coursework, including the final paper, should be due and submitted by the day that classes end: Nothing may be due for students for a WR class during reading period or finals. However, you should hold class on the final day of the semester.
Pass/Fail Classes
We need to stress to students that although these classes are pass/fail, they do require effort, and that we expect regular work throughout the semester, outside of class time; regular attendance; and committed class participation. It is expected that students will, once or twice a week, be assigned short homework exercises (discussion questions, reading journals, imitations of an author’s use of language, outlines, summaries, metacognitive reflections, a mid-semester self-assessment, vocabulary logs, etc.) that help build crucial academic writing skills, structure their responses to the assigned readings, and serve as key scaffolding for writing their formal papers. Instructors have flexibility in choosing which kinds of homework–that is, which specific low-stakes assignments–to assign when in the semester. You will need to emphasize to students that although the class is pass/fail, this homework is not optional, and students will not be able to pass the class without completing it.
As Asao Inoue said, when he spoke to us during a professional development day in August 2023, “If you don’t do the work, you can’t do the learning. Failure is only the act of not doing the work.” In other words, students pass WR 111 and WR 112 by doing the work, and they fail by not doing the work–not by producing work that isn’t “good enough.”
WR 111 in Detail
Formal Papers
WR 111 includes four formal papers, all based on the required readings:
- Basic Summary: This paper identifies the basic facts and ideas of a particular reading (up to 250 words).
- Response to Rhetorical Technique: This paper analyzes the effectiveness of a particular lexical or grammatical usage identified in a text (up to 250 words).
- Summary and Response: This paper (with a draft) builds on the skills acquired through the basic summary paper and demonstrates strong reading comprehension along with ability to synthesize important information (up to 500 words).
- Argument-Based Analysis: This final paper (with a draft) focuses on developing an argument based on analysis of a theme in the longer work (550-750 words).
Polished versions of the formal assignments above should add up to 2000-2200 words (8-9 pages). Other writing (homework, low-stakes papers, etc.) should average 10-15 pages.
Readings
In WR 111, we ask that all sections use the current edition of The Norton Sampler, a fairly standard college-level anthology that helps complement our Hub requirement, and also that all sections use The ESL Writer’s Handbook (Michigan) as a supplementary text; you will need to make sure that these books are ordered for your section of WR 111 by emailing textbks@bu.edu before the beginning of the semester; all you need is your section number, and a preference about whether you would like e-books only, physical books only, or either (this is your choice) to be listed as required for the course. WR 111 also uses a longer work–a novel, memoir, or graphic memoir of your choice that will appeal to students, privilege the voices of the global majority, and reinforce our “Individual in Community” theme. You will find some suggested longer works here (along with notes on some of the essays in The Norton Sampler that other instructors have found useful), but again, if you have a suggested longer work not on that list, please feel free to pilot it and let us know.
Hub Requirement: The Individual in Community
As part of their Hub requirement, students will be participating in experiential community-oriented tasks. These involve on-site note-taking/summarizing and will be followed by reflective writing or multimodal/digital projects, both individual and collaborative. Below is the language from the Hub motivating our asking students to, say, go to another Boston neighborhood and reflect on their observations, or to attend a music or dance performance from a culture they have little familiarity with, etc.:
- Students will reflect critically on their engagement and relations with different communities—campuswide, citywide, national and/or international—and will recognize and analyze the issues relevant to those communities (or to different individuals in those communities).
- Students will consider at least one of the dimensions of experience that inform their own worldviews and beliefs as well as those of other individuals and societies. Such considerations may include (but are not limited to) race, class, gender expression, sexuality, disability, neurodiversity, age, language, religion, politics, or cultural history.
Oral Presentations and Class Participation
We expect that students will be speaking frequently in small groups, in class discussions, and in oral presentations throughout WR 111. The oral presentations and class discussions at this level are designed to practice fluency and improve confidence in public speaking. Students will be expected to formulate and pose relevant questions about different (content and rhetorical) aspects of the text; listen actively and contribute ideas and constructive criticism; demonstrate consideration of audience and purpose; and use appropriate academic vocabulary.
- Student-facilitated discussions of readings (required oral presentation element)
- Language-focus presentation in small teams (optional–may be replaced by the debate, below)
- Debate (optional–may substitute for the language-focus presentation, above)
In addition to the above, students typically also give short individual 3-minute (followed by Q&A) “Individual in Community” presentations that highlight characteristics of the community an individual student is coming from — school community, extended family community, neighborhood, etc.
