Workshops & Learning Communities

Faculty Learning Communities: Spring 2024

Our learning communities offer extended opportunities to dive deeply into an aspect of teaching with writing alongside a multidisciplinary cohort of faculty.

WAC Primer

The WAC Primer is a 4-session series designed to help faculty learn foundational approaches for teaching with writing and align learning tasks with their course’s communications focused learning outcomes, such as the new Writing-intensive course outcomes. The Primer is an excellent opportunity to reflect on your writing course design, meet and exchange ideas with colleagues across campus, and prepare materials for the semester or WI Enhancements process.

The Primer begins with an introduction to teaching with writing across disciplines and writing course design. The following sessions focus on the WI learning outcomes, supporting intentional writing-learning, and preparing course materials. By the end of the Primer, participants will have a scaffolded sequence of writing tasks to support the learning outcomes chosen for their course and a draft of WI course materials.  

This FLC will be facilitated by Tim Lilley, WAC Fellow for Faculty Development

When? Wednesdays at 12:00-1:30pm; January 31 – February 21

Interested in this FLC opportunity? Registration is closed

Have any questions about the FLC? Email us at wac@gmu.edu

Upcoming Workshops

Our workshops offer a brief, hands-on introduction into the foundations of teaching with writing.

Spring 2024 Schedule

Teaching the Enhanced Writing-intensive Course: Are you new to teaching a WI course or want a refresher on some of the basics? This workshop will focus on writing-intensive course design and help faculty prepare for the WI enhancements process. Join WAC staff to learn more about the new learning outcomes and begin drafting your WI course materials.

Day and time (held on Zoom): Wednesday January 24th, 12:00-1:00pm

Registration: Registration is closed

Writing to Learn: Informal, Exploratory Writing: Want to help students use writing to deepen their content knowledge and practice key skills? Join WAC for an exploration of writing-to-learn, low-stakes writing tasks that emphasize exploration and discovery over performance and refinement. This workshop will provide a brief overview of the pedagogy, some examples for discussion, and opportunities for practice. It will also help participants better understand the WI outcome related to this pedagogy and prepare materials for the WI enhancements or application process. Emphasis will be placed on assignments that use writing as a tool for thinking and learning.

Day and time (held on Zoom): Friday February 9th, 12:00-1:00pm

Registration: Register here

Providing Feedback to Support Student Revision: Want to develop a more sustainable plan for providing feedback? This workshop will help faculty increase student engagement with and the impact of their feedback. Participants will first learn more about how students revise before exploring some strategies for providing feedback to support more substantive student revision. The workshop will close by offering faculty some time to implement one of the strategies into their courses.

Day and time (on Zoom): Friday February 23rd, 12:00-1:00pm

Registration: Register here

Designing Writing-to-communicate Assignments: Want to help students develop their ability to communicate key information to a target audience? This workshop identifies principles of meaningful and effective writing assignment design, includes discussion of sample assignments, and provides opportunities for participants to implement assignment design strategies into their courses.

Day and time (held on Zoom): Wednesday February 28th, 12:00-1:00pm

Registration: Register here

 

WAC Virtual Salon

Join faculty members Janet Ha Poirot, Kerry Smith, and a host of others from across the campus for some light conversation about pressing issues in the writing-enriched classroom. The WAC Virtual Salon is a community open to all faculty who teach with writing to exchange ideas and offer a shoulder to lean on.

Previous conversations
  • February 8, 2023; 2:00pm: Writing process, learner motivation, and those AI chatbots
  • April 12, 2023; 2:00pm: Community generated topic

Email us for more information, including Zoom links.

Request a Workshop

WAC Program staff are happy to offer one of our standing workshops to departments and programs. Descriptions of these workshops are below. If you would like to request a workshop, please email us at wac@gmu.edu.

  • Designing High Impact Writing Assignments: Participants in this workshop will learn the design principles that contribute to engaging and meaningful writing experiences for their students. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the research that informs these principles and will quickly move into some strategies for implementing them into courses across the curriculum. The workshop will close by offering faculty some time to implement one of the strategies into their courses.
  • Small Teaching in the Writing-enriched Classroom: Inspired by James Lang’s popular book, Small Teaching, this workshop will introduce participants to some quick writing activities that can take as few as five minutes to effectively foster student learning in classrooms across the curriculum. The workshop will include a brief introduction to the writing-to-learn scholarship that informs these activities and will provide a sampling of model designs that participants can implement and build into their own teaching.
  • Providing Feedback to Support Student Revision: This workshop will help faculty increase student engagement with and the impact of their feedback. Participants will first learn more about how students revise before exploring some strategies for providing feedback to support more substantive student revision. The workshop will close by offering faculty some time to implement one of the strategies into their courses.

Consultations

The Writing Across the Curriculum Program supports all faculty across Mason who teach (with) writing. If you would like assistance in developing course materials – syllabi, assignments, or activities – to help your student writers, please contact us at wac@gmu.edu.