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Full-Text Articles in Education

Engl 200: Writing About Writing (The Problem Of The University), Flora De Tournay Jan 2023

Engl 200: Writing About Writing (The Problem Of The University), Flora De Tournay

Open Educational Resources

"The Problem of the University" is a (largely) open education syllabus that marries a criticality of/with the university as a site and space of knowledge making and knowledge suppression with a metacognitive writing approach for undergraduate students. The syllabus' contents include texts from bell hooks, Paolo Freire, Derrida, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, among others.

Complete and updated syllabus available at https://waboutw.commons.gc.cuny.edu/


Combining Backward Design With Narrative Tools Can Structure Complex Subjects Into Engaging Courses, Francisco J. Laso Jul 2022

Combining Backward Design With Narrative Tools Can Structure Complex Subjects Into Engaging Courses, Francisco J. Laso

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

Backward course design helps align course outcomes with assignments and learning experiences. However, it is still challenging to simplify complex subjects into 10- week courses. Olson’s And-But-Therefore (ABT) framework can help instructors identify threshold concepts within their subject to thread a straightforward yet compelling narrative through their course. Pairing the ABT framework with backward course design can be particularly useful for expansive subjects with no clear thematic or chronological progression.


Talking About Writing: Supporting In-Discipline Instructors By Using A Reflective Process To Implement Student-Centered Writing Assignments In Accounting, Lucas Walker Jul 2022

Talking About Writing: Supporting In-Discipline Instructors By Using A Reflective Process To Implement Student-Centered Writing Assignments In Accounting, Lucas Walker

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

Departmental writing plans and faculty support are proven methods to help In-Discipline instructors more effectively teach writing. Talking about this developmental process is invaluable if departments are going to successfully implement a writing plan. Talking about writing is also crucial as In-Discipline instructors and writing studies instructors coordinate to create writing assignments in the classroom. Students need to learn to write for reasons other than to earn a grade and they need to actively engage with writing in a way that prepares them for their professional life. This paper focuses on one Accounting class to illustrate some of the challenges …


To What Extent Does The Implementation Of Student-Centered Assignments Increase Student Engagement, Agency, And Success In Mus 342 And Mus 343?, Haley Nutt Jul 2022

To What Extent Does The Implementation Of Student-Centered Assignments Increase Student Engagement, Agency, And Success In Mus 342 And Mus 343?, Haley Nutt

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

This brief essay explores the extent to which the implementation of student-centered assignments increases student engagement, agency, and success in MUS 342 and MUS 343. Beginning with descriptions of both courses and a few points regarding my own pedagogical philosophies, I discuss the premise and grading guidelines for an example student-centered assignment in MUS 342 titled “Personal Grove Encyclopedia Entry.” The write-up closes with a summary of what I hope my students can learn from the assignment initially, as well as how they can self-reflect on the assignment at the end of MUS 343 the following quarter.


Practicing Healthy Relationships In Academic Spaces Through Informed Revision, Melina Juarez Jul 2022

Practicing Healthy Relationships In Academic Spaces Through Informed Revision, Melina Juarez

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

I try to create classroom environments where students of diverse backgrounds can develop their intellectual curiosity and can engage others with vulnerability and respect by centering relationality and community-building as key practices of knowledge and learning. I implemented Informed Revision through a “research feedback day” as an instructional strategy to help me further engage students in these processes through writing and research. I was interested in understanding: To what extent does informed revision increase students’ engagement with the course assignments and with each other? I found that this intervention: increased student confidence in their knowledge and work; provided space for …


Crossing The River Together: Complicating Learning Outcomes In Writing Classes, Sophia Brauner Jul 2022

Crossing The River Together: Complicating Learning Outcomes In Writing Classes, Sophia Brauner

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

In this essay, I ask how Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe) functions in planning skill-based composition classes. I inspect how the first step of Wiggins and McTighe’s approach to course design, establishing desired learning outcomes prior to meeting the students, makes generalizing and limiting assumptions about a heterogenous group of students. I complicate Understanding by Design with Willie James Jennings’ notion of “forced affection,” positing that predetermined learning outcomes hinder students in their unique expression of ideas and identity. I close by suggesting inventing “big ideas” for writing classes which students then fill with meaning themselves, resulting in a …


