FACULTY WORKSHOP SERIES

April 2007

Session One

PART ONE:  SOME DEFINITIONS

WHAT IS WILO?

w  The “Writing-Intensive Learning Office” promotes writing as an integral part of the teaching and learning culture across the University.

PART TWO: GETTING STARTED

AN INTRODUCTION TO WRITING INTENSIVE LEARNING

 FIVE "W" CRITERIA

http://www.sfu.ca/ugcr/files/NEW_W_PropCert_Form.pdf 

1. Students have opportunities to use writing as a way of learning the content of the course and are taught to write in the forms and for the purposes that are typical of disciplines and/or professions.

Writing is not used simply as a medium through which students can be evaluated on whether they have understood course material. Rather, students are given opportunities to use the process of writing as a way of exploring and critiquing complex concepts and coming to understand them. They are also given instruction and practice in writing in such disciplinary forms as lab reports, literary analyses, or policy briefs.

2. Examples of writing within the disciplines are used as a means of instruction about typical structures, modes of reasoning, styles of address, and the use of technical language and of evidence.

As part of the engagement with and instruction in writing, students read samples of typical forms of the writing in their discipline, not only for what they say but how they say it and what that means for them as writers who need to produce such texts themselves. To this end, they may analyze various kinds of texts in the discipline, focusing on matters of structure, logic, style, and evidential support and learning to recognize how successful writers use strategies that will meet the expectations of their readers.

3. Students receive appropriate feedback and response to their writing that is based on explicit criteria and is directed at improving the quality of their writing.

One of the fundamental means by which all writers improve their writing is through response intended to assist in improvement. Such response, however, is more likely to be understood and acted upon when students know what is expected of them. They need to be well informed about what will receive comment, how and by whom comment will be given, and what qualities and characteristics in their writing will be reflected in the grades received. The criteria on which writing an assignment is evaluated should be clearly expressed in writing when the assignment is given and should coincide with the analyses of the features and goals of academic and disciplinary discourse (as discussed in Criterion 2).

4. Revision is built into the process of writing for formal assignments, usually in terms of revisions of the same paper, or alternatively, in revisions accomplished through successive similar assignments.

W courses acknowledge that writing is a process. Writing instruction will typically include instruction, assistance, and practice in all stages of the process, from initial brainstorming or other idea-generating strategies through organization, drafting, revising, and submitting a completed paper. These techniques not only assist in making a final paper worth reading, they also mean that students rethink what they are saying about a topic and are more likely to get it straight in their minds and on the paper. If successive similar assignments are employed, the characteristics being marked in each assignment should be explicitly identified and show that there is a planned, cumulative effect on students' development as writers over the course of the semester.

Through revision, students have opportunities to make use of the responses described in Criterion 3, thereby enhancing their evolving knowledge and skills. This criterion assumes a process that includes responding to drafts; it does not assume, in the interests of not increasing workloads, grading drafts nor giving further extensive feedback on revised work. It also assumes that response and marking will not be left entirely to TAs but that some will be done by, and/or carefully guided by, instructors.

5. At least half the course grade is based on written work for which students receive feedback (see Criterion 3).

The feedback received may be either before revising an assignment or on a succession of similar assignments (see Criterion 4). Writing on which no feedback is received by the student (including such things as essays in final exams) is not included the calculation of this 50 percent. The grade for written work encompasses all aspects of the assignment; it does not distinguish effective expression from knowledge of content as evident in the written work.

 PART THREE:  THE BASICS ABOUT TEACHING WRITING  

 HOW STUDENTS MAY HAVE EXPERIENCED WRITING IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY

w    As communication – rather than as a tool for thinking

w    As a recording process – of writing things down rather than a process of discovery and figuring out what they know and think

w    Have not grasped that the more you write, the more easily it will come

w    See most writing as a test of knowledge – not as a means of learning

CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE OF TRUST

-  Form deep and meaningful relationships

-  Demonstrate commitment:  helping students grow, having a common purpose and showing mutual respect

-  Do worthwhile work

-  Offer choices -- giving students some control and the ability to experience pleasure

-  Know your students' preferences (type theory)

-  Use narratives -- telling stories

WRITING AND ASSESSMENT

-  Use student work to demonstrate examples of the writing skills being taught

-  Put student writing on the overhead -- use pieces that successfully employ particular skills

-  Check for class understanding through discussion

REVISION  

Revise for Meaning

PART FOUR:   LOOKING AT  READING AND WRITING TOGETHER               

Setting a Foci for Reading

How does this text intersect with other course materials?

¨   What is the most important thing you want students to get from a reading?

¨    Giving directed questions.

¨    Advice on pre-reading preparation (e.g. vocabulary,reading sequence, etc.).

¨    Setting an outcome for reading (e.g. synopsis, critical summary, margin notes, etc.)

Modeling Reading

Examples of Exploratory Writing

Writing Prior to Research -- Freewriting: might be used in the process of choosing a topic for a research paper.

Writing During or at the End of a Class -- Quickwrites : might be used to write a summarizing or clarifying statement about a concept that is being discussed in a lecture or in an assigned reading.

Ongoing Writing -- Reading log: this informal writing may occur in response class discussions/readings or to a general question posed for an assigned reading.    

“Framed” pieces: open-ended, or developed around an issue at stake in class or lecture or key learning process.    

Concept maps: visual representations of ideas, field models, webbing, systems of relationships, story boards.

Class Blog/WebCT/First Class 

- Helps to get students into a rhythm of writing and communicating ideas. 

- Combines writing with a deepening of the students' understanding of the material. 

- Can be used as a 'reading log', an 'after class response', or 'journal'.  Instructor may give feedback on the writing (log, journal, etc.), then students are able to revise and later turn work in for evaluation.

- Students read what their classmates have written and thereby extend their own ideas.  They learn from each other and discover other ways of expressing their knowledge.  

-  The public format of the blog raises the stakes enough so that students will put extra effort into composing quality writing and thinking.

-  Simple steps for the instructor to set up and monitor.

A couple of class blog examples:        Educ 473a  and    Educ 473b      Designs for Learning:  Reading