978-0393617467 Lecture Note Part 15

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[ 265 ]

WRITING IS A FORM OF LEARNING. As we write, we generate thoughts we

wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t put pen to paper or ﬁ n gers to keyboard.

In our own writing as well as our students’, we can see that thinking improves as

drafts evolve. Because writing helps us generate ideas and clarify our thinking, the

Freewrites

Freewriting is a tool used by many to generate ideas and text. By writing without

stopping for a speciﬁ ed amount of time, authors frequently discover that they

articulate complex ideas and sentences of unanticipated power that can then be

more fully developed. Having students freewrite on index cards often reduces

At the beginning of class. Ask students to write questions they have about the

assignment that’s due or reactions to a reading. You can use their answers to start

a discussion or to begin the class with a brief question– and- answer session, or you

can collect the cards and skim them later to ﬁ nd out how well students under–

At the end of class. Ask students to sum up the day’s activities or what they

learned during class. Ask them to relate the day’s discussion to their reading, to

twenty– one

Using Writing Activities in Class

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During class. Brief writing activities can be valuable during class, too. When you

ﬁ nish one class activity, have students reﬂ ect on it before moving on to the next. If

a discussion bogs down or becomes heated, ask students to stop and write brieﬂ y

Here’s how teaching assistant Andrea Nay uses brief writing assignments on

index cards:

Every single class period, students must write on a topic I assign for the  rst 3–4

Letters

Every one knows how to write a letter. The form is simple, the stance and tone

natu ral. As such, letters are a great way to communicate with your students. In The

Letter Book: Ideas for Teaching College En glish, Sue Dinitz and Toby Fulwiler suggest

that you require each student to write you a letter of at least 250 words— one page—

You’ll ﬁ nd that these letters have several good effects. Students will be doing

more writing, always a good thing. They’ll be writing to a real audience— you—on

topics of importance to them. As a result, you’ll learn much more about their

interests, backgrounds, emotional states, and circumstances than you would

21 % Using Writing Activities in Class [ 267 ]

universities, where young people may be living away from home for the ﬁ rst

time, this personal connection between students and faculty can be crucially

impor tant to the students’ success, not only in your class but also in making it

through their ﬁ rst year. Besides, learning about your students’ lives and thoughts

Online Discussion Lists

You can use online discussion lists to engage students in conversations about any

topics you might other wise use class time to discuss or to extend discussion that

begins in class. You can post a speciﬁ c topic or question for students to discuss, or

you could also ask students to create discussion topics. It’s best to require students

Journals/Blogs

Journals— also known as daybooks, logs, or personal notebooks— and their online

manifestation, blogs, have been popu lar with high school and college En glish

teachers for many years because they give students practice in writing and think–

ing on paper or online without the pressure of crafting polished prose. Some instruc–

tors focus their journal assignments on practice, simply requiring a certain amount

• Questioning. Students can explore questions about their assignments, their

research material, or class activities. They can also work out conﬂ icts between

• Consolidating and connecting. Students can explore the ways that the vari-

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• Analyzing. Students might reﬂ ect on their own pro cesses of writing, explain-

ing how their activities helped (or didn’t help) them write an assignment.

• Conversing. Dialectical journals (also discussed in Ch. 22 of this Guide, “Using

Readings to Teach Writing”) give students an opportunity to reﬂ ect on their

own earlier journal entries. The technique is simple: students write journal

entries on one side of a notebook page, leaving the other side blank, or they

Tips for assigning and evaluating journals. If you ask students to use a three- ring

binder for their journals, they can use the same binder for all course materials and

you can collect only the entries you want, rather than having to lug two dozen

spiral notebooks around. Make sure students date each entry and begin each entry

on a new page. Alternately, set up a system that allows students to post their

When you evaluate journals, remember that they are places for students to

play, experiment, and explore. You should respond to their content as a reader. To

evaluate the journals, you might give credit based on quantity; for example, jour–

nals with lots of writing earn high grades, and journals that meet the minimum

Using blogs as online journals. Blogs, which at their simplest are personal websites

built upon a template, are easy to create and allow writers to include photos, docu-

ments, videos, and links to other websites as they explore ideas. One signiﬁ cant

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Useful Readings

Bean, John. “Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities.” Engaging Ideas: The Profes-

sor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in

Fulwiler, Toby, editor. The Journal Book. Boynton/Cook, 1987.

