WID Retreat: Assessing Writing in Disciplinary Contexts

1. WID RetreatJune 2-3, 2014St Mary’s College retreat@ the Orinda Public Library William J. Macauley, Jr. Associate Professor and University Writing Center Director University of Nevada, Reno with Tereza Joy Kramer, Saint Mary’s College of California

2. WAC: centralized source of assessable outcomes • WID: discipline-based assessment outcomes • CAC: writing, speaking, media-based • WAW: study composition studies • Why WID makes the best sense • Respects uniqueness of disciplinary discourse communities • Can include as many modalities as are useful • Does not force students into more boundary-crossing WID Introductions 1

3. Waldo: Disciplinary writing cannot be adequately learned outside of disciplinary contexts. • What is different about writing in your field? • Lynne: We need assessment language that is specific to our fields. • What language about writing is useful in your field? • Soliday: Genre represents social context and social action within that context. • What do people in your field write about? To accomplish? WID Introductions 2

4. Walvoord: one thing at a time, then choose focus, develop measure, assess, feedback loop • Huot: What kind of decisions are you trying to make? • Huot principles • Site-based • Locally controlled • Context sensitive • Rhetorically based • Accessible WID Introductions 3

5. Definition: apply a skill in a new context For example, WID courses expect students to bring with them what they learned in Composition… and to learn or deepen skills to apply to disciplinary writing from then forward. ‘Transfer of Knowledge’

6. Transfer is rare. ~Robin Snead The students who transfer skills are those who have overarching curiosities. ~James Lang Transfer of Knowledge

7. Good news: WID courses are places of opportunity – Students finally understand the need to write in a particular genre, a particular style. Transfer of Knowledge & WID

8. “What is important for transfer is constantly connecting new and already-acquired knowledge.” ~Anne Beaufort 182 Guide students to intentionally transfer: • meta-reflections Transfer of Knowledge: how to encourage

9. Analyze/evaluate something you read/researched/ observed • Describe your methods or findings related to data collected in lab or field work, a survey project, etc. • Argue a position using evidence and reasoning • Write in a style and format of a specific field • Explain in writing the meaning of numerical/statistical data • Include visuals—drawing, tables, photos, screen shots, etc. • Create with multimedia—web page, poster, PowerPoint, etc. ~NSSE/WPA report ‘Meaning-Constructing’ Writing

10. ~Anne Beaufort ‘Meaning-Constructing’ Writing

11. Writing in Anthropology with Cynthia Van Gilder

12. Thinking at the appropriate level: • WASC/institution • Curriculum • Program • Course • Assignment • What should student writing in your field demonstrate? • What does that look like? How can you tell it has happened? • What options are available for recognizing, counting, measuring, comparing, or evaluating those qualities/components? • What do you want to know about them? • What kind of assessment does that suggest? • What do you want/need to know first? • What sequence of assessments makes sense? Meaningful Work 1

13. What are you teaching (priorities)? • What is the most important? • What is most central? • What is the highest priority? • What does the college leadership value most? • What sets you up for later assessments? • What are the most prevalent discussions about related to your program? • What are you most interested in? Meaningful Work 2

14. Alignment: Which courses should be related and how? • Assessing student writing • Assessing WID course outcomes • Assessing WID program as a whole • Methods: rubrics, holistic scoring, experience • Means: portfolios, sampling, drafts Meaningful Work 3

15. Assignments walk a student through a process to specified outcomes • Consistency walks a student through a curriculum • Application of assignment, review, and response/grading at the most appropriate times • Knowledge transfer • Writer understands what the document does as much if not more than what it looks like • All writing should accomplish something worthwhile for the writer and the reader • No one knows better than you what is expected/preferred/valued within your discipline • We need to help students understand the purposes our assignments serve for both the course and their disciplines Meaningful Work 4 “Hands-on: Helping students learn the particulars of your discipline”

16. Brainstorm to develop ideas before you start • Talk with your instructor to develop your ideas • Talk with a classmate, friend, or family member to develop your ideas • Receive feedback from instructor about a draft • Visit writing center • Receive feedback from classmate, friend, or family member about a draft ~NSSE/WPA report, in Bean ‘Interactive Writing’

17. Composition Learning Outcomes are transferable across the college – but how can we help students realize this? • What skills did students learn in English 3, 4, and most importantly 5? • How can we help students apply the same skills in WID courses? Transferring skills: Composition

18. clear/careful organization … coherent paragraphs ... well-constructed sentences .... Standard Written English ... appropriate diction • audience and context • analyze arguments ... and construct ones that are well-supported, well-reasoned, and controlled by a thesis or exploratory question • use writing to enhance intellectual discovery and unravel complexities of thought Composition Learning Outcomes: Written Communication

19. develop search strategies ... use library catalogs/databases ... relevant material • critically evaluate sources • evaluate ... synthesize evidence ... drawing valid conclusions • understand ... intellectual property ... academic honesty ... integrating and citing evidence appropriately Composition Learning Outcomes: Information Evaluation & Research

20. Examine assumptions • Intellectual discovery • Systematic analysis • Investigate a topic • Analyze through close reading English 4 assignments

21. “Metadisciplinary” writing • Problem-solving • Empirical Inquiry • Interpretive/Theoretical • Performance • ~John Bean, p. 256-7 Similarities with WID

22. “introduces students to … the research essay … to prepare students for the Writing in the Discipline course that students will encounter in their chosen major.” ~Saint Mary’s College Composition Program English 5: Argument and Research Purpose of English 5

23. Students learn to … • develop an extended argument • develop search strategies and use library catalogs and databases, IERP 1 • evaluate sources, IERP 2 • evaluate &synthesize evidence …draw valid conclusions, IERP 3 • integrate and cite sources, IERP 4 English 5 ‘Extended Research Essay’

24. Students learn through Hubbuch: • Section 1 –purpose of the research essay Section 2 – process of arriving at a • research topic and strategy • Section 3 – finding sources • Section 4 – evaluating sources • Section 5 – drafting the essay • Section 6 – using/acknowledging sources English 5 ‘Extended Research Essay’

25. short essay/s: • analyze 2 or more sources • evaluate and synthesize evidence • draw valid conclusions • arrive at a position relative to your sources. English 5 smaller assignments

26. explore discipline-specific research by … • interviewing a faculty member in your anticipated major • exploring a discipline-specific library database • or … English 5 smaller assignments

27. Remember that this is going to take time • Work with what you can readily put your hands on at first • Involve your colleagues in inquiry before assessment • Be conscious of resources, particularly human • Get as many stakeholders involved as you can—not as worker bees alone but as contributors to the development of the curriculum and its assessment • Contribution = responsibility = buy-in = support • Listen a lot! • Get baselines and look for local ways to improve before going global • Multiple, small assessments • Multiple perspectives/data sources & types • Shape assessment and outcomes to several audiences Don’t go it alone!

28. Values: What do you want students to do? • How will you see that? • What specific performance expectations do you have? • Teaching, student understanding, and evaluation • Clarity • Reasonable expectations on both sides Writing in the Learning Process

29. Writing in Communication with Ellen Rigsby

30. Wrap-up and next steps Day One Wrap-Up

31. Tuesday, June 3rd

32. Core elements • Keys to success • Audience & purpose • Research: method and source deployment • Form: structure, format, citation style • Auteurism • Bricolage Assignment Design: Context 1 “Overarching questions which might help you think about your course”

33. Assignment design • Building/scaffolding • Writing (verb) (process) (articulating) • Writing (noun) (product)(participating) • In/formal writing • Assigning, responding, evaluating • Rhetorical modes: • analysis • argument • cause & effect • compare & contrast • definition • description • division & classification • exposition • narration • persuasion • synthesis Assignment Design: Context 2 “Designing Effective Writing Assignments” & “Best practices: Assignment design”

34. What is one thing you wished you could see more often in student writing? • What is one quality of student writing with which you are most frequently disappointed? • What are your most frequent types of responses to student writing? • Textual object vs. intelligent engagement • Responses to writing: • Corrections • Questions • Revisions • Evaluating • Assessing • Grading • Peer review • Commenting on drafts • CWAC • Can your students revise for a better grade? How often/much? • Portfolios vs. stand-alone writing assignments Assignment Design: Context 3 “Best practices: Scaffolding”

35. SMC Library

36. Students don’t automatically think professors of non-English courses “care” about grammar. • However, if we expect students to turn in clear/polished work, they will. Transfer of Grammatical Strategies

37. Errors increase with new tasks / greater difficulty. • Errors tend to occur in patterns. • Errors aren’t more numerous today, but different. ~Andrea Lunsford, John Bean Errors Students Make

38. “[C]ollege students are not making more formal errors in writing than they used to.” ~Robert Connors & Andrea Lunsford It’s Not Getting Worse ~Andrea Lunsford & Karen Lunsford

39. It’s Getting Different ~Andrea Lunsford & Karen Lunsford

40. Most Common Errors ~ 2006 vs. 1984 created from Lunsford & Lunsford and Connors & Lunsford studies

41. Wrong Words • Homonyms • Hyphens • Capitalization • Faulty sentence structures ~Andrea Lunsford & Karen Lunsford New Trends

42. “[E]mphasis on personal narrative has been replaced by an emphasis on argument and research.” “[S]tudent writers today are tackling the kinds of issues that require inquiry and investigation as well as reflection.” ~Andrea Lunsford & Karen Lunsford 31 Assignments Are More Complex

43. Students are writing more than ever: college papers were 2.5 times longer in 2006 than in 1985. Assignments Are Longer ~Andrea Lunsford & Karen Lunsford 31

44. Don’t edit their errors line-by-line. If you do, students might … • make only the corrections you mark. • not see their patterns of error. • not understand how error affects meaning. • view revision as only sentence-level. Grammar: hold students accountable

45. “By seeing such patterns named and discussed once, students will begin to see the patterns for themselves. They will also get the message that their teacher’s role is to advise, assess, and engage, not copy-edit.” ~Kerry Walk, Harvard Writing Project Grammar: hold students accountable

46. Help them see their own patterns. Help them use their own resources: • Citation stylebooks & Hubbuch • Little, Brown grammar handbook • In margins, use coding system: • Match with pages of their handbook • Use a chart • In end comments, note rules to learn. Grammar: hold students accountable

47. Expect precision in grammar, wording. • Require students to revise for only grammar at near-final stage. • Model by correcting a representative sentence or paragraph during class. Grammar: teach strategies

48. Writing in Kinesiology with Rebecca Concepcion

49. Home of peer-to-peer, cross-disciplinary discussion: key to success with current writing as well as transfer of knowledge. CWAC

50. Assessment & Grading • Purpose • Forms of response • Timing of responses • Purpose • Format • Using Evidence • Revision • Using sources • Explicit criteria Assignment Design: Episode 1