Online Course on Using Writing for Teaching and Learning in the College Classroom

• Do you frequently find yourself frustrated by student writing?
• Do you wonder how to address student writing issues when you are trying to teach your content?
• Do you spend too much time giving feedback on student papers? 

If so, consider taking EA 541 Teaching with Writing in Any Course 

Credits: 2

Offered: Online from 6/17/13 to 7/28/13.

Course Description: This two-credit online course (six-modules) for teachers in any discipline focuses on making the most of writing as a tool for teaching and learning in undergraduate and graduate courses. In the course, teachers will explore practical ideas for in-class writing assignments that initiate discussions and provide quick input regarding student learning. Teachers will also learn strategies for developing assignments and providing feedback while maximizing efficiency and minimizing frustration. Opportunities to share ideas and receive coaching on current writing assignments and ways of giving feedback are included. This course does not have prerequisites; however, those taking it should have undergraduate or graduate courses that they wish to develop or revise and experience teaching at the college level that they can draw upon for discussions.

What Previous Participants Have Said:

“First, take it! Do plan your schedules so you can delve into the assignments--they prompt reflection and imagination.” – Catherine Marienau

“I know my concern about this class was that it was going to require me to increase my time teaching and grading. However, much to my surprise, if I change a few things, I may be able to help my students improve their writing without increasing my workload.” – Lu Rocha

“If you are debating about taking the course seriously consider changing your schedule so you can. It will make teaching easier and more rewarding.” – Barbara Donnelly

“Be prepared to be surprised by how many things you’re already doing right, how many others you’re doing that can hamper students’ progress, and best of all, how many genuinely useful ideas and techniques you will learn from the readings and from your classmates.” – Carolyn Allen

About the Instructor: Michelle Navarre Cleary is an Associate Professor, Coordinator of Writing, and Associate Dean of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment at DePaul University's School for New Learning. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Theory from Northwestern University and has taught at Northwestern and Olive-Harvey College. She has published in several journals, including Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Her current research is motivated by two questions: How do adult students develop as writers when they return to school? How can the teaching of writing to adult students be improved? To learn more, see http://works.bepress.com/navarrecleary/ 

To Take the Course: Please fill out the online application as a School for New Learning, graduate, non-degree seeking student: https://wa.is.depaul.edu/AdmissionApp/login.aspx. The $25 application fee will be waived. Have official transcripts from each institution attended sent directly to Sarah Hellstrom at the address below.Once these items have been received, your admission will be processed and the Graduate Office will reach out to you regarding registration steps.

Sarah Hellstrom Associate Director of Graduate Programs | School for New Learning| DePaul University 14 East Jackson Boulevard Suite 1400 Chicago, Illinois 60604-2201 Tel: (312) 362-5744 | Fax: (312) 476-3220 |shellstr@depaul.edu

DePaul Tuition Waiver: To use the DePaul University part-time faculty tuition waiver, please fill out the form here: http://offices.depaul.edu/student-financial-accounts/Documents/part-time-waiver.pdf Submit the form to Jenny Prey: jprey@depaul.edu or drop it off at the SNL front desk and the receptionists will put it in her mailbox.

Writing Groups at Suburban Campuses

The University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL) offers writing groups at our suburban campuses on Saturdays. Writing Groups provide an opportunity for students to share writing with others, and to give and receive feedback on it.

To learn more about Writing Groups and the UCWbL Writing Group Leaders, visit the links below

Writing Groups
http://condor.depaul.edu/writing/what/WG/index.html

Marianne – Naperville
http://condor.depaul.edu/writing/who/staff_profiles/marianne_b.html

Time/Place: Room 219/Saturdays from 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Martina – O’Hare
http://condor.depaul.edu/writing/who/staff_profiles/martina_m.html

Time/Place: Room 307/Saturdays from 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Quintin – Oak Forest
http://condor.depaul.edu/writing/who/staff_profiles/quintin_c.html

Time/Place: DePaul Foyer/Saturdays 10:00-11:30 a.m.

The SNL Writing Showcase is almost here!

The April 1st deadline for 2013 SNL Writing Showcase entries is fast approaching. Please help SNL recognize superb student work by encouraging your students to apply. For consideration, students simply fill out the form available here and email it with the writing submission to snlwriting@depaul.edu. 

Winners will be receive a plaque and public recognition at the Spring Awards Luncheon and have the opportunity to publish their writing on the SNL Writing Guide. 

Faculty Field Trip to the Loop Writing Center

As part of the February mentoring meeting there will be a field trip to the Loop Writing Center. 

As a mentor or advisor, this trip will offer you a great opportunity to learn about the many useful resources available for students and faculty at the Writing Center. The field trip will be conducted by Mark Brand, the coordinator of writing groups for the University Center for Writing based Learning (UCWbL). It will include a tour of the facility along with an orientation and a Q&A session with Mark.