Roen, Duane, et al., editors. Strategies for Teaching First- Year Composition. NCTE, 2002.

[ 270 ]

LIKE WRITING, READING is not a natu ral act; it’s a learned activity. Because

there are many genres in writing, readers attend to these genres in dif fer–

ent ways. Reading, then, is not a single act but multiple practices that vary with

the purpose, context, and kind of text. As the ﬁ rst readers of their own work, writ–

ers need to anticipate other readers’ needs, concerns, and levels of knowledge

Writing teachers assign readings for many reasons. As Wayne Booth so power–

fully observes, embedded in readings of all kinds are worldviews and values:

(p.48)

To become critical citizens and consumers, students need to learn how to

make sense of ethical complexities and to understand multiple perspectives.

Readings you assign can support this critical thinking at the same time they

Regardless of your purposes for incorporating readings into your writing

class, make your reasons clear so students will understand how the readings relate

to their own writing. The suggestions here are by no means exhaustive but are

meant as examples that may spark additional ideas.

twenty– two

Using Readings to Teach Writing

Maureen Daly Goggin

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Preparing Students to Read

Let students know why you have assigned the readings, either by including your

purposes in the assignment or by giving a brief lecture or mini- lesson before

they begin the reading. You might save the last ﬁ ve minutes of class to prepare

students for the following class’s reading assignment by giving them a focus or a

series of study questions. You can also prepare them for any unfamiliar vocabu-

lary by playing a version of Balderdash: you say and spell one or more of the words

Models. Readings can serve as good examples of the genres being studied but

only if students are taught how to look at them as models. In ancient Greece,

Isocrates offered a caution against placing models in front of students and expect–

It’s worth spending class time early in the term going over at least one essay

in depth to demonstrate how to read it for its rhetorical features. Students can then

continue this pro cess on their own, guided by questions or perhaps by keeping a

reading journal. You might ask students to write out their understanding of the

essay’s rhetorical situation:

Genre: What is the genre? Is it a report? an argument? an analy sis? something

Audience: Who is the intended audience? Are you a member of that group? If

Purpose: What is the writer’s purpose? To entertain? To inform? To persuade

readers to think something or take some action?

Context: What else has been said or written about this topic, and how does

this essay ﬁ t into that larger conversation? What constraints—of time, audi–

ence, or the print or online venue where the essay was published, for example—

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Medium/Design: What is the medium, and how does it affect the way you

read? If it’s a print text, do you know anything about the publisher? If it’s on

Collecting their responses and reviewing them in class will help students take

the readings and their responses to them seriously and will also help to show how

reading is an integral part of writing.

Readers’ logs. You can ask students to keep a reader’s log or journal where they

rec ord their impressions of assigned readings, focusing on their reactions to the

lines of argument or the writer’s position or the rhetorical stance of the readings.

You can provide speciﬁ c questions tied to each reading or provide a template of

questions that students apply to all readings. If you ask students to bring their logs

to class, their entries can be a starting point for discussing the readings. You can

Double- entry notebooks. Ann Berthoff developed the concept of a double- entry

reading notebook. As she explains,

What makes this notebook di er ent from most, perhaps, is the notion of the dou–

bleentry: on the right side reading notes, direct quotations, observational notes,

fragments, lists, images— verbal and visual— are recorded; on the other (facing side),

ing audit of meaning” (I. A. Richards, qtd. in Berthoff, “A Curious Triangle,” p. 42).

Questions and observations that appear in these notebooks can launch vibrant

classroom discussions.

Discussions. Discussions of readings can take place either face- to- face in class or

in a synchronous or asynchronous online forum. The goal of these discussions

should be to help writers advance their own writing. Unlike lit er a ture classes where

the readings serve as the focus for literary analy sis, in writing classes discussions of

22 % Using Readings to Teach Writing [ 273 ]

the readings ought to be tied directly to the aspects of writing with which your stu-

dents are grappling. If, for example, you’re teaching a unit on how to write a proﬁ le,

you might have students analyze readings in this genre for rhetorical moves that

would be useful for their own writing. Students might read the annotated model in

Ch. 14 of Every one’s an Author or a proﬁ le they ﬁ nd in a magazine or newspaper.

