Rationale:
The English Department’s Writing faculty is one of the largest and most diverse at the University. It is made up of tenured and tenure-track instructors, faculty associates, term-contract writing instructors, adjuncts, and graduate teaching assistants. The composition of this group changes each semester and each academic year, with potentially adverse effects on program integrity. We believe that instituting the practice of creating and maintaining teaching portfolios among the composition faculty will help solve this problem, in addition to supporting instructors in a number of ways.
Goals:
There are several goals for this project:
to provide staff development for a large and diverse faculty.
to ensure the coherence of the composition program.
to encourage instructors to develop a self-reflective practice.
to enable faculty, many of whom are new each year, to share teaching philosophies, strategies, and techniques.
to help faculty create a record of teaching practices for both self-evaluation and tenure/reappointment.
Meeting Schedule:
Introduction to TPP at orientation for writing faculty, August 24.
Three meetings each semester, on a Friday, from 12:30 to 2:30, except the first date, when it meets 11:00 to 1:00:
Sept. 24, Nov. 5, Nov. 19
The Projects
This fall we will focus on developing a shared sense of values and vocabulary through various readings and the creating common assignments, which in turn will lead to sharing student work and reflecting on what led to desired outcomes. What follows is links to the readings:
Brown et al, “Distributed Expertise in the Classroom”
Davis & Shadle, “Alternative Research Writing”
Downs & Wardle, “Teaching about writing, righting misconceptions–re-envisioning ‘first-year composition’ as ‘introduction to writing studies'”
Freedman, “Learning to Write Again–Discipline-Specific Writing at University”