Writing in the Disciplines offers programs throughout the year open to all faculty and graduate students who teach. Below are our past events. To learn about our current offerings, visit our Workshops and Events Calendar.
2023, Fall
Small Teaching Book Group: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
In Small Teaching, James Lang connects research on how people learn with small, practical steps teachers can take to help students learn. Each chapter a) discusses a different aspect of learning, introducing key findings or principles from learning research b) includes several models of how instructors might act on these findings c) offers principles for developing additional applications and d) emphasizes small strategies. Lang’s work encourages small modifications with a big payoff. Join colleagues to discover how you can make small changes in informal writing and classroom activities in order to support students. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Better Assignment Communication: Transparency in Action through TILT
Join colleagues to review and revise your existing assignments using TILT's powerful research-supported framework. The award-winning TILT project (new tab) demonstrates that clearly communicating an assignment's purpose, task, & criteria positively affects student learning, motivation and confidence, especially for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Alternative Grading & Ungrading: New Approaches to Evaluating Student Work
How can we make grading more efficient, prioritize feedback and spend less time justifying grades, encourage students to set their own priorities, and feel more confident that students are meeting objectives? If you're interested in changing the power dynamics or logistics around grading in your pedagogy, join this informative peer-support and working group. We’ll share experiences and examples as we explore how alternative grading methods (such as contract grading, specifications grading, and ungrading) can make a difference in our classrooms. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
2022, Fall
Above the Well: An Antiracist Argument from a Boy of Color
Above the Well is written for anyone interested in the connections between language and racism, and anyone interested in ending racial violence. Using memoir, argument, and code-switching, Asao Inoue upends assumptions about what "good English" looks like with the goal of encouraging readers to do antiracist work around language in classrooms and beyond. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Better Assignment Communication: Transparency in Action through TILT
We invite faculty who are interested in exploring how changing the way assignments are presented to students can help students understand expectations and perform with more confidence to join a supportive working group that will meet at on a participant-friendly schedule during the semester. The Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education project (TILT) (new tab) is an award-winning, scholarly project focused on improving students' learning experiences. Its research demonstrates that the TILT framework (defining assignment purpose, task, & criteria) positively affects student learning and motivation, especially for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. The TILT framework is a powerful strategy that makes instructor expectations clearer. This supportive group will enable participants to “TILT” assignments for the spring. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Alternative Grading & Ungrading: New Approaches to Evaluating Student Work
How can we reduce the role of grading and make it more efficient, spend more time on feedback and less time justifying grades, encourage students to set their own priorities, and feel more confident that students are meeting objectives? Faculty grappling with questions like these have developed an array of practices--some that are alternative grading methods (such as contract grading or specifications grading) and some that are ungrading (strategies for eliminating grades as much as possible). If you're interested in changing the power dynamics or logistics around grading in your pedagogy, join this informative peer-support group. We’ll meet throughout the semester, sharing experiences and examples as we explore how new approaches can make a difference in our classrooms. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
First-Year Seminar Faculty Meetings
First-Year Seminar and Liberal Arts Scholars Program Faculty are invited to join us for monthly meetings where attendees can learn together while discussing questions and experiences teaching first-year students and incorporating FWIL (WIL1) outcomes in their courses.
2022, Spring
Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation
Students returning to in-person instruction after remote learning report that it is hard to maintain focus and motivation. In Teaching Students How to Learn, Saundra McGuire offers practical, evidence-based strategies that enable instructors to embed metacognitive practices in their courses, reducing obstacles to success. McGuire, chemist and former director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Academic Success, also provides a broader framework promoting empathy and equity.
The first meeting will focus on McGuire’s framework (the opening chapters of the book), and the 4-5 subsequent meetings will include very light reading assignments, time focused on implementing McGuire’s strategies, and opportunities for participants to share and process their reading experiences. If you’re interested in small, practical changes that can have a big impact on student learning, join us.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Better Assignment Communication: Transparency in Action through TILT
We invite faculty who are interested in exploring how changing the way assignments are presented to students can help students understand expectations and perform with more confidence to join a supportive working group that will meet at on a participant-friendly schedule during the semester. The Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education project (TILT) (new tab) is an award-winning, scholarly project focused on improving students' learning experiences. Its research demonstrates that the TILT framework (defining assignment purpose, task, & criteria) positively affects student learning and motivation, especially for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. The TILT framework is a powerful strategy that makes instructor expectations clearer. This supportive group will enable participants to “TILT” assignments for the spring.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Alternative Grading & Ungrading: New Approaches to Evaluating Student Work
How can we reduce the role of grading and make it more efficient, spend more time on feedback and less time justifying grades, encourage students to set their own priorities, and feel more confident that students are meeting objectives? Faculty grappling with questions like these have developed an array of practices--some that are alternative grading methods (such as contract grading or specifications grading) and some that are ungrading (strategies for eliminating grades as much as possible). If you're interested in changing the power dynamics or logistics around grading in your pedagogy, join this informative peer-support group. We’ll meet throughout the semester, sharing experiences and examples as we explore how new approaches can make a difference in our classrooms.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
WID Institute for Course and Assignment Design, 2022
The WID Institute returns with a redesigned, 3-day format emphasizing course planning in the context of UVM’s new general education program, the Catamount Core. During the Institute, you’ll create or revise a course with smart, sustainable plans for assignments that support your writing and information-literacy goals. Our synchronous mornings will provide a supportive and reflective atmosphere through a mix of whole group, small group, and private working time. Our flexible afternoons will offer you the chance to consult with facilitators or librarians, while continuing to work on your plans and assignments at your own pace. By the end of the Institute, you’ll have a quality course-assignment-activities plan, and you’ll have a clear vision of how you want to guide your students. We hope you’ll also leave feeling refreshed and inspired, with important work completed.
2021, Fall
Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education Book Group
me students have experienced trauma that makes typical classroom practices inequitable for them. In her book, Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, Alex Shevrin Venet offers six principles that can help instructors and administrators make changes in classroom approaches and institutional policies, starting a process of transformation that is essential for our time. Join us to read Venet's book and explore ways to these principles can help you to create a more trauma-informed and equitable student experience.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Getting the Most out of Student Peer Interactions: A Faculty Learning Community & Working Group
Do you assign peer reviews on essay or project drafts and feel disappointed in the results? Peer-to-peer interaction can be a powerful motivator for student learning, but it's also a troublesome pedagogy. Students and faculty alike sometimes report that it seems like wasted time that takes away from the professor's input on priorities -- yet research says otherwise! What causes this disjunction? A lack of coaching and practice. This group will test out strategies and connect back for continued conversation on a schedule of 3-4 dates will be determined by participants.
2021, Spring
Fri Jan 08 2021
- Planning During a Pandemic: Using Backward Design to Create a More Manageable Semester (for Life and Work)9:00am - 10:30amMicrosoft Teams
The pandemic has dramatically changed the way that faculty work, both in terms of teaching and scholarly or creative work. For many of us, these changes have coincided with increased demands outside of the workplace, financial hardships, and/or increased caretaking responsibilities. Faculty life in a pandemic is anything but normal, and the strategies and routines that served us well pre-pandemic may no longer be sustainable. This workshop creates space for us to gather and explore the ways individual choices might affect how we experience a semester shaped by systemic challenges. In this workshop, we will use the idea of backward design–a powerful outcomes-based approach to course planning–to holistically consider our spring semester. We’ll reflect on what outcomes we hope to achieve, and describe what progress towards those outcomes would look like. We’ll look for activities and routines that will help us reach our desired outcomes. Rather than trying to do everything that we did pre-pandemic, backward design can help us do what matters most, and identify what we can let go. As a bonus: the backward design skills developed in this workshop can also be applied to the development of courses for the semester. But our emphasis in offering this workshop is in creating a supportive structure to consider the hard choices we face. Come prepared to talk with colleagues in a supportive and understanding fashion.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines, and Annie Murray-Close, Center for Teaching and Learning
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/planning-during-a-pandemic-using-backward-design-to-create-a-more-manageable-semester-for-life-and-work/
Mon Jan 11 2021
- Teaching Writing-Intensive Courses Online1:00pm - 2:15pmMicrosoft Teams
January 11 & 13*
This two-part workshop supports instructors in selecting and implementing strategies for teaching writing online (synchronously or asynchronously) and lays the foundation for exploring what online writing instruction looks like. We’ll overview approaches to teaching writing, focusing on structures for communicating expectations; options for giving meaningful, sustainable feedback; and possible strategies for synchronous and asynchronous writing and peer-review activities.The January 11 session focuses on
* Establishing course clarity (conceptually and in Blackboard)
* Syllabi: what’s different for online courses?
* Organization: how to help you and students keep things straightThe January 13 session focuses on
* Empathetic presence: how to make online courses humane?
* Peer and instructor response: how to manage your workload and help students help each other?
* Reflective practice: how will you know things are working?Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
*If you don’t have time to attend both sessions, you are welcome to attend one or the other. Please register through the below link; your spot will be reserved for both days.
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/teaching-writing-intensive-courses-online/
Tue Jan 12 2021
- Transparent Assignment Design10:30am - 11:30amMicrosoft Teams
This workshop presents an overview of Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (TILT), an award-winning, scholarly project focused on improving students’ learning experiences. Evidence from a national study shows that when faculty implement small changes to enhance transparency to the design of even just two assignments, there are statistically significant benefits for all students and even larger gains for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color (Winkelmes et al., 2016).
In this workshop, we’ll share examples and a simple framework for transparent assignment design—Purpose, Task, Criteria. You’ll be able to start the groundwork to “TILT” two of your own assignments.
Facilitated by Jen Garrett-Ostermiller, CTL Faculty Development Specialist and Susanmarie Harrington, WID Director
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/transparent-assignment-design-3/
Wed Jan 13 2021
- Alternative Grading Approaches Emphasizing Equity, Transparency, and Self-Regulation9:00am - 10:00amMicrosoft Teams
Do you want to spend less time worrying about grades and more time interacting with students about what they’re learning? Would you like to be more confident that your students meet the learning objectives? Join us for this discussion of ways alternatives to traditional grading can promote better quality student work, offer more equitable opportunities for student success, promote realistic student goal-setting, and reduce stress for students and instructors alike. Drawing on the experiences of colleagues who have been using specifications grading and/or grading contracts, we’ll look at ways classroom assessment systems can do much more than simply give individual students grades.
This session overviews alternatives to traditional grading—contract grading and specifications grading—and features tips from the working group of UVM colleagues who have been implementing these methods in recent semesters. You’re welcome in this workshop whether you’ve already had some experience with alternative grading or whether you’re simply curious about the possibilities.
Participants will learn enough about grading alternatives to decide whether and how to adapt one of these models for spring/summer courses. (There will be a continuing faculty learning community around these practices, but participating in this workshop confers no future obligations!)
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines & Holly Buckland Parker, Center for Teaching and Learning
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/alternative-grading-approaches-emphasizing-equity-transparency-and-self-regulation/
- Teaching Writing-Intensive Courses Online1:00pm - 2:15pmMicrosoft Teams
January 11 & 13*
This two-part workshop supports instructors in selecting and implementing strategies for teaching writing online (synchronously or asynchronously) and lays the foundation for exploring what online writing instruction looks like. We’ll overview approaches to teaching writing, focusing on structures for communicating expectations; options for giving meaningful, sustainable feedback; and possible strategies for synchronous and asynchronous writing and peer-review activities.
The January 11 session focuses on* Establishing course clarity (conceptually and in Blackboard)
* Syllabi: what’s different for online courses?
* Organization: how to help you and students keep things straight
The January 13 session focuses on* Empathetic presence: how to make online courses humane?
* Peer and instructor response: how to manage your workload and help students help each other?
* Reflective practice: how will you know things are working?
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
*If you don’t have time to attend both sessions, you are welcome to attend one or the other. Please register through the below link; your spot will be reserved for both days.
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/teaching-writing-intensive-courses-online/
Thu Jan 14 2021
- Adapting Classroom Policies to Pandemic Teaching10:30am - 11:30amMicrosoft Teams
Our classroom policies offer students one of their first glimpses into our teaching identities and our courses. Our policies on issues such as attendance, participation, late work, and exam proctoring may not apply as usual during a pandemic; many of us have had to adapt our well-developed policies for this new context, or create new policies. For instance, in remote classes, should we require students to keep their cameras on? Should we change our course expectations or grading criteria given the unprecedented context in which students are trying to learn? Should we use exam monitoring software or prohibit backtracking on Blackboard exams to reduce academic misconduct? In this workshop, we will discuss some of the thornier classroom policy decisions that we are facing in our pandemic teaching. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how their policies worked this semester, to evaluate the benefits and costs of policy choices, and to identify those that will best serve their spring semester courses.
Facilitated by Annie Murray-Close, Center for Teaching and Learning; Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines; & Laura Almstead, Plant Biology
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/adapting-classroom-policies-to-pandemic-teaching/
Fri Jan 15 2021
- Designing Interactive Syllabi3:00pm - 4:00pmMicrosoft Teams
A course syllabus is an important part of students’ first impression of you and your course. It outlines the semester’s major work, describes course goals, your policies, and some relevant university policies…but how many syllabi end up looking like long legalistic documents that students won’t read? This workshop introduces the interactive syllabus, a way of presenting your syllabus through a simple survey. This creates opportunities for students to interact with you and the syllabus–and perhaps even contribute to the syllabus. We’ll explore several options, both thematically and technologically, for using an interactive syllabus, including starting from a template to reduce your workload.
