Steve Bernhardt Kirkpatrick Chair in Writing, University of Delaware June 2014

 Writing is the one skill students most want to improve  Writing increases the amount of time students spend on courses, their intellectual challenge, and their level of interest (Light)  Short, frequent writing activities (and oral discussion) improve content learning, course satisfaction, and persistence (various research)

 Meaning-constructing writing significantly improves all important measures of engagement:  increased higher-order thinking,  integrative learning, and  reflective learning

Exploratory questioning tentative (WAC) Free writes, learning issues, notes, questions and confusions, brainstorming, clustering, exit tickets Polished published delivered (WID) Plans, progress reports, task maps, mini- themes, learning logs, discussion, Q/A, reporting out Written exams, lab reports, solutions, summary/ response, cases Reports, presentations, posters, publications, proposals, research studies

WAC = Writing to learn Emphasis on the ways writing improves instruction, enhances learning, engages students WID = Learning to write Emphasis on professional skills, language of the discipline, thinking and communicating (like a nutritionist or accountant)

WAC = Writing to learn  Identify several writing activities  How would you (do you) stage and use?  (Math example)example WID = Learning to write  Identify several specific genres you might use in your classroom.  How would you assign, provide feedback, and evaluate?

 What’s my purpose? What do I want to do?  Who is my audience? What do they want?  What’s the situation?  What’s the genre?  What’s the medium?  Can I find a model?

 Require students to construct meaning  Suggest a purpose, audience, situation  Vary in genre, length, formality  Stress process as well as product  Provide good models  Offer multiple opportunities for success

 Problem-based learning  Field studies  Case studies  Project-based learning  Service learning  Active learning  Team-based learning

Students consistently had difficulty, across all disciplines:  gathering sufficient specific information  constructing the audience and the self  stating a position (taking a stance)  using appropriate discipline-based methods  managing complexity & organizing information Walvoord & McCarthy: Thinking and Writing in College

 Take time to talk through assignments  Use rubrics so standards are shared  Describe your writing process—have students discuss theirs  Use peer review  Use forums or other posting apps  Share models

 Not providing a rhetorical context  Spending time on post mortems  Editing instead of responding  Loading on big papers at end of term

WAC Clearinghouse Steve Bernhardt Writershelp.com