1. Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program September 27, 2018
Heather Mir and Samuel Gold
12/6/2018

2. Selected readings about WAC pedagogy Attend 3 WAC workshops
[Marianna]
Professors will receive a copy of Bean (2011)
This is a great resource that was written “for busy college professor from any academic discipline” (p. xvi)
As professors will soon realize, the intention of the Writing Across the Curriculum Writing Intensive Certification program is to improve students’ engagement with disciplinary subject matter through writing. Simply put, we see writing as a powerful tool for learning and thus encourage professors to implement quality writing assignments into the coursework.
Notice, our intention is not to improve student writing per se, although this is a natural result of writing intensive courses.
These are the workshops professors must attend…
Our writing fellows have years of teaching experience and all implement writing into their courses
They are current PhD scholars, and teach undergraduate courses at various CUNY campuses
They are available to work with you and help brainstorm ways to better implement writing into the classes you teach
Regular meetings with writing fellows occur in the Spring semester
Fall semester:
Selected readings about WAC pedagogy
Attend 3 WAC workshops
Designing Effective Assignments: 9/27, 1pm
Avoiding plagiarism: 10/11, 1pm
Effective grading/minimal marking: 11/8, 1pm
Meet your writing fellow

3. 12/6/2018
Spring semester:
Attend two faculty workshops, Creative Classroom and Writing Intensive Syllabus
Meet regularly with your paired writing fellow
Develop & revise teaching materials following WAC principles
Syllabus: explains role of writing in your course
At least 1 scaffolded writing assignment: clear due dates
Present your experiences & materials at year-end colloquium
Beyond Spring:
Implement new syllabus/assignments
Certified instructors may be asked to contribute to future WAC activities / assessment
[Marianna]
Assessment of other courses
One of the immediate benefits of meeting with your writing fellow is that they can assist you in matching the semester’s writing assignments to the objectives and outcomes listed in your syllabus
Also, if you make use of final term papers regular meetings with your writing fellow will help you scaffold toward that by integrating informal writing assignments and creative classroom techniques into your course
By this time next year, you’ll be implementing your powerful new syllabi and your reputation as an amazing professor will begin to grow among the student body!
Any questions about the WAC Writing Intensive Certification process?

4. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/writingacrossthecurriculum/
Visit us at:
12/6/2018

5. Writing intensive certification Kinds of assignments
12/6/2018
Writing intensive certification
Kinds of assignments
Informal writing assignments
Reading assignments
Formal writing assignments
Scaffolding toward a final assignment
Misconceptions about writing assignments
Writing-to-learn philosophy
Summary
We begin with an overview of the writing-to-learn philosophy
We then proceed through six areas we believe the WAC ethos can be immediately implemented into the courses you teach
Said another way, your students will learn the most when you design effective assignments when it comes to:
Formal writing assignments
Informal writing assignments
Tasks oriented toward critical thinking
Reading companions that encourage deep reading
Promoting active learning during your lectures, and
The proper utilization of essay exams
12/6/2018

6. 12/6/2018
As a professor: in your current syllabi, what kinds of assignments involve writing?
and
As a student: in the course of your training, what kinds of assignments involved writing?
A few minutes to freewrite (5 minutes max) and share.
This discussion will allow everyone to see that there is diversity (of disciplines and kinds of writing) represented in the room.
Discussion will also serve as a lead-in to conversation about the distinction between formal and informal writing.
12/6/2018

7. Low-stakes (not graded or minimal points)
[go through fast—don’t discuss specific examples]
Formal examples – Final lab report, 15 page report, term paper, research paper
Informal writing assignments immerse students in complexity without being threatening
They change the way students approach course readings – by developing exploratory thought
Example Informal Writing Prompts
“What did you find most interesting about this chapter?”
“Relate concept X from today’s class to our previous lecture on Y/your personal experience.”
“What didn’t you understand about the reading? Write 3 questions about the reading that you would like to be answered.”
“Compose a question about this week’s reading to be discussed in class.”
Writing to Learn
Focus is not on grammar or organization
Low-stakes (not graded or minimal points)