Facilitated by Jen Garrett-Ostermiller, Center for Teaching and Learning & Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/interactive-syllabus/
- Designing Engaging and Effective Group Assignments1:00pm - 2:30pmMicrosoft Teams
In this workshop, we’ll explore strategies for designing group projects that create an engaging and successful learning experience for students, particularly during a pandemic. We’ll explore organizational tools and group assessments that can help keep groups connected, remotely, as well as strategies for helping teams manage their working habits and workflow. We’ll explore how principles for effective group work play out in remote environments. Participants can bring their draft plans or teaching materials so that we can workshop teaching materials in the latter part of the workshop.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines & Holly Buckland Parker, Center for Teaching & Learning
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/designing-engaging-and-effective-group-assignments/
Tue Jan 19 2021
- Teaching Information Literacy in an Era of Fake News3:00pm - 4:00pmMicrosoft Teams
Are you interested in helping students strengthen their abilities to spot fake news, bad data, or poorly framed claims? The sheer amount of information we confront daily makes the act of evaluating and verifying information a crucial academic and community skill. This workshop will explore four moves developed in Mike Caulfield’s Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers, an “instruction manual to reading on the modern internet,” is an “unabashedly practical guide for the student fact-checker.” We’ll discuss connecting these moves to assignments and habits of mind across the disciplines.
Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers<https://mikecaulfield.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/Web-Literacy-for-Student-Fact-Checkers-1543512063.pdf> is freely available online.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines & Daisy Benson, UVM Libraries
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/teaching-information-literacy-in-an-era-of-fake-news/
Fri Jan 22 2021
- Yellowdig: An Alternative Discussion Tool1:00pm - 2:00pmMicrosoft Teams
YellowDig is an alternative to Blackboard’s discussion board tool. In form and substance, it works much like social media platforms, supporting text and video posts as well as allowing participants to use likes or emojis to react to posts and comments. It provides flexible ways for the class community to interact. In this session, you will learn about YellowDig’s features and Blackboard integration (e.g., no additional logging in, participation data transfer to gradebook if desired). Participants will leave the workshop able to decide whether YellowDig or Blackboard best serves their course goals.
Facilitated by Holly Buckland Parker, Center for Teaching and Learning & Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/yellowdig-an-alternative-discussion-tool/
Wed Feb 17 2021
- Rubrics 101 with Blackboard Demo10:45am - 11:45am
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address. We will also demonstrate integrating your rubrics into the Blackboard Rubric Tool; this makes grading in Blackboard much easier!
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines & Ines Berrizbeitia, Center for Teaching and Learning
Thu Feb 18 2021
- Teaching with YellowDig: Meet up, Share, Learn10:30am - 11:30am
If you’re using Yellowdig this semester, join your colleagues to trade stories, tips, and tricks, and to ask questions about how it’s going. This informal session is a space for Yellowdig users to compare notes. We’ll have some experienced Yellowdig users on hand, and the conversation will help us all understand more of what Yellowdig makes possible and what future support Yellowdig instructors might need.
Facilitated by Holly Buckland Parker, Center for Teaching and Learning & Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Fri Feb 19 2021
- Effective Discussion Boards: Informal Writing for Learning and Community12:00pm - 1:00pmTeams
Online discussion is a powerful form of informal writing that can build community and support learning—but online discussions can falter if they fall into dull rhythms or get out of control. This session explores principles for fostering effective online discussion by guiding participants to set priorities and goals for discussion board writing. You’ll leave this session with practical strategies for changing the nature of class discussion.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Preregistration is closed, but you can drop into this meeting at the time of the event here: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZWRkNzU4ZTItZTc1MS00NTY2LTgzZDUtN2M1NjZlYmVjYjRk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%221c177758-4d6b-43dc-aaeb-3b9c42562967%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22315b3eeb-2aaf-4d68-add1-57818fa283fa%22%7d
Wed Feb 24 2021
- How are You Doing? - Making the Impossible Semester More Manageable (For Work and Life)12:00pm - 1:00pm
Faculty life in a pandemic is anything but normal. Check-in with colleagues in an informal, supportive conversation about the unique challenges of managing a pandemic semester with individual choices shaped by systemic barriers. We’ll share strategies for navigating these challenges in what can feel like an impossible semester using a supportive structure inspired by what we know about effective teaching.
All are welcome! These monthly check-ins will occur throughout the semester, and participants are welcome to attend as their schedules permit.
Facilitated by Annie Murray Close, Center for Teaching and Learning & Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Although pre-registration for this event is closed, you are welcome to drop in at the time of the meeting via Teams: http://go.uvm.edu/impossiblesemester
Fri Feb 26 2021
- Establishing Empathetic Presence in Online, Writing-Intensive Courses10:45am - 11:45amTeams
This workshop looks at how an empathetic social presence supports student learning in remote and online courses. We’ll look at strategies for creating instructor-student connection, examining the limits of these strategies as well as their possibilities. With attention to managing instructors’ own boundaries and time, we’ll look at teaching practices and ways of responding to student work that cultivate empathy and rapport.
Pre-registration for this event has closed. However, you are welcome to drop into the event at the time of the meeting via Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDIxZjkwOGMtMmYyMS00NWI5LWIzNjEtOTc4NGM2OTZlYWVh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%221c177758-4d6b-43dc-aaeb-3b9c42562967%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22315b3eeb-2aaf-4d68-add1-57818fa283fa%22%7d
Tue Mar 09 2021
- Effective Discussion Boards: Informal Writing for Learning and Community2:45pm - 3:45pmTeams
Online discussion is a powerful form of informal writing that can build community and support learning—but online discussions can falter if they fall into dull rhythms or get out of control. This session explores principles for fostering effective online discussion by guiding participants to set priorities and goals for discussion board writing. You’ll leave this session with practical strategies for changing the nature of class discussion.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Register Here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/effective-discussion-boards-informal-writing-for-learning-and-community-2/
Thu Mar 11 2021
- Rubrics 101 with a Blackboard Rubrics Tool Demo10:15am - 11:30amTeams
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address. We will also demonstrate integrating your rubrics into the Blackboard Rubric Tool; this makes grading in Blackboard much easier!
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines & Ines Berrizbeitia, Center for Teaching and Learning
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/rubrics-101-with-a-blackboard-rubrics-tool-demo/
Wed Mar 17 2021
- Efficient Grading: Tips to Ease the Work & Stress12:00pm - 1:00pmTeams
This workshop explores ways you can tweak your approaches to grading and responding to written student work. With an eye to reducing your stress and workload while increasing clarity and effectiveness, we'll explore a variety of practical grading tips.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/efficient-grading-simple-tips-to-ease-the-work-stress/
Fri Mar 19 2021
- Teaching in Higher Education8:30am - 9:30amTeams
In this workshop we will help you reflect on your teaching and and share current research on teaching practices such as Kuh’s High Impact Practices and Universal Design for Learning.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington & Holly Buckland Parker
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/teaching-in-higher-education-2/
Thu Mar 25 2021
- How are You Doing? – Making the Impossible Semester More Manageable (For Work and Life)11:30am - 12:30pmMS Teams
Faculty life in a pandemic is anything but normal. Check-in with colleagues in an informal, supportive conversation about the unique challenges of managing a pandemic semester with individual choices shaped by systemic barriers. We’ll share strategies for navigating these challenges in what can feel like an impossible semester using a supportive structure inspired by what we know about effective teaching.
All are welcome! These monthly check-ins will occur throughout the semester, and participants are welcome to attend as their schedules permit.
Facilitated by Annie Murray Close, Center for Teaching and Learning & Susanmarie Harrington, Writing in the Disciplines
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/how-are-you-doing-making-the-impossible-semester-more-manageable-for-work-and-life/
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Microsoft Teams meetingJoin on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDBkMGY2NmYtNTgwMi00ZDQyLTk3NTYtNzI2MGNiZmRmYzgw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%221c177758-4d6b-43dc-aaeb-3b9c42562967%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22315b3eeb-2aaf-4d68-add1-57818fa283fa%22%7d>Learn More<https://aka.ms/JoinTeamsMeeting> | Help<https://go.uvm.edu/teams> | Meeting options<https://teams.microsoft.com/meetingOptions/?organizerId=315b3eeb-2aaf-4d68-add1-57818fa283fa&tenantId=1c177758-4d6b-43dc-aaeb-3b9c42562967&threadId=19_meeting_MDBkMGY2NmYtNTgwMi00ZDQyLTk3NTYtNzI2MGNiZmRmYzgw@thread.v2&messageId=0&language=en-US>
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Thu Apr 22 2021
- Student Voices Panel: Reflections on Grading and Instructor Feedback11:30am - 1:00pmTeams
One of the most time-intensive parts of teaching is responding to student work…but how do students process those responses and what do students value about your feedback?
For the first hour, this UVM undergraduate student panel, will share student perspectives on grading and instructor feedback. The panelists will reflect on the experience and purpose of grading; the kinds of feedback they have received, how feedback has been useful, and not; and what faculty have done with feedback that promoted learning and confidence.
During the last half hour, we will have a reflective conversation with colleagues, and ask questions such as: What did you learn from the student panelists? What ideas do you have to implement in your courses? What questions were raised that you’d like to think through with colleagues?
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/student-voices-panel-reflections-on-grading-and-instructor-feedback/
Wed Apr 28 2021
- (Canceled) Writing-Intensive Teaching in a Pandemic: How’d it Go?2:15pm - 3:15pmMicrosoft Teams
Join us to reflect on our three semesters of experience with teaching writing-intensive mixed and remote courses. We’ll consider what worked for and challenged us and our students, what working remotely has taught us about teaching writing in the disciplines, and what questions or strategies we might carry forward. Though we’re still in the midst of challenging times, we can learn with colleagues and leave with ideas for later semesters.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington
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Fri Apr 30 2021
- Writing Your Teaching Philosophy8:30am - 9:30amMS Teams
During this workshop we discuss the value of articulating a personal teaching philosophy and important elements to include in your statement.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington & Holly Buckland Parker
Register for Writing Your Teaching Philosophy here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/writing-your-teaching-philosophy-2/
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Microsoft Teams meetingJoin on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MzA1YWEzNjMtZDY0NC00MDcwLTliYzAtNjZkMWZjNjg4YWZl%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%221c177758-4d6b-43dc-aaeb-3b9c42562967%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22315b3eeb-2aaf-4d68-add1-57818fa283fa%22%7d>Learn More<https://aka.ms/JoinTeamsMeeting> | Help<https://go.uvm.edu/teams> | Meeting options<https://teams.microsoft.com/meetingOptions/?organizerId=315b3eeb-2aaf-4d68-add1-57818fa283fa&tenantId=1c177758-4d6b-43dc-aaeb-3b9c42562967&threadId=19_meeting_MzA1YWEzNjMtZDY0NC00MDcwLTliYzAtNjZkMWZjNjg4YWZl@thread.v2&messageId=0&language=en-US>
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Tue May 04 2021
- Effective Grading: Tips to Ease the Work & Stress8:45am - 9:45amTeams
This workshop explores ways you can tweak your approaches to grading and responding to written student work. With an eye to reducing your stress and workload while increasing clarity and effectiveness, we’ll explore a variety of practical grading tips.
Register Here: <https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/effective-grading-tips-to-ease-the-work-stress/> https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/effective-grading-tips-to-ease-the-work-stress/
2020, Fall
Fri Sep 18 2020
- Teaching Writing Online10:45am - 11:45amMicrosoft Teams
This workshop explores principles for teaching writing online. We’ll look at features of online spaces that support teacher goals for student writers, exploring how creating connections, managing workload and workflow, and focusing on writing rather than technology benefits both teachers and students. There will be plenty of time for questions and conversation.
Facilitated by: Susanmarie Harrington
Register at: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/teaching-writing-online/
Wed Sep 23 2020
- Rubrics 101 and a Blackboard Rubric Tool Demo10:45am - 12:00pmMicrosoft Teams
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address. During the last 15 minutes of this workshop, we will demonstrate integrating your rubrics into the Blackboard Rubric Tool; this makes grading in Blackboard much easier!
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington & Ines Berrizbeitia
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/rubrics-101-a-blackboard-rubric-tool-demo/
Thu Sep 24 2020
- Rubrics 101 and a Blackboard Rubric Tool Demo1:15pm - 2:30pmMicrosoft Teams
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address. During the last 15 minutes of this workshop, we will demonstrate integrating your rubrics into the Blackboard Rubric Tool; this makes grading in Blackboard much easier!
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington & Ines Berrizbeitia
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/rubrics-101-a-blackboard-rubric-tool-demo-2/
Thu Oct 01 2020
- Engaging Students with Low-Stakes Writing11:30am - 12:30pmMicrosoft Teams
Low-stakes writing can help you encourage participation, get students practicing critical thinking, and offer low-risk opportunities for students to try out ways of thinking. They also give you insights into how students are experiencing your courses. This workshop will overview various possibilities for integrating low-stakes assignments that don’t overburden you with reading or responding work.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/engaging-students-with-low-stakes-writing/
Fri Oct 02 2020
- Engaging Students with Low-Stakes Writing9:30am - 10:30amMicrosoft Teams
Low-stakes writing can help you encourage participation, get students practicing critical thinking, and offer low-risk opportunities for students to try out ways of thinking. They also give you insights into how students are experiencing your courses. This workshop will overview various possibilities for integrating low-stakes assignments that don’t overburden you with reading or responding work.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/engaging-students-with-low-stakes-writing-2/
Mon Oct 05 2020
- Responding to Writing2:15pm - 3:15pmMicrosoft Teams
Join colleagues to explore options for responding to student writing that emphasize your values and communicate with students. Our conversation will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback, rubrics, and commenting so that you get the results you want from interactions with your students.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/responding-to-writing-3/
Tue Oct 06 2020
- Responding to Writing12:00pm - 1:00pmMicrosoft Teams
Join colleagues to explore options for responding to student writing that emphasize your values and communicate with students. Our conversation will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback, rubrics, and commenting so that you get the results you want from interactions with your students.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/responding-to-writing-4/
Wed Oct 21 2020
- Responding to Multilingual Writers: Evaluating and Grading Written Work2:15pm - 3:15pmMicrosoft Teams
How can we consider the needs of multilingual writers in ways that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we encourage writers to become increasingly attentive to the key learning goals in each course or department? Drawing on research on multilingual writing development, this workshop highlights effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual students as learners and writers.
