The Wild Rumpus: Building Successful Writing Programs Through Professional Development

1. The Wild Rumpus: Building Successful Writing Programs Through Professional Development Our “double-whammy” Wild Rumpus consists of two sessions where ideas will come fast and discussion will be exciting and energizing. Please join us and . . .

3. Homegrown Grassroots Professional Development in First-Year Composition Programs Michael Day Northern Illinois University

4. 60 Graduate Assistants 25 Unionized Instructors No adjuncts Many people commute Strong self-governance: FYComp Committee No obvious/tangible rewards for professional development (such as stipends)

5. Not a matter of whether professional development will happen, but how • Ideas will grow, but are they what we want? • Plant data seeds from: • Surveys about needs • Assessment reports • Journal articles and WPA-L posts • Have discussions and see what sprouts in • FYComp Committee meetings • Full program meetings

6. FYComp First Friday Colloquia Series • Graduate Assistant Mentoring Program • Showcase of Student Writing • Student-authored essay collections • Contemporary Voices • Y1Writes • Co-teaching opportunities • ePortfolio Assessment • Infrastructure support assignments

7. Stress less visible rewards Provide leadership opportunities Provide plenty of liquids and sustenance Weed and cull when necessary Get consensus when possible Delegate as much as possible Invite those who don’t attend to present Have fun!

8. How can we encourage participation? • Do stipends or formal reward systems help? • How to assess professional development? • How to secure funding? • How to publicize our efforts to • Administrators? • Students/Parents? • Media? • Can you share models for GA peer mentoring?

9. Stay in touch! www.engl.niu.edu/composition mday@niu.edu

10. It's Not Training July 16, 2011 It's Not Training: Seminars in Writing Studies for Writing Teachers Joe Bizup Boston University Council of Writing Program Administrators July 16, 2011

11. Arts & Sciences Writing Program:Large independent program staffed predominantly by full-time lecturers with degrees in a range of fields It's Not Training July 16, 2011 • 75% have degrees in literature • 25% have degrees in other fields • 0% have degrees in composition/rhetoric or writing studies • 47% have Ph.D. • 55% have M.A. or M.F.A. • 44% female • 56% male • Avg tenure: 5.4 years Full-Time Lecturer Demographics Faculty Composition Decision to hire teachers without degrees in rhetoric/composition or writing studies creates professional development obligation for program.

12. WP offers an array of professional development opportunities,but these are skewed toward the practical It's Not Training July 16, 2011 Formal Training courses for grad students New faculty orientation ? “First Friday” faculty meetings Teaching observations Practical / Applied Scholarly / Theoretical Teaching colloquia Reading groups Summer BBQ Teaching coffees Informal WP must provide its faculty with formal opportunities to engage scholarship and theory on issues relevant to teaching writing

13. To give faculty formal occasion to engage the scholarship on writing studies and writing pedagogy, WP created faculty seminar series It's Not Training July 16, 2011 • Format • On topics of relevance to writing studies or writing pedagogy • Need not be immediately or directly applicable to teaching • Four 90-minute sessions over four consecutive weeks • Participants commit to attend all sessions • 3-6 scholarly articles or chapters / session • Final response (500 words) