WID/WAC Presentation

Introduction

The aim of this presentation is to provide information about three aspects of teaching writing:

1. Developing Assignments

2. Teaching Writing

3. Assessing Writing

WID Survey Findings

The following themes emerged from the responses to the WID Survey. These issues can inform a discussion about possible writing strategies:

1. What inefficiencies or problems do you commonly observe in your students' writing performances?

• Students struggle with the proper use of grammar and mechanics, including proper sentence structure.
• Students struggle with citation formats (primarily APA) and how to effectively integrate information into an essay.
• Students struggle with clear organization.
• Students fail to carefully edit the final draft of their essays.
• Students don't respond well to peer and instructor feedback.
• Students have poor time management, which leads to ineffective writing practices.
• Students plagarize or self-plagarize.

How Might these issues be addressed?

WID Survey Results

2. What are the effective writing skills you observe in your students' writing performances?

• Some students write well, but there is wide variation.
• Some students have strong ideas.
• Some students write effective professional documents.
• Some students develop strong thesis with effective support.
• "I believe that students are not serious about writing effectively! I believe that it is THE responsibility of ALL faculty members to remind them about the importance of writing well and effectively. It should . . . be reinforced all the way through their academic journeys."

How Might these issues be addressed?

WID Survey Results

How Might these issues be addressed?

3. How prepared do your students seem to be for the types of writing you require in your courses?

WID Survey Results

4. If you believe students are poorly prepared, please indicate what appears to be their most significant issues? Your answer might be drawn from either your observations or from what your students have reported to you.

• After freshman and sophmore years writing genres and expectations change.
• Grammar and mechanical issues persist.
• Students fail to engage the course material critically. Instead they summarize when they are asked to analyze or synthsize.
• Students fail to appreciate that the purpose of writing is to learn and not merely to receive a grade.
• Students don't seem to read effectively, which has an impact on their writing ability.
• Students struggle with proper tone and don't tend to perceive the benefit of writing well.

How Might these issues be addressed?

WID Survey Results

5. What do you find challenging about assigning, teaching, and assessing writing in your courses?

• Finding sufficient time to require drafts and to provide detailed feedback, especially when the class is large.
• Don't have time to teach writing in addition to other course content.
• Challenge addressing issues with both form and content.
• Developing effective rubrics.

How Might these issues be addressed?

Project Overview

WID and WAC are often used interchangably, but there is a useful distinction between the two activities.

• Writing Across the Curriculum typically refers to how generalizable skills, such as the writing process, can be used in different contexts to promote effective writing.
• Writing in the Disciplines typically addresses how one does "the work" of a particular discipline, how one "affects understanding, concern, agreement, and debate there." These efforts consider, in addition to issues of "good writing," concerns with genres and the conventions that correspond to them.

In most cases, issues of skills transfer overlap with those associated with genres and their conventions. Therefore, referring to a WID/WAC program makes sense in this university context.

Implementing Writing in the Course

In general, implementing writing in the classroom includes three stages or practices:

1. Developing effective writing assignments

• Purpose
• Audience
• Evaluation Criteria that match learning outcomes

2. Teach the writing assignment

• Use the writing assignment to teach the course content
• Use assignment to teach the work of the discipline
• Require drafts and offer useful feedback

3. Assess the writing

• Develop reasonable expectations
• Best to avoid grading drafts
• Use a valid and reliable rubric--"Value" rubrics can prove useful in these instances.

Writing Assignment

• Relate the writing task to specific pedagogical goals
• Course objectives inform assignment goals.
• Goals are specific and measurable.
• Objectives and goals inform assessment.

Rhetorical Dimensions

Note the rhetorical dimensions of the task:

• Purpose: What is the aim of the writing task? Why does it matter?
• Audience: Who is the specific audience addressed in the task?
• Medium/Genre: What medium or genre should be used to complete the task?
• Writing context: What situation informs the specific communication event?

Required Elements of the Task

• Articulate all the required elements of the task.
• What specific skills and abilities are being developed in the task?

Steps to Complete the Task

• Divide the task into manageable steps.
• Require periodic drafts (introduction, then body, then conclusions; notes , planing document, then draft). Review using peer groups, minimal marking, or focused feedback.
• Consider milestones that function in two ways:
• Deadlines
• Points of evaluation

Teaching Writing

In-Class Writing Strategies

• One-minute reflection:
• Central aim of the lecture.
• Specific questions that emerged during lecture
• Writing to motivate or focus discussions
• Reflect on required readings to connect them to lecture
• Report on questions or issues in the reading

Writing To Engage Assignment

Writing to Engage Assignment

• Write about assignment: Students compose a summary about the elements of an assignment and questions one has about it.
• Peer groups: Students meet in groups to discuss progress on writing assignment. Formalize with a revision or discussion guide. Have students report findings to class.

Writing Support Resources

• Writing Support Pages: Develop discipline-specific support pages.
• Include assignment packet: develop packet with assignment sheet, assessment criteria or rubric, and model essay.

Assessing Writing

Rubrics

Ways to use them

• Holistic: Consider the criteria and structure of feedback.
• Analytical: Evaluate the weighting of each criterion and how to integrate feedback.
• Feedback
• Formative: Encourage drafting and development.
• Summative: Justify grade and encourage improvement.
• Track student learning
• Set learning goals and outcomes
• Measure these through peer-reviewed (normed) rubrics, such as the value rubrics

• Indicate how the task will be assessed, using a holistic or analytic rubric (or combination).

Transfer

Transfer

• Near and Far Transfer:
• Near: The task in one context is similar to that learned in another
• Often low-road transfer
• Far: The task in one context differs structurally from that learned in another.
• Often high-road transfer
• Specific and General Transfer
• Specific: Transfer of specific skills to new context
• General: Transfer of general knowledge/principals to new context
• Negative and Positive Transfer
• Negative: Learning in one context undermines learning in another
• Positive: Learning in one context enhances learning in another

Note: Many other theories are articulated. Yet these provide a basis for "teaching transfer," which many scholars argue is necessary.

Common Assessment Criteria

Common Criteria for Assessment

• Focus
• Thesis
• Controlling assertion
• Organization: Logic inherent in the claim
• logical
• Coordinate
• Chronological
• Voice
• "Habits of mind"/Threshold Concepts
• Tone
• Conventions
• Grammar
• Mechanics
• Punctuation

Next Steps

• Schedule and Structure of ongoing WID/WAC workshops. What are some topics for future WID/WAC workshops?
• Can provide a community of practice to offer support and suggestions during the course of the semester.
• Can help facilitate University-Wide assessment of writing through the implementation of longitudinal data gathering.
• Discipline Specific Resource pages

Contact Information

Matthew T. Pifer

piferm@husson.edu

ex: 7897