Register at: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/responding-to-multilingual-writers-evaluating-and-grading-written-work-3/
Thu Oct 22 2020
- Responding to Multilingual Writers: Evaluating and Grading Written Work10:30am - 11:30amMicrosoft Teams
How can we consider the needs of multilingual writers in ways that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we encourage writers to become increasingly attentive to the key learning goals in each course or department? Drawing on research on multilingual writing development, this workshop highlights effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual students as learners and writers.
Register at: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/responding-to-multilingual-writers-evaluating-and-grading-written-work-4/
Tue Oct 27 2020
- Rubrics 101 & a Blackboard Rubric Tool Demo12:00pm - 1:15pmMicrosoft Teams
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address. We will also demonstrate integrating your rubrics into the Blackboard Rubric Tool; this makes grading in Blackboard much easier!
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington & Ines Berrizbeitia
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/rubrics-101-a-blackboard-rubrics-tool-demo/
Wed Oct 28 2020
- Rubrics 101 & a Blackboard Rubrics Tool Demo10:45am - 12:00pmMicrosoft Teams
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address. We will also demonstrate integrating your rubrics into the Blackboard Rubric Tool; this makes grading in Blackboard much easier!
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington & Ines Berrizbeitia
Register here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/rubrics-101-a-blackboard-rubrics-tool-demo-2/
Thu Nov 05 2020
- Audio Commenting: A Faster and More Engaging Way to Respond to Student Work2:30pm - 3:30pm
Join colleagues to learn how audio comments can increase clarity of instructor responses, reduce student stress, and improve grading and responding in remote environments. Our conversation will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback and commenting so that you get the results you want. We will demonstrate creating audio comments in Blackboard and other software.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning
Register Here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/audio-commenting-a-faster-and-more-engaging-way-to-respond-to-student-work/
Mon Nov 09 2020
- Audio Commenting: A Faster and More Engaging Way to Respond to Student Work10:30am - 11:30am
Join colleagues to learn how audio comments can increase clarity of instructor responses, reduce student stress, and improve grading and responding in remote environments. Our conversation will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback and commenting so that you get the results you want. We will demonstrate creating audio comments in Blackboard and other software.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning
Register Here: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/audio-commenting-a-faster-and-more-engaging-way-to-respond-to-student-work-2/
Wed Dec 09 2020
- Writing-Intensive Courses in Online Environments1:00pm - 2:15pmTeams
This workshop introduces instructors to principles for designing writing-intensive courses in both synchronous and asynchronous online environments. We will open with a brief presentation that previews the
* foundations of effective writing pedagogy in context
* benefits that online environments offer writing instruction
* importance of instructor presence in online spaces
* role of peer support in learning to write
* importance of course goals in structuring course spaces and activitiesParticipants will spend the remainder of the workshop applying these principles to their own course plans, selecting areas of focus that make sense for them. This workshop is intended to help instructors approach their spring course design process with greater focus and confidence.
Register at: https://www.uvm.edu/ctl/event/writing-intensive-courses-in-online-environments/
2020, Spring
Semester-long Events
Drop-in Faculty Writing Retreats
Thursdays, 12-3 pm
Faculty Writing Groups
Tuesdays, 9-11 or Thursdays, 9-11.
Interested? Send us an email!
How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective Teaching Book Group
Dates/Times TBD by Participants
Teaching Creatively Faculty Group
Will meet 2-4 Tuesday mornings, from 9:30-11.
Interested? Send us an email!
2019, Fall
Shaping Effective Writing Processes: How Writers Learn
WED 10/2, 1-2:15 or
THU 10/03, 1:15-2:30
We teach from our own experiences. This workshop invites participants to think through their own writing background as a foundation for supporting writers in their classes. We’ll focus on reducing barriers and creating easier access to more productive processes.
Designing Writing Assignments: Get the Writing You Want to Read
MON 10/7 9:30-10:45 or
TUE 10/8 10-11:15
This workshop will present research findings on writing and engagement and then look at strategies for shaping assignments that get students working in ways you value. This interactive workshop will allow time for participants to apply these strategies to their own courses.
Coaching Students to Be Better Peer Reviewers
TUE 10/15 10-11:15 or
WED 10/16 2:10-3:25
Do you assign peer reviews on essay drafts and feel disappointed in the results? Peer-to-peer interaction can be a powerful motivator for student learning. This workshop will introduce several rationales for peer responses, provide strategies for how to prepare students to do effective reviews, and offer participants the chance to try peer review themselves.
Avoiding Plagiarism, Encouraging Authority
WED 10/23 1-2:15 or
THU 10/24 11:30-12:45
This workshop explores ways faculty can encourage students to engage source material with confidence and authority. We’ll look at factors that are associated with plagiarism and strategies faculty can adopt that focus on avoiding academic misconduct.
Responding to Writing
TUE 10/29 10:00-11:15 or
FRI 11/1 11:50-1:05
Join colleagues to explore options for responding to student writing that emphasize your values and communicate with students. Our conversation will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback, rubrics, and commenting so that you get the results you want.
Rubrics 101
MON 11/4 2:10-3:25 or
THU 11/7 1:15-2:30
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work, and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address.
Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities
A book group.
John Warner's Why They Can't Write speaks to anyone who's wondered why students today don't write as well as students of old--and argues that students today write exactly the way they've been trained to write. Warner, a regular contributor to Inside Higher Education, addresses student motivation, assessments, and grading. He critiques the system that produces unexciting writing and has ideas for reforming habits, practices, and attitudes that will promote more engaging tasks and products. Warner's interest is in making writing meaningful, for students and teachers, and this readable book will be useful for faculty in any discipline.
2019, Spring
Universal Design for Learning and Writing Assignments
Thursday, March 21, 1:00-3:30 pm
This workshop applies Universal Design for Learning principles to the art of creating writing assignments. We'll explore how to create or adapt assignments to remove barriers to student success and enhance opportunities for all.
This workshop is part of Blackboard Jungle and is a collaboration between the Writing in the Disciplines Program and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Rubrics 101
Monday, March 25, 1-2 pm
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but not every rubric delivers on that promise. This workshop explores principles for making rubrics that work, and will guide participants in determining whether rubrics are the right solution to the grading or responding challenges they want to address.
Designing Rubrics: Sharing and Making Rubrics
Monday, April 8, 1-2 pm
This rubric studio will have participants leave with a draft rubric for an upcoming assignment. Drawing on experiences from UVM faculty who've participated in a faculty seminar on grading and responding, this workshop will highlight different styles of rubrics and response sheets and include time for drafting or discussing rubrics participants bring.
Supporting Multilingual Writers: Evaluating and Grading Written Work
Friday, April 19, 9:30-10:30 am (also offered Tuesday, February 19, 10:30-11:30 am)
How can we consider the needs of multilingual writers in ways that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we encourage writers to become increasingly attentive to the key learning goals in each course or department? Drawing on research on multilingual writing development, this workshop highlights effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual students as learners and writers.
Annual Institute
Eleventh Annual WID Institute
May 14-17
The WID Institute offers you a chance to step back from your normal routine to focus on how writing can work in your courses and enhance student learning. This multiday program lets you focus on (re)designing a course with an eye on writing assignments that invite students to go deeper into your disciplines. We will consider how your writing experiences might inform your teaching, and look at how work in writing studies supports your most important disciplinary values and concepts.
Semester-Long & Cohort Opportunities
Grading and Responding Mini-Institute
Fridays, 9-10:30 am, meets 3-4x, dates determined by participants
Interested in making peer interactions a more productive part of your pedagogy? Join colleagues to design strategies for coaching students to be better peer reviewers. We'll check in over the semester to evaluate what’s happening. Do you wonder whether there are more effective or efficient ways to grade or respond to students' work? Or wish you felt less stress and more joy when you grade? Do you want to rethink the way writing assignments affect your work rhythms during the semester? Join WID's Mini-Institute on Grading and Responding! Using Walvoord and Anderson's Effective Grading, we'll test out strategies for prioritizing your expectations and communicating with students. Participants will develop new ways of assessing and responding to students' work with an eye on instructor happiness and student learning. We'll meet monthly, over breakfast or lunch, and the book will be provided.
Getting the Most out of Student Peer Review: a Faculty Learning Community
Mondays, 12-1:30 pm; meets 3-4 x, dates determined by participants
Do you assign peer reviews on essay drafts and feel disappointed in the results? Peer-to-peer interaction can be a powerful motivator for student learning, but it's also a troublesome pedagogy. Students and faculty alike sometimes report that it seems like wasted time that takes away from the professor's input on priorities -- yet research says otherwise! What causes this disjunction? A lack of coaching and practice. This community will have a kick-off event to introduce principles for coaching students to be ever-better peer responders. The group will then test out strategies and connect back for continued conversation on a schedule determined by participants. Breakfast or lunch will be provided.
How Learning Works: a Book Group
Fridays, 1-2 pm with optional lunch, 12:30-1; meets 3-4 x, dates determined by participants
Join us to discuss How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. This book merges theory, research, and practical suggestions, offering classroom vignettes throughout. Our reading and conversation will explore how learning depends on acquiring knowledge, motivation, practice, and social-emotional learning.
Co-sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and The Center for Teaching and Learning
Writing in Good Company: Structured Writing Groups
Wednesdays, 9:30-12 or Thursdays, 12-2:30 pm
WID's Writing in Good Company initiative provides faculty with an opportunity for routine writing time in structured writing groups. Each small group commits to meeting regularly (typically weekly or every-other-week) for 2-3 hours. At the beginning of each semester, groups decide amongst themselves how they would like to structure their time. For many groups, the time spent together begins with a discussion or goal setting with the remaining time may be spent quietly writing; WID provides resources to help each group to find its format.
Writing groups usually meet in the WID conference room (Fulwiler Room, 302 Bailey/Howe Library), though alternative locations may be possible. Writing groups that meet in Fulwiler Room have access to coffee, tea, and snacks provided by WID.
Drop-in Faculty Writing Retreats
Mondays, 9-12, January 14 through April 29
WID's flexible Faculty Writing Retreat offers faculty a companionable, quiet space for writing without a commitment to a writing group. Faculty bring their laptops or paper, and WID supplies coffee, tea, and snacks. Faculty are welcome to drop in and work for any or all of the Writing Retreat time and as often or infrequently as they wish. WID's Writing Retreat is offered once a week throughout the semester. We hope you will join us for some writing!
Registration/RSVP not required. Located at 302 Howe Memorial Library.
Designing for Learning
January 7 and 9, 9 - 3:30
Do you wish more students would participate in class discussion? Wondering why an old assignment doesn't produce the results it used to? Looking for ways to help students overcome obstacles and achieve more in your classes?
Designing for Learning, developed by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Writing in the Disciplines program, is a two-day intensive course design program. Built on research into how people learn, and practices for course design that help engage students and focus on key course goals, Designing for Learning offers opportunities to connect with colleagues, explore teaching resources, and get a personalized teaching consultation.
Designing Writing Assignments: Get the Writing You Want to Read
Thursday, January 31, 10-11 am OR February 6, 12-1 pm
How do assignments (dis)encourage students to work? This workshop will present research findings on writing and engagement, and then look at strategies for shaping assignments that get students working in ways you value. This interactive workshop will allow time for participants to apply these strategies to their own courses. Whether you're considering developing a new assignment or problem-solving with existing assignments, this workshop should open up possibilities for you.
Designing Writing Assignments: A Working Session
Thursday, February 7, 10-11 am (also offered Wednesday, February 20, 12-1 pm)
This fully hands-on workshop is a studio session for writing assignments. Bring a draft, an example, or even just an idea for a writing assignment, and talk with colleagues about your goals for assignment design. We'll use the framework from the Designing Writing Assignments: Get the Writing You Want to Read workshop on assignment design to structure discussion, but you are welcome to come even if you didn't attend that session. You'll leave with a more advanced version of your assignment.
Supporting Multilingual Writers: Evaluating and Grading Written Work
Tuesday, February 19, 10:30-11:30 am (also offered Friday, April 19, 9:30-10:30 pm)
How can we consider the needs of multilingual writers in ways that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we encourage writers to become increasingly attentive to the key learning goals in each course or department? Drawing on research on multilingual writing development, this workshop highlights effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual students as learners and writers.
Designing Writing Assignments: A Working Session
Wednesday, February 20, 12-1 pm (also offered on Thursday, February 7, 10-11 am)
This fully hands-on workshop is a studio session for writing assignments. Bring a draft, an example, or even just an idea for a writing assignment, and talk with colleagues about your goals for assignment design. We'll use the framework from the Designing Writing Assignments: Get the Writing You Want to Read workshop on assignment design to structure discussion, but you are welcome to come even if you didn't attend that session. You'll leave with a more advanced version of your assignment.
Responding to Writing: Rubrics, Response, and a Common Vocabulary
Tuesday, February 26, 2:45-3:45 pm (also offered Monday, March 25, 1-2 pm)
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but their real value lies in the ways they create a common vocabulary that focuses attention on concepts, skills, and genre features that matter. This workshop will explore ways responding to writing helps students take up the vocabulary of your course and discipline.
Designing Rubrics: Sharing and Making Rubrics
Thursday, February 28, 2:45-3:45 pm (also offered Monday, April 8, 1-2 pm)
This rubric studio will have participants leave with a draft rubric for an upcoming assignment. Drawing on experiences from UVM faculty who've participated in a faculty seminar on grading and responding, this workshop will highlight different styles of rubrics and response sheets and include time for drafting or discussing rubrics participants bring.
