With the objective of assisting faculty across different disciplines in creating and achieving effective writing instruction, the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program implements several ongoing programs simultaneously. Recent news of the WAC program includes:
In September, a year-long interdisciplinary project focusing on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) began. The six participants include faculty from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, the NanoScience Technology Center, and the College of Business Administration. This is a great opportunity for scholars to receive assistance with their research from WAC. Last year’s participants in the WAC SoTL project will present their paper, “Redefining the Function of Lesson Plans: A Study of Teacher Candidates’ Knowledge of Lesson Plan as Genre,” at the 2017 Association of Teacher Educators’ Annual Conference.
WAC is awarding six starter grants to faculty from the Department of Legal Studies, the Department of History, and the College of Education and Human Performance. These projects range from implementing Writing to Learn Assignments in courses to redesigning writing courses. Grants range from $300 to $500, depending on the extent of the project. In addition, recipients benefit from support through WAC faculty mentorships during their ongoing projects. The grants are awarded to improve writing instruction across disciplines.
Over the past few years, WAC coordinator Steffen Guenzel has expanded the writing instruction training program to include Graduate Teaching Assistants of organic chemistry lab courses. This program’s primary focus is on instructors of laboratory courses of inorganic chemistry, CHM 2046. WAC works with GTA instructors to improve assigning, assessing, and responding to student writing. Additionally, Dr. Guenzel has been collaborating with Dr. Andrew Randall to provide ongoing workshop sessions on “Authorship, Credit and Collaborative Scholarship and Research: Ethical Pitfalls to Avoid” in the Graduate Student Center.
Recruitment for participants in the spring 2017 WAC Faculty Fellows program is underway. This collaboration works to develop writing-related learning outcomes for students that are specific to the discipline. Concepts of writing theory and pedagogy are combined with practical writing instruction experiences to develop materials and improved results. Recent participants’ testimonies are available here. For more information, contact WAC Director Dr. Pavel Zemliansky at [email protected].