BLENDING BASIC WRITING WITH THE FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

You+University

• With basic writing courses and other developmental courses on the "chopping block," this presentation explores the idea:

• What can we do as a discipline to save first-year developmental writing courses? 

• Paired with the continual problem of at-risk student retention in the open-admissions university, this presentation provides a solution by asking the question:

• What happens when you combine the first-year experience course with the basic writing course?

PROBLEMS

• The result is an exciting and refreshing theme-based course, which provides students with an introduction into academic culture and into writing in the academic culture (with a specialized strategy for retention and working with "at-risk" students).

• This presentation discusses the framework, application, and theory behind a experimental project at Utah Valley University, where the administrative interests ask that basic writing courses "step-up their game" or "disappear."

SOLUTION

• Basic Writing Curriculum

• Basic Reading Curriculum

• Student Retention Rates

• Student Familiarity with the Campus/University-College Culture

• Student Engagement with the Culture Curricular-ly and Extracurricular-ly…

FRAMING THE ISSUES

• David Bartholomae once posited that student should learn to "Invent the University" by becoming more aware of its culture and the discourse of the university.

• How?

• Acculturation and Familiarization (Not Necessarily Assimilation) into the Culture….

• How?

• Creating a course which accomplishes its goals, but is heavily thematic. The Theme? The University itself.

THEORY BEHIND FRAMEWORK

• Writing Program Administrators OUTCOME statements

http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html

THEORY BEHIND FRAMEWORK

THIS COURSE:

• Must clear the Office of Student Success & Retention

• Must not overlap with the Department of College Success Studies

• Must be connected to Composition & Reading Curriculum

• Must include Technological Foundation, meeting the needs of everyday sorts of techno-tasks….

REALITY CHECK: HURDLES

• President

• Vice-President

• Deans

• Director of Student Success & Retention

• Department Chairs

• Full-Time Faculty (& Part-Time Faculty)

• And, most importantly: Students

REALITY CHECK: STAKEHOLDERS

• Must use conventional Basic Writing & Basic Reading curriculum

• Must not overlap with College Success Studies courses

• Must make all stakeholders happy… sheesh! Right?

CLEARED FOR “TAKEOFF”: RULES

• Make all writing assignments connect to the university

• Make all reading assignments connect to the university

• Develop a schedule with lessons, activities, homework, etc.

• Develop resources especially for this course, which are distinct to this course…

• HOW LONG TO DO ALL THIS: About 4 months….

SPRING BOARD: IDEAS

Foundational (and Pivotal)…. includes:

• Summary (Student Newspaper or Thematic Text)

• Narrative of College Goals

• Description of the College (Physical, Social, etc.)

• Expositive Multimodal Presentation One (Faculty Profile or Service Profile)

LARGE ASSIGNMENTS

• Analysis of Cultural Discourse (e.g., Newspaper, Syllabus, etc.)

• Dialectical/Argumentative Composition (Letter to the Editor)

• Argumentative Multimodal Presentation Two (Identifying Social Issues on Campus)

LARGE ASSIGNMENTS (cont.)

• “Familiarity with Technology” Assignments:

+Creating Two Slideshows (Powerpoint/Prezi)

+Creating a Graph/Chart (Excel)

+Organizational Chart (Word or Excel – Using Tables)

• Daily Writing Assignments

• Reading Assignments

SMALL ASSIGNMENTS

• Smaller Assignments, such as Daily Writing Assignments are in-sync with Readings, while may be in-sync with the larger lessons for the week.

• We don’t discuss things as Week 1, Week 2, etc. We discuss them as Unit 1, Unit 2, which allows us to move the curriculum around each semester (allows for flexible dates).

• I encourage teachers to use a plan but not a set schedule (again, flexibility).

IN-SYNC

• All lessons are “precursory” or “building blocks” to larger assignments. Thus, a student will learn about “visual design” about a week before he/she begins working on the Slideshow Presentations.

• EX: Concurrent to learning about visual design, he/she does smaller projects which help to focus the student on that specific mode (e.g., creating a chart or graph in MS EXCEL, while learning about color and type).

IN-SYNC

• EX: Students learn about “Primary Research” while preparing for their Faculty Profile/Student Service Presentation (thus, they are able to understand and implement strategies for interviewing, question design, etc.)

• EX: Students learn about “Secondary Research” before preparing to write a summary article from the student newspaper (thus they re able to understand quoting, paraphrasing, source documentation, etc..

IN-SYNC

• EXTRA CREDIT is encouraged. I tell teachers to offer “extra credit” only for participation in campus activities (e.g., Go attend a lecturer on campus, go to an art exhibit opening, etc.). Bring back an artifact or write a summary about the activity/event.

• This allows the student to expand their curricular agenda into the “extracurricular.”

• Oftentimes, I have them “report” about it.

• This models many other courses….

EXTRA CREDIT? YES. WHY NOT?

• Design of a “Custom Reader” with readings situated in four areas:

+College Experience (Why are we here? What is the academy?)

+Learning & Intelligence (How does a person learn? Multiple Intelligences? Memory?)

+WIIFM (Is the degree worth it? Economics of College?)

+How to Write and Read in an Academic Culture? (and what are the expectations)

READINGS?

• Description of the Course

• Goals/Outcomes of the Course

• Department Policies

• Notes on “Plagiarism”

OTHER “STUFF” IN THE READER

• To Include Pertinent Materials:

• MLA/APA Citation “Stuff”

• Composition Basics (e.g., Process Description, Research, etc.)

• Grammar/Punctuation/Style/Usage Basics (e.g., fixing the “twenty” most common errors, etc.; achieving a collegiate voice; etc.)

• Sample “A” Assignments (as “Models” or “Samples” for students)

PLANS TO EXPAND THE READER

• Students “Love It.”

• Faculty “Love It.”

• Only Drawback: Faculty Interviews/Student Service Interviews (part of the initial presentation) may “weigh” on the faculty/staff.

• Opportunities: First-Year of the program… many more exciting developments and resources in progress.

PRELIMINARY FEEDBACK

• Pre- and Post-Testing is currently available with our course (an “open” writing diagnostic – students write on a prompt, and a “reading” diagnostic – an exam similar to the Nelson-Denny Reading test is administered)

• Retention Rates will measure rates for our courses compared to our “control” courses (those working without the FYE curriculum).

STUDYING OUTCOMES

THANK YOU!