How many times have you heard a student or colleague utter the words, “another writing assignment, what a waste of time” and thought why do I bother? This Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will provide an opportunity for faculty committed to student writing assignments to critically discuss their current and planned writing assignments, to develop evaluation rubrics to improve student writing and to assess university curriculum SLOs, and to develop strategies to use student writing assignments to inspire or promote your own scholarship. Members will have the opportunity to develop and share writing resources with other SMU colleagues. If you’re interested in updating and recommitting yourself to student writing assignments by building relationships with faculty across the university, we invite you to apply to participate in this FLC.
What is the “Rethinking the Writing Assignment” FLC?
The FLC on “Rethinking the Writing Assignment” will be facilitated by Sheri Kunovich (Sociology). This community welcomes applicants who have submitted or plan to submit proposals to teach courses with a writing proficiency for the new university curriculum. Meeting about every 3 weeks, the community will offer members the opportunity to share ideas and resources for improving or developing writing assignments, to develop rubrics to improve student learning through writing, and to consider how these assignments might become a source of scholarship.
What can participants expect to do?
During the fall semester we will become familiar with scholarship on the importance of writing at the college level within our own disciplines and across disciplines. We will use teaching research to improve upon existing assignments and grading rubrics and also develop new writing assignments that might embrace online forms of written communication. We will hear from those who teach the writing foundations courses and run the writing center at the ALEC. Finally, we will share our ideas with the office of University Curriculum about ways to help develop a common method of assessing the writing proficiency.
During the spring semester, individual faculty will work towards a personal goal that will connect their student writing assignments to their own research or teaching goals. In addition, each member will have a modest budget to host a small discussion group of their own choosing where they will share what our FLC has accomplished.
Who are the members of the 2012-13 Writing FLC?
In addition to the facilitator, the members are:
Stephanie Amsel (Dedman College/English)
Shelley Berg (Meadows/Dance)
Sandra Duhe (Meadows/Communication Studies)
Camille Kraeplin (Meadows/Journalism)
Jose Lage (Lyle/Mechanical Engineering)
Bruce Levy (Dedman College/English)
Jesus Ramos-Kittrell (Meadows/Music)
Vicki Tongate (Dedman College/English)
Paige Ware (Simmons/Reading Research)