8. Some ideas for incorporating exploratory writing In-class writing
12/6/2018
Exploratory writing
Some ideas for incorporating exploratory writing
In-class writing
Out-of-class writing
“Shaped exercises” that lead to formal assignments
Review some highlights from Bean (2011) chapter 7
Share some of the “Twenty-Two Ideas for Incorporating Exploratory Writing into a Course” (p )
[Marianna,] examples for exploratory writing in a math course: Work in groups to define “success.”
Based on this definition of success, what kind of predictors can you find in your population?
Here’s a graph of a parabola. What does it mean for this graph to cross the x axis, and how do you find this crossing?
Examples:
Freewrite before a lab—what do you think will happen? Why?
Freewrite after a lab—what did happen?
-- write a one-question quiz before the beginning of class./ create a problem / create an equation—how would you test our understanding of material from the previous lecture
Write at beginning/middle/end of class
Journal entries
Guided reading – answer a question tailored to the reading
12/6/2018

9. Journal Free Writing:
Write a 2 page double spaced journal entry that includes your interest in two current events.
Your source(s) can be from reliable news publications (NY Times, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, Foreign Affairs etc.), or aggregate internet news sources.
Summarize what the news stories are, what is important about them, and why you might feel a specific connection to each current event.
The two stories can be related if you have a particular interest in a topic.
12/6/2018

10. Interact with course readings and content
Connect new concepts with previous knowledge
Students more fully interact with course content.
Helps students make connections between new concepts and previous knowledge.
Encourages concentration and helps students to understand and retain key concepts and processes.
Gives students an opportunity to grapple with problems and tasks, to speculate about possible answers or solutions without risk
Helps instructors to assess student comprehension and progress.
Helps prevent plagiarism in high-stakes papers. (mention next workshop)
Retain key concepts and process readings
Create opportunities to explore class concepts at low risk
Assess student comprehension
Prevent plagiarism

11. What are the problems with this prompt? How can we solve them?
“Music 101: Write about a piece of music. In doing so, discuss the composer/performer of the piece, and compare it to other musicians/composers and pieces of music of the same genre and period.
Paper is due on the 15th. Should be no more than 7 double-spaced pages.”
What are the problems with this prompt?
How can we solve them?
12/6/2018

12. A meaning-constructing task
12/6/2018
A meaning-constructing task
Problem-focused, not topic-focused
Define the purpose
Define the audience
Hand out music class prompt exercise.
Look at the prompt and discuss with each other what you think is problematic, what could cause the students some problems.
(Have them stay in their groups through the scaffolding exercise.)
Meaning-constructing task = gives them direction, requires critical thinking, on an intriguing problem that matters (Get students engaged, avoid data dumps, cut and paste)
Focused on a problem rather than a topic
Give them an problem or have them come up with their own, but if the latter, help guide them to a good problem (rather than simply a topic).
Define the purpose – is it informative? Analytical? Persuasive? Reflective? (See Bean p. 92 for a great example of ways you can tweak an assignment to target different thinking processes and
Audience – explain it to your mother? Persuade other scholars? (Helps them figure out style, evidence, alternative viewpoints they might need to counter)
Clear explanations = Might seem clear to you, but students might find it confusing. Make expectations clear, explain the purpose (in terms of course objectives), present grading criteria (e.g., a rubric), written assignment (don’t just explain it to them, make sure everything they need to know is written down for them to refer to while they’re working on it)
Large, formal assignments are often daunting. Sometimes students don’t know or have practice in all the rules of your discipline. By scaffolding you can help them figure out the pieces that need to come together and build up toward the final assignment to make it much easier to tackle.
Benefits:
help students see writing as an interactive exchange between writer and reader, and to see writing as a process of inquiry and discovery (combats “I can’t write a big research paper or lab report, I don’t know anything”). Links informal writing to formal writing.
Allows instructors to steadily assess student progress
Helps prevent plagiarism
Make explicit that everything above (except large formal assignments) can be scaffolding. Small formal writing, informal writing, reading writing.
Examples: brainstorm and critique thesis statements in small groups; do a lit review of a controversy in the discipline; write a prospectus for your final paper, drafts, peer review, rewrites
How to come up with ideas: Reverse-engineer – design last assignment first
e.g. – final research paper. Work backwards – 3 weeks before, exploratory essay about research/thinking process – or an annotated bibliography. 3 weeks before that, prospectus. Before that, make sure they start building skills for this – a mini research paper, say. Also do regular informal critical thinking to help generate ideas. DON”T GRADE ALL OF THIS!
12/6/2018