Small- group discussions and activities. Small– group activities help students prac–

tice collaborative work and are central to active learning. Variations on games stu-

dents know can produce lively discussions. For instance, students can play a form

of Jeopardy where they form groups and devise answers to questions relevant to

the readings. They then challenge other groups by stating their answers and ask–

ing the other groups to form an appropriate question. Another strategy is to have

Quizzes and essay exams. Some teachers assign quizzes as a way to make sure

that students are doing the readings. You may also want to help your students learn

how to write essay responses to exam questions under pressure. Let students know

that they will be taking periodic quizzes on the readings as a way to help them

become strong quiz takers throughout their educations.

Useful Readings

Bartholomae, David. Writing on the Margins: Essays on Composition and Teaching.

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.

Berthoff, Ann E. “A Curious Triangle and the Double- Entry Notebook; or, How The-

ory Can Help Us Teach Reading and Writing.” The Making of Meaning:

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Meta phors, Models, and Maxims for Writing Teachers, Boynton/Cook, 1981,

pp. 41–47.

Berthoff, Ann E. “Is Reading Still Pos si ble?” Composition in Four Keys, edited by Mark

Wiley et al., Mayﬁ eld, 1995, pp. 45–49.

Booth, Wayne C. “The Ethics of Teaching Lit er a ture.” College En glish, vol. 61, no. 1,

Sept. 1998, pp. 41–55.

[ 275 ]

CLASSROOMS TODAY come in many conﬁ gurations, but one constant is

that students are conversant with and expect to see technology. They’ll

likely be carry ing smartphones and perhaps laptops or tablets. This chapter will

offer advice on teaching writing in a classroom equipped with computers for you

Getting Started

The availability of technology always implies an imperative that we use it. When

you teach in a technology- rich classroom, you may feel pressure to use what ever

is in the room, every day. Resist that pressure. Instead, use the equipment and soft–

ware as you feel comfortable and as they support writing instruction. Especially if

Using the Available Tools

The conﬁ guration of electronically enhanced classrooms varies from school to

school. The following tools are commonly available for your use, but before the

term begins, go to the classroom where you’ll be teaching and ﬁ nd out exactly

what’s available and how each piece of equipment works as well as how to get

technical support.

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Teaching in a Technology– Enriched

Classroom

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need to log in to your university’s computer network just as you do, with a user–

name and password. While most students master this procedure easily, there are

always a few students— usually ones new to the university— whose passwords

don’t work or who don’t remember them. Find out how to assist these students,

usually through your school’s help desk, so they can gain access as quickly as pos-

si ble. Beware the temptation to become so embroiled in helping one student that

Once students are logged in, you can immediately give them tasks on the com-

puter such as creating a writing sample, sending you an email (to which they can

attach a writing sample, if you ask for one), ﬁ nding your course syllabus if you posted

it online, or registering for the LMS you’ll be using. Provide complete, step- by- step

chairs toward the front of the room, if pos si ble, or ask students to close their lap-

tops, turn off their monitors, or place a sheet of paper over the keyboard.

Another difference that you may need to take into account is the noise of the

computers. Most computers contain one or two small fans to dissipate heat, and

the low hum generated by twenty- ﬁ ve computers running at once can add up to a

level of noise that makes hearing speech across the room difﬁ cult. If you can’t hear

students, they prob ably can’t hear you, either, so you all may need to proj ect your

voices more than usual. Students may need to stand up when they speak so they’ll

be seen and heard.

Instructor’s station. Familiarize yourself with the instructor’s station: how to log

on to the computer, how to raise and lower the projection screen, how to turn on

the projector and show or hide the image being projected, how the other available

features work. Your school’s computer ser vices ofﬁ ce may offer sessions to teach

faculty how to use this equipment; if so, you’ll ﬁ nd it time well spent. If not, you

may be able to enlist the aid of a help desk employee or an experienced teaching

assistant or faculty member.

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special markers and training to use them. Your room may not contain such items

as an overhead projector or document camera, tele vi sion monitor, or DVD player

( unless it is built into the computer in the instructor’s station). Find out how to

request such equipment well before you need to use it.

Internet access. If your students have internet access on their classroom comput–

ers, you might have them search for examples to support class discussion topics,

for example, or compare vari ous news sources to get a sense of how authors appeal

to speciﬁ c audiences. Using sites like Inkwriter, students can compose progressive,

interactive short stories or reports. Google Docs enables both group work and

Library resources. Academic libraries offer several resources— through the cata–

log, hundreds of databases and online scholarly journals, and librarians available

to answer research questions. Students can do substantial library research in class

while you circulate to offer help and instruction in the research ave nues available

through the library. At some schools, research librarians will visit your classes to

introduce the library’s resources and help your students start searching for infor–

mation on their topics— a ser vice worth taking advantage of.

