Diane Worobec-Serratos

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

FYS II builds upon the foundational writing skills developed in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Students will hone their skills and work toward greater independence in writing tasks while critically examining the act of curation. From personal wardrobes and social media accounts to the sometimes-violent legacy of museum collections, curation is all around us. If curation means to care for items in a collection, what does that care entail? As a form of cultural production, whose needs are being cared for? Whose are being neglected? Which voices are amplified, and which are silenced? In a broader context, can curation be an emancipatory practice in the struggle for social justice? As artists, what is our responsibility in selecting, grouping, and caring for our work? To investigate these questions, in the first part of the course, students will explore a variety of curatorial geographies, looking critically at how commodification, patriarchal racism, and colonial capitalism have informed and disrupted curatorial practices over time. Later, students will apply the reflections and insights from course readings and activities to research a curatorial endeavor of their choosing.