2018, Fall
DESIGNING WRITING ASSIGNMENTS SERIES
This series focuses on helping participants develop writing assignments for a course (in progress, or in the planning stage). Each workshop builds on the previous, but it's possible to attend one or two if the entire series doesn't fit into your schedule.
Note: this semester, we are offering each workshop twice! Please register for only your preferred session.
Developing Goals and Priorities for Assignments
Session 1: Wednesday, September 12, 2:15 - 3:30
Session 2: Tuesday, September 18, 1:15 - 2:30
Before jumping into the specifics of your assignments, let's step back and consider your broader goals for the course and your students. We'll brainstorm ways to convey your priorities to students.
Structuring Writing Assignments
Session 1: Friday, September 28, 10:30 - 11:45
Session 2: Thursday, October 4, 1:30 - 2:45
How can writing assignments be scaffolded and structured in order to address your goals?
Coaching Students to be Better Peer Reviewers
Session 1: Friday, October 12, 10:30 - 11:45
Session 2: Monday, October 15, 1:00 - 2:15
Peer interactions can help students develop their sense of what criteria for success look like in action. Peer response works well if you teach students how and why it works, and why you value it in your course. This workshop will introduce several rationales for peer responses, provide strategies for how to prepare students to do effective reviews, and offer participants the chance to try peer review themselves.
Responding to Writing
Session 1: Thursday, November 8, 1:30 - 2:45
Session 2: Monday, November 12, 11:45 - 1
How can your responding strategies support your learning goals? We'll explore varying techniques to make responding purposeful and efficient.
CONNECTING WRITING STUDIES WITH YOUR DISCIPLINE
Session 1: Tuesday, October 23, 11:45 - 1
Session 2: Wednesday, October 31, 2:15 - 3:30
This workshop introduces some current scholarship from writing studies and invites participants to explore connections to their own work. We'll be looking at threshold concepts - fundamental concepts in the field of writing studies - such as "all writers have more to learn" and "failure can be an important part of writing development." We'll explore how these notions about writing can shape your approach to assigning writing, or your approach to mentoring student writers.
Drop-In Tea and Talk: What's on Your Mind about Writing in Your Courses?
Once or twice a month month, the Fulwiler Room will be open for conversation about whatever's on your mind about writing in your courses. Surprised by how your students responded to an assignment? Unsure whether you like your last rubric? Wondering how to coach more revision? Wishing something were a little different in how you respond, or in what you're reading in weekly journals? Join colleagues for informal conversation, brainstorming, and problem-solving.
Small Teaching Book Group
In Small Teaching, James Lang connects research on how people learn with small, practical steps teachers can take to help students learn. Each chapter a) discusses a different aspect of learning, introducing key findings or principles from learning research b) includes several models of how instructors might act on these findings c) offers principles for developing additional applications and d) emphasizes small strategies. Lang’s work encourages small modifications with a big payoff. Join colleagues to discover how you can make small changes in informal writing and classroom activities in order to support students.
2018, Spring
Small Changes, Big Impact: Small Teaching Changes that Build Analysis and Reflection
Tuesday, February 6th, 10 - 11 am
The right small, powerful changes to your teaching can have a big impact on student learning. Our Small Changes, Big Impact series highlights research-based strategies you could implement tomorrow.
In this workshop we explore how small class activities can encourage students to purposefully dig deeper into core content and become more reflective learners.
Threshold Concepts
Thursday, February 8th, 10 - 11 am
This workshop introduces participants to some threshold concepts in writing studies (such as "all writers have more to learn" or "failure can be an important part of writing development"). Participants will consider ways these threshold concepts can help shape their own disciplinary writing assignments.
Small Changes, Big Impact: Increase Student Engagement with Index Cards
Wednesday, February 14th, 1 - 2 pm
The right small, powerful changes to your teaching can have a big impact on student learning. Our Small Changes, Big Impact series highlights research-based strategies you could implement tomorrow.
This workshop explores how index cards can be used for microassignments or small interactions with you or peers. Index cards can help students practice key skills and help you connect with students' experience of the course. If you're interested in student reflection, reviewing, or assessment, join colleagues to consider how index cards can be a useful tool.
Mentoring Writing in the Lab
Tuesday, February 20th, 11:45 am - 1 pm
Mentoring students' writing happens not just in the classroom but in the lab and field. Join us for lunch and a conversation led by three faculty colleagues whose labs feature approaches to scaffolding and supporting writing instruction for undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs. This discussion will leave you with strategies you can take back to your own student networks.
Co-sponsored by the Graduate Writing Center
Responding to Writing: Rubrics, Response, and a Common Vocabulary
Wednesday, February 28th, 2:15 - 3:15 pm
Move Beyond the Red Ink to response strategies that actually work! Our Responding to Writing workshop series will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback, rubrics, and commenting so that you get the results you want.
Rubrics are often touted as a time-saving approach to grading and responding, but their real value lies in the ways they create a common vocabulary that focuses attention on concepts, skills, and genre features that matter. Join colleagues for a discussion of ways responding to writing helps students take up the vocabulary of your course and discipline.
Responding to Writing: Beyond the Red Ink, a film - Students Talk about Teachers' Comments
Thursday, March 8th, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Move Beyond the Red Ink to response strategies that actually work! Our Responding to Writing workshop series will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback, rubrics, and commenting so that you get the results you want.
Have you ever wondered why students' revisions seem to ignore the comments you so laboriously wrote? Are you interested in helping your students understand and use your comments?
During this brown bag lunch, we will view a short film featuring seven students who talk "openly about the role teachers' comments have played in their lives as college writers and offer their own advice, in their own words to writing teachers." The film will be followed by a lively discussion with colleagues.
Supporting Multilingual Writers: Evaluating and Grading Written Work
Thursday, March 22nd, 12 - 1 pm
In our Supporting Multilingual Writers series, we will explore how we respond to and grade academic work by multilingual writers while considering the impact that culture has on our approach and expectations.
In this brown bag lunch workshop we ask, "How can we balance the need to support writing growth over time with the need to be fair and consistent with expectations? How can we consider the long time horizon for developing polished fluency in other languages with the demands of a semester?" Join colleagues to talk about how we respond to and grade academic work by multilingual writers.
Responding to Writing: Feedforward, not Feedback
Tuesday, March 27th, 2:45 - 3:45 pm
Move Beyond the Red Ink to response strategies that actually work! Our Responding to Writing workshop series will help you to fine-tune your approach to feedback, rubrics, and commenting so that you get the results you want.
If most of the energy spent on responding to student writing happens at the end of the semester, its impact may be limited. Yet the alternative - multiple drafts of assignments, each with feedback - is often not sustainable. This interactive workshop explores different types of feedback, inviting participants to determine what sort of feedback best matches their goals for what students should do next.
Supporting Multilingual Writers: Writing Across Borders, a film - Multilingual Writers and Faculty Expectations
Wednesday, March 28th, 12 - 1 pm
In our Supporting Multilingual Writers series, we will explore how we respond to and grade academic work by multilingual writers while considering the impact that culture has on our approach and expectations.
This workshop will explore the relationship between culture, writing, and faculty expectations. We'll view Writing Across Borders, a short film featuring international student writers and faculty across disciplines. Our conversation will explore how cultural expectations frame our writing expectations, and how assignments and assessments are also shaped by culture.
This event is held in conjunction with Blackboard Jungle
Small Changes, Big Impact: Small Teaching Changes that Build Content Mastery
Wednesday, April 18th, 9:30 - 10:30 am
The right small, powerful changes to your teaching can have a big impact on student learning. Our Small Changes, Big Impact series highlights research-based strategies you could implement tomorrow.
This workshop explores how small moments in class can encourage students to learn core knowledge and begin to apply it in other context.
2017, Fall
Book Group: Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, by James Lang
October 3, 31, and November 14, 12:30-2 pm
In Small Teaching, James Lang connects research on how people learn with small, practical steps teachers can take to help students learn. Each chapter a) discusses a different aspect of learning, introducing key findings or principles from learning research b) includes several models of how instructors might act on these findings c) offers principles for developing additional applications and d) emphasizes small strategies. Lang’s work encourages small modifications with a big payoff. Join colleagues to discover how you can make small changes in informal writing and classroom activities in order to support students.
Writing Workshop: Developing Your Statement of Teaching Philosophy
Friday, November 10, 2017; 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
This writing workshop offers participants the chance to give and receive feedback on drafts of teaching philosophy statements. Participants should come with draft in hand (computers will be provided for those who wish to work electronically). We will facilitate small group discussion that provides constructive feedback for each participant. While this workshop grows out of the Developing Your Teaching Philosophy Workshop, anyone with a teaching philosophy draft is welcome to attend. The workshop will include opportunities for writing and revising as well as conversation.
Reflective Writing: Strategies for Encouraging Students to Think About Their Learning
Thursday, November 09, 2017; 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Join colleagues to identify useful moments for student reflection, considering ways students can strengthen their understanding of course concepts and disciplinary performance through meta-cognition. We will look at various examples of teaching with reflection, from classroom activities to formal assignments.
Designing Writing Assignments: Get the Writing You Want to Read
Wednesday, November 01, 2017; 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
How do assignments (dis)encourage students to work? This workshop will present research findings on writing and engagement, and then look at strategies for shaping assignments that get students working in ways you value. This interactive workshop will allow time for participants to apply these strategies to their own courses—whether you’re considering developing a new assignment, or whether you’re problem-solving with existing assignments, this workshop should open up possibilities for you.
Writing Your Teaching Philosophy
Friday, October 27, 2017; 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
During this workshop we discuss the value of articulating a personal teaching philosophy and important elements to include in your statement.
UVM Communicates: Sharing Your Research and Scholarship with the Public
Monday, October 9, 2017; 8:45 AM - 5:00 PM
Join colleagues for a day of hands-on activities designed to help you communicate more effectively with the public, with funders, with policymakers, and with fellow academics. Lunch will be provided.
Inspired by our affiliation with the Alda Center for Communicating Science, the morning combines a short plenary with a series of fun improvisation exercises. These exercises are not designed to turn you into an actor, but rather to free you to talk more effectively and personally about your research or scholarship and establish a more direct connection with your audience.
Please come prepared with an informal three-minute speech about your research or scholarship. After lunch, you will work in a small group to refine your pre-prepared three-minute speech, and you’ll also identify strategies that will transfer to other presentation settings.
For more information, please see UVM Communicates.During this workshop we discuss the value of articulating a personal teaching philosophy and important elements to include in your statement.
Responding to Multilingual Writers
Monday, October 2, 2017; 1:00 PM - 2:10 PM
During this workshop we discuss the value of articulating a personal teaching philosophy and important elements to include in your statement.
Supporting Student Peer Review: Getting Students to Talk with Each Other About Their Work
Wednesday, September 20, 2017; 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
How can students' responses to each other's writing help them develop as writers and improve the quality of the papers faculty receive? Thinking about peer review from the students' and faculty's perspectives, we will look at how to design both in-class and out-of-class peer review activities that are really worth doing.
Teaching in Higher Education
Monday, September 18, 2017; 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
This workshop will help you reflect on your teaching practice. We will discuss your teaching so far in your career and we share current research on teaching practices. These practices include: Kuh's High Impact Practices and Universal Design for Learning. (This workshop is a requirement of the Graduate Teaching Program)
Ninth Annual WID Institute
Tuesday through Thursday, May 16-18, 9:00-3:00, and Friday, May 19, 9:00-12:30
The WID Institute supports faculty who are developing or revising a course in which writing and research play an important role. This year’s institute will have a special focus on information literacy and will be facilitated by Daisy Benson, Library Instruction Coordinator and Daniel DeSanto, Information Literacy Librarian.
Through the institute, participants will integrate information literacy, research, and writing into a course in order to enhance student learning. Institute activities will also encourage participants to reflect on their own research and writing experiences in order to better shape students’ experiences. Because of the special emphasis on information literacy this year, faculty working with upper level undergraduates and graduate students, and those developing new course are especially encouraged to apply.
2017, Spring
The Global Gateway: Understanding International Students' Experience
April 4, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
UVM's Global Gateway is among the newest initiatives welcoming international students to UVM. Join colleagues to learn more about how the Global Gateway supports multilingual and international students as they adjust to UVM and American higher education. This brownbag discussion will help participants understand what kinds of pedagogical and interpersonal moves can help students transition to degree programs.
This event was held in conjunction with Blackboard Jungle
Gayle Nunley, Director, Global Educational Initiatives; Professor, Spanish
Marthe Russell, Global Gateway Program
Michael Bade, Global Gateway Program
2016, Fall
Developing Student Peer Review Capacity: Designing and Pacing Tasks
August 23, 9 am - 11:45 am (followed by lunch) OR 1 - 3:45 pm (preceded by lunch)
Join Melissa Meeks from Eli Review for a morning or afternoon hands-on workshop on setting up small, targeted, rapid feedback cycles in Eli Review, an easy-to-use web interface that is free for UVM students this fall. Packed with peer review models, this workshop will provide opportunities to design your own small writing tasks and targeted reviews to improve the effectiveness of peer-to-peer response, and lower your own commenting load.
Looking at students' efforts in small bits of writing, seeing their targeted peer feedback, and reading their key revision goals provides a windows in to what students are and are not learning. Since we can't teach what we can't see, Eli Review helps us see differently. So, what do you need to see in order to improve learning? And how can student peer review help you see your students' attempts at learning? Join us to find out.
Participants will collaborate on describing common problems, customize an existing write-review-revise cycle in Eli, and will create materials that can be used across reviews assigned throughout the semester. This half-day workshop will be a practical way to get your own Eli materials prepared; you are welcome to attend even if you're not yet committed to using Eli Review in the fall. This is a great chance to learn more about it.
