FLC on Engaged Writing Intensive: Teaching & Researching Disciplinary Writing

Faculty Learning Community

Engaged Writing Intensive: Teaching & Researching Disciplinary Writing 

Facilitators:

• Lisa Tremain, English
   
• Kerry Marsden, English

Dates and Information:

• Six Fridays beginning April 2 and May 7, 2021 (3:00 - 4:30pm)
• The final two meetings (April 30 and May 7) focus on participant applications and feedback sessions with fellow FLC participants and Humboldt Writing Studio Consultants! 
• Each participant will receive a e-copy of John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom

Description:

In this faculty learning community, we will do more than discuss strategies for teaching and assessing writing (though we will do that, too). We will individually and collectively consider questions like: What kinds of writing are valued in my discipline or courses? When and how do students practice these types of texts and learn these values? How do I understand and account for asymmetrical aspects of power, language, knowledge, and assessment in my discipline and courses? What does it mean to become a researcher of writing in my discipline? This FLC will disrupt ideas of stable, singular narratives of writing mastery, and ask participants to explore and apply developmental and equitable theories of writing instruction to their disciplinary teaching as a way to support students as emerging writers and disciplinary experts. 

Participants will interact through in-person virtual meetings during six consecutive 90-minute weekly sessions. In our FLC, we will play and experiment with revising or developing a writing assignment and its assessment rubric, even if it's an assignment that you’ve taught for many years or with success. We encourage interested applicants to bring ongoing high-stakes writing assignments, signature writing assignments, capstone assignments, or other major writing projects to each FLC meeting as a way to anchor and apply FLC concepts. 

Homework outside of the FLC will be minimal and meaningful. We will explore the following topics through readings, activities, and discussions:

• Unpack myths about the teaching, learning, and assessment of writing;
• Explore “troublesome” concepts of your discipline /”troublesome” concepts of writing;
• How to give targeted feedback and manage the paper load;
• Examine and complicate rubric-based assessment;
• Strategically use peer and self-assessment;
• Support the transfer writing knowledge beyond your courses;
• Enact antiracist and anti-oppressive writing curriculum and assessment designs.

Outcomes:

• Choose and implement one change into practice as related to the FLC objectives teaching
• Document and examine evidence of change
• Share results/findings of implementation
• Engage in peer feedback
• Critically reflect on the teaching of writing in your discipline and classes.
• Contribute to a community of learners

Commitments:

• Participate in a semester-long FLC
• Implement and assess one practice
• Share findings at a broader campus event, e.g., Fall Teaching Symposium
• Provide a summary of your practice and findings for the CTL Showcase, CLT newsletter, and/or CTL Podcast