Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I hope everybody is having a good semester. It is probably busy, but there are a couple things I would like to share with you. First, I went to a really good workshop on Writing Across the Curriculum a couple weeks ago. Second, we had our first Collaborative Assessment Conference this past Friday. Both of these have really helped me look at teaching writing in new ways.

Dr. Mezler, from Sacramento State University, put on a very informative workshop that focused on writing across the curriculum. There was a lot of good information, but what I took away from it was that sometimes we need to allow our students to work outside of the normal writing paradigms. His research showed that a majority of college writing is done to essentially regurgitate information, but regurgitated information doesn't always equal learning. So, instead of simply asking students to repeat information, we should consider allowing our students to look at writing as a way of exploring and expressing ideas about themselves, their communities, and the world. Yes, this might mean writing poetry, but it's not only for poetry. There are a number of ways for students to creatively explore and express their findings; and the ability to creatively and effectively communicate their ideas can be a difficult task. Email me if you want to discuss this further because it will take up a lot of space to discuss the possibilities here.

Pat Kelly, from ESL, created and hosts the Collaborative Assessment Conferences where teachers get together to look at student work. It sounds simple, but looking at the level of work that students produce in relation to our expectations as teachers is a rather daunting task. The thing I began doing immediately after our first meeting was to look for trends in student successes and errors. Again, this sounds simple, but as we grade the stacks of papers on our desks it can be easy to look at each piece of writing only as an individual piece, not as a reflection of class readiness or needs. I just sat with a notebook next to me while grading papers and took notes of what I was seeing; and it didn't take long to see some writing trends that need to be addressed. You might want to give it a try.

Well, I won't take up any more of your time today. Remember that we can all learn from each other, and as teachers we're usually pretty nice about our suggestions. So don't be afraid to get input from your colleagues; you might be happily surprised with the results.

Happy teaching.