Including The Obvious: Why Are We Doing This?, Elizabeth Colen Jul 2022

Including The Obvious: Why Are We Doing This?, Elizabeth Colen

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

Along with including the usual sections for “what” to do and “how” to do it, when developing an essay writing prompt, providing a section to explicate “why” students will be completing the assignment results in a significant improvement of the quality of essays received, as well as a noted improvement in student ability to connect with several of the overall Student Learning Outcomes of the class. This write-up examines shifts made in assignment construction, as well as the results of that shift as realized in a 200-level Queer Literature course.


The Wall Of Silence: Disrupting Kairotic Spaces, Victoria Jaye Nov 2019

The Wall Of Silence: Disrupting Kairotic Spaces, Victoria Jaye

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Every class has a balance of kairotic space where teachers have power and students accept that power within the confining space of the classroom. Power defines our world as well as our relationships to one another; without power there is no control which can be key to governing a classroom. Disruption of this power dynamic can open dialogue between teachers and students that might not have existed otherwise because students feel confined to the strictures binding their power creating a wall of silence. Using brainstorming and reflecting as well as peer tutoring, I experimented with breaking down the wall of …


Learning On Equal Grounds, Andrea Diamond Nov 2019

Learning On Equal Grounds, Andrea Diamond

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Utah State University welcomes students to its beautiful campus where they can achieve their potential in an environment where everyone is welcome and each is promised that their voice will be heard and valued. The “Diversity Statement” facilitates this by encouraging discourse in a “free and respectful exchange of ideas.” Certainly, the opportunity to collaborate with students, scholars, and instructors in such an environment would help each gain command of the English language and improve their writing skills. As a graduate student, graduate instructor, and Writing Center tutor, I looked forward to this opportunity from many angles. Navigating my campus …


A Word From The Writing Team (July 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els, Pam Walter, Mfa Jul 2018

A Word From The Writing Team (July 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els, Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

  • From Thesis to Journal Article
  • Open All Summer
  • Sign Up for Our Fall Writing Retreat
  • Writing Café


A Word From The Writing Team (June 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els Jun 2018

A Word From The Writing Team (June 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

  • Sign Up for Our Fall Writing Retreat
  • Grammarly Pro
  • New eBook on Communicating Data Clearly
  • Writing Café


Using Reflective And Meta Writing Practices In English 101, Michelle Runyan Jun 2018

Using Reflective And Meta Writing Practices In English 101, Michelle Runyan

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

This study examines the ways in which a low-stakes meta, reflective, and reflexive writing assignment has the potential to help students better understand the writing that they do in the classroom. This assignment allows students to think through threshold concepts in the course, to question course concepts, and to think through the areas they are struggling with. Additionally, students are encouraged to think through their own writing process and how the skills they learn in the course might transfer to other courses. Finally, it allows the course instructor to examine their course curriculum and to adjust lesson plans based on …


Peer Editing As Learning Tool, Warren Cornwall Jun 2018

Peer Editing As Learning Tool, Warren Cornwall

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

Structured peer editing of student writing provides a valuable tool for teaching writing concepts and skills. This write-up describes a detailed process for teaching and using peer editing in a journalism class. The goal of the peer editing is to help students understand and apply concepts and skills used to craft engaging and informative news stories, and to develop skills providing and receiving feedback about writing.


A Word From The Writing Team (May 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els May 2018

A Word From The Writing Team (May 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

  • Grammar Time
  • What to Do Once Your Manuscript is Accepted
  • Writing Café


A Word From The Writing Team (April 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els Apr 2018

A Word From The Writing Team (April 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

  • Our New Name
  • Now Offering Group Consultations
  • Writing Café


A Word From The Writing Center (March 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els Mar 2018

A Word From The Writing Center (March 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

  • Writing Center News
  • Resources for Writing and Publishing
  • Writing Café


A Word From The Writing Center (February 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els Feb 2018

A Word From The Writing Center (February 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

