The Writing Excellence Initiative is inviting the campus community to learn more this spring about faculty and staff projects designed to enhance writing instruction in all types of classes at Elon University.
[/caption]The Writing Excellence Initiative awarded grants last year to nearly three dozen Elon faculty and staff representing 17 departments for projects that will enhance writing instruction across the university.
Grant recipients will share their work this semester in a series of presentations. All Elon faculty, staff, and students are invited to all presentations. No reservations are required.
February 3 (Tuesday)
4:15-5:15
Enriching Writing in the COR (GST) Capstone Project
Matt Buckmaster, Music
Location: Global Commons 203
As the integrative core curriculum capstone, the COR (GST) Interdisciplinary Seminar is unique in that it is the only course that every undergraduate student absolutely must take during his or her studies at Elon. Within the many manifestations of the course is also a shared COR Capstone Project, which serves as a culmination of each Elon students’ studies in the liberal arts and sciences. This presentation will explore the critical role of writing in that shared undergraduate project as implemented in a winter term study abroad course (the first of its kind at Elon). Interdisciplinary research, scaffolding of assignments, and actualization through an interactive website/blog will be among the topics covered, and final student projects will also be shared with preliminary assessment data.
February 5 (Thursday)
1:00-2:00
Integrating a New Quantitative Writing Project in Business Economics
Steven Bednar, Economics
Katy Rouse, Economics
Location: Koury Business Center 300
We introduced a semester long consulting project in business economics that consisted of five separate deliverables. Three of the assignments required the students to apply economic concepts studied in the classroom to a firm of their choosing. The other two assignments utilized advanced applications of excel to address a common problem that applied classroom material. Skills from Business Communications and Principles of Accounting were reinforced. In our presentation we will provide additional details about the project, discuss the costs and benefits of introducing this project including an assessment of student learning, and comment on student perceptions of the costs and benefits of the project.
February 10 (Tuesday)
4:00-5:00
How the Scholarship on Writing in the STEM Undergraduate Curriculum Can Help Us at Elon
Tonya Laakko Train, Biology
Yuko Miyamoto, Biology
Location: McMichael 115
A summary of our findings on the current literature regarding best practices on writing in the undergraduate curriculum of STEM disciplines will be presented. An overview of the Biology major curriculum on scaffolding writing in required courses will also be shared.
February 11 (Wednesday)
12:15-1:15
On the Same Page: Aligning Goals in a Multi-Section Course
Scott Buechler, Management
Cindy Conn, Management
Rhonda Butler, Management
Mark Courtright, Management
Lillian Watson, Management
Location: Koury Business Center 204
Come hear – and engage with us in a dialogue about – our process for aligning course goals, workload, and assessment across multiple sections of a course. Faculty from the Love School of Business will describe their efforts to align the 12 to 16 sections of Business Communications taught each semester.
February 17 (Tuesday)
10:30-12:00
Contemplative Writing: Writing Practices that Deepen Student Learning
Alexis Franzese, Sociology
Location: Lindner 206
Although contemplative practices have always existed, there has been a newfound interest in the idea of contemplative pedagogy in recent years. Writing is a critical form of contemplative pedagogy; individuals working in this area have addressed both ways to integrate contemplative practices into writing practices as well as ways to use contemplative practices as preparation for writing. This workshop will offer the following: first, an overview of the state of the science and state of the art of scholarship on contemplative writing, second, sample contemplative writing practices and insights gained from incorporating these practices, and finally, workshop time in which participants can consider ways to integrate these insights into a current and/or upcoming course.
February 17 (Tuesday)
12:00-1:00
Ecological Roots: Student Research and Writing into Their Hometowns To Explore Themes of Sustainability
Ryan Kirk, Geography and Environmental Studies
Michelle Kleckner, Computing Sciences
Amanda Chunco, Environmental Studies
Location: Global Commons 200
A common model of writing projects is for students to examine their own past experiences as a means of exploring or contextualizing their understanding of a novel concept. In this project, we apply this model to the theme of sustainability by having students research and reflect upon environmental health risks in their hometowns. We identify inter-related modules of ecological, social, economic, and ethical considerations that can be customized to each instructor’s pedagogical interests. This presentation will focus on how this model can be used in COR 110 sections, but the project is also applicable to upper-level courses and science courses.