Learning management systems. Learning management systems, sometimes

called courseware, are sophisticated web- accessed software systems used at many

universities. These programs allow you to post course materials, including readings,

lessons, photo graphs, and your syllabus; to create links to websites, such as your

school’s library and writing center and other sites you want students to have easy

access to; and to create discussion boards where students can post responses to ques–

Making Choices about Technology

You can use courseware to effectively reduce or eliminate paper in your classroom

as you make assignments, collect drafts and comment on them, and even have

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students compile portfolios of their work, all online— but you don’t have to. You

can select the features of the courseware that you feel comfortable using and

ignore the rest. If you like the idea that students have access to the course syllabus

and all the assignments whenever they have access to a computer, post those mate-

rials online. If you prefer to read students’ drafts on paper, ask students to pres ent

Useful Readings

Blair, K. L., editor. Computers and Composition: An International Journal. Bowling

Green State University/Elsevier, 2008, www . journals . elsevier . com / computers

– and – composition.

Hawisher, Gail E., and Cynthia L. Selfe, editors. Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century

Technologies. NCTE, 1999.

McGee, Tim, and Patricia Ericsson. “The Politics of the Program: MS Word as the

Invisible Grammarian.” Computers and Composition, vol. 19, no. 4, Dec. 2002,

[ 279 ]

THE SLOAN CONSORTIUM’S OVERVIEW Going the Distance, a 2011 survey of

online learning, reveals that the “number of students taking at least one

online course has now surpassed 6 million. Now nearly one- third of all students in

higher education are taking at least one online course.” With enrollments increasing

this quickly, there is a need for more faculty who can effectively and efﬁ ciently

Online teachers, like online students, can connect anytime day or night on

any computer that has an internet connection. You can avoid the hassles of driv-

ing to campus, ﬁ nding a parking place, and designing and maintaining a schedule

that requires your physical presence at a certain time or place. However, you also

share in the frustrations of the online learning environment. Computers crash,

programs fail, support isn’t always available, and it’s often difﬁ cult to create and

maintain a community that supports and fosters successful learning. Further, all

of the challenges of teaching in a face– to- face classroom are pres ent in the online

Preparing to Teach Online

Fortunately, most colleges have a department devoted to distance learning. The

ﬁ rst step after you’ve been assigned a course is to contact the department and

inquire about the format and expectations. For courses already set up in a vir–

tual environment, the instructor’s role is to simply maintain the course, answer

email about it, and grade the assignments. In many cases, instructional designers

have worked collaboratively with content experts (faculty members) to design a

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Teaching Writing Online

Adrienne Cassel

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course that is user– friendly and provides pedagogically sound methods for teach-

ing online, and so the most impor tant role of the instructor is to provide timely and

accurate feedback.

Before the term begins, be sure to look over all the lessons required of students

and to contact your liaison with questions or concerns about the course. Although

you can teach online without course management software (courseware), many

teachers and students prefer access to reliable, user– friendly courseware and both

training and technical support from the university. If you are being asked to teach

• Does your institution already provide courses online? If so, which courses?

• Who teaches them?

• Which learning management system do they use? (Blackboard is the most

common, although some universities create their own or use freeware like

• How long does developing an online course usually take from start to

ﬁ nish?

• Who coordinates the development, delivery, and support?

Once you ﬁ nd out the answers to these questions, visit with some of the faculty

already teaching online. Firsthand information from them will be some of the most

valuable information you can collect. Contact any support organ izations available

to you. Many colleges provide workshops and help you set up your course and keep

it running smoothly. If your university does not offer faculty support in this area, con-

After you look into instructor support ser vices, check into the support pro-

vided for students. Does your school have a help desk for students? What informa-

tion is available concerning the technical literacy of students at your school or the

students who will be targeted to take your class? Is there an orientation for stu–

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Developing an Online Course

Planning the course. If a predesigned common course (often called the master

course) is not available for your par tic u lar course, then you will need to consider

the best steps for designing your own. As with preparing to teach in a face– to– face

classroom, begin by determining your goals and objectives. (See Ch. 15 of this

online learning materials that have been peer reviewed and are accessible via

smartphones and tablets, both iOS and Android. Instructors who have submitted

their activities and learning aids to the site have agreed that anyone who would

like to use them is welcome to do so without obtaining permission.

