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This semester, I have been fortunate enough to work as a research associate for the First Year Composition (FYC) Task Force at Baruch College. The Task Force consists of faculty from different disciplines, including Zicklin school, and is joined by Suresh Canagarajah, our WAC Cordinator Cheryl Smith, and our own Mikhail Gershovich, to name a few. The Task Force is investigating the current situations in FYC pedagogy, curriculum and objectives inside and outside of Baruch and CUNY schools, and discussing how the new FYC writing program can be organized and implemented at Baruch College.

At the moment, the task force is in the process of studying about and discussing the following questions:

1. Social Context [How the ends and means of literacy are changing]
2. Institutional Context [How universities situate FYC]
3. Academic Context [Expectations of diverse disciplines from English literacy]
4. Departmental Context [Relations between Literature, Cultural Studies, Journalism, and Composition; Relations between adjunct and full-time faculty]
5. Genre Considerations [Which genres the writing course should prioritize; the ways in which the course should relate to the genre conventions from popular culture and native communities brought by students]
6. Language Considerations [Relations between standard English, non-prestige dialects, and other languages in English writing]
7. Models of FYC [The desired sequence, curriculum, and pedagogy for the course]

There are some successful writing programs developed in other universities, including City College, and I am researching about them, coordinating with Cheryl as well as Suresh.  As someone who has previously taught FYC and the equivalent of it in Japan and at Lehman College, I am personally very interested in this topic and do have some stories based on my own experience.  For the next few posts, I plan to write them to share with you. I would also love to hear any opinions or ideas about this topic from you, as I am sure that some of you readers have taught or are teaching Freshman Composition courses and many more of you must have taken them as a student!