Fall 2009 Mini-Seminars on Teaching Writing-Intensive Courses Across the Disciplines

September 22
[Tuesday]
12:30-1:30pm
CUE 318

Responding to Student Writing: Are There Better Ways To Grade?
Tom Deans, Associate Professor of English and Director, University Writing Center

Responding to student writing is among the most important and time-consuming things we do in W courses. In this session we will review experience-tested ways of responding effectively. We will discuss how to streamline responses by having students do self-assessments, how (and how much) to comment on drafts, when (and when not) to grade drafts, and how to encourage students to take more responsibility for their own revising and editing.

September 28
[Monday]
Noon-1pm
CUE 318

Freshman English and General Education: What Assessment Reveals
Scott Campbell, Assistant Professor of English, and Members of the Assessment Team

In an assessment project completed in summer 2009, faculty and graduate student readers looked closely at samples of student writing from Freshman English courses at all six UConn campuses. In this presentation, members of this assessment team will describe the study, discuss its implications for UConn students and faculty, and offer a few targeted thoughts about the relationship of Freshman English to students' general education, including W courses. Questions and response are welcome.

October 8
[Thursday]
12:30-2
CUE 318

Designing More Effective Writing Assignments
Edward White, University of Arizona

One of the country’s leading experts on teaching and assessing writing, Edward White, will visit UConn to present a workshop on designing writing assignments. Complimentary copies of one of White’s books, Assigning, Responding, Evaluating: A Writing Teacher's Guide, will be available to the first 20 attendees. For more on the presenter, please see his webpage: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~emwhite/

October 16
[Friday]
1pm-2pm
CUE 318

Enriching W Courses by Focusing on Reading
Ellen Carillo, Assistant Professor of English

Careful reading—writing’s counterpart in the process by which we make meaning—is a crucial means by which students come to understand their fields of study and the conventions that govern them. This session will introduce ways of foregrounding the connections between critical reading and critical writing, and share in-class and take-home assignments that compel students to explore these connections.

December 21
[Monday]
1-2pm
CUE 318

Looking Ahead: Designing Your Next W Course
Tom Deans and Kathleen Tonry, University Writing Center

This mini-seminar is customized for those preparing to teach a writing-intensive course in the coming semester. We will address several questions: What are university-wide expectations for W courses? How do most people integrate content coverage and writing instruction? How can we design robust but still manageable revising processes for our courses?