Instructors' Workshop - Aug. 29, 2024

Announcements

An enthusiastic welcome to Claire Jackson, our new writing director.

A small group of WRTG 105 leaders discussed the Spring 2024 assessment results at an assessment workshop on August 21. The main take-away for us is that this assessment did not, for a number of reasons, produce data that’s usable in the usual sense of telling us how to keep the course aligned with its learning outcomes. Rather, this was a pilot experience that gave us lots to think about in terms of how to make assessment work in its usual sense in the future. Broadly, this means developing a high-quality assessment plan, attending to validity (does it assess what we want it to), reliability (does it deliver accurate measures), inter-rater reliability, etc. Immediate concrete steps include…

  • Build a more consistent understanding among instructors of the learning outcomes (which are brand new) and assessment process/rubric.
  • Get a budget for first year writing that can fund professional development for the above.
  • Get the writing director a permanent seat on the GLOBE committee.
  • Clarify what our assessment benchmarks are — are they benchmarks for first year writing, or for the full 4-year writing program?

Reminders

As of this semester, “INTD” 105 is now WRTG 105, and 4 credits. The extra hour is nominally in recognition of new content (e.g., oral communication, reflective writing), but in fact it might be more valuable for more intense workshopping and other 1-on-1 work with students.

The web space for WRTG 105 resources is on the college’s main Web site: https://www.geneseo.edu/intd-105-resources or https://www.geneseo.edu/wrtg-105-resources.

They Say, I Say is still the recommended but not mandated writing text. It’s now on its 6th edition.

INTD 106 is still available for students to self-enroll into. There's a credit-bearing version that a small number of students are enrolled in, and a discoverable non-credit version of the same content called “Conventions of College Writing” that students can use for reference and instructors as a resource for WRTG 105.

The Writing Learning Center is still (for now) housed in Fraser Hall. It will open for the fall around September 15. Remember that tutors can visit WRTG 105 sections to talk about the Center, etc.

Every section should still do library research instruction.

Library Update

Sherry Larson-Rhodes and Max Sparkman reviewed support that Milne Library provides to WRTG 105. The research librarians structure research instruction around the themes of "locate-evaluate-integrate," i.e., locating information, evaluating its credibility and usefulness, and integrating it into a well-written paper. They presented several examples from recent instruction sessions of creative lessons on these themes.

The library isn't able to staff drop-in meetings with research librarians, so students who want to meet with a research librarian should make appointments ahead of time through the library web site.

Welcome Claire Jackson

Claire is the newly hired director of writing for Geneseo. She introduced herself and talked briefly about using this year to get to know the writing program and the college, learn who the stakeholders are and what they see as successes of the program, promising future directions for it, etc. Expect that she will reach out to talk to all us in various ways.

Following this introduction, the workshop shifted to informal conversation about WRTG 105, particularly what "oral communication" should mean in it. The consensus was that it should mean the same basic academic conversation that we have emphasized in writing, but carried out in a different mode, perhaps structured in-class discussions, videos or podcasts, etc.