Determining assignments and assessments offers the greatest challenge to

teaching online. You won’t be able to simply transfer your syllabus, assignments,

instructions, and lectures word for word to an online format. Instead, you’ll need to

• Students will be able to formulate research questions that really matter

to them.

• Students will know where to go to get credible research materials for an aca-

demic paper.

Generally, it’s a good idea to work through the objectives individually, brainstorm-

ing about the learning activities, assignments, and assessments that will help stu–

dents reach each goal, but often as you begin to work through the objectives in

this way, you’ll discover that many assignments and learning activities can fulﬁ ll

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how to complete the proj ect gave students conﬁ dence in the online environment

as they worked toward meeting the objectives for the course.

Presenting Materials and Activities Online

Most activities and assignments for teaching online will fall into one of the fol–

lowing general categories:

Instructor pre sen ta tions. Online instructors have many of the same options as

instructors teaching in traditional classrooms when it comes to pre sen ta tion meth-

ods. Faculty can give online lectures, pres ent online simulations, and conduct online

demonstrations with Power Point, Prezi, and other multimedia software. Power-

Point is the most commonly used pre sen ta tion method; however, Prezi is becoming

more and more popu lar. For both of these pre sen ta tion methods, slides are easy to

HTML and upload it into the courseware. It will open within the course frames,

making it easy for students to read, and will load more quickly than a Power Point

show. Another option is web pages on a web server or uploaded into courseware.

Web development software is increasingly user– friendly, and web pages don’t

depend on speciﬁ c software for display. The site for developing Prezi automatically

saves your pre sen ta tion in a format that can be accessed online. And don’t be

afraid to make short videos that can also be uploaded to the class site or even to

YouTube or Vimeo.

Discussions. Discussions are one of the best ways for students to demonstrate

understanding of course material, and discussion tools are included with all of

the learning management software packages. Research has shown that count–

24 % Teaching Writing Online [ 283 ]

readings, allow them to summarize and synthesize information from vari ous

sources, and, if students post drafts in the discussion area, provide opportunities

for peer review. Two basic types of discussion formats are available in most

course management software packages: the chat room, which is synchronous—

meaning students meet at a designated time—or the discussion board, which is

asynchronous— meaning students can log on and post anytime that is con ve nient

for them. In online learning environments, asynchronous discussions are often

more successful than synchronous ones because students taking a class online

Group work. All types of group activities, from peer review to cooperative learn-

ing proj ects, are pos si ble in the online environment. However, for group proj ects to

be successful, pacing and or ga ni za tion are crucial. Consider the following as you

design the group work for your course:

• Incorporate nongraded activities that allow students to get to know each other

and develop working relationships before you require them to submit work

that will be graded. Include activities that will help them become familiar with

the technical skills needed to share and post information.

• Consider how, when, and where students will meet and how you will evaluate

individual contributions alongside group contributions. Make all of this infor–

mation available to students from the beginning of the proj ect.

• Clear and well- articulated guidelines for group work are imperative if the

group assignments are to be successful. Also, clear assessment criteria must

be given before the work is under way. Providing rubrics for online group

work and discussion postings is an excellent way to help students success–

fully meet learning objectives.

Research. Much of learning to write in college involves learning how to effectively

and efﬁ ciently conduct research. Fortunately, much of the research needed for ﬁ rst–

year composition courses (in fact, for most university courses) can be effectively

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Assessing Online Classes

Every well- designed course— whether online or face- to- face— includes well-

Ensuring Academic Honesty

Although concerns have been raised about how to effectively detect plagiarism

when teaching an online course, in ﬁ rst– year writing courses many of those con-

Designing a Syllabus

The next step after determining the design and structure of the online course is to

create a syllabus. Generally speaking, the syllabus for an online course includes the

same ele ments as the syllabus for a face- to- face course: course information, course

requirements, grading, and scheduling, as well as information on how to contact

the instructor for individual concerns or prob lems. However, in an online course, the

tion is another aspect of the online course about which students will need addi–

tional information. You may require that students log on a certain number of times

each week or that they make a speciﬁ c number and type of postings each week.

Just make sure they know what you will be looking for to determine adequate

participation.