English 121 is the second of two required writing courses at Lehman College, CUNY. The CUNY catalog description is as follows: “Focus on all aspects of reading and writing, with particular attention to summary, critical responses to short texts, argumentative development in paragraphs and essays, and the rewriting process. Emphasis on organization, language, accuracy, grammar, and mechanics. Classroom instruction supplemented by individual conferences on drafts with instructor, library resources sessions, and appropriate use of available technology.”

As you might’ve noticed, the above description leaves instructors and students with a bit of flexibility. This means no Composition course is alike. For instance, in previous semesters I have taught this course using newspaper articles and Orwell’s Animal Farm, but have also most recently taught this course using non-fiction monographs. Find another example of how composition is taught on Professor Botwick’s course page:  https://www.aaronbotwick.com/eng-121-composition-ii/

Goals: The goal of this page is to share methods used in teaching writing and mentoring writers with fellow instructors and students. A larger goal is to showcase the rich and vast open educational resources (OER) we can use to teach writing and develop as educators. This means all of the ENG 121 courses archived on this page were taught without a textbook.

No, I’m not kidding. To hear stories from students about the benefits of taking a zero-cost textbook course and to learn more about the grant that funded this initiative, visit NYS Open Educational Resource.

 

 

 

 

 

Current students of Professor Walia’s ENG 121 course can find our course syllabus, lecture notes, reading lists, instructional material, and forums.