Some of the topics that will be covered during this informative trip include:

• Services available for students at the Loop and suburban campuses (tutoring, writing groups, and more)
• Information about AP/ILP workshops
• An explanation of how tutors work with SNL students as well as what tutors have learned about SNL students and APs
• Services available for ESL speakers
• Services available for faculty (Writing Fellows, workshops, faculty development, and peer resources for your own writing)              

Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Date: February 28

Location: Loop Writing Center, 25 E. Jackson, 16^th Floor
               

*Field trip attendees will depart the mentoring meeting together as a group.

We look forward to seeing you there.  

Maintaining the Muse Across the Curriculum

By Steffanie Triller Fry

At the School for New Learning, Academic Writing for Adults and Writing Workshop students are encouraged to think about their writing process: Where and how do they write best? What setting or mood works for them? Do they write better with or without music? Can they compose on a computer or do they prefer to begin with pen?

            I had one student who only wrote in purple pen; another wrote on the bus; still another wrote all of her papers between one and three A.M. In each case, the student found what worked for them, and it proved successful: it resulted in the written word.

            Anne Lamott calls it “sitting,” and Laurie Foos calls it “keeping your [rear] in the chair” (expletive avoided). As part of my current Master of Fine Arts in writing study, I attended a seminar with novelist Laurie Foos at Lesley University this past January. Her focus was on techniques and inspiration to keep our “rears” in our chairs, and I was struck by how many of these ideas and techniques would work for SNL students, not just in their writing courses, but in all of their courses. Because students write for nearly all courses in this writing-intensive program, their process is something that the student will carry with them from their initial Foundations course through the Advanced Project. The student’s process should enable them to craft papers for all of their college courses.

            Instructors in all subject areas can use writing to access both students prior and current knowledge on a topic, but as Ray Bradbury writes in his chapter “How to Keep and Feed a Muse” in Zen and the Art of Writing, “It isn’t easy” (31). In this chapter, Bradbury writes about finding a muse, or finding the energy to write. At one point, he compares the search to “those little specks of light, those airy bubbles which float across everyone’s vision, minute flaws in the lens or the outer, transparent skin of the eye. Unnoticed for years, when you first focus your attention on them, they can become unbearable nuisances, ruptures in one’s attention at all hours of the day. They spoil what you are looking at, by getting in the way” (32). Bradbury’s description of these specks of light sounds remarkably like the process of an adult student attempting to surface prior knowledge.

            Utilizing the student’s writing process can help. Just as Bradbury believes that finding the muse allows us to find our “Most Original Self,” becoming better readers, observers, and writers is the journey of the adult student at the School for New Learning. We encourage surfacing of prior knowledge and dialogue with new knowledge – and much of this dialogue happens through writing.

             In order to encourage our students to surface their “Most Original Selves” across the curriculum, perhaps we can all encourage them to strive for Kent Haruf’s “holy trinity in the art of writing”: freshness, simplicity, and clarity. If we ask them to strive for these simple goals in all of their writing, perhaps students will return the focus to the learning, and worry less about the prose. Perhaps the process will carry from the writing class to the humanities, natural science, and media arts class. Perhaps we will all read the fresh, simple, clear writing that we so desire from our students’ work.

To that end, here are a few tools from Foos’ January seminar on “Courting the Muse” that I have already added to my students’ toolboxes. They seem to be using them regularly, and with much success. Note that I have offered a version of Foos’ exercises for writing courses as well as for WAC courses (in other words, any SNL course that is not specifically designated as a writing course):

Headlines

·      For writing courses: Choose particularly sensational headlines from journalistic newspapers, magazines, or even tabloids. Give students five to choose from and have them create the story.

·      For WAC courses: Choose headlines from scholarly journals or popular magazines in the field. Give students five to choose from, and have them write on what they already know about the topic. This is a good way to surface prior learning.

The Word Game

·      For writing courses: Have students write down five things: a) a job, b) a common item (noun), c) another common item (noun), d) a verb ending in –ing, e) an adjective. Then have them pass this piece of paper to a neighbor. Each student should take the words they are given and connect them in a story.

·      For WAC courses: Complete the same exercise above, but make the categories more specific to the focus of the course. This exercise can help students make connections or discover topics for final papers.

First lines

·      For writing courses: Give students three first lines from novels, short stories, or nonfiction articles. Have them choose one and write.

·      For WAC courses: Give students three first lines from scholarly or popular or trade journals in your field. Have them continue the “story” using what they know of the topic.

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. “How to Keep and Feed a Muse.” Zen in the Art of Writing. New York:

Bantam, 1992. 31-46. Print.

Foos, Laurie. “Courting the Muse.” Lesley University. 6 Jan 2013. Lecture.

Haruf, Kent. “To See Your Story Clearly, Start by Puling the Wool over Your Own

Eyes.” Writers on Writing. New York: Times Books, 2002. 84-89. Print.