WR 112 in Detail
Approach
In WR 112, we strive to:
- Teach the whole student, emphasizing a humanitarian, vs. a legislative, approach
- Value all kinds of diversity, particularly linguistic diversity, and invite these qualities into the classroom to enrich learning
- Empower students to critically use and analyze language at every level
- Work within an antiracist framework to dismantle systems of oppression
Formal Papers
WR 112 requires two formal projects:
- Academic synthesis paper: This 1200-1500 word paper has students bringing together three texts in a complex academic argument, in preparation for more advanced writing they will need to do across the university.
- Multimodal project (individual or group): This project allows students to work in a non-academic genre, creating a video essay, public service announcement, infographic, or other multimodal project, yet still drafting, revising in response to feedback, and considering their audience.
Polished writing in WR 112 should add up to 3000-3750 words (12-15 pages). Other writing (homework, low-stakes papers, etc.) should average 10-15 pages.
Readings
In WR 112, some instructors choose to use a handbook or a text such as They Say/I Say to supplement the online assortment of essays we have compiled, while others may prefer using the Purdue OWL or other online resources. Most WR 112 instructors do not require any books at all. If you do want to require a supplemental handbook/writing guide for your students, you will need to make sure that they are ordered for your section of WR 112 by emailing textbks@bu.edu before the beginning of the semester; all you need is your section number, and a preference about whether you would like e-books only, physical books only, or either (this is your choice) to be listed as required for the course.
Hub Requirement: Global Citizenship & Intercultural Literacy
As defined by the BU Hub, intercultural literacy is the “ability to orient ourselves when outside our cultural comfort zones (abroad, when speaking a different language, in an unfamiliar neighborhood, for example) and to work with sensitivity with people from different backgrounds is necessary for success in the workplace and a productive, meaningful life.” When satisfying this Hub requirement, “students will demonstrate, through comparative reflection or analysis, an understanding of global diversity as expressed in at least two different languages, cultures, religions, political systems, or societies,” and they will furthermore “demonstrate detailed understanding of the ways in which historical and systemic bases of social and racial inequities occur in the world today. This may include awareness of systems of racial inequity (such as in education, employment, health, housing, data science, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the law), the social consequences of such inequities, and antiracist or other activism aimed at creating a more just and equitable society.” The readings and viewings in WR 112, therefore, circle around these topics, and in-class discussions and major assignments should lead students toward this kind of intercultural analysis and a focus on inequities–including linguistic injustice.
Oral Presentations and Class Participation
We expect that students will be speaking frequently in small groups, in class discussions, and in oral presentations throughout WR 112. The oral presentations and class discussions are designed to help students feel comfortable in other college-level discussion-based classes.
- Team oral presentation/discussion leading: This assignment is designed to develop proficiency in academic language and build confidence in public speaking. It is not a presentation as much as it is the task of leading/facilitating a discussion, and thus also cultivates team management skills.
- Linguistic controversy presentation: This assignment allows teams of students to question some of the linguistic norms they might have been taught, and to share their analysis with the class for a lively discussion.
Logistics, Policies, FAQs, and More
- Double-check the important semester dates and ensure they are included on your syllabus.
- Be sure you understand the BU building codes and preview your classroom layout.
- Remember to fill out the online forms to submit your draft and final syllabi.
- Plan to attend the all-faculty meeting (usually the 1st-3rd Friday of the semester, at 3:30 in the afternoon) when the new date is shared; this meeting is optional for part-time lecturers but required for full-time lecturers
- Check the Writing Program FAQ page for other small details.
- Review Writing Program technology policies and tips, including information on Blackboard, MyBUStudemt, and more, and be sure to check your class roster through MyBUStudent.
- If you are new to the program, please consider joining the Collaborative Mentoring Initiative; CMI is open to all and offers small clusters of teachers, both new and experienced, part-time or full-time, with whom you can discuss your planning and teaching. Even if you don’t join CMI, don’t hesitate to ask colleagues for advice or sample assignments.
- Also note that the Writing Program Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Committee welcomes all interested faculty, both part-time and full-time, who are interested in working on DEI issues as they affect faculty, students, and our curriculum.
Teaching WR 120 instead/in addition? Start here.