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Digital Union Blog Post: What Can Portfolios Do For You?

Filed under: Collaboration, Creating Writing Assignments, Evaluating Student Writing, Peer Response, Responding to Student Writing, Sponsored Workshops, Technology, Writing Process — at 3:29 pm

Cross-posted from the Digital Union blog.

A few weeks ago I facilitated a workshop on teaching with portfolios for Learning Technology. As much as we talk about the technology supporting e-portfolios, it’s good to step back and take stock of the pedagogical approaches behind them. (more…)

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Motivating Students to Write II: Writing in the Community and the University

Filed under: Creating Writing Assignments, Ethics, Citation and Plagiarism, Humanities, Podcasts, Service/Community Learning, Sponsored Workshops — at 3:27 pm

“Writing in the Community and the University” was the second in a series of workshops designed to address ways teachers can motivate their students to write through unique and non-traditional methods. Drawing on Activity Theory which points out the disconnect for students between writing in classrooms and writing in the “real world,” our goals for this workshop were

1) to highlight programs and teaching practices across the university that connect OSU students with their communities in ways that motivate them to write for and/or about their communities, and

2) to provide interested teachers with the knowledge and resources to participate in these programs or employ these teaching practices in their own classes.

Though Ohio State connects students to the community through writing in a variety of ways, we chose to feature the following programs and practices: The Service Learning Initiative, the Professional Writing Program, and individual writing assignments.

We were able to record the event and publish it as a podcast. The podcast can be accessed at the end of this post.

(more…)

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FTAD Book Group: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Week IV

Filed under: Group Workshops, WAC Theory and Research — at 2:30 pm

In our final week of the reading group, we are completing Bean’s book, chapters 13-15.

Consider the following questions as you finish the book:

Looking through Bean’s suggestions on reducing the amount of time spent coaching student writing, are there strategies you can see yourself putting into practice?

What kinds of feedback to you find most helpful from mentors, colleagues, and reviewers? What are some unhelpful comments you’ve received about your writing over the years?

Of the methods for grading student writing that Bean mentions, which approach would you be most comfortable with? If you wanted to move toward standardizing the assessment of writing among your colleagues, what approach might you take?

Now that you have read through Bean’s book, play the “believing and doubting game” (pp. 156-157). What did you find most persuasive and useful about the book? What nagging doubts or gaps still remain?

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FTAD Book Group: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Week III

Filed under: Group Workshops, WAC Theory and Research — at 10:35 am

Here’s our post for Week II of FTAD’s book groups reading John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. This week, we are discussing chapters 8-12 of Bean’s book.

Here are some questions to guide your thinking and discussion:

How do you read different kinds of texts in your discipline? Which of Bean’s strategies strike you as being useful in teaching your students how to read these texts?

What are difficulties you’ve had over the years in managing group work or class discussions? What strategies have you adapted to manage these difficulties? Do any bear resemblance to strategies Bean mentions in chapters 9 and 10?

In his chapter on essay exams, Bean seems a bit defensive about a divide he sees between “foundationalist” (p.184) and “social constructivist” (’knowledge as the ability to join a discourse’, p. 185) views of assessment. What do you make of this divide?

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FTAD Reading Group: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Week II

Filed under: Group Workshops, WAC Theory and Research — at 11:26 am

Here’s our post for Week II of FTAD’s book groups reading John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. This week, we are discussing chapters 4-7 of Bean’s book.

Here are some questions to guide your thinking and discussion:

Did Bean’s chapter on grammar and correctness allay any anxieties about dealing with surface error in student writing?

After reading chapter 5, how might you reframe a formal assignment you’ve given? Relating this to chapter 6, how can you divide the assignment up in a way to include more informal preparatory writing for students and that keeps your own workload manageable?

Do you use any of the 25 ideas Bean lists for incorporating exploratory writing (p 104-116) in your own writing process (as opposed to the writing you have your students do)?

What are the traditions of pedagogy in your field that work against the kind of active learning strategies Bean outlines in Chapter 7?

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December 3, 2010

Digital Union Blog Post: What Can Portfolios Do For You?

March 10, 2008

Motivating Students to Write II: Writing in the Community and the University

February 26, 2008

FTAD Book Group: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Week IV

February 19, 2008

FTAD Book Group: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Week III

February 12, 2008

FTAD Reading Group: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Week II