Supporting Student Peer Review: Getting Students to Talk with Each Other About Their Work
Tuesday, September 20 2016 @ 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
How can students' responses to each other's writing help them develop as writers and improve the quality of the papers faculty receive? Thinking about peer review from the students' and faculty's perspectives, we will look at how to design both in-class and out-of-class peer review activities that are really worth doing. Writing Center tutors will provide student perspectives on peer review.
Balancing Peer and Instructor Feedback
Monday, October 03 2016 @ 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
What can students teach each other? What can only an instructor offer? Whether you’re just beginning to consider including student peer review in your course, or whether you have lots of experience inviting students to read each others’ work, join us for a conversation about the role of peer and instructor feedback. Come away with practical suggestions for ways to create a productive balance and increase the substantive feedback students get on their work.
Peer Review Systems: Introduction to the Eli Review System
Wednesday, October 05 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
This hour-long workshop will first introduce participants to the Eli Review System, a write-review-revise tool developed at Michigan State University's Writing in Digital Environments research center. Participants will see how Eli can work to automate aspects of peer review and provide information that can focus the next round of writing, reviewing, and revising. Secondly, participants will have a chance to learn from each other. We invite participants to bring examples of their own work with peer review for discussion. Together, we will explore ways to integrate peer review into the classroom.
What to Say When? Timing Feedback for Writers
Tuesday, October 18 2016 @ 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
If most of the energy spent on responding to student writing happens at the end of the semester, its impact may be limited. Yet the alternative - multiple drafts of assignments, each with feedback - is often not sustainable. Explore ways to evaluate when feedback and response is possible, with an eye toward creating a rhythm that works.
UVM Communicates: Sharing Your Research and Scholarship with the Public
Wednesday, October 26 2016 @ 8:45 AM - 5:00 PM
Join colleagues for a day of hands-on activities designed to help you communicate more effectively with the public, with funders, with policymakers, and with fellow academics.
Lunch will be provided.
Inspired by our affiliation with the Alda Center for Communicating Science, the morning combines a short plenary with a series of fun improvisation exercises. These exercises are not designed to turn you into an actor, but rather to free you to talk more effectively and personally about your research or scholarship and establish a more direct connection with your audience.
Please come prepared with an informal three-minute speech about your research or scholarship. After lunch, you will work in a small group to refine your pre-prepared three-minute speech, and you’ll also identify strategies that will transfer to other presentation settings.
WID is pleased to be able to support the work of UVM Communicates.
For more information, please see UVM Communicates. This workshop is also offered on November 9th.
Location: Silver Maple Ballroom, Davis Center
Grant Writing Brown Bag Discussion Series: Navigating the Grant Submission Process at UVM
Thursday, October 27 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Writing and submitting your first grant proposal can seem like a daunting task. On top of your science or scholarship there are lots of requirements to fulfill from the funding agency, as well as compliance with federal and institutional policies. This discussion will introduce new or inexperienced grant seekers to the offices and resources on campus that support researchers as they submit a grant proposal.
No RSVP neccessary.
Location: 427A Waterman conference room
Presented by: Jeralyn Haraldsen,PhD
Sponsored by: The Office of the Vice President for Research
Improving Feedback Through Goal Setting
Monday, October 31 2016 @ 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Faculty invest substantial time responding to student writing. This workshop explores how to focus your feedback to target your most important learning goals and some ways you can encourage students to articulate their learning goals. Join us to begin developing ways to focus the ways peers and teachers can respond to writing.
Responding to Multilingual Writers
Wednesday, November 02 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
How can we consider the needs of multilingual writers in ways that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we encourage writers to become increasingly attentive to the key learning goals in each course or department? Drawing on research on multilingual writing development, this workshop highlights effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual students as learners and writers.
UVM Communicates: Sharing Your Research and Scholarship with the Public
Wednesday, November 09 2016 @ 8:45 AM - 5:00 PM (bagels & coffee @ 8:30 am)
Join colleagues for a day of hands-on activities designed to help you communicate more effectively with the public, with funders, with policymakers, and with fellow academics. Lunch will be provided.
Inspired by our affiliation with the Alda Center for Communicating Science, the morning combines a short plenary with a series of fun improvisation exercises. These exercises are not designed to turn you into an actor, but rather to free you to talk more effectively and personally about your research or scholarship and establish a more direct connection with your audience.
Please come prepared with an informal three-minute speech about your research or scholarship. After lunch, you will work in a small group to refine your pre-prepared three-minute speech, and you’ll also identify strategies that will transfer to other presentation settings.
WID is pleased to be able to support the work of UVM Communicates.
Location: Sugar Maple Ballroom, Davis Center
Grant Writing Brown Bag Discussion Series: Doing Your Homework: How to Find the "Right" Funding
Thursday, November 17 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
A funding oppportunity announcement is often the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of understanding what a funding agency is looking for. How does one gain an edge in this highly competitive funding climate? In this brown bag session we will discuss strategies for understanding and aligning your work to a funding agency's mission, identifying areas of emerging interest, and assessing your competition. This session is primarily aimed at the needs of faculty, but may be of interest to postdocs or advanced graduate students.
No RSVP neccessary.
Location: 427A Waterman conference room
Presented by: Jeralyn Haraldsen,PhD
Sponsored by: The Office of the Vice President for Research
Book Group: How People Learn
October 31 @ 9:15 am, November 14 @ 9:30 am, and December 7 @ 8:30 am
Join colleagues to explore how learning works and what faculty can do to help students learn more effectively. How People Learn, a report of the National Research Council, examines research into learning and its implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system.
If you are interested in participating in the book group, please contact us at wid@uvm.edu.
2016, Spring
Summer Writing Retreats
Wednesdays, through August 17th, 10 am - 2 pm
Join your colleagues for coffee, tea, and snacks in a quiet and comfortable space for writing.
Summer Writing Retreat Kickoff
June 8, 9 am - 3 pm
Join your colleagues for coffee, tea, and snacks in a quiet and comfortable space for writing. A light lunch will be served at noon.
Location: Fulwiler Room, 302 Bailey/Howe Library
Sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program
Writing Your Teaching Philosophy
Friday, February 12, 2016 from 9:30 am – 11:00 am
During this workshop we discuss the value of articulating a personal teaching philosophy and important elements to include in your statement.
Co-sponsored with the Center for Teaching and Learning
Shaped by Writing: The Undergraduate Experience
Friday, February 12, 2016 from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
In this short film, eight students and several of their professors, speak with eloquence and passion about the challenges and rewards of the undergraduate writing experience. Come enjoy popcorn, tea/coffee and a lively discussion with colleagues.
Rubrics, Responding and Blackboard
Friday, February 19, 2016 from 9:30 am – 11:00 am
This workshop will highlight some ways features of Blackboard can enhance your ability to respond efficiently and clearly to student work. We’ll look at the options of Blackboard tools and some strategies for framing responses for students.
Co-sponsored with the Center for Teaching and Learning
Responding to Writing
Tuesday, March 1, 2016 from 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Join colleagues for an informal conversation about what readers can do to help writers understand how their texts work. We’ll pay particular attention to the ways faculty can use response strategies efficiently and clearly and ways faculty can evaluate what difference those responses make for students.
Grant Writing Brown Bag Seminars
Last Tuesday of each month from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
This series of interactive, monthly "brown bag" discussions will cover a range of grant writing topics from the "nuts and bolts" of how to submit a grant to strategies you can use to improve your success. No RSVP required. Bring your own lunch.
March 22 – Writing the proposal pitch page
April 26 – Justifying your budget
May 17 – What about all of those supporting documents?
June 28 – Electronic grant submission: The nuts and bolts of InfoEd, Grants.gov, Fastlane
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research
Working with Multilingual Writers: focus on graduate students
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
How can we consider the needs of multilingual graduate students in ways that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we encourage graduate students to become socialized within the discipline as well as to become increasingly proficient at producing disciplinary texts? Dr. Michelle Cox, nationally known scholar on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and multilingual writing, will share research on multilingual writing development, and effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual graduate students as learners and writers.
Presenter: Michelle Cox is the inaugural Director of the English Language Support Office of Cornell Universityâ??s Knight Institute.
Creating a Culture of Inclusive Learning in the Classroom and Beyond
Part One: Focusing in on Student Engagement
Friday, April 8, 2016 from 9:30 am – 11:00 am
This workshop will provide resources and strategies on how to create more engaging and effective learning environments for all students. The research and background behind the instructional framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Higher Education will be discussed. This workshop is appropriate for people new to the concept of UDL.
Part Two: Focusing on the Assignment
Friday, April 15, 2016 from 9:30 am – 11:00 am
This workshop (Part Two) will focus on the development of assignments and other assessments using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to reduce barriers to learning. We will focus on the goals for your course and how to best implement UDL strategies to help student achieve these goals.
These events are offered in conjunction with the Blackboard Jungle and in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning
Teaching and Learning Across Cultures
Monday, April 11, 2016 from 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Join our panel of multilingual professors who will share stories about their varied experiences moving between educational systems in different countries. With connections to varied disciplines and varied parts of the world, our panelists discuss what assumptions about the roles of teachers and students were dominant in different settings; they will also discuss whether and how the curriculum and typical work in their fields varied as they moved from one system to another. The ensuing discussion will help us all understand how advanced literacy in multiple languages is achieved. Participants will develop a richer understanding international educational experiences.
This event is offered in conjunction with the Blackboard Jungle
Apply for the Eighth Annual WID Institute
Application deadline has been extended to May 4, 2016
The WID Institute supports faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course in the major with a significant writing component. This year’s institute is Tuesday – Friday, May 17 – 20. For more information or to download an application, visit www.uvm.edu/wid/institute.
POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: Teaching with Oomph! Peer Learning and Formative Assessment Practices Designed to Enable Student Success
Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 3:30 - 4:30 pm
Interested in exploring how students in your courses can give each other feedback that improves their learning? Come join us for an informative talk with Michigan State University teaching and technology guru Jeff Grabill. Jeff will explore evidence-based practices for facilitating effective peer review between students. These practices help students to produce constructive feedback for one another, leading to increased student success not only in writing class, but in a number of learning environments. These practices are not mysterious: they can be taught and learned across the disciplines. This conversation will allow us to explore the value of these practices in writing classes, as well as more broadly in classes that use writing as a resource for learning.
This event is sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines & Foundational Writing and Information Literacy
Improving Peer Feedback: Breakout Sessions with Jeff Grabill
Thursday, April 28, 2016, 10 - 11:15 am and 1 - 2:15 pm
Would you like an opportunity to learn more about Jeff's practices? Are you wondering how they might be specifically applied in your courses? We invite you to join us for a small group, breakout session discussion with Jeff Grabill, where you will be able to have a more in depth conversation about his practices and have an opportunity to brainstorm with him about how peer feedback might enhance your courses.
This event is sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines & Foundational Writing and Information Literacy
The Eighth Annual WID Institute
May 17 - May 20, 9 am - 3:30 pm
During this four-day Institute, faculty integrate writing into their courses, creating assignments that help students understand and apply important disciplinary concepts. Institute activities also encourage participants to reflect on their own writing experiences in order to better shape those of their students.
Why Participate?
- Leave with a finished syllabus and course plan
- Receive $750 in professional development funds
- Learn from colleagues who are innovative teachers
- Have access to tailored follow-up activities
- Explore opportunities to share work with colleagues
- Receive priority for participating in the WID Mentor Program, which attaches experienced undergraduate writing tutors to writing-intensive courses
Sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
2015, Spring
Strategies for the Globally Diverse Classroom
Thursday, January 29, 2015 from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Join colleagues as we share best practices, tips, and experiences related to teaching students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This workshop explores an array of strategies to promote effective learning in today’s ever more globally diverse classroom, and introduces campus resources available to students and faculty.
Presenters: Gayle Nunley and Jeanne Shea
This event is part of the Global Diversity @ UVM: A Teaching Series, sponsored the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Writing in the Disciplines.
Helping the Public Get Beyond a Blind Date with Science with Alan Alda, Visiting Professor
Monday, February 2, 2015 from 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Alan Alda has long worked to close the communication gap between scientists and the general public. This Burack lecture will address Alda’s experiences working with scientists to engage and connect with the public.
This event is hosted by the Writing in the Disciplines, the Vermont Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, and the Office of the Vice President for Research.
Student Engagement Techniques: A Book Group
Looking for ways to engage students in discussion or class activities? Interested in finding ways to help students connect more deeply with course material or assignments? Elizabeth Barkley's Student Engagement Techniques offers a host of strategies and examples from across the disciplines regarding motivation, learning, and grading/assessment. Barkley presents a research-based framework to contextualize many practical tips to refine individual and group assignments as well as class time. Barkley offers many strategies that can be implemented immediately, as well as some that would provide inspiration for longer-term course development. Join colleagues in reading the book and trying out a few techniques!
Co-sponsored with the Center for Teaching and Learning
Writing Across Borders
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Join us for a brownbag lunch (tea, coffee, popcorn, and cookies provided) and lively discussion of the relationship between culture, writing, and faculty expectations. We’ll view Writing Across Borders, a short film featuring international student writers and faculty across campus. Our conversation will explore how cultural expectations frame our writing expectations, and how assignments and assessments are also shaped by culture.
This event is part of the Global Diversity @ UVM: A Teaching Series, sponsored the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Writing in the Disciplines.
Working with Multilingual Student Writers
Monday, March 30, 2015 from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
How can we design assignments and activities that are both linguistically and culturally inclusive? How can we respond to and assess writing by multilingual students in a way that is fair and encourages learning and writing development? At the University of Vermont, as at other US institutions of higher education, these questions become ever more pressing as the number, diversity, and visibility of multilingual students, both permanent residents and international visa students, continue to grow. Dr. Michelle Cox, nationally known scholar on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and multilingual writing, will share research on multilingual students, multilingual writing development, and effective teaching strategies for supporting multilingual students as learners and writers.