February 25 (Wednesday)
12:15-1:15
Using Case Studies To Enhance Writing in the Business School
Cindy Conn, Management
Danny Lanier, Accounting
Paula Weller, Accounting
Location: Koury Business Center 204
Interested in using case studies in your classroom? Hear how two original cases were developed to enhance the writing skills of students enrolled in two upper-level accounting classes. Engage in a conversation about the case study assignments and their assessments as well as the pedagogical opportunities and challenges of using a writing-intensive assignment for business students.
March 11 (Wednesday)
1:40-2:40
Preparing Preservice Teachers To Use Writing in Their Mathematics Classrooms
Alan Russell, Mathematics and Statistics
Location: Duke 203
Students in MTH 208: Number and Algebra for K-8 Teachers were asked to write to a colleague to show mastery of a certain area of mathematics content. They were also asked to prepare a writing assignment for their own k-8 pupils. This session will share the type of instruction the students received in the MTH 208 class, the writing prompts for these two assignments, and some examples of student work. Professors attending this session will then help us examine ways to improve the task as we move to broader implementation in both MTH 208 and 209 and prepare to collect more data for an Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators presentation and publication.
April (date, time to be announced)
Establishing the Foundations of a Human Service Studies International Concentration: A Writing Research Project of Core Human Service and International Courses
Carmen Monico, Human Service Studies
Location: To be announced
The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) declared in 2006 that “Educating students for a global future is no longer elective” and defined as critical the cultivation of intercultural competences as major learning goals for both liberal education and global citizenship. Global engagement and the preparation of students to compete internationally upon graduation constitute essential elements of Elon’s current strategic plan, The Elon’s commitment. Dr. Carmen Monico of the Human Service Studies (HSS) adopted Elon’s Commitment to global engagement to align HSS curriculum to the Writing Excellence Initiative goals of writing to learn, as a discipline, and a global citizen. With support of a WEI grant she conducted research and based on her own teaching experience and student records in Moodle, Dr. Monico studied assignments that motivated students to write in order to learn more about international human service concerns, and forged them as stewards of social justice and as concerned global citizens. At her presentation titled “Developing global competence through research and writing: A case study of teaching human service courses with international contents,” Dr. Monico will present the results of her scholarship on this topic.
April 9 (Thursday)
4:00-6:00
Writing To Become a Scholar
Steve Braye, English
Bud Warner, Human Service Studies
April Post, Spanish
Carol Smith, Health and Human Performance
Location: Global Commons 103
Coordinating the teaching of writing across any program can be a difficult task. What kinds of projects should be offered in what year? What kinds of writing are developmentally appropriate for which semester? How should faculty scaffold writing instruction and experiences across the length of the program? These questions, and more, apply to the Periclean Scholars Program.
A further complication? A rotating group of faculty mentors who progress through the program with the students. Unlike typical major sequences, where faculty may teach one course multiple times in order to develop their expertise, faculty design and teach each course one time, adapting their goals and objectives to their given cohort the best they can. No surprise that designing and teaching effective writing assignments consistently trouble Periclean faculty mentors.
This session will explore how the current group of faculty mentors worked to develop effective writing structures for the Periclean program. We will discuss the importance of writing to the program, and why faculty have found it so frustrating. Then we will share how we worked to develop systematic expectations for writing across all six semesters, using Dee Fink’s Integrated Course Design, and writing research on developing “expert” writers. We will share writing outcomes we developed for the 2014-2015 year for each cohort and, finally, discuss how we access our work so far.
April 13 (Monday)
12:00-1:00
Writing With Thumbs: How Five Students Use iPads for Writing and Reflection
Dan Reis, Teaching and Learning Technologies
Michael Vaughn, Teaching and Learning Technologies
Location: Oaks 207
iPads are mindless consumption devices that exist to check Facebook and email. At least they were for a little while. Apps now exist that provide almost limitless potential, especially for mobile writing that’s supported by multimedia. Five Elon students have spent the past school year writing and learning with an iPad, critically evaluating apps for students and faculty. These reviews are written on their iPads, and then published to our Technology Blog. Come hear the students share their experiences, then ask them any questions you have about the apps they use, their writing process, or how you could incorporate mobile writing assignments into your courses. The student writers and the project leaders can also talk about the behind-the-scenes process we collectively used to manage the writing project, track and self-assign writings, find apps, and collaborate within the group. Learn more about the Writing with Thumbs project at blogs.elon.edu/technology/writing-with-thumbs.
