Writing Across The Curriculum Michelle R. Yisrael English Faculty, Communications Dept WAC Coordinator Room Y171 Suite 175 773-602-5178 [email protected]
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Writing Across The CurriculumMichelle R. Yisrael
English Faculty, Communications DeptWAC Coordinator
Room Y171 Suite 175773-602-5178
What is Writing Across the Curriculum?
Writing across the curriculum is a national educationinitiative across community colleges and universities that
concerns itself with writing in courses outside ofcomposition, literature, and other English classes.
Passing its Ruby anniversary, 40 years, WAC has hadstaying power outlasting any other national initiative.
What are the Benefit?The national Writing Across theCurriculum (WAC) initiative helps to
ensure that the College is pursuinggeneral education goals that its graduateswrite to problem solve, and write to think
critically, and above all are able tocommunicate effectively in the
workforce.
Writing is
directly
linkedto
Critical
Thinking
Building writing into the texture of your class:Using writing in projects
WhatInclude a writing component for all projects you design, in every course you teach. HowStudent can write about various aspects of the course you teach.WhyAgain, to ensure the college students who are able to write effectively upon graduation.
Kennedy-King CollegeWAC Committee Members
Michelle R. Yisrael, Coordinator, CommunicationsTemple Hemphill, Communications
Sangita Deb, Physical ScienceClarinda Gipson, CommunicationsEleanor Harrison, Writing CenterGiano Cromley, Communications
Alecia Kerr, LibrarianNote: Committee membership is open for the 2014-2015 fall & spring
semester.
What We Do….
Collect & Report Data tofaculty & Make
Recommendations
Gather Student WritingSamples & Score them
Determine Range Finders
WAC CommitteeAccountability● The WAC Coordinator consults with
committee members 3 or 4 times persemester.The WAC Coordinator reports to GeneralBody Assessment Committee every 4thTuesdayThe WAC Coordinator consults with theCommunications Dept Chair whennecessary.
Number of Participants inSpring, 2014
• 40 participating courses acrossdisciplines
• 557 students participated in theassessment
How were papers be collected?1. Notification of Courses Selected from the
Associate Dean of Instruction2. Papers were collected beginning Week 6
(March 3 - May 9)3. Scoring takes place took place between
May - July, 20144. Results were analyzed in July, 2014
Writing Across the Curriculum Analytic Scoring RubricComposition
Score4 Clear thesis statement. Focuses on central
idea. Strong support using specific details.
3 Central idea present, but not fully supported. Some specific details. Some digressions.2 Unclear or more than one central idea. Basic support and few specific details. Many digressions.1 No clear idea stated. Few supporting details. Many digressions.
Score Organization4 Strong, purposeful organization. Ideas sequenced
logically. Transitions evident between ideas.3 Strong, purposeful organization. Ideas sequenced
logically. Some evidence of transitions.2 Evidence of some organization. No apparent logic
to sequence of ideas. No transitions.1 Very little apparent organization. Ideas not
arranged logically. No transitions.
Writing Across the Curriculum Analytic Scoring Rubric
Score Style4 Purposefully chosen vocabulary. Sentence variety
evident. Awareness of audience.3 Vocabulary less precise. Some sentence variety
present. Some awareness of audience.2 Vocabulary basic and not purposefully selected.
Tone flat or inconsistent.1 Little evidence of vocabulary control; sentences
halted or choppy to the point of confusion.
Score
Sentence Structure
4 Standard word order; no run-ons; no fragments.3 Mostly standard word order; one or two run-ons or
fragments.2 Some non-standard word order. Three or four run-
ons or fragments. Some word omissions.1 Frequent non-standard word order, run-ons,
fragments, and word omissions.
Score
Usage
4 Standard use of plurals and possessives; no verberrors; standard word meaning.
3 Mostly standard plurals and possessives, verbusage, and word meaning.
2 Some errors with plurals and possessives, verbusage, and word meaning. Some tense shifts.
1 Frequent tense shifts, verb usage errors. Frequentproblems with word meaning.
Score Mechanics4 Effective use of capitalization, punctuation,
spelling and formatting (indents, double-spacing,font-size).
3 Mostly effective use of mechanics; errors do notdetract from meaning.
2 Errors with spelling. Punctuation errors that detractfrom meaning. Improper formatting.
1 Frequent misspellings; little formatting evident.Frequent punctuation errors.
1. Discrepancies with the formatting of papers2. Some instructors didn’t seem to have given clear
instructions for formatting and directions.3. Seemingly a lot of students are copying and
pasting instead of paraphrasing information.4. Students are not correctly citing sources; A lot of
students are incorrectly creating in-text citations.This a concern for research based assignments.
Concerns
1. For those papers that were based on a research assignment,the writer's thinking and voice was often obscured. Forexample, in several batches of papers, we kept reading thesame or similar phrases used over and over.
2. There were papers with very unclear and/or missing thesisstatements.
3. We can’t say that in most cases, students stated the thesisclearly and provided evidence and support, but if theymentioned several ideas to support a thesis, they did not alwaysfollow through with enough detail and examples for more thanone of those points.
4. Too many students neglected to complete all items on thecover sheet. This makes it difficult when analyzing the data.
More Concerns
Recommendations1. WAC team could construct a writing
assignment instructional sheet template. 2. We request instructors encourage
students to complete all items on thecover sheet.
.
Number of Students by Age
Note: The participant number may have students counted more than once if the student participatedin more than one course
Number of Students by Gender
Note: The participant number may have students counted more than once if the student participatedin more than one course
Number of Students by Status
Note: The participant number may have students counted more than once if the student participatedin more than one course
Number of Students by Credits
Note: The participant number may have students counted more than once if the student participatedin more than one course
Number of Students by Tested In
Note: The participant number may have students counted more than once if the student participatedin more than one course
Number of Students by Course Taken
Note: The participant number may have students counted more than once if the student participatedin more than one course
098 100
101
Scores in All Areas of the Rubric
Students whoscored allFours mostlytested intoEnglish 101
Score Ranges of All Areas of the Rubric
Half of thestudentsscored a totalbetween 2and 3
Scores Ranges in All Areas of the Rubricby Age
Students whoscored between 2and 3 weremostly ages18-26
Scores Ranges in All Areas of the Rubricby Gender
Students whoscored between 2and 3 weremostly female
Scores Ranges in All Areas of the Rubricby Status
Students whoscored between 2and 3 weremostly fulltime
Scores Ranges in All Areas of the Rubricby Number of Credits
1/3 of thestudents whoscoredperfect haveearned 12credits or less
Scores in Composition by Age
Almost half thestudents scoringa three incomposition werein the age group18-26
Scores in Organization by Age
In organization,more studentsscored a two thanany other area
Scores in Style by Age
In style, morestudents scored athree than anyother area
Scores in Sentence Structure by Age
In sentencestructure, morestudents scored athree than anyother area
Scores in Usage by Age
In usage, morestudents scored athree than anyother area
Scores in Mechanics by Age
In mechanics,more studentsscored a threethan any otherarea
Scores in Composition by Gender
Almost half the studentsscoring a three in compositionwere in the age group 18-26
Scores in Organization by Gender
In organization,more studentsscored a two thanany other area.
Scores in Style by Gender
In style, more studentsscored a three thanany other area
Scores in Sentence Structure by Gender
In sentence structure,more students scoreda three than any otherarea
Scores in Usage by Gender
In usage, morestudents scored athree than any otherarea
Scores in Mechanics by Gender
In mechanics, morestudents scored athree than any otherarea
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