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Elsa Roberts Auerbach 617-287-5763 |
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Course
Descriptions Professor Auerbach regularly teaches the following courses: EN G180 Women Between Cultures This First Year General Education Seminar examines issues that women from immigrant and multicultural backgrounds face in forging their own identities and paths through higher education. Both the content and the processes of the course are geared toward preparing students to embark on their university careers in a conscious and critical way. Course content moves through a series of themes (family dynamics, identity formation, schooling, and language) that shape university work and acculturation. Students read autobiographical and literary narratives, as well as analytical studies from sociology, multicultural education, and psychology. They conduct primary research, interviewing multicultural women and analyzing the interviews in light of readings. Throughout, the attention to capabilities is designed to foster metacognitive awareness. EN448 Perspectives on Literacy This course begins by exploring popular conceptions of
literacy (both the students’ own views and those of their acquaintances).
Through this process, the class identifies several theories about literacy and
claims about the consequences of literacy which become a frame for the
subsequent development of the course. The course moves from cognitive to
socio-cultural to political perspectives on literacy. In each part of the
course, students conduct investigations (for example, they document and
analyze their own literacy uses for a day before reading studies about the
functions of literacy). In the two major papers, they research out-of-school
and in-school literacy contexts respectively. EN459 Seminar for Tutors This course, which prepares graduate and undergraduate
students to become tutors of freshman composition
provides both a theoretical and practical foundation for tutoring freshman
writers. Tutors learn to assess the individual needs of writers who come for
assistance, and to teach them strategies for addressing specific difficulties
so that they can become increasingly independent as writers. They also read
research on composition studies and write a final paper in which they analyze
some aspect of their tutoring practice in light of the research. Many of the
graduate tutors go on to become teachers, Interns, and/or Composition
instructors at UMass/Boston. Students who wish to enroll for this course must
apply for admission after first being recommended by a professor; selections
are based on writing samples, transcripts and an interview with Professor Auerbach. EN/ApLing 673 Teaching This course is structured around three broad theoretical perspectives on second language reading: cognitive, socio-cultural, and critical. Weekly assignments entail primary research (e.g., taping a reader-learner), and relating their findings to published research. Students are invited to apply and evaluate specific reading strategies as they read scholarly articles. Their final projects usually entail either a research project or the development and evaluation of lessons/materials for a particular group of students. Despite the fact that this course is a demanding one, students often comment in their evaluations that it should be a requirement for graduation in the ApLing program. EN/ApLing 672 Theory and Practice of Adult ESL Students in this course work through several theoretical
frames during the semester beginning with survival, functional and
competency-based approaches and moving on to ethnographic and participatory
approaches. They evaluate each approach through practice-based applications;
for example, after reading about competency-based ESL, they design specific lessons
based on this approach and reflect on the process. Students learn about
participatory tools for language/literacy development (codes, dialogue
journals, socio-drama, oral histories)
experientially by actually working through the development and application of
these tools. Students are encouraged to have a corresponding field experience
where they can explore coursework more concretely. Professor Auerbach also teaches
special topics courses and other courses on an occasional basis. Mentoring Inside the university, Professor Auerbach has worked closely with graduate students in
research and writing projects, co-authoring articles with several of them
(Denise Burgess, Diane Paxton, and Ines Brito). She has supervised
student teachers, directed independent study courses, and acted as thesis
advisor or reader for many M.A. students in both English and Applied
Linguistics. Outside the university, she has served as thesis advisor for
several students. Many of her students have gone on to take leadership roles
in the Greater Boston adult literacy and ESL communities, including
coordinating adult education programs, becoming ESL specialists at the Adult
Literacy Resource Institute (ALRI), SABES (System for Adult Basic Education
Support, the state adult education professional development organization) and
World Education (a Boston-based international literacy training and technical
assistance agency). |
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