April 16 (Thursday)
7:00
Writing Tips from the Writer’s Room of the Hit Television Show “Mad Men”
Douglas Kass, Communications
Location: McEwen 110
Based on extensive interviews by Adjunct Communications Professor, Douglas “Doom” Kass, this talk will reveal the thought and writing processes of Matt Weiner, creator of “Mad Men.”
April 20 (Monday)
12:00-1:00
Imagination Project: Motivating Student Reflection Writing with Free Writing Prompts
Frances Bottenberg, Philosophy
Location: Spence Pavilion Room 108
In the humanities disciplines particularly, but also beyond, we want our students to relate to course skills and ideas in ways that extend beyond a concern for “whether it will be on the test”; we want them to draw on those skills and ideas to help clarify their own values and to help make sense of the world and their roles within it. In this interactive workshop I will share my work in developing and putting into practice a minimally directive, semester long free writing project with my introductory ethics students. I will present a range of resultant student writing, as well as feedback gathered from 90 students concerning the project. Cross-disciplinary issues we will discuss together include (1) the specific forms of instructor guidance that seem called for to support students in their free writing and the appreciation thereof; (2) what should distinguish a philosophical free writing project from similar projects created for other disciplines; and (3) how such a project should be graded.
April 20 (Monday)
3:00-4:00
New Writing Goals and Strategies for Teaching World Languages and Cultures: French, Spanish, and Latin
Sarah Glasco, World Languages and Cultures
Ketevan Kupatadze, World Languages and Cultures
Kristina Meinking, World Languages and Cultures
Location: To be announced
Three faculty from the Department of World Languages and Cultures will describe their individual grant projects, each of which raises the engagement and intellectual challenge for students in their courses. The discussion will include reflections on how these projects contribute to the overall plans for the department’s ongoing development as one of the universities most vibrant units.
- Sarah Glasco, Writing as Cultural Construct in French: Genre-Based Assignments for a Literacy-Centered Curriculum
- Ketevan Kupatadze, Developing Writing Assignments for SPN 222D: Spanish for Business
- Kristina Meinking, Veni, Legi, Scrivi: Writing in the Elementary Latin Sequence
April 21 (Tuesday)
10:00-11:00
Using Writing-To-Think in Two Contexts: A First-Year Disciplinary Course and the Interactive Media Capstone
Derek Lackaff, Communication
Phillip Motley, Communications
Location: McEwen 213
Two Communications faculty team up to describe the results of their research projects, each that could have broad application for many faculty across the university. Much synergy will erupt from this dual presentation.
Derek Lackaff’s presentation
I will will report the results of a new writing-centered curriculum for Communications in a Global Age (COM100) that was developed in Summer 2014 and piloted in Fall 2014, and invite further discussion on writing in conceptual courses. COM100 is a first-year survey course designed to introduce students to both the scholarly and professional fields of mass communication, as well as inform students about the department’s majors and associated programs. The learning outcomes that guided this project included: Students should be able to compellingly describe “communications” as it is approached by this department, and by the broader academic and professional community; students should be able to describe – with specific and detailed examples – the ways in which convergence is occurring, and the impacts of convergence on industry and the public; and students should develop an increasing sophistication in their skillset and methods that enable them to “write to think” about communications topics.
Phillip Motley’s presentation
Can writing be used to enhance the professional learning in the capstone course of a 1-year professional master’s degree program in interactive Media? This project explores this question by assigning a variety of writing assignments to iMedia graduate students in the final semester of their graduate studies at Elon. Students in this course typically create a self-guided project that spans the entire semester and that leverages what they have learned about graphic design, interactive technology, media studies, and mass communication theories.
This project is focused on ways to enhance the role that writing plays in the Interactive Media program, specifically in the capstone course. Currently, beyond the creation of a written project proposal, students focus primarily on the creation of a semester-long project artifact in a 6-credit thesis development course (all other iMedia courses are 3-credit). While writing is initially a companion component of the students’ capstone projects—mostly during the proposal phase—the projects themselves are primarily visual, interactive, digital media artifacts.
My presentation will address the impact that introducing an array of writing assignments into this course has on students during the development of their capstone projects. Specifically, this presentation will discuss findings relative to students’ understanding of their own creative processes with the goal of making their thinking and decision making more explicit and of how to create relevant professional documents such as design specifications, content strategy plans, or design documentation reports.