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English 830: Teaching Composition — Artificial Intelligence

Required Materials and Tasks

Due July 27 Tuesday: First Draft of Course Requirement–Course Rationale

Due July 27 Tuesday: Required Readings on AI

AI and First-Year Composition

The Environmental Impact of AI

MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI

Class Activities

Act 1: Opening (1 hour and 15 minutes)

Part 1. Small Group Discussion of Your Course Rationale (45 minutes)

  • Give each person in your group time to discuss their Course Rationale
  • Let the teacher discuss their ideas
  • Let’s give each person at least 10 minutes to talk about their course rationale
  • Then have group members offer thoughts, responses, and feedback
  • Be sure to point out the strengths of the syllabus

Part 2. Full Class Discussion (15 minutes)

  • We will take turns talking about the general pedagogies people selected for their rationale and some of the key things people noticed
  • We will go by group

Intermission 1 (10 Minutes)

Break (10 minutes)

  • We’ll take a short break

Act 2: Website Building (1 hour)

Part 3. The Value of Teacher Websites

  • I built my first website almost 3 decades ago
  • It was fun way back then, and I still love web work
  • It’s a great way to highlight yourself as a Teacher Scholar in a personal, immediate way
  • Website building is also fun and a very hands on activity
  • It also teachers patience and appreciation for imperfection
  • Dr. Pagnucci will guide you through the process of building Your Own Teacher Website in class

Part 4. Building Your Teacher Website

There are many ways to build a website. My pagnucci.org website is built with software called WordPress. I like WordPress because it is easy to use but also has lots of features for customizing your site. You are free to use whatever software you would like to build your website, but I’ll discuss how to use WordPress in class. If you already have a website at your home university, you can add to it as long as you have the power to access and change that website.

Wix/Aria Prompt

  • Purpose: I want to create a professional teacher portfolio website. I want a simple design. This will be a static page to deliver information. I do not want to offer any services.
  • Menu Navigation: Give me a row of simple menu items across the top to get to secondary pages. I want one menu for Teaching, one for Scholarship, one for Service, one for Resources, and one for Contact Information. On each page, put some a couple headings and some dummy text. On the resources page, put a couple headings and a list with 2 links to IUP, the IUP Composition and Applied Linguistics Program, and Dr. Pagnucci’s English 830 website.
  • Additional Content: I do not want this website to be designed for scrolling down. I want to click menus to get to the various elements of the website. Each page will have a heading with some information and maybe a couple pictures. Visitors will then click the menu items to go to the secondary pages.
  • Colors: Make the website red, white, with a light royal blue background.
Alternative Website Tool
Basic Teacher Websites

Below is basic information you will likely want to include on your website:

Intermission 1 (10 Minutes)

Break (10 minutes)

  • We’ll take a short break

Act 3: AI (1 hour)

Part 5. Journal Writing (15 minutes)

We’ve already talked about AI. It’s hard not to. But let’s take some time to reflect on our use or refusal to use, both AI, and technology:

  • Thinking of our big technologies, the mobile phone, the calculator, the Internet, email, Word Processing, how would you say tech has impacted you positively?
  • How has tech impacted you negatively?
  • Walter Ong noted that writing is a technology which changes thought. How do you think writing impacts your own thinking?
  • Now let’s have you think about AI. AI has been around for a long time, as spell check, grammar correction, and text prediction, and also in much of the software we use. Why do those uses of AI seem “safer” while ChatGPT has so many people worried?
  • If two students are in a writing class and one student is a great, A level writer, and one is a C level writer, why shouldn’t the weaker writer get to use a tool to assist them or should they get to use that tool?
  • Is AI somehow different from technologies like text to sound or visual assistance technologies which level the field for different physical ability levels? Is this a fair comparison? Why or why not?
  • Wether or not you support or agree with the use of AI, how should we respond to the way AI is reshaping the world?

Part 6. Small Group Discussion (20 minutes)

  • Talk about what you wrote.

Part 7. Full Class Discussion (20 minutes)

  • We will talk about our overall thoughts concerning AI.

Act 4: Closing (15 minutes)

Part 8. Class Wrap-up (5 minutes)

  • Dr. Pagnucci will take time to go over course assignments and answer any questions

Part 9. Parting Thoughts

Other Assignments

Due 29 Wednesday: “Required” Snacking

  • If you are able to, please bring a snack to share for Finding Forrester

For July 30 Thursday: Special Personal Object

  • If possible, please bring to class a small object that is significant to you
  • If you can’t physically get the object, then, if possible, get a photograph of the object (otherwise you will have to use your memory)
  • Also, if possible, get a picture of the room in which you normally keep this object
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