13. Clear explanations of expectations
Purpose
Grading criteria
Written assignment prompt
Be as specific as possible
Include your preferred formatting requirements
12/6/2018

14. Scaffolding
Structuring smaller informal or semi-formal assignments that build towards a larger, formal assignment
Reverse-engineer your course
12/6/2018

15. Writing assignments are unsuitable in non-English courses
12/6/2018
“Emphasizing writing in a course will take away from content”
“Writing assignments are unsuitable in non- English courses”
“Adding more writing to my course will bury me in paper grading”
“I am not knowledgeable enough about grammar to help students with their writing”
Conclude by noting that there are faculty in just about every department who have done this and would be happy to talk to you about how you do it in your discipline. You are not alone!
Emphasizing writing in a course will take away from content
Also mention that writing assignments are useful in a non-writing intensive class
Content delivered through assignments, rather than lectures
Writing aids students in learning content
Less is more
Focus on high-priority material & problem-solving
- Filling a bucket vs lighting a match – look up - both still need to happen, but you can mix it up.
- There is a difference between telling and teaching.
Shaping these assignments helps the teacher to prioritize material/learning outcomes
Writing assignments are unsuitable in non-English courses
- Especially in quantitative and technical courses, communication and writing are important skills to practice
- Writing helps students understand and apply quantitative and theoretical problems
“Adding more writing to my course will bury me in paper grading”
Informal writing doesn’t need to be graded
Encouraging student revision decreases final grading time and instructor frustration
- Efficiency in grading can lead to less grading time, yet more learning for students
- In November we’re providing a workshop to help you with this - Effective grading/minimal marking: 11/19, 1pm
- Remember, you don’t have to read or grade everything a student writes!
“I am not knowledgeable enough about grammar to help students with their writing”
Focus on thought & writing processes rather than grammatical details
If you’re not going to grade for grammar, you don’t need to teach grammar
In assessments and feedback, instructors can focus on ideas and clarity over grammar
Misconceptions About Assignment-Focused Learning (title)
- Respond honestly as a reader to student writing (e.g., I got lost in this part)
- You are teaching students to revise their work – grammar doesn’t play a large role in this
- You can use your own struggles with writing as a model
Source: Bean, “Engaging Ideas” p and p. 5
Writing to learn, learning to write
Writing assignments can decrease pressure for the professor (in reducing lecture time) – Inquiry based learning learning through curiosity and asking questions rather than being ‘filled’ with knowledge.

16. Students benefit when they do different kinds of writing
12/6/2018
Students benefit when they do different kinds of writing
Informal writing helps prevent plagiarism by allowing students to develop their own voices
Students become better, more confident critical thinkers in their fields
Writing assignments are useful tools to help students achieve course objectives
[make reference to updated WAC study]
To wrap up, we just want to underline the key idea that grounds the WAC way of thinking that we hope you take away, and that is that writing is an amazingly powerful tool for getting students to learn.
As teachers, we want to teach critical thinking, not just get students to passively absorb information and memorize facts.
We believe – and much research has shown - that writing is one of the best pedagogical instruments for cultivating students’ critical thinking abilities
Re-think what writing is: a process, not just a communication skill. Therefore writing assignments should be designed with course objectives and critical thinking objectives in mind, not just as a demonstration of student knowledge.
But student knowledge and their ability to demonstrate it will improve as a result.
12/6/2018

17. Where designing effective assignments matters
12/6/2018
Where designing effective assignments matters
Informal writing
Reading
Formal writing
Scaffolding
Misconceptions about assignment-focused learning
Writing-to-learn philosophy
This workshop drew from Bean (2011)
Recommend especially chapters 1, 6, 7, and 8
12/6/2018

18. Designing Assignments that Reduce Plagiarism Thursday, 10/11
Mention the other two workshops also and how these all continue what we’ve been working on here.
Designing Assignments that Reduce Plagiarism
Thursday, 10/11
1-2pm Location: N704
The next workshop will focus on:
Understanding plagiarism
Strategies for preventing plagiarism
Responding to plagiarism