  • Tortured By Typos
  • Punctuation 101
  • Writing Cafe


From Big Ag To Campus Cafeterias: Intersections Of Food-Supply Networks As Technical Communication Pedagogy, Jessie Lynn Richards, Joshua Lenart, David Sumner, Douglas Christensen Jan 2018

From Big Ag To Campus Cafeterias: Intersections Of Food-Supply Networks As Technical Communication Pedagogy, Jessie Lynn Richards, Joshua Lenart, David Sumner, Douglas Christensen

Faculty Publications

This article presents a pedagogical approach to teaching technical and professional writing with an eye toward cultivating awareness and generating informed research among undergraduate students about food production and its various, intricate networks between Big Ag and campus cafeterias. Our pedagogy, influenced by interdisciplinary content, is designed to teach students to differentiate between food processes—such as production versus distribution and consumption—by viewing these networks as communicative practices rather than as inevitable chains or simple functions of one another. Our approach encourages students to locate and analyze differences between interdependent, but seemingly disparate pathways and to make visible communicative intersections that …


Assessing Students’ Writing And Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In A Composition And Communication Course, T. Kody Frey, Jessalyn I. Vallade Jan 2018

Assessing Students’ Writing And Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In A Composition And Communication Course, T. Kody Frey, Jessalyn I. Vallade

Information Science Faculty Publications

One avenue for assessing learning involves evaluating self-efficacy, as this psychological beliefis a strong predictor of academic achievement. As such, the purpose of this study was to evaluate writing self-efficacy and public speaking self-efficacy in a composition and communication course. This course is structured to develop both writing and public speaking competencies; the research sought to determine whether students believed they were leaving the course feeling more confident in their capabilities within each respective academic domain. Results (N= 380) from pre- and post-test data suggest that students’ reported writing and public speaking self-efficacy significantly increased over the semester. Additionally, students’ …


“But Mom, I Want To Make A Cartoon”: Approximation And Letting Go In Teaching Composition, Adrienne Jankens Jun 2017

“But Mom, I Want To Make A Cartoon”: Approximation And Letting Go In Teaching Composition, Adrienne Jankens

English Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.


Digital Literacies And Visual Rhetoric: Scaffolding A Meme-Based Assignment Sequence For Introductory Composition Classes, Andie Silva Dec 2016

Digital Literacies And Visual Rhetoric: Scaffolding A Meme-Based Assignment Sequence For Introductory Composition Classes, Andie Silva

Publications and Research

Introducing students to the practice of academic writing ideally goes beyond teaching strategies like drafting, outlining, and revising in order to encourage deeper skills such as critical thinking and metacognition. This post discusses an assignment series focusing on reflection, genre analysis, and multiliteracies leading up to the design of original memes.


Rhetoric As Inquiry: Personal Writing And Academic Success In The English Classroom, Erica E. Rogers Dec 2016

Rhetoric As Inquiry: Personal Writing And Academic Success In The English Classroom, Erica E. Rogers

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Holistic and critical pedagogy, an approach to learning and teaching, integrates the everyday realities students live, with the systemic and institutional objectives of education itself. Working with theories from composition, rhetoric, feminist studies, and cognitive psychology from a teacher-researcher perspective, this dissertation explores and theorizes holistic, critical pedagogy within the composition classroom while outlining the use of personal writing as a means to develop critical consciousness. Student study participants kept “Inquiry Notebooks,” semester-long personal writing projects that served as receptacles for practical and theoretical engagement with a variety of texts and ideas, then interviewed after the course to discuss their …


Writing Intensive Courses In Theatre, Alisa Roost Sep 2003

Writing Intensive Courses In Theatre, Alisa Roost

Publications and Research

Most professors believe writing matters. Through writing our students are better able to synthesize ideas, communicate those ideas, and make connections across fields. While it can take significant time to grade all the assignments, it can threaten coverage of material, and our students rarely appreciate it, writing assignments can be crafted to reduce grading, add depth to coverage, and spark interest. What follows is an overview of how I incorporate writing into my theatre courses and some ways of crafting engaging writing-intensive courses.