Course Description
ATL 135
Debate and deliberation are essential ingredients of democracy. For democracy to work, ordinary citizens must take part in the process of identifying social problems and finding solutions together. Unfortunately, too many citizens are not engaged in the ongoing work of democracy. Their lack of engagement is not a sign of satisfaction with the status quo, but too often an expression of cynicism, apathy, or a sense of powerlessness.
Why have we withdrawn from public associations? Why does our democratic system-the envy of the rest of the world-seem to be failing us? Why have so many of us lost faith in our common life? This special section of ATL 135-"Writing: Public Life in America"-will examine these difficult questions.
ATL 135 is a writing intensive course that engages students in public discourse on social issues that affect local and national communities. Students will analyze, evaluate, and present arguments on topics of current concern to different audiences. Students will also learn to moderate differing points of view on an issue and to find strategies that build toward consensus. An important goal of ATL 135 is to encourage student participation in the public sphere through active participation in open public forums as well as through classroom reading and writing. A significant portion of sections 002 and 003 of ATL 135 will be organized around three National Issues Forums (NIF) held in our community and around a smaller version of these forums (Study Circles) that students will be responsible for conducting in class at the end of the semester. We will use the NIF model of deliberation and consensus building to explore several critical issues in contemporary American public life. In addition, ATL students will collaborate with Lansing Community College students in preparing for, helping to organize, and actively participating in the local NIF forums. For more information on the NIF please visit their Web site at: .
Our goals throughout the course will be to deepen our awareness of important public issues and concerns, to build our problem-solving capabilities, and to strengthen and improve public life in our community.
ATL -150:"Apathy is dead," declared President Clinton in a recent policy address on National Service. Most American citizens today, it would seem, yearn to play active roles in public and community life. According to a 1992 Kettering Foundation survey, however, there are two roadblocks to effective citizen participation: (1) lack of knowledge and training that could help connect people with each other and to the powers that shape their lives, and (2) a dimmed belief that they can make a difference. While it is true, then, that the public's desire to get involved in democratic decision-making has never been greater, actual public participation in democratic government-local, municipal, national-is in serious decline.
ATL 150-"Writing: Public Life in America"-will examine reasons for that decline and explore ways to reverse it. Readings, writing assignments, discussions, and actual public service placements will confront us with basic questions about the struggle for a revitalized public sphere. What does it mean, for example, to be a member of the communities in which we live and work– school and classroom, place of worship and workplace, neighborhood or nation? What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy? How well do traditions of American citizenship serve the complex demands and increased diversity of civic life in America? What is the relationship between civil rights and civic responsibilities? What are the major challenges to democratic citizenship today? How well are the media- magazines, newspapers, TV-delivering information vital to effective citizenship? What does "service" mean and what does it have to do with democratic citizenship?
We will discuss, debate, evaluate, and write about such questions with the help of diverse readings. In addition, students in this special section of ATL 150 sponsored by the SLWP will benefit from hands-on experiences in various Lansing-area public and community service agencies. Options for students' placements this semester include (1) working individually or with a team of students on a writing project for a non-profit agency, or (2) writing an essay based on volunteer work with a local public service organization. Students' service experiences are carefully monitored by ATL faculty and the staff of the Service-Learning Center.
Course Format, Aims, and Objectives
ATL 150 follows a seminar and workshop model emphasizing the development of independent thinking as well as collaborative learning processes. Assignments for class preparation and daily discussion, analysis, evaluation, and critique of readings stress constant refinement and routine practice of varied writing activities, including outlining, paragraphing, peer-editing, essay and report writing and revision, leading class discussion, drafting discussion questions, developing group proposals and conducting group research, etc. Our overall objective is to strengthen the following critical competencies:
?Critical Reading: identifying central ideas, issues, problems of a text, synthesizing and reconstructing an argument, and determining relevant information.
Critical Thinking: evaluating hypotheses or conclusions, distinguishing between fact and opinion, formulating appropriate questions, and incorporating others' opinions and perspectives.
Development of Critical Writing: Skills defining audience, generating and organizing ideas, drafting, revising, and editing for standard usage, using and documenting sources, researching library materials.
Performance Evaluation
Students are required to attend all classes, participate in class activities, and complete all assigned work. Work submitted for evaluation is graded on a four-point scale in accordance with common standards adopted by the faculty of American Thought and Language consistent with the policies of Michigan State University. Each assignment has an evaluation ranking – I, II, or III – determined by the amount of time and work it takes to complete the assignment and its relative importance to other assignments. Final grades are calculated by averaging assignments at each rank and weighting them as follows:
Level I Assignments = 60% of Final Grade
Level II Assignments = 30% of Final Grade
Level III Assignments = 10% of Final Grade
Work submitted by study groups – subject to the same ranking system – receive common evaluations. Each member of a study group receives the same grade for an assignment submitted for evaluation on behalf of the study group.
Students are also required to attend the three public NIF forums held on the following dates: Feb. 10th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm; Feb. 24th from 6 to 8 pm; and March 28th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Two of these forums will be held off campus, one at Lansing Community College and one at a Lansing-area school. We will arrange transportation as a class to these events.
Required Books
Robert Bellah, et al., Habits of the Heart (Harper and Row, 1986) in Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (eds.).
Benjam Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (eds), Education for Democracy.(Kendall/Hunt, 1993)
"Rethinking Democracy: Citizenship in the Media Age." Media & Values, Number 58, Spring 1992.
Ann Watters and Marjorie Ford (eds.), Writing for Change: A Community Reader (McGraw-Hill, 1995).
The Service-Learning Writing Project: Resource Packet." Course packet.
For reference: Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference
American Thought and Language at Michigan State University
Spring, 2000
The American Thought and Language Department prepares students for effective writing in various contexts, including academic, professional, personal, and public. The department recognizes that writing is an essential component of a student's intellectual endeavor linked to other aspects of communication such as reading, evaluating, reasoning, and speaking about specific subject matters. The American Thought and Language Department therefore emphasizes development of students' discourse skills in courses with American heritage content, stressing interdisciplinary and culturally diverse themes and readings as well as introducing students to literary, historical, social, political, and moral perspectives that seek to establish a coherent overview of American society and its place in the global community.
