Learning Communities: Spring 2023
Our learning communities offer extended opportunities to dive deeply into an aspect of teaching with writing alongside a multidisciplinary cohort of faculty.
Writing-enriched Course Design: Integrating learning outcomes for writing in writing-intensive and writing-enriched coursesAre you revising your writing-intensive course or assignments (or planning to do so soon)? Looking to propose a new writing-intensive course? Or looking for new ways to strengthen your assignments and incorporate more active learning into your writing-enriched course?
This semester, the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program will be leading an online faculty learning community (FLC) focused on writing-enriched teaching and learning. This FLC is designed to help faculty learn foundational approaches for teaching writing and align learning tasks with the new Writing-intensive course outcomes.
The FLC will also help faculty prepare review materials for the upcoming WI Outcomes Implementation Review beginning next fall, and it is an excellent opportunity to meet new colleagues and talk about teaching and learning across campus.
The FLC begins with an introduction to the WI outcomes. The following sessions focus on designing assignments, sequencing tasks, and responding to writers. By the end of the FLC, participants will have a scaffolded sequence of writing tasks to support the learning outcomes chosen for their course and a draft of WI course application or review materials (if applicable).
Participants will receive a print copy of Engaging Ideas and a stipend from the WAC program for their commitment to the learning community, including their development of course materials that will be shared on the WAC website, the Stearns Center website, and/or at the Innovations of Teaching and Learning Conference in Fall 2023.
This FLC will be facilitated by Tim Lilley, WAC Fellow for Faculty Development, and Breana Bayraktar, Blended Learning/Hybrid Pedagogy Specialist in the Stearns Center.
When? Tuesdays at 12:00-1:30pm; January 31 – March 7
Interested in this FLC opportunity? Registration for this program has filled.
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 2023 ScheduleIntentional Design Practices for Writing-intensive Courses: This interactive session will focus on writing-intensive course design and help units and faculty prepare for the upcoming WI outcomes implementation process. Join us to learn more about the new learning outcomes and begin drafting of your course materials with the support of WAC Committee members and Program staff.
Days and times (all to be held on Zoom):
March 1, 2023; 2:00pm-3:30pm
April 6, 2023; 2:00pm-3:30pm
April 12, 2023; 12:00pm-1:30pm
Registration: sign up for one of these sessions 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.
Days and time: March 9, 2023; 12:00-1:00pm (on Zoom)
Registration: Sign up 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.
Upcoming 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.