The Writing Process: Creating Common Practices Teacher Institute, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Writing Process: Creating Common Practices

Teacher Institute, Friday May 3, 2013 Debra Polak and Jaime Cechin, English Faculty, Mendocino College

Opener

In pairs, discuss:

 If you are an English teacher, what do you

hear about student writers outside your discipline.

 If you are not an English teacher, what is

your general assessment of the student writing you see.

Writing Skills and Issues

 What are the big issues around student

writing? What, specifically, do you wish they did better? What writing skills are well developed in our students?

 Which skills/issues are best addressed in

an English class?

 Which skills/issues can be addressed in

• ther courses or learning environments?

Where? How?

ISLO Assessment Results – an Inspiration

 ISLO #2 – Express ideas with clarity, logic, and

• riginality in both spoken and written English.

 Assessment Team Recommendations for ISLO #2:  Increased instructional focus, including

professional development, on essay structure/organization. While “Clarity” scores are consistently higher, the low scores regarding “Logic” are a concern. We feel that students would benefit greatly from increased organizational

• instruction. With this in mind, we recommend

additional professional development opportunites for all faculty to help our students achieve this ISLO.

ISLO Inspiration continued

 ISLO #6 – Access, interpret, evaluate, and synthesize information

using multiple resources, including current information technology.

 Assessment

Team Recommendations for ISLO #6:

 Encourage campus-wide discussion regarding research papers

and expectations. Artifacts indicate inconsistency in assignment expectations across disciplines, particularly concerning incorporating source material in student writing. We recommend a “norming” activity and communication among disciplines to work toward common research expectations.

 Provide professional development focusing on the Library. With

the new Library soon to be completed, we recommend Mendocino College takes the opportunity to further educate faculty on the scope of resources available to our students. Scores indicate that students are very capable of using the Library to find information, but their ability to incorporate such information into an assignment is lacking. The resources available through the Library can help them to better synthesize sourced information, so the College must work to keep the student population informed of said resources.

Writing Assignments

 In Pairs: Brainstorm a list of types of writing

assignments in your classes.

 Share any materials you brought.  Talk to each other about the process you

and your students follow to complete the assignment

• What elements are worked on in class? How

much instructional time is spent on the assignment?

• What parts are students expected to do on their
• wn?

The Writing Process –some examples

 Expository Reading and Writing Course

T emplate

 Debra and Jaime’s Research Paper

The Writing Process— how to import/export

 What elements of the Writing Process

can we embrace across disciplines and

• ther learning environments?

 How can we do it?

Current campus writing support

 Reading and Writing Lab (English

60/160/560)—Mon through Thursday 10:30 – 1:30

 Writing Workshops  Tutors  The Learning Center is the hub for all of

• this. T

ell your students to go to the Learning Center. Maybe have them meet you there?

Ideas for further support?

General Principles

 Be explicit about expectations and grade

accordingly

 Provide models of good writing  Regard students as apprentices of our

disciplines

 Listen and share across the disciplines  Reinforce each other’s good work

More Principles