FLC on Equitable Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Writing

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This FLC will focus on equitable approaches to the teaching and assessing writing as specific to each participants’ discipline, but we will also discuss pedagogies and curricular designs that support all writers, such as “writing to learn,” code-meshing, and labor-based approaches to writing assessment.  During the FLC, participants will connect discipline-specific writing practices to both theories of writing development and equitable approaches to teaching and learning. This FLC will be comprised of a group of cross-disciplinary faculty committed to collective reflection and feedback on their teaching practices as specific to the teaching and assessment of writing. The learning community will engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) framework in a semester-long, structured environment that provides space for collective inquiry, continuous improvement, and reflective practice. Participants will interact through in-person meetings and some online discussions that include nine 90-minute sessions (typically meeting weekly). All participants will engage with resources designed to encourage and support the subsequent expansion and development of the faculty learning community model at Humboldt.  We encourage interested applicants to consider topics or areas of focus related to the teaching of writing and writing assessment. Applicants can articulate this topic or these areas of focus on the Call for Participants.

Working with facilitator Dr. Lisa Tremain, the FLC group will explore the following topics through readings, activities, and discussions.  Each of these topics will be discussed as inseparable from equity in the classroom:

• Unpacking myths about the teaching, learning, and assessment of writing;
• Exploring threshold concepts of your discipline / Threshold concepts of writing;
• Giving feedback and managing the paper load;
• Rubric-based assessment;
• Peer and self-assessment;
• Supporting writing knowledge beyond your courses;
• Antiracist and anti-oppressive writing curriculum and assessment designs.

Facilitator

Lisa Tremain, Professor, Department of English

Who should participate?

Faculty from any discipline

When

• Nine sessions, appproximately every week beginning in February
• + Teaching Excellence Symposium

Commitments

• Participation in a nine-week faculty learning community. The FLC will run approximately February - April 2020.  We will typically meet each week for about nine sessions;
• Create a plan for your re(designed) signature assignment that you will implement Spring 2020 or Fall 2020;
• Share your plan, assessment, and outcomes with your department;
• Share your plan and outcomes at the CTL Teaching Symposium (April 2020 or April 2021); and
• Showcase your work on the CTL website. 
• Additional Expectations:
  • Complete the FLC Goals Inventory pre and post surveys.
  • Complete readings and activities prior to each session or online due date.

Benefits

• Experience the professional learning community (PLC) framework.
• Engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning, including inquiry and exploration into student learning, application, peer review, reflection, presentation of findings.
• Create spaces for multi-disciplinary/multi-role exploration and collective impact, including cross-disciplinary and campus unit opportunities for presentation and scholarship.
• Receive a participation letter for your file.

Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning