1. Writing Faculty Development: We completed eight course evaluations, held two writing faculty development workshops, and continue to use and refine our process for evaluating the Writing Workshop portfolios and course yearly. In addition, we have begun additional work on writing faculty development through a) participation for writing faculty in the Melissa Peet workshop and follow-up, b) review and revisions of AWA syllabi, and c) by using the AWA TLA portfolio grant to see where we have opportunities to improve teaching effectiveness.
2. Curriculum Revision: We consulted with BACA throughout the development of the curriculum and look forward to more collaboration on the implementation of the curriculum revision.
3. E-portfolios and Portfolio Assessment: We are now requiring final portfolios in both writing courses (Academic Writing for Adults and Writing Workshop). Seven writing teachers participated in Melissa Peet's workshop on ePortfolio pedagogy, helping us to lay the groundwork with first adopters for moving all of the writing faculty to e-portfolios. A TLA grant allowed us to develop our understanding of best practices for assessing portfolios in general as well as our criteria for assessing AWA in particular. We have begun incorporating what we learned from this portfolio review into our planning for faculty development, course improvement and portfolio review in 2012-2013. In addition, we contributed as members of the SNL team to DePaul’s successful application to join the International E-Portfolio Cohort. We anticipate that our work with this cohort will allow us to extend our learning on how to best use ePortfolios to support student and teacher learning and curriculum improvement.
4. Hybrids: This year, we engaged part-time faculty to learn their ideas about hybrids, developed a template for the writing course hybrids with input from SNLonline, and got buy-in for our hybrid plan from campus directors. We are scheduled to pilot these hybrids in selected classes during the 2012-2013 school year. As we pilot the hybrids, we will tweak the template as necessary and develop training materials for teachers. We anticipate that the new hybrids will improve instruction in all writing courses by providing writing faculty with a rich resource for assignments and teaching ideas. In addition, by standardizing the writing course hybrids and providing faculty development on how to teach the hybrids, we will improve the quality of the hybrid writing courses.
5. Cohort project: We have been collecting data on the cohort project through Summer 2012. We will analyze this data and report our findings in 2012-2013. However, we believe that we may have too little data to draw any firm conclusions because of the ways students moved in and out of the cohort and the challenge of getting enough responses to our surveys.
6. Writing Center and Writing Fellows: We successfully worked with the University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL) to expand their Writing Fellows program to online classes. We have continued to promote the use of Writing Fellows, with at least 4 full-time faculty members using them for the first time this year. Due to ongoing communication and coordination, we also saw a much smoother integration of Writing Center initiatives (such as AP and ILP workshops) designed to support SNL students this year. Tutors now regularly provide support at quarterly Incomplete Boot Camps (which also cater to students working on ILPs and APs). In addition, SNL writing faculty, administration, and IDs met with two Writing Center tutors in Winter 2012 to design the first online writing group. It was scheduled to pilot in Spring 2012, but will pilot in Fall 2012 instead because of issues with D2L’s Blackboard Connect. We have advocated for and received additional support from the Writing Center at the Oak Forest Campus. We continue to advocate for online writing groups, online tutor training course, online fellows, and targeted support at suburban campuses.
7. Other faculty development: We led a three-day workshop on using writing for active learning at Tangaza College. We presented on writing anxiety and adult students at the Spring 2012 faculty professional development meeting. And, we began building a 6-module online professional development course for SNL faculty.
8. Additional curriculum development: Katie Wozniak developed a Professional Writing course for the DCM program and is currently revising it to add competencies so that it will work for BA-99 students also. Katie Wozniak supported part-time faculty member Jane Wagoner in developing a six-credit Academic Writing plus literature course option. Steffanie Triller and popular educator Janise Hurtig continued to provided leadership for the six-credit Academic Writing for Adults and community-based writing course they developed. Steffanie Triller also team-taught the LifeLong Learning cohort with Pat Ryan this year to see if ongoing, direct writing instruction would help students be less anxious and more successful at SNL.
9. Placement and Admissions: We have developed a proposal to move to a directed self-placement process and are currently piloting elements of this process. We currently provide accurate placement and supportive comments to all LAS students submitting WPEs, return all WPEs within four business days and expedite communication process with instructors. We track and analyze data on the placement process to monitor and improve it. In addition, we have begun to track individual students who we believe may be at risk. We respond to AEC second reads, communicate and share data with the admissions team as necessary and work with others (i.e. LAS, Advising) to ensure a smooth process.
10. Promoting and sharing information about writing across the curriculum: Between 9/1/11 and 6/12/12, the SNL writing website had 6,782 visitors from 10 countries, with 6,394 from the US and 40 from Kenya. With the help of our administrative assistant, we have been able to make the SNL Writing News blog (for faculty and staff) and the SNL Writing blog (for students) richer sources of information about writing in general and writing at SNL in particular.
11. Completed research that both informs and raises the profile of the SNL program:
• Michelle Navarre Cleary gave one peer-reviewed conference presentation, published two articles, and had one book chapter accepted based upon her research and work on adult students and writing anxiety, the Writing Workshop course, and writing program administration at SNL.
• Under the leadership of Katie Wozniak, we completed the DePaul TLA grant on portfolio assessment for AWA course, and joined other DePaul programs in successfully applying to join the International ePortfolio Cohort.
• Katie Wozniak gave two peer-reviewed conference talks and two peer-reviewed poster presentations based on her research and work on ePortfolios and on ePortfolios and service learning at SNL.
• Steffanie Triller gave one peer-reviewed conference talk and one peer-reviewed poster presentation based on her research and work on placed-based writing and community engagement in writing courses at SNL.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Writing Anxiety and Adult Students
The following excerpt from "Anxiety and the Newly Returned Adult Student," which appeared in Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC) 39.4 (2012): 364-376, is based upon a study of SNL students:
It’s a challenge, especially the writing. Pretty much just getting back into it. — Jessica
Yeah, I had mouth sores. — Sam
Jessica and Sam were two of twenty-five newly returned adult students whom I spent over sixty hours interviewing in the fall of 2008. Twenty-three of these students expressed significant anxiety about writing for school. Like Sam, some had anxiety so intense it produced physical symptoms like mouth sores and muscle spasms. The main sources of their anxiety were not knowing what to write because they had a hard time imagining the university and not knowing if they were writing well enough because they had a hard time imagining themselves in the university. As David Bartholomae has pointed out, “every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion” (60). Because adult students are less likely to have the academic currency and cultural capital of their younger peers, inventing the university can be particularly challenging. As Sam put it, “I don’t fit in here; I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Focusing on Jessica and Sam, this essay shows the sometimes unexpected ways in which teaching decisions did and did not reduce students’ writing anxiety.
. . .
Sam’s and Jessica’s unique histories shaped their responses to their learning in fall 2008 in ways that sometimes challenged expectations. For Sam, writing about prior learning, but not being able to use prior learning methods, only increased her anxiety and made new learning more difficult. For Jessica, positive feedback successfully reduced her anxiety and enabled learning. Although incoming adults have higher anxiety than younger students, research indicates that adults improve their writing more quickly than younger students (Krause, “Supporting” 209), and adults who persist have no more writing anxiety than younger students (Elias 40–41). The risk is that returning students give up before they gain confidence in their writing. Sam’s and Jessica’s experiences suggest that more adults could be retained through their first year if they received writing instruction that responded to their individual needs. As Mary Kay Morrison says, “What it all comes down to is a willingness to be flexible and individualized in our approach” (32).
The rest of the article is available for download at: http://works.bepress.com/navarrecleary/6
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Writing Bootcamp - Wednesday, July 25th
The School for New Learning and The University Center for Writing Based Learning are offering an upcoming Writing Bootcamp to help students get assignments finished!
Do you have students or advisees with incomplete grades, or a final project that is dragging on?
Encourage them to attend the upcoming faculty led session to complete missing assignments, ILP or AP on July 25th. This program is designed for SNL students who currently have an incomplete grade on their transcript or students working on writing assignments. Sessions are set up to increase the likelihood students will complete necessary courses to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Sessions offer a supportive academic environment, writing assistance, and help with library services so that students can get assignments completed.
Session Date: Wednesday, July 25, 5:30pm-9:00pm
Session Location: Loop Campus, Daley Building 14 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 1325 Chicago, IL
REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED!
Please send students the below information if they would like to attend:
To Register: Email your name, DePaul ID# and the incomplete course title(s) you wish to work on to snlevents@depaul.edu at least 3 days prior to your desired sessions (messages to this email are reviewed by DePaul / SNL college faculty and staff only)
Items to Bring to Session(s): Please bring a flash drive, your copy of the incomplete contract, all prior assignment preparation, including research material, assignment instructions, and assignment writing format (APA/MLA). Please let your faculty mentor know you plan to attend.
SNL Writing Showcase winner, Kristine Shultz, discusses her writing process
SNL student Kristine Shultz, was one of this year's winners of the annual SNL Writing Showcase. SNL Writing invited her to guest blog about some of her “aha moments,” struggles, and tips and tricks for writing at SNL below.
As could be expected, I refined my process of writing as I progressed through my classes at DePaul. For my purposes, I separate writing methods and products into two categories: Narrative and Academic. In either method I use the technology available to my best advantage. Search, language options, and cut/paste functions are my best friends and I use them liberally. In stark contrast to the technology available at the stroke of a key or click of a mouse, it never fails to amaze me that the structural rules I learned writing fourth grade themes form the solid basis for all my writing.
When writing a narrative piece I find myself working in a free form style, jotting notes on scraps of paper for future development, creating outlines to be revised and filled in. Because narrative writing draws almost exclusively from my imagination and memory, I find that I hop from one thought to another and back again. I can often compose a piece from start to finish in one sitting but have embraced the value of re-reading it the next day with a fresh eye. The process of gathering the bits of my narrative has a dream like quality. The process of knitting these pieces together into smooth coherence requires careful editing, ordering and transitions. My process for writing academic papers incorporates all the elements of narrative writing with the very important addition of using a spreadsheet.
Early in my experience at DePaul, my academic writing skills took a huge leap in Applied Research. I read about and employed an extremely valuable method using excel spreadsheets to record concepts and quotes as I read journal articles. I recorded all pertinent information: title, author, page number, etc. and created citations for each source. As I moved through my outline, I replaced the tedious and time consuming method of paging through hard copies of articles for highlights or margin notes by electronically searching my file for a concept or key word. At this point, my academic writing was far more easily done, my citations were more accurately documented and creating my source page was reduced to a minute’s long process of copying, pasting and sorting alphabetically. I cannot recommend this method enthusiastically enough.
If I am limited to offering only one suggestion to undergrads regarding writing, it is to avoid turning in assignments at 2:00 a.m. no matter how confident you are in your final product. The few hours between your completion and when you awaken the following day all too often reveal errors in grammar, obvious duplications or worse. Like many undergrads, I learned this lesson the hard way.
When I attended my first information session in Naperville to learn about the DePaul School for New Learning, I vividly recall the session leader declaring “This is a writing intensive program”. I also recall my reaction. I steeled myself and thought “…well, if that’s what it takes I’ll take my best swing”. Although I was intimidated, I saw it as a challenge to be faced with strength and tenacity. I dare say I met this challenge and emerged the victor.
To read Kristine's winning showcase entry, please visit: http://www.snl.depaul.edu/writing/SchultzEnd.pdf.
As could be expected, I refined my process of writing as I progressed through my classes at DePaul. For my purposes, I separate writing methods and products into two categories: Narrative and Academic. In either method I use the technology available to my best advantage. Search, language options, and cut/paste functions are my best friends and I use them liberally. In stark contrast to the technology available at the stroke of a key or click of a mouse, it never fails to amaze me that the structural rules I learned writing fourth grade themes form the solid basis for all my writing.
When writing a narrative piece I find myself working in a free form style, jotting notes on scraps of paper for future development, creating outlines to be revised and filled in. Because narrative writing draws almost exclusively from my imagination and memory, I find that I hop from one thought to another and back again. I can often compose a piece from start to finish in one sitting but have embraced the value of re-reading it the next day with a fresh eye. The process of gathering the bits of my narrative has a dream like quality. The process of knitting these pieces together into smooth coherence requires careful editing, ordering and transitions. My process for writing academic papers incorporates all the elements of narrative writing with the very important addition of using a spreadsheet.
Early in my experience at DePaul, my academic writing skills took a huge leap in Applied Research. I read about and employed an extremely valuable method using excel spreadsheets to record concepts and quotes as I read journal articles. I recorded all pertinent information: title, author, page number, etc. and created citations for each source. As I moved through my outline, I replaced the tedious and time consuming method of paging through hard copies of articles for highlights or margin notes by electronically searching my file for a concept or key word. At this point, my academic writing was far more easily done, my citations were more accurately documented and creating my source page was reduced to a minute’s long process of copying, pasting and sorting alphabetically. I cannot recommend this method enthusiastically enough.
If I am limited to offering only one suggestion to undergrads regarding writing, it is to avoid turning in assignments at 2:00 a.m. no matter how confident you are in your final product. The few hours between your completion and when you awaken the following day all too often reveal errors in grammar, obvious duplications or worse. Like many undergrads, I learned this lesson the hard way.
When I attended my first information session in Naperville to learn about the DePaul School for New Learning, I vividly recall the session leader declaring “This is a writing intensive program”. I also recall my reaction. I steeled myself and thought “…well, if that’s what it takes I’ll take my best swing”. Although I was intimidated, I saw it as a challenge to be faced with strength and tenacity. I dare say I met this challenge and emerged the victor.
To read Kristine's winning showcase entry, please visit: http://www.snl.depaul.edu/writing/SchultzEnd.pdf.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Developing your writing voice
In her final New York Times Draft piece, “The Voice of the Storyteller,” Constance Hale explores the choices writers make to distinguish their writing as uniquely their own, also called developing a personal writing voice or style.
Hale writes, “Voice… refers to the ineffable way words work on the page. It tips us off to the identity of the writer. Reflecting a combination of diction, sentence patterns and tone, voice is the quality that helps a writer connect with a reader, and it turns the writer into a narrator.”
Hale lists many examples of writers that have cultivated unique voices, like the writing of Junot Diaz which “mixes Spanglish, literary theory, Caribbean history and no small amount of profanity in his fiction” or E.B. White, who has a more understated and “effortless” voice.
How can you develop your own signature writing voice? One tip is to write about what you know. When you are writing on a familiar topic, whether it be your area of academic or professional expertise, or even a movie review, you are more likely to write in your own words. Without the need for research or fact checking, you can fully devote your energy to writing with style -- your style.
To read Hale's article in its entirety, please visit: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/draft/.
Hale writes, “Voice… refers to the ineffable way words work on the page. It tips us off to the identity of the writer. Reflecting a combination of diction, sentence patterns and tone, voice is the quality that helps a writer connect with a reader, and it turns the writer into a narrator.”
Hale lists many examples of writers that have cultivated unique voices, like the writing of Junot Diaz which “mixes Spanglish, literary theory, Caribbean history and no small amount of profanity in his fiction” or E.B. White, who has a more understated and “effortless” voice.
How can you develop your own signature writing voice? One tip is to write about what you know. When you are writing on a familiar topic, whether it be your area of academic or professional expertise, or even a movie review, you are more likely to write in your own words. Without the need for research or fact checking, you can fully devote your energy to writing with style -- your style.
To read Hale's article in its entirety, please visit: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/draft/.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
A Case of Web 2.0 vs. FERPA: What Do We Need to Know about Public Writing and Learning in the Digital U.S.?
Late last year, Georgia Tech took down all course wikis developed
by students and instructors at the institution since 1997. The reason: GA Tech
was concerned that the public could associate students names with the courses
in which they were enrolled based on wiki content, which might be a violation
of FERPA’s privacy rules about making “educational records” public. (See more of
the story here: http://www.metafilter.com/109515/Ga-Tech-cites-FERPA-removes-all-instructional-wikis.)
The United States has always upheld values of privacy, protection, ownership, and
personal property. In education settings, we see this with FERPA, authorship,
and academic integrity. However, when our legal culture begins to intrude on progress
in education and the learning process, where is the line drawn? The commenters on
the GA Tech article above suggest that students and instructors can protect
themselves from the legal implications of FERPA and still use Web 2.0 tools to
teach and learn by asking students to create pseudonyms and avatars and avoid reference to personal identifiers or institutional affiliation. Since it seems to
be too late for GA Tech to “save” and share the wonderful knowledge and
meaning-making in these wikis for a new generation of learners, what steps can educators, students, and
administrators take to ensure that learning is upheld and avoid legal
interference in the future?
Social learning, collaborative writing, digital literacy, and
writing for authentic audiences are highly valued by educators in composition
and rhetoric throughout the U.S. When using Web 2.0 tools and platforms in the
classroom, students’ develop their digital literacy and skills with multi-modal
media while learning more about the importance of writing well, understanding
audience, and civic engagement via the written word and other rhetorical modes
of communication. At the Conference on College Composition and Communication
last year, there were several talks on studies, methods, and best practices for
integrating Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, YouTube, virtual worlds,
and Twitter into the writing classroom and beyond to strengthen students’
writing skills and practice. For an excellent review of writing/Web 2.0 theories
and strategies in composition, as well as a comprehensive list of references,
see http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/moving_to_the_public.html.
Scholars have suggested that with the integration of Web 2.0
tools in the writing classroom (and any classroom, for that matter), educators
must devote time to understand the technologies and develop best practices for
pedagogy in digital environments (see Clark,
2010, Vie,
2008, Maranto
and Barton, 2010). However, what seems to be a more immediate issue
considering the GA Tech case, and what is not often discussed in the literature,
is the importance of administrators, teachers, and students discussing issues
surrounding public writing and representation and online participation, not
only to protect the students, but the institution as well. Students need to
know about public identity, the permanence of internet postings, representations
of their selves, employers, and institutions, awareness of the vast
internet audience (whether intended or unintended), and the value of digital literacy and participation for learning.
While there is some evidence that composition teachers discuss
these issues with their students in the composition classroom, especially if Web 2.0 tools are
used, I believe what is most important in this digital age is an ongoing
conversation and collaborative effort across scholarly communities and across universities
to continue investigating and exploring digital literacy, privacy, and
representation issues such as these so we never again have to “take down” the learning
and knowing that happens in our digital worlds.
I can't help but reflect on what Michael Wesch said in 2007 at the end of his You Tube video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
I can't help but reflect on what Michael Wesch said in 2007 at the end of his You Tube video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
Monday, June 25, 2012
Summer Schedule for DePaul's UCWbL
Do you have students in need of writing support? If so, the Writing Centers at the Loop and Lincoln Park campuses are open during Summer Sessions I and II. For Summer Session I, the Writing Center is open from 10am - 5pm from Monday through Thursday, and from 10am - 3pm every Friday.
Extended Project Support is also available during the 2012 summer sessions. To begin EPS, a student can schedule an appointment to meet with a tutor, and then work with that tutor to set up recurring appointments. For general queries, please contact wcenter@depaul.edu.
Extended Project Support is also available during the 2012 summer sessions. To begin EPS, a student can schedule an appointment to meet with a tutor, and then work with that tutor to set up recurring appointments. For general queries, please contact wcenter@depaul.edu.
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