Mtg.+Highlights+2012-2013

This month's discussion focussed on the use of rubrics and assignment design and how they might be applied in lab or tutorial-type settings in non-science courses. The online resources section of the Course Re/Design Institute wiki site offers serveral resources on assignment and rubric design. Go to: http://wlucoursedesigninstitute.wikispaces.com/Online+Resources. You may also find the following book of value for creating and integrating rubrics into your practice.
 *  April 16, 2013 **
 * // [|Introduction to rubrics] : an assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning//** by Stevens and Levi, 2013.

This month's discussion was about a general concern -- how and why are students under-prepared for the writing and critical thinking demands of university? There was general agreement that students are demonstrating these problems because of the recent limitations of various secondary school systems and the inability (reluctance?) of universities to address the resulting gap. Other elements that also need to be considered include a lack of administrative commitment at the level of the university to improving writing outcomes through writing instruction and a lack of information at the faculty/departmental level about the writing skills that need to be developed in courses within various programs. Some discussion about ways to address these concerns took place.
 * March 19, 2013 **


 * February 2013 **

Dr. Patricia Goff was invited to speak today about her collaboration with Boba Samuels of the Laurier Writing Centre to develop the writing skills of her PO 232 students. Patti told us how the assignments in the course were designed to build skills incrementally, beginning with tutorial presentations by Boba on critical reading and text analysis using assigned readings, and culminating in students writing a research essay. Patti will return at the last writing circle to fill us in on students' perceptions and her evaluation of the initiative.
 * January 22, 2013 **

At our last meeting of the term, it was confirmed that [|Dr. John Bean](a well known educator and researcher in the study of student writing) confirmed his interest in coming back to Laurier in Spring 2014. Dr. Bean last came to Laurier in August 2008 for the annual teaching day event at the Waterloo campus. Refer to the following website for more information and resources assocated with that event. []
 * November 20, 2012 **

The rest of the meeting was spent discussing what format and approach would work best for engaging the university community about writing within and across the disciplines with respect to Dr. Bean's visist. Below we have included a selection of ideas that were discussed.
 * collecting examples of student writing assignments and tasks leading up to the event, and making them available online
 * incorporating a quantitative element into the program to attract more faculty and staff from the maths and sciences
 * implementing a call for proposal process beyond just Laurier to attract a wide audience to a one-day conference
 * offering a half-day workshop at both the Waterloo and Brantford campuses that is hands-on and applied
 * inviting conference presenters to submit a paper to a peer reviewed conference proceedings
 * building a forum (e.g., 30 minute webinars) for continued online sharing, in addition to the Writing Circle community of practice

At our second meeting of the Writing Circle, we talked about plagiarism, particularly with graduate students. Boba Samuels from the Writing Centre shared her experience with a new program designed to support graduate students taking a blended course with online feedback. The program is course specific and provides students with opportunities to receive feedback from the a Writing Centre consultant prior to submitting course assignments. While the program is very necessary it is resource intensive and will need to be revisited for future implementation to ensure manageability. Certainly feedback so far suggests it is a highly valued service for students and faculty. For more information about the program, contact Boba Samuels in the [|writing centre].
 * October 23, 2012 **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Other faculty members shared their efforts and concerns with student writing and the cut and paste culture that exists today. The group acknowledged that the challenge faculty and academic support staff face is finding ways to validate the intellectual property of others in a manner that resonates with students, not to mention providing education about what consistutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Library made note of the resources it has online with respect to **citing resources**. Refer to: [] for links to different style guides. See also the **online video tutorials** on writing, citing, and more - [].

Integration of the **Assignment Planner** tool developed by the Writing Centre was also discussed. Evidence suggests that when the assignment planner is integrated into a staged or scaffoled assignment (i.e., essay writing assignment broken into smaller assignments to pace students and keep them on task) and marks are assigned to its use that uptake by students is greater. It was suggested that it would be helpful to have reference sheets for faculty or short screencasts (videos) that highlight how faculty might use the tool in different course levels. For more information about the assignment planner, go to: []

Lastly, mention of the process, forms and resources available from the **acdemic integrity website** was noted. See: [|www.wlu.ca/academicintegrity] for more information. Watch for the announcement in the new year communicating who the new academic integrity officers will be for the Brantford and Waterloo campuses.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The inaugural meeting of fall 2012 began with a review of resources discussed/shared since the CoP began meeting in November 2009. A reference sheet was provided capturing many of these materials, while the merits of select books on student writing were highlighted. These books included John Bean's second edition of //Engaging Ideas:// //The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom// (available as an e-book from the Laurier Library), Hedengren's book - //A TA’s Guide to Teaching Writing in All Disciplines// (see [|companion website]) and a new 2012 publication - [|Student Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines: A Guide for College Faculty]. One member of the group noted that he uses Bean's book with his teaching assistants as the basis for 5 of 11 English tutorials. Discussion of these books led to an expression of interest to invite John Bean back to Laurier (last here in Fall 2008) and possibly Heather Graves from the University of Alberta whose research focuses on scientific writing rhetoric.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">September 25, 2012 **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We also discussed select writing assignments/tasks which are outlined below:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. Three-minute dissertation (or elevator speech) - requires students to discuss their essay/thesis in three minutes or less to their peers. Discussion of this assignment/task sparked conversation about the benefits of oral discourse in helping students articulate their ideas with others to refine and shape understanding of their topic before they even begin writing. The assignment also highlighted the fine balance between discipline-based versus colloquial language when writing for different audiences

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. Journal submission or poster creation - the idea behind these two assignments is the desire to make writing public, to provide an academic forum to share student scholarship/writing, and to highlight the writing and revision process that is associated with producing such forms of scholarly output. The discussion of this assignment led to members sharing former writing initiatives such as a student run undergraduate journal funded by the Dean of Arts and VPA and a biology newspaper (available from the University archives) produced by students.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Other discussion items: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. To make the most of the [|assignment planner] tool developed by the [|Writing Centre] and to get students to use it, users of the tools noted that student uptake is greatest when marks are assigned to its use. On this topic, it was suggested that the Writing Circle and/or the Writing Centre and Educational Development host a panel of faculty/student users of the tool to engage and promote the tool to the Laurier community

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. The need to “cultivate attitudes skill building” and to help students “grasp concepts” was also discussed. One suggestion put forward to address these two goals was that of the “[|flipped classroom]”. Various Laurier faculty have moved toward this approach (an example of blended learning), recognizing the benefits of using classroom or face time to engage in hands-on learning, while designing learning tasks/activities for students to complete before/after class to maximize contact time. Professor Chris Alcantara in Political Science recently blogged about his flipped classroom approach in his freshman year seminar. Check out his blog at []. See also Erik Mazur: Confessions of a Converted Lecturer on YouTube at []

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">3. Laurier's Writer in Residence program - January 15th, 2013. Potential avenue to bring in John Bean in 2014. Applications due the previous May.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The next meeting is set for October 23 at 10 am in Cafe Veritas.