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Sample Syllabi

Becoming Experts

Garrow–Becoming Experts (Eng 101) Syllabus)

Course description: Taking as its point of departure the theory that all learning is progress from novice to expert (see How People Learn, National Academies Press, 2000), this English 101 Course encouraged each John Jay student to experiment with declaring an area of expertise and using the 101 research paper as a means to exploring and expanding that expertise.

From Story to Question to Research

Eng 101 Syllabus

Course description: Teaching 101 has made me very interested in the bridge between personal narrative and academic research. We start the semester reading and writing personal narratives and listing/discussing hypothetical “How/Why Research Questions” that are inspired by the real-life stories we’re reading and the themes/ “situations” they reflect. As we move into reading argument pieces, students continue creating how/why questions, with no pressure to write on them or research them. The more complicated the questions, the more they’re celebrated and discussed in class. We simply keep a running list of these under a tab in our e-portfolios (or in our notebooks) called “Inquiry Log.” By taking time to explore research questions (in and of themselves) for fun, those that emerge from real stories (their own, other students’, and published authors’), visuals, argument pieces, events etc instead of rushing right to “pick a topic,” I find that my students’ level of inquiry has drastically improved. (In fact, I’ve banned the word “topic” in class.) Most importantly, because we create and go through so many hypothetical research questions way before anyone ever commits to one of their own, I find that (when the time finally comes) students are very comfortable picking a complicated question; they’re less afraid of a question that doesn’t have an easy answer and are excited about the chance to wrestle with something complicated–something they care about. Granted, by doing this, I’m often rushed at the end of the semester, but I’m working on that!

Other Sample Syllabi

This is a cache of English 101 syllabi that have been taught at John Jay. (This document and other useful English 101 information is available on the “For Faculty” and “Writing Curriculum” pages of the department website.)

Self, Media, and Society (Learning Community)

130827.Final Draft syllabus

Description: This 101 syllabus was from a learning community section of English 101 taught with Lyell Davies intro to media course in the Fall 2013 semester. This is an example of how to create one syllabus for both learning community courses.