Blugold Seminar: Revision of the First-Year Writing Program

Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading & WritingRevision of the First-Year Writing Program

College of Arts & Science Fall RetreatAugust 2013

Shevaun Watson: Director, University Writing Program Carmen Manning: Chair, English Department

Comprehensive Revision of First-year Writing Program

• New University Writing Requirement• New Prefix & Array of Courses• New Placement System• New Curriculum based on current best

practices• Ongoing Professional Development

Blugold Seminar Course Array

•WRIT 114, 116, 118, & 120• Not sequential• Each fulfills proposed University Writing Requirement • Fundamentally similar in terms of curriculum • Outcomes for all courses are the same• Each course specifically designed to meet needs of

particular population• Different pace, level of depth necessary, and types of

support built in to foster student success• Different methods, based on best practices, used to achieve

goals based on needs of specific student population

Blugold Seminar Course Array• WRIT 114: Intensive Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading and

Writing• Students who score low(< 405) on the English Placement Exam (UWENGL) and

need more support to meet the writing program outcomes in one semester.• 5 credits

• WRIT 116: Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading and Writing• Most students will place in this course (405-594 UWENGL)• 5 credits

Blugold Seminar Course Array• WRIT 118: Accelerated Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading

and Writing• Students who do not need 5 credits to meet the writing program outcomes• High UWENGL (>595); or• High English AP (4 or 5); or• Appropriate score on University Writing Program Portfolio; or• Honors Program student• 2 credits

• WRIT 120: Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading and Writing for Transfer Students• For transfer students with approved partial composition credit from another

college/university• 2 credits

Themes to Model “Conversations”

Nursing DilemmasOur Stuff and Where It Comes From

Home Sweet HomeTechnology and Communication

The World According to TelevisionImmigration & the Idea of Homeland Security

Globalization and the World (Dis)OrderRace in the 21st CenturyYou Are What You Meat

BGS Pilot and Assessment• DATA COLLECTION• Baseline student survey, spring 2010• BGS student surveys, Fall 2011-Spring 2013• BGS focus groups, Fall 2011-Spring 2013• BGS E-Portfolio blind reviews, Summer 2012 & 2013• BGS student self-assessments, Fall 2011-Spring 2013• “Pre” and “post” writing samples, Fall 2011-Spring 2013• Longitudinal study of former BGS students, including annual interviews

and collection of written work across courses; Cohort 1 (2012), Cohort 2 (2013), Cohort 3 (2014)

• National information literacy assessment project with Library, 2013-2015• Three double-blind experiments pertaining to writing pedagogies, 2013-

2014• Tracking WRIT grades, UWENGL scores, e-portfolio outcomes

Student Self Perceptions—Beginning to End of Semester

Writer Reader Rhetoric Research Self-assessment Revision Digital Literacy1

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Key Trends• Relevance of curriculum to Writing in the Disciplines• “I’m a biology major. I learned that writing in bio is about ethos. You

need to tell readers where your ideas and information are coming from so that you have credibility.”

• “I’m a political science major. I’ve already used what I learned about rhetoric in my poli sci class, and I’ve seen a huge jump in how I’m doing in that class.”

• “I’m a music major. You have to analyze a lot of different kinds of texts. All of the rhetoric terms helped me do that better. I can see the rhetoric of music.”

• Rigorous • “Definitely more challenging than my high school course.”• “If you wanted a good grade, you had to really work at it. You couldn’t

just sit down the night before and crank the work out.”• “I thought it was a good challenge.”

Key Trends

• Gains in information literacy/inquiry & research skills• “I’m better at finding credible sources.”• “I learned about all of the different databases. Wow! I don’t start with

Google anymore.”• “I can see now why you need different kinds of sources for different

kinds of papers.”• “Now I’ll go to the Library when I’m researching something.”

• Opportunities for transfer • “I can write lots of different kinds of papers now.”• “I’m better at reading. Not just faster, but I know what to focus on.”• “Even though other professors don’t say it, I can hear them talking

about rhetoric, audience, context.”

Student Performance – Year 2

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Transfer: Like a Bridge

• Not just reapplication, but recontextualization • Needs to be prompted—explicitly and often• Involves affective dimensions• Involves metacognition (conscious, mindful abstraction)• For writing, students begin the process of transfer by

relying on “antecedent genres” • Same terms, different meanings (disciplinary inflections)• Students as “Agents of Integration”: they actively work to

perceive—and to effectively convey to others—connections, applications, reconstructions

Writing in the Disciplines

“Writing is a complex and continuously developing response to a specialized discourse community, highly embedded in the specific rhetorical practices of that community, rather than a set of generalizable, mechanical skills that are independent of disciplinary knowledge.”

Picking up Where the BGS Leaves Off

• Rhetorical situations (audience, purpose, context)• Academic discourse as rhetorical moves• “Conversation”• Rhetorical differences between source types, kinds of

evidence• Course- or discipline-specific reading strategies• Rules as disciplinary conventions• Expectations model disciplinary conventions• Define terms used in assignments• Explore students’ antecedent genre knowledge• Opportunities for reflection (“first-person selling”)• Opportunities for practice

We welcome your questions and

comments.