http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:20:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Center for Writing Excellence offers students the opportunity to exempt themselves from first year and junior composition course requirements through an exemption exam. Both exams are two-hour timed essays based on a provided text. Exams are offered once each quarter, typically the first Saturday after the first ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/events/quarterly-freshman-and-junior-composition-exemption-exams/ Guiding Assumptions That enriched writing is a philosophy, not a technique. Amounts and types of writing will necessarily differ from discipline to discipline, but what unites these courses across the curriculum is the idea that writing will enhance learning in any discipline if it is a basic teaching strategy. That writing will ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/empty/writing-enriched-courses-guidelines-and-recommendations/ John Bean in Engaging Ideas offers great ideas for using writing in large lecture courses. Here are a few of his ideas: Guided-Journal Tasks Keyed to Your Lectures For this approach the instructor creates guided-journal tasks that encourage students to use information from the lectures. For example, these tasks ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/teaching/teaching-writing-in-large-classes/ It is helpful to respond through a hierarchy of concerns from higher to lower order. Global Re-vision: To engage a writer in deep revision, in actually re-thinking or re-seeing their work, we need to invite them to work at the macro level. Our comments should be aimed at ideas, whether ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/process/three-levels-of-revision-2/ It's OK for you and your students to have fun. They don’t have to hate their assignments and you don’t have to hate reading them. Integrating writing-to-learn assignments into your course is crucial.  Otherwise, students are given the message that it is just busy work that doesn’t really matter. You want these ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/assignments/designing-writing-to-learn-ideas-2/ Design good assignments Assign exploratory writing; consider using microthemes. Create assignment handouts specifying task, purpose, audience, criteria, desired manuscript form. Clarify your grading criteria Create a scoring guide or peer review checksheet. Hold an in-class norming session. ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/teaching/time-saving-strategies/ Spadiel and Stiggins’s study (1990) revealed how students misread and reacted to teachers’ comments (pp. 85-87). “Needs to be more concise” - Confusing. I need to know what the teacher means specifically. - This is an obvious comment. - I’m not Einstein. I can’t get everything right. - I thought you wanted details and support. - ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/responding/students%e2%80%99-responses-to-teachers%e2%80%99-comments/ Commenting on Student Papers Commenting, when done well, coaches revision. Revision leads our students to understanding more deeply what it is they want to say. Revision leads our students to a better understanding of what readers need and want. Revision is a higher order thinking and will often influence students’ abilities ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/responding/commenting-on-student-papers-2/ You Want to Assign Writing But.... Strategies for Handling the Paper Load Rely on more, but shorter (possibly even ungraded) assignments. Don't respond to every draft of every paper yourself. Train students to respond to each others' early drafts. When you do respond to drafts, operate from a clear hierarchy of values (such as ... http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/assignments/strategies-for-handling-the-paper-load/ All sample assignments are provided as PDFs. Course Number Course Name Discipline SOC 363 Juvenile Delinquency Sociology BIOS 435 Entomology Biological Science CHE 450/550 Fundamentals of Materials Analysis Chemical Engineering J 430/530 Magazine Editing and Production Journalism http://www.faculty-commons.org/cwe/assignments/writing-enriched-sample-assignments/