Presenter: Michelle Cox is the inaugural Director of the English Language Support Office of Cornell University’s Knight Institute. Previously, she was faculty at Bridgewater State University (BSU) and Dartmouth College. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on writing, writing theory, and writing pedagogy; launched and directed a Writing Across the Curriculum program; and served as a Multilingual Specialist, providing support to international undergraduates and graduate students. She earned her PhD in Composition Studies from the University of New Hampshire in 2006. Her scholarship focuses on WAC theory and administration and second language writing. Her most recent book, co-edited with Terry Myers Zawacki, WAC and Second Language Writing: Research toward Linguistically and Culturally Inclusive Programs and Practices, is available electronically at the WAC Clearinghouse.
This event is part of the Global Diversity @ UVM: A Teaching Series, sponsored the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Writing in the Disciplines and offered in conjunction with the Blackboard Jungle
Writing Workshop: Developing Your Statement of Teaching Philosophy
Friday, April 3, 2015 from 10:00 am – 11:30 am
This writing workshop offers participants the chance to give and receive feedback on drafts of teaching philosophy statements. Participants should come with draft in hand (computers will be provided for those who wish to work electronically). We will facilitate small group discussion that provides constructive feedback for each participant. While this workshop grows out of the Developing Your Teaching Philosophy Workshop, anyone with a teaching philosophy draft is welcome to attend. The workshop will include opportunities for writing and revising as well as conversation.
This event is sponsored with the Center for Teaching and Learning
Apply for the Sixth Annual WID Institute
The WID Institute supports full-time faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course in the major with a significant writing component. This year’s institute is Tuesday – Friday, May 12 – 15. For more information or to download an application, visit www.uvm.edu/wid/institute.
Summer Writing Retreat Kick-off
Monday, June 1, 2015 from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Join us on June 1st for a day long writing retreat. We provide a comfortable space, healthy snacks, beverages, lunch, and no distractions so that you can spend the time working on a writing project (but we usually take a break at lunchtime for supportive conversation). If participants would like a consultation with a librarian or a writing specialist, let us know, but mostly, participants will work in peace and quiet.
Sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
2014, Fall
The Mind at Hand: Using Drawing to Help Students Learn Across the Disciplines
Friday, September 5 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
During this workshop, we will learn how drawing can be used to help students understand physical and biological structures, growth and change, as well as symbolic representation of processes in a variety of disciplines. We will discuss how visual perception doesn't just provide students with information about particular qualities, objects and events, but how it lays the groundwork for concept formation.
This workshop will be facilitated by Michael Strauss--chemist, professor, and visual artist. He has long embraced writing as a way of learning across the disciplines. More recently, he's expanded his pedagogy to explore the ways drawing helps students learn and communicate in many fields. Join Dr. Strauss in a dynamic workshop which will invite faculty to explore how drawing-to-learn can be practiced in many fields as a way of helping students analyze and integrate important concepts.
Responding to Writing
Tuesday, September 16 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm
This session focuses on what readers can do to help writers understand how their texts work. We'll pay particular attention to the ways faculty can use response strategies efficiently and clearly–and ways faculty can evaluate what difference those responses make for students.
Teaching in Higher Education
Friday, September 26 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am
This workshop will help you reflect on your teaching practice. We will discuss your teaching so far in your career and we share current research on teaching practices. These practices include: Kuh's High Impact Practices and Universal Design for Learning. (This workshop is a requirement of the Graduate Teaching Program).
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Designing Rubrics
Wednesday, October 8 from 9:30 am to 10:30 am
This workshop, drawing on experiences from UVM faculty who’ve participated in a faculty seminar on grading and responding, will highlight ways rubrics can be used to grade more efficiently and more meaningfully.
Course Goals and Backwards Design: Principles for Engaging Courses
Friday, October 24 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Synergy between course goals, assignments and other learning activities is crucial for helping students achieve. This workshop will provide principles for identifying, writing and utilizing learning goals as part of your course design. Participants will (re)design goals for a current or future course, and then spend time looking at strategies to align assignments and in-class activities with those goals. Participants will also be introduced to Blackboard's alignment tool as one strategy for promoting engagement.
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Responding to and Evaluating Writing by ELL Students
Thursday, November 6 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm
This workshop explores the ways that English Language Learners–students writing in their second (or third or fourth!) language—acquire proficiency in American academic writing. Join us to investigate what faculty can expect in terms of English language development in any given semester and what techniques can make responses to writing more effective.
2014, Spring
Course Goals and Backwards Design: Principles for Creating Engaging Courses
Monday, January 6, 2014 from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Synergy between course goals, assignments and other learning activities is crucial for helping students gain the most from your class. This workshop will provide principles for identifying, writing and utilizing learning goals as the starting point for your course design. Participants will (re)design goals for a current or future course, and then spend time looking at strategies to align assignments and in-class activities with those goals. This workshop includes lunch for participants.
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Effective Peer Review: Helping Students Talk with Each Other About Their Work
Thursday, January 9, 2014 from 10:30 am – 11:45 am
How can students’ responses to each other’s writing help them develop as writers and improve the quality of the papers faculty receive? Thinking about peer review from the students’ and faculty perspectives, we will look at how to design both in-class and out-of-class peer review activities that are really worth doing. Writing Center tutors will provide student perspectives on peer review.
Peer Review Systems: Introducing the Eli Review System and More
Thursday, January 9, 2014 from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
This hour-long workshop will first introduce participants to the Eli Review System, a write-review-revise tool developed at Michigan State University's Writing in Digital Environments research center. Participants will see how Eli can work to automate aspects of peer review and provide information that can focus the next round of writing, reviewing, and revising. Secondly, participants will have a chance to learn from each other. We invite participants to bring examples of their own work with peer review for discussion. Together, we will explore ways to integrate peer review into the classroom.
Faculty Writing Retreat
Friday, January 10, 2014 from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
The retreat is simple: we provide a comfortable space, healthy snacks, beverages, and lunch, and no distractions so that you can spend the time working on a writing project (but we usually take a break at lunchtime for supportive conversation). If participants would like a consultation with a librarian or a writing specialist, let us know, but mostly, participants will work in peace and quiet.
Sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
Designing Effective Writing Assignments
Friday, January 24, 2014 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am
This session explores formal writing assignments, looking at strategies for crafting assignments that connect to key course goals or professional priorities, and strategies for supporting students' work on sequenced assignments with class activities or homework.
This workshop is part of the assignment design series sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
Universal Design and Assignments
Friday, February 21, 2014 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am
This workshop applies universal design principles to the art of creating writing assignments. We’ll explore how to create or adapt assignments to create equal opportunities for students to learn.
This workshop is part of the assignment design series sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
Designing Research Assignments
Thursday, April 3, 2014 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
This workshop will help participants develop strategies for scaffolding approaches to researched writing and strategies for developing effective relationships with librarians. Whether you're looking for small activities to add to a course, or guidelines on developing semester-long projects involving research skills, join us for conversation with faculty and librarians.
This workshop is part of the assignment design series sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
Multilingual Writers, Multiliterate Lives
Tuesday, April 8, 2014, 10:00 am to 11:30 am
Join our panel of multilingual professors who will share stories about their experiences living and working with multiple languages. With connections to varied disciplines and varied parts of the world, our panelists explore what experiences encouraged their language development, what roadblocks they have faced in becoming multilingual, and what their multilingual abilities add to their scholarly and professional lives. The ensuing discussion will help us all understand how advanced literacy in multiple languages is achieved. Participants will develop a more rich understanding of what multiliterate and multilingual experiences mean both in and out of the classroom. By talking to panelists who have achieved high levels of success in multiple languages, we can explore what it takes to achieve academic literacy.
This event is being offered in connection with Blackboard Jungle.
Writing with Sources: Promoting Ethics, Avoiding Plagiarism
Thursday, April 10, 2014 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
This workshop will explore ways to help students critically engage with source material for their writing, and strategies for helping students develop ethical writing practices.
Sponsored by the Writing in the Disciplines Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Bailey/Howe Library.
Apply for the Fifth Annual WID Institute
The WID Institute supports full-time faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course in the major with a significant writing component. This year’s institute is Tuesday – Friday, May 13 – 16. For more information or to download an application, visit www.uvm.edu/wid/institute.
2013, Fall
Writing Wednesdays: a faculty writing retreat
Wednesdays, June 26, 2013 to August 7, 2013 from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Scheduling writing time in your day is a great way to write more productively. The CTL, WID & the Bailey/Howe Library want to support your writing by setting a block of time and creating a welcoming space for writing during the spring semester through our Weekly Writing retreats. This session offers an opportunity to meet in the morning (9am) for some coffee, tea and snacks followed by dedicated quiet writing time (generally 9:30-12:00). Writers are welcome to bring a brown-bag lunch for the end of the writing session. This is a drop-in program that will be held throughout the spring semester. Some writers might attend every week; others might come and go as other obligations permit.
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Bailey/Howe Library.
WID Mini Institute on Grading and Responding
Apply by Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Our Mini Institute aims to help faculty who want to find ways to more efficiently and usefully respond to students. This group will meet over breakfast or lunch (meals provided) three times during the fall semester with a follow up in spring. Meetings are arranged according to participants' availability. Participants will also each receive a copy of Barbara Walvoord’s Effective Grading. Join us for a practical and productive set of discussions!
Sound (Teaching) Bite: Grading and Responding: Reducing Stress for You and Your Students
Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Looking for a few tips to ease the burden of responding to student writing? We'll explore a few strategies for focusing your attention and share ideas for reducing the paper load
Sound (Teaching) Bites start at noon and open with a 15-minute presentation highlighting best practices or research findings. Participants are welcome to stay for a brown bag lunch and follow-up conversation about the topic.
Fall Faculty Writing Retreats
Fridays through December 6, 2013 from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
NOTE: There will be no retreat during Thanksgiving Break
Scheduling writing time in your day is a great way to write more productively. The CTL, WID & the Bailey/Howe Library want to support your writing by setting a block of time and creating a welcoming space for writing during the spring semester through our Weekly Writing retreats. This session offers an opportunity to meet in the morning (9am) for some coffee, tea and snacks followed by dedicated quiet writing time (generally 9:30-12:00). Writers are welcome to bring a brown-bag lunch for the end of the writing session. This is a drop-in program that will be held throughout the spring semester. Some writers might attend every week; others might come and go as other obligations permit.
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Bailey/Howe Library.
Beyond the Red Ink: Students Talk about Teachers’ Comments
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Have you ever wondered why students’ revisions seem to ignore the comments you so laboriously wrote? Are you interested in helping your students understand and use your comments?
During this brown bag lunch (tea, coffee, snacks provided) we will view a short film featuring seven students who talk “openly about the role teachers’ comments have played in their lives as college writers and offer their own advice, in their own words to writing teachers.” The film will be followed by a lively discussion with colleagues.
Course Goals and Backwards Design: Principles for Creating Engaging Courses
Tuesday, October 22, 2013, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Synergy between course goals, assignments and other learning activities is crucial for helping students achieve. This workshop will provide principles for identifying, writing and utilizing learning goals as part of your course design. Participants will (re)design goals for a current or future course, and then spend time looking at strategies to align assignments and in-class activities with those goals.
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
The Senior Scientist as Writer: activities and development
Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
While an extensive body of literature explores both the rhetoric of science and the teaching of science writing, very little has been written about the perspectives of scientists as writers. In this presentation, Dr. Emerson presents the voices of senior scientists, exploring their writing activities, and their experiences and development as writers of science. While this presentation looks broadly at the attitudes and experiences of scientists in a wide range of disciplines, Dr. Emerson will illustrate key themes using a sample of senior scientists in physics and mathematics. By looking at scientists’ voices through the literature on expertise and literacy expertise, she shows that the majority of senior scientists in these disciplines demonstrate the attributes of the adaptive expert writer, and that most are strongly engaged by writing and see writing as an integral aspect of science.
Dr. Emerson, an Associate Professor in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University, New Zealand, is visiting as a Fulbright Senior Scholar, hosted by the WID programme at the University of Vermont. She teaches science writing at undergraduate and graduate level, as well as publishing in the fields of science writing, writing in the disciplines, plagiarism, and New Zealand writing programs. She is an award winning teacher, and won the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary teaching in 2008.
The Mind at Hand: Using drawing to help students learn across the disciplines.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Michael Strauss--chemist, professor, and visual artist--long embraced writing as a way of learning across the disciplines. More recently, he's expanded his pedagogy to explore the ways drawing helps students learn and communicate in many fields. Join Dr. Strauss in a dynamic workshop which will invite faculty to explore how drawing-to-learn can be practiced in many fields as a way of helping students analyze and integrate important concepts.
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Mentoring Science Writers
Friday, November 15, 2013, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Writing and publication are central to science research, but making the transition to becoming writers of science is a challenge for most research science students. Many science students have no venue in which to discuss scientific writing. This workshop explores the difficulties students face, and discusses what advisors and other mentors can do to help their students become proficient writers of science. It draws on the presenter's research into the writing lives of senior scientists, early career scientists, and graduate students in the US, England, and New Zealand. This workshop will be interactive; participants should leave with a better understanding of strategies they might use to mentor students.
Dr. Emerson, an Associate Professor in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University, New Zealand, is visiting as a Fulbright Senior Scholar, hosted by the WID programme at the University of Vermont. She teaches science writing at undergraduate and graduate level, as well as publishing in the fields of science writing, writing in the disciplines, plagiarism, and New Zealand writing programs. She is an award winning teacher, and won the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary teaching in 2008.
2012, Spring
Designing Assignments
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
This session explores formal writing assignments, looking at strategies for crafting assignments that connect to key course goals or professional priorities, and strategies for supporting students' work on sequenced assignments with class activities or homework.
Sound (Teaching) Bites Series
February 7 through April 11 at noon
This spring series offers weekly quick opportunities to learn one or two key strategies to strengthen your teaching. Each Sound (Teaching) Bite will start at noon and open with a 15 minute presentation. Participants are welcome to stay for a brownbag lunch (drinks and snacks provided) and follow-up conversation, but each program is focused so that the opening 15 minutes highlights best practices or research findings. Sound (Teaching) Bites draws on presenters from a variety of faculty development offices at UVM.
Managing the Ups and Downs of Group Projects: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 12:00 pm
Do you find yourself disappointed at students' performance in group projects? Do you wonder why some excel and some just can't seem to make it work? Are you looking for tools, tips, and suggestions - little things that might make group work more successful? This sound (teaching) bite will offer a brief glimpse into the realities of group projects, and point you toward further resources to find a few "quick wins" for group projects in your classes.
Facilitated by Carrie Williams-Howe, the Community-University Partnerships & Service Learning
Using the Rubric Tool in Blackboard: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Thursday, February 16, 2012, 12:00 pm
With the recent Blackboard update, the Rubric Tool became more useful and can now be shown to students as well as utilized for grading. This Sound (Teaching) Bite will show you how the tool works, help you set up a rubric you can use to help your students better understand your expectations on assignments, and help you grade.
Facilitated by J. Dickinson Anthropology/the Center for Teaching and Learning and Hope Greenberg, the Center for Teaching and Learning
What Students Do With Sources: Plagiarism and Teaching
Friday, February 17, 2012, 10:00am – 11:30am
Visiting scholar Sandra Jamieson, Professor of English at Drew University and co-PI of the Citation Project, a multi-institution study of students' practices when writing with sources, will present an interactive workshop on teaching and plagiarism.
Saving Time While Grading: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Is it possible to grade and respond to student papers effectively and efficiently? This Sound (Teaching) Bite will offer a few core strategies for maximizing the effect of the time spent grading and focusing feedback to students.
Facilitated by Susanmarie Harrington, English/Writing in the Disciplines
When the Classroom Gets Odd: Suggestions for Difficult Teaching Moments: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 12:00 pm
In this session, Sherwood Smith will share 4 key points for transforming a difficult classroom moment to teachable moment. Session will present potential frameworks for engaging, mediating and deflecting these "odd" classroom events. Participants are welcome to bring examples for a facilitated group discussion after a short presentation.
Facilitated by Sherwood Smith, the Center for Cultural Pluralism
Beyond the Library Class Session: Working with Your Liaison Librarian: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm
This presentation will show how your liaison librarian can support many aspects of your research, course design, and assignment preparation, as well as promote general and discipline-specific information literacy goals.
Facilitated by Daisy Benson, Bailey Howe Library
Across the Drafts: The Role of Feedback in the Writing Process
Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Join us for Across the Drafts a short film in which students and faculty talk candidly about the role that feedback plays in the writing process. This film, a production from Harvard's longitudinal study of student writing, should inspire good discussion afterwards. We'll provide drinks and dessert.
This is the first in a series of films about writing to be shown this semester.
Writing Across Borders: Writing and Culture at UVM
Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Join us for a brownbag lunch (tea, coffee, and cookies provided) and lively discussion of the relationship between culture, writing, and faculty expectations. We’ll view Writing Across Borders, a short film featuring international student writers and faculty across campus. Our conversation will explore how cultural expectations frame our writing expectations, and how assignments and assessments are also shaped by culture.
This is the last in a series of films about writing to be shown this semester. This event is being offered in connection with Blackboard Jungle.
PDFs and Teaching: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 12:00 pm
This session focuses on PDFs: how you use them in the classroom, how they can be used to create good reading practice by your students, how you create them, how you or your students can annotate them, or how you can customize them.
Facilitated by Hope Greenberg, the Center for Teaching and Learning
Apply for the Fourth Annual WID Institute
Applications are due Friday, April 13, 2012
The WID Institute supports full-time faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course in the major with a significant writing component. This year’s institute is Monday – Thursday, May 15 – 18. For more information or to download an application, visit www.uvm.edu/wid/institute.
Fourth Annual WID Institute
Tuesday – Friday, May 15 – 18, 2012, 9 am – 3:30 pm
The WID Institute supports full–time faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course in the major with a significant writing component. Through the institute, participants will integrate writing into an undergraduate course, focusing on enhancing student learning. Institute activities will also encourage participants to reflect on their own writing experiences in order to better shape students’ writing experiences. Participants will have opportunities to share their work with colleagues during the following academic year and will have priority in receiving additional WID support as they implement and reflect on their courses.
Tips for Great Class Discussions: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm
This session focuses on practical ways to think about, start, and run good class discussions that enhance student learning and create a sense of collaboration and connection among students in your courses.
Facilitated by J. Dickinson, Anthropology/the Center for Teaching and Learning
Shaped by Writing: The Undergraduate Writing Experience
Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Join us for a brownbag lunch (tea, coffee, and cookies provided) and lively discussion about the challenges and rewards of the undergraduate writing experience. Add after the sentence you have. We'll see a short film from the Harvard longitudinal writing study featuring students' discussions of how they navigate academic writing tasks.
This is the second in a series of films about writing to be shown this semester.
Innovative ways to use the Fleming Museum's collections in teaching: a Sound (Teaching) Bite
Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Learn how colleagues from across campus have used objects from the Fleming's cultural, historical, and art collections to support teaching across a wide range of disciplines, from mathematics and engineering to ecology, geography, anthropology, among others. We'll discuss how Fleming Museum staff can help you to enhance classroom teaching with object-based pedagogy in support of Gen Ed outcomes and diversity competencies.
Facilitated by Janie Cohen, the Fleming Museum
2011, Fall
Fall Faculty Writing Retreat
Fridays at 12:30pm–3:30pm through December 9, 2011
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning
This Session offers an opportunity to meet for a brown-bag lunch (12:00-12:30) followed by dedicated quiet writing time (12:30-3:00) with snacks, coffee and tea provided.
No retreat on October 28, November 25 or December 2
Sound (Teaching) Bites
Tuesday and Wednesday at noon, through November 9
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines, the Center for Teaching and Learning, Community-University Partnerships & Service Learning and other faculty development units
This new fall series offers quick opportunities to learn one or two key strategies associated with specific teaching topics. There will be 15 minute introductions to topics like running discussions and grading quickly. There will be a different topic every week, and the same information will be presented on Tuesday and Wednesday. See the full schedule on the CTL Sound Bites page.
Short and Easy Writing Assignments to Promote Information Literacy
Thursday, September 29, 1:30–3:00 pm
Sponsored by Bailey/Howe Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Writing in the Disciplines
This workshop invites participants to think about how they design writing assignments requiring information literacy. By looking at in-class activities, homework assignments and assignment design, we will explore how instructors can prepare students to work with librarians and library resources. Our emphasis will be on the use of quick in-class exercises and short writing assignments that will help students practice critical information literacy skills. Whether you’re looking for small activities to add to a course, or guidelines on developing semester-long projects involving research skills, join us for conversation with faculty and librarians.
Writing to Learn
Thursday, October 13, 12:30–2:00
This workshop invites participants to create ways to use small writing assignments–in and out of class–to engage students in quantitative reasoning. We’ll look at principles of writing–to–learn, examining how short, informal, and often ungraded writing can support students as they learn. We will explore connections between low-stakes writing and critical thinking, and the connections between low-stakes writing and disciplinary subject matter.
UVM Burack Lecture featuring Dr. Stephen Brookfield
Tuesday and Wednesday, October 18–19, 2011
Sponsored by UVM President and Provost’s Offices, Community-University Partnerships & Service Learning, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Center for Cultural Pluralism, and Writing in the Disciplines
Dr. Brookfield is a nationally recognized scholar on teaching and learning, student engagement in the classroom, teaching critical thinking, and adult education. We look forward to his insights about fostering powerful, transformative learning at UVM. In collaboration with the following academic units: Department of Integrated Professional Studies, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Program, Department of English, UVM Extension.
Skillful Teaching: Engaging Students for Critical Learning
with Dr. Stephen Brookfield
Tuesday, October 18, 4:00pm–5:30pm
Skillful teachers attempt to find out how students experience learning and then use that information to make good pedagogic decisions. Without some knowledge of how our students are learning, the choices we make concerning how and what to teach are stabs in the dark. Teaching skillfully involves us deliberately placing ourselves in the role of student and reflecting on the experience of how we confront difficult and intimidating learning. In this presentation Dr. Stephen Brookfield will draw on his autobiography as both learner and teacher to show this frames four core assumptions of skillful teaching: that good learning constitutes whatever helps students learn, that the most effective teachers reflect critically on their assumptions, that the most important pedagogic knowledge we need is an awareness of how our students learn, and, that context changes everything.
This keynote lecture is free and open to the public.
Designing Writing Assignments that Work for Everyone
Thursday, November 10, 11:30–1:00
This workshop addresses principles of universal design, looking at ways assignments can be created to address all learners in a class–with some attention to the ways assignments can be created to address faculty concerns about time spent grading.
2011, Spring
Quantitative Literacy and Writing Series: Assignment Design and Quantitative Reasoning
Monday, January 24, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
This workshop explores strategies for crafting assignments that connect to key course goals or professional priorities, with an emphasis on identifying the particular goals that bring together writing and quantitative thinking. Participants should come prepared to share some examples of assignments currently in use, and part of the session will include working time for outlining topics and priorities for revising or designing assignments.
WID Mini Institute on Writing in Large Classes
Friday, January 28, 2011
Our Mini Institute explores the challenges posed by large classes, and the particular ways writing, teaching, and learning are related in that environment. Participants will share ideas and insights with colleagues from departments across campus and identify key issues they'd like to explore, and WID will provide resources tailored to those issues. The group will meet three times for breakfast or lunch in the spring at a mutually convenient time with a possible follow-up in the fall.
Short and Easy Writing Assignments to Promote Information Literacy
Thursday, February 3, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
Co-sponsored by Bailey/Howe Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning
This workshop, co-sponsored by Bailey/Howe Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and WID, invites participants to think about how they design writing assignments requiring information literacy. By looking at in-class activities, homework assignments and assignment design, we will explore how instructors can prepare students to work with librarians and library resources. Our emphasis will be on the use of quick in-class exercises and short writing assignments that will help students practice critical information literacy skills. Whether you’re looking for small activities to add to a course, or guidelines on developing semester-long projects involving research skills, join us for conversation with faculty and librarians.
Quantitative Literacy and Writing Series: Quantitative Reasoning, Writing, and Assessment
Monday, February 7, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
This workshop explores ways to assess writing assignments that deal with quantitative thinking. We will look at sample rubrics and evaluate the strengths and challenges inherent in using rubrics to respond to student work, and we'll also look at strategies for handling the paper load.
Student Research Conference: Abstract Workshop for Students
Wednesday and Thursday, February 9 (12:45–1:45 pm) and 10 (1–2 pm)
Co-sponsored by Bailey/Howe Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning
UVM hosts an annual Student Research Conference to showcase the research and scholarly activity of undergraduate, graduate and medical students across campus. In order to present at the conference you are required to submit an abstract or brief proposal of your research or creative project. This workshop will:
- help you learn more about the April conference and how you can participate
- show you how to write a brief, yet compelling and comprehensive, proposal
- provide hands-on help from Writing Center staff to help you get started
Visit the Student Research Conference page for additional information about the conference.
Quantitative Literacy and Writing Series: Writing to Learn, By the Numbers
Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
This workshop invites participants to create ways to use small writing assignments–in and out of class–to engage students in quantitative reasoning. We'll look at principles of writing-to-learn, examining how short, informal, and often ungraded writing can support students as they learn.
Making Writing Assignments Work for Everyone: Universal Design for Writing
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning
Join with colleagues to explore the ways writing assignments can be constructed to enhance the learning of all students. Looking at some basic principles of curriculum and assignment design, we will identify ways that writing assignments can be supported with a range of flexible activities. Participants will have the chance to explore how writing assignments help students learn material as well as how writing assignments ask students to represent what they have already learned. We will look at how other instructors have addressed these questions and also have time for participants to outline strategies they can apply in their own courses.
Teaching First Year Students: A Workshop on Course Design
Friday, April 1, 2011, 9 am–12 pm
Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning
This workshop invites faculty to think about designing or adjusting courses to address the needs of first-year students. We'll look at teaching strategies that can help students realize what college expectations are. As we share ideas across departmental boundaries, we will look at ways any first-year course can become a meaningful invitation to find a place at UVM. At some point during the workshop, we will divide into groups by course size, so that those teaching smaller seminars and those teaching larger courses can examine how first-year students' needs can be addressed in those contexts. We'll look at the relationship between in-class activities, formal assignments, and homework in conveying expectations. Participants should leave with many practical strategies for encouraging students to achieve a successful transition.
Short and Easy Writing Assignments to Promote Information Literacy
Monday, April 4, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
This workshop, co-sponsored by Bailey-Howe Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and WID, invites participants to think about how they design writing assignments requiring information literacy. By looking at in-class activities, homework assignments and assignment design, we will explore how instructors can prepare students to work with librarians and library resources. Our emphasis will be on the use of quick in-class exercises and short writing assignments that will help students practice critical information literacy skills. Whether you're looking for small activities to add to a course, or guidelines on developing semester-long projects involving research skills, join us for conversation with faculty and librarians.
Co-sponsored by Bailey/Howe Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning
Grading and Responding to Writing
Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 1–2:30 pm
This session focuses on strategies that can help focus student and faculty attention on what's most important in student writing, and strategies for giving feedback to students. We'll explore rubrics, check sheets, and commenting possibilities.
Third Annual WID Institute
Tuesday–Friday, May 17–20, 2011; 9 am–3:30 pm
The WID Institute supports full-time faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course with a significant writing component. Through the Institute, participants will integrate writing into an undergraduate course, focusing on enhancing student learning. Institute activities will also encourage participants to reflect on their own writing experiences in order to better shape students' writing experiences. Participants will have opportunities to share their work with colleagues during the following academic year and will have priority in receiving additional WID support as they implement and reflect on their courses.
Summer Faculty Writing Retreat
Tuesdays at 12pm–3pm from June 7 through August 16, 2011
Sponsored by Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning
This Session offers an opportunity to meet for a brown-bag lunch (12:00-12:30) followed by dedicated quiet writing time (12:30-3:00) with snacks, coffee and tea provided.
2010, Fall
Plagiarism II: Practical Strategies to Help Students Work with Sources
Thursday, November 11, 2010, 11:30 am–1 pm
This workshop explores approaches to teaching writing that cultivate a culture of writing responsibility and integrity. We will investigate and create strategies for structuring assignments and instructor responses designed to reduce cases of plagiarism and better convey instructor expectations.
This workshop is part of a series on the ethics of researched writing. Plagiarism I addresses the causes of plagiarism and the frameworks faculty create for teaching students the value of using sources ethically.
Writing Across Borders: Writing and Culture
Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 11:30 am–1 pm
Join us for a brownbag lunch (tea, coffee, and cookies provided) and lively discussion of the relationship between culture, writing, and faculty expectations. We’ll view Writing Across Borders, a short film featuring international student writers and faculty across campus. Our conversation will explore how cultural expectations frame our writing expectations, and how assignments and assessments are also shaped by culture.
Writing to Learn from Life: Reflective Writing in Experiential Education
Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 2-3:30 pm (part of the National Day on Writing).
Learning from experience doesn’t just happen magically; in order to get the most out of it, a participant needs to process their experience and "harvest" the learning. Reflective writing can be a great tool in this harvesting process. This workshop will briefly outline the theory of experiential education and the role that reflection plays in effectively learning from experience. We will then present a number of writing strategies that could be used to help learners to capture learning from a given experience. Interactive “practice” writing will be included, and participants will be encouraged to think about how they could use this kind of writing in their own lives (professionally and personally).
Co-sponsored by CUPS and WID
Creative, Conversational Writing: Alternative Assignments to Help Students Learn
Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 12–1:30 pm
This workshop considers ways to invite students to respond creatively to academic materials. How can offering opportunities for writing using course concepts in non-traditional ways contribute to learning? Join with colleagues in exploring some possibilities. We will look at examples of student work, try out some creative activities ourselves, and sketch preliminary plans for assignments that would focus students’ attention on connecting with disciplinary concepts.
National Day on Writing at UVM
September 29–October 20, 2010
October 20 is the second annual National Day on Writing, a program organized by the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Writing Project. To celebrate, units and community members are hosting a series of events starting in late September.
Canceled: Plagiarism I: Source Use and Writing Ethics
Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 12–1:30 pm
Plagiarism is among the topics most likely to lead to impassioned conversation among teachers. At this workshop, we'll explore the causes of plagiarism and strategies faculty can use to guide students in working ethically with sources in the disciplines. Focusing on what we expect students to do as they work with sources, we will look at the ways source use adds value to student writing as well as the ways our teaching practices introduce students to the ethical questions that arise about source use.
This workshop is part of a series on the ethics of researched writing. A second workshop addresses strategies for assignment design that foster ethical approaches to source use.
New Faculty Tea
Thursday, September 23, 2010, 3–4:30 pm
We invite faculty who are relatively new to UVM to join us for a colleague tea connecting faculty with people and resources that support teaching and writing at UVM. Come and meet colleagues from across campus, learn about ways the WID, CTL, and CUPS programs can help you teach writing more effectively, and share ideas about challenges and opportunities regarding teaching. We welcome anyone who's feeling new at UVM—whether you’re in your first year or two or three here, you’re welcome at the tea.
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning (CUPS), the Center for Cultural Pluralism, and the Fleming Museum.
Teaching First-Year Students: A Workshop for TAP and Honors Seminar Faculty
Thursday, August 26, 2010, 9 am–2 pm
TAP and Honors College seminars are designed to introduce students to UVM in particular and college in general. This workshop will help faculty consider the particular social and academic needs of first-year students. As we get ready to start the fall semester, we will look at how our seminars communicate students’ new roles and responsibilities, and our seminars encourage students to connect with the course material, each other, and with us. This workshop will explore how rigorous expectations and a welcoming environment can be constructed. Participants will explore questions such as:
- How can I structure my course to engage first year students?
- How can I sequence and construct assignments to increase engagement?
- How can structure class time and promote quality discussion?
- What are the connections between writing and engagement?
Participants should leave the workshop with a better understanding of today's first year students, as well as some practical ideas for how to connect with them in more meaningful ways and deepen learning.
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).
2010, Spring
WID Institute
Monday–Thursday, May 17–20, 2010, 9 am–3:30 pm
The WID Institute supports full-time faculty who are developing or revising an undergraduate course in the major with a significant writing component. Learn more.
First Fridays: Responding to Writing
Friday, April 2, 2010, 9–10:30 am
This session focuses on what readers can do to help writers understand how their texts work. We'll pay particular attention to the ways faculty can use response strategies efficiently and clearly–and ways faculty can evaluate what difference those responses make for students.
Responding to and Evaluating Writing by ELL Students
Friday, April 9, 2010, 12-1:30 pm
This workshop explores the ways that English Language Learners—students writing in their second (or third or fourth!) language—acquire proficiency in American academic writing. Join us to investigate what faculty can expect in terms of English language development in any given semester, what techniques can make responses to writing more effective, and what campus resources are available for faculty and students interested in this topic.
Writing Across Borders: Writing and Culture at UVM
Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 11 am–12:30 pm
Join us for a brownbag lunch (tea, coffee, and cookies provided) and lively discussion of the relationship between culture, writing, and faculty expectations. We’ll view Writing Across Borders, a short film featuring international student writers and faculty across campus. Our conversation will explore how cultural expectations frame our writing expectations, and how assignments and assessments are also shaped by culture. This event is being offered in connection with Blackboard Jungle 3.
Plagiarism II: Practical Strategies to Help Students Work with Sources
Friday, March 5, 2010, 9–10:30 am
This workshop follows on Plagiarism I, and explores approaches to teaching writing that cultivate a culture of writing responsibility and integrity. We will investigate and create strategies for structuring assignments and instructor responses designed to reduce cases of plagiarism and better convey instructor expectations.
Canceled:
Graduate Student Series: Informal Writing and Student Learning
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 4–5:30 pm
This workshop is part of a series for graduate students co-sponsored by WID and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Informal writing offers students the chance to explore concepts, make connections, and communicate with instructors. At this workshop, we’ll explore ways instructors can use informal writing techniques to encourage students to work with key course concepts and to learn more about students’ progress in the course—without substantially adding to grading or responding loads.
Plagiarism I: Source Use and Writing Ethics
Friday, February 12, 2010, 9–10:30 am
Plagiarism is among the topics most likely to lead to impassioned conversation among teachers. At this workshop, we’ll explore the causes of plagiarism and strategies faculty can use to guide students in working ethically with sources in the disciplines. We will also reflect on where in our teaching practices we highlight approaches to writing ethics.
This workshop is a prerequiste for Plagiarism II on Friday, March 5.
First Fridays
Peer Review: Student Conversations About Writing
Friday, February 5, 2010, 9–10:30 am
This session explores how having students respond to each other’s writing can help them develop as writers and improve the quality of the papers faculty receive. We will consider how to effectively design both in-class and out-of-class peer review activities, and ways the Writing Center can provide support for this process.
Designing Assignments You'll Want to Read
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 9 am–12 pm
This session explores formal writing assignments, looking at strategies for crafting assignments that connect to key course goals or professional priorities, and strategies for supporting students' work on sequenced assignments with class activities or homework.
Responding to Writing
Friday, January 15, 9 am–12 pm
This workshop will focus on strategies for responding to students’ writing, looking at what kinds of writing faculty choose to respond to, when faculty choose to respond to writing, and ways we might involve students more in the response to their own (or other students’) writing.
Both sessions will be followed by open consultation hours in the afternoon.
2009, Fall
First Fridays: Plagiarism, Source Use, and Writing Ethics
Friday, November 6, 2009, 9–10:30 am
Plagiarism is among the topics most likely to lead to impassioned conversation among teachers. At this workshop, we’ll explore the causes of plagiarism, strategies for structuring assignments and responses to reduce cases of plagiarism, and approaches to teaching writing that cultivate a culture of writing responsibility and integrity.
National Day on Writing Open House
Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 12–1:30 pm
Help us start the new academic year with a celebration by joining us for a Writing in the Disciplines Program open house. We will be celebrating the National Day on Writing and honoring Professor Emeritus of English Toby Fulwiler. Fulwiler was Director of the Faculty Writing Project at UVM from 1984 to 2002. During that time, his work earned UVM national recognition and established the foundation for the Writing in the Disciplines Program's own faculty development work around writing. Refreshments will be provided.
GTA Grading and Responding to Writing
Friday, October 16, 2009, 9–10:30 am
This workshop is for Gradute Teaching Assistants.
Grading and responding to student writing is a challenging task. Instructors have to decide when and how to coach students, when and how to evaluate students, and when and how to draw distinctions among levels of student performance. This workshop will explore the relationship between coaching, judging, teaching, and evaluating. Participants are invited to bring along copies of assignments, grading guidelines, or other course material to help ground the discussion in actual teaching situations.
Designing Assignments and Responding to Writing
Thursday, August 27, 2009
9 am–12 pm (Designing Assignments)
This session explores formal writing assignments, looking at strategies for crafting assignments that connect to key course goals or professional priorities, and strategies for supporting students' work on sequenced assignments with class activities or homework.
12:30–3:30 pm (Responding to Writing)
This session focuses what readers can do to help writers understand how their texts work. We'll pay particular attention to the ways faculty can use response strategies efficiently and clearly–and ways faculty can evaluate what difference those responses make for students.
Attend both sessions, just the morning or just the afternoon. Lunch will be provided.
Writing in Large Classes? Seriously?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 12:30–2 pm
Join other colleagues teaching large classes to explore ways in which writing can—and cannot—work to support teaching and learning in large class environments. We'll look at the purposes for writing in large classes, and consider how grading and (non)responding strategies can help students do the work that will help them learn. Another goal of this workshop is to identify faculty interested in exploring and testing teaching practices to learn what works for faculty and students in large classes.
2009, Spring
Designing Writing Assignments & Course Experiences for First-Year Students
A Workshop for TAP Faculty
Tuesday–Wednesday, May 19–20, 9:00–4:00pm
This two-day workshop will address strategies for assignment design, in-class activities, and student engagement. Lunch will be provided.
WID Institute
Tuesday–Friday, May 12–15, 2009, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
The Writing in the Disciplines Program presents an exciting opportunity for full-time faculty to participate in professional development activities that bring current research in writing in the disciplines to you. For details, visit our WID Institute page.
Participants:
- Receive $750 in professional development funds
- Have access to tailored follow-up activities for and with participants throughout the academic year
- Explore opportunities to share work with colleagues, locally and nationally
- Learn from colleagues who are innovative teachers
- Have the opportunity to participate in the WID Undergraduate Mentor Program, which attaches experienced undergraduate writing tutors to writing-intensive courses for majors
Blogs and Wikis in the Classroom and Beyond
Friday, April 17, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Creating effective writing assignments is challenging. Blog and wiki tools, like those now available in Blackboard, bring new possibilities for assignments. We will examine what blogs and wikis are, what they might add to assignments, and how they might offer new possibilities for teachers and students in the classroom (or beyond!). Participants will take away ideas for a variety of writing assignments along with the knowledge to begin implementing them.
Facilitated by: Hope Greenberg, Academic Computing Services
Susanmarie Harrington, Director, Writing in the Disciplines Program
Will Webb, Center for Teaching and Learning
First Fridays Workshop: Grading and Responding to Student Writing
Friday, April 3, 9:00–10:30am
First Fridays, a special series aimed at faculty in their first few years of teaching, provides support for thinking about the way writing works in your teaching and an opportunity for informal networking with your peers.
This session focuses on strategies that can help focus student and faculty attention on what’s most important in student writing, and strategies for giving feedback to students. We’ll explore rubrics, check sheets, and commenting possibilities.
Writing Across Borders: Writing, Culture, and Diversity
Tuesday, March 31, 11:00am–12:45pm
Join us for a brownbag lunch (tea, coffee, and cookies provided) and lively discussion of the relationship between culture, writing, and faculty expectations. We’ll view Writing Across Borders, a short film featuring international student writers and faculty across campus. Our conversation will explore how cultural expectations frame our writing expectations, and how assignments and assessments are also shaped by culture.This workshop is being offered in connection with Blackboard Jungle.
Reflection in Action: Strategies for Supporting Experiential Learning through Writing
Thursday, February 12, 12:00-2:00pm
This workshop is presented in collaboration with Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning.
“Learning by doing” doesn’t happen by accident. In order to get the most out of experiential education, we must facilitate reflective processes that encourage students to analyze and synthesize experiences, and to make critical connections to academic concepts and learning goals. Reflective writing (in various forms) can be a meaningful tool for eliciting this learning. This workshop will examine the experiential learning cycle – including preparation, engagement, post-experience, and evaluation – and present a number of writing and teaching strategies that can be used throughout this process. Participants will leave with a toolbox of strategies to use in their courses, or as internship or independent study supervisors. Facilitators: Carrie Williams Howe, Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning Susanmarie Harrington and Sue Dinitz, Writing in the Disciplines Program
First Fridays Workshop: Designing Formal Writing Assignments
Friday, February 6, 9:00–10:30am
This session explores strategies for structuring formal writing assignments, looking at how we explain to students what is involved in a given assignment and how we can structure support for the assignment in class sessions and directions. This workshop is part of the First Friday series for faculty in their early years at UVM (but if you’re young at heart in your UVM appointment, please join us!).