Colleagues,
Below
is the Call for Proposals to present at the Colorado Community College
Conference on Composition (aka “5C’s”) on Friday, April 17,
2009. This is an annual gathering of regional two- and four-year English faculty,
but we invite participation and presentation ideas from a much wider
geographical area. Please pass this opportunity pm to colleagues in the
field of composition teaching.
Thank
you.
Chuck
Fisher
Professor,
English
Aims
Community College
5401
W. 20th St.
Greeley,
CO 80634
Ph:
970-339-6520
Request for Presentation Proposals
2009 5C’s - Colorado Community College
Conference on Composition
Dear Colleague:
Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado, will host the
Colorado Community College Conference on Composition (5C’s) on
Friday, April 17, 2009
This year, the 5C’s will center on
“basics” of teaching and learning writing. As writing
instructors, we should ask what the “basics” are before we can get
“back to the basics.” Should we re-invent the “basics”
to better serve underprepared and/or developing writers at all levels of their
writing education? We might also ask ourselves what drives the
“basics.” Technology? Rhetorical stances that have
stood for millennia? What value do such traditional approaches have
today? What “new and improved” rhetorical approaches
are available for us to use, and are they effective?
Conference Theme
“Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Teaching and
Learning the Basics and Beyond”
The Issue
Perennially, writing instructors face students with varying
levels of skill, despite entrance assessment standards and preparatory
courses. Looking at the myriad of skills students bring with them, writing
instructors naturally pose a few questions: Which writing tasks will
challenge our students and appropriately develop their skills, what information
and processes are needed to help our students accomplish those tasks, and how
much development can we realistically expect of students in a fifteen-week
semester? What tasks do we prioritize and why?
This year’s conference will explore the question of
what students need to know about writing at all levels, from
“pre-college” to discipline-specific. What does
“underprepared” mean, really? And for that matter, what does
“prepared” mean? For whom or what are the students
underprepared? What do we as writing instructors prioritize in relation
to state competencies? How do we blend critical thinking skills into our
writing instruction and learning outcomes? In what ways do Aristotelian
theories of effective communication meld with the blogosphere? Is txtng
drvng u crzy?
We invite teachers of writing, including full-time and
adjunct from four-year and two-year institutions, high school faculty, and
graduate students, to join us in exploring the realm of the
“basics,” and how we guide our students through the building of
solid skills while still encouraging and modeling depth of thinking,
profundity, grace, and greatness.
The deadline for submitting proposals is February 28,
2009. Please observe the following guidelines:
·
Submit by snail-mail or email to the address
below...e-mail is preferred!
·
Include a title as you want it to appear in the
program.
·
Include an abstract (50-100 words) as you want
it to appear in the program.
·
Include a brief autobiography as you want it to
appear in the program.
·
Plan a presentation of 45 minutes.
·
Include a statement of technology needs (Note:
presenters must provide their own laptop computers).
·
If selected to present, prepare handouts for 30
people.
Please submit proposals via email to [log in to unmask] This
submission method is preferred, but if you need to, you may also mail proposal
submissions to:
Chuck Fisher
P.O. Box 69
Aims Community
College
Greeley, CO 80632
As usual, we have the capacity to fill 12-18 breakout
sessions,
so please submit your ideas!
Presenters will receive confirmation in the latter part of
March.
The 2009 5C’s committee looks forward to your company
and camaraderie for our upcoming Colorado Community College Conference on
Composition. We hope you will join us!