Meeting+Highlgihts+2013-14

Wednesday September 25, 2013
During our first meeting of the fall term, participants shared examples of what they are doing to integrate writing into their teaching. One example in a second year biology course asked students to subscribe to a free online magazine called The Scientist and (1) to review and select one news item per week, (2) to write a short 150 to 200 word response or commentary about that item (e.g., what about the article interested them, how the topic connects to something they are studying in class, how the topic connects to their own personal experience), (3) to share their written response with their tutorial group members (5 per group), (4) to meet with their group during tutorial to discuss each write-up and select their favourite from among the five members, and (5) to prepare and provide a five-minute presentation to their tutorial peers on their top news item. Grades received for this activity are linked to their participation mark in tutorial.

Another example taken from a recent edition of the [|//Journal of Chemical Education//](March 2012, 497-501) involved YouTube writing assignments. The article reported on a large organic chemistry course in which students created YouTube “video script". For this assignment, students were asked to select "an organic chemistry concept and describe how they would “teach” or creatively explain the concept to their fellow classmates using real-world examples in a popular YouTube video format." For bonus marks students were given the option of creating a YouTube video based on their scripts. Close to half of the 399 students prepared and posted a video. The assignment represented 15% of the students' grades. More than 80% of the students who responded to a voluntary post-assignment survey (84% response rate) said the assignment helped them better understand organic chemistry concepts and how they connect to real life experiences.

From this discussion, the group remarked on the importance of learning how to read well in order to learn how to write well, especially with a disciplinary lens. One member of the group described how she took one class to model and demystify for her students how she reads an article, demonstrating what she does when she doesn't understand a term, what questions she asks herself, how she annotates the article, and so on. While she thought it was a boring lecture, her students thought otherwise, noting that no one had showed them before how to "really" read, and how insightful it was to learn that their professors don't know everything either when they read an article. To this end, one of the members pointed to a reading inventory she invited her students to complete. The inventory helps students self-assess the range of reading strategies they engage in (or not), and where they might develop their reading abilities further by exploring new reading strategies. Refer to the following article includes the inventory.

MoKhtari, K., Reichard, C.A. (2002). [|Assessing Students’ Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies]. //Journal of Educational Psychology, 94//(2), 249-259.

**Resources to Integrate Writing into Large(r) Classes (available from the Library)**

 * // Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom //** (Bean, 2011)


 * // Teaching At Its Best: A Research-based Resource for College Instructors //** (Nilson, 2010)

Keyword search “writing”, “large classes” e.g., Journal of Chemical Education e.g., Teaching of Psychology e.g., The Journal of Economic Education
 * Discipline Specific Journals **

e.g., Reading and Writing e.g., Journal of Writing Research e.g., Journal of Writing in Creative Practice
 * Writing Journals **

e.g., Active Learning e.g., Journal on Excellence in College Teaching e.g., Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
 * Teaching and Learning Journals **

__ Check-out: __ - Assignment planner - For Faculty Section and For Students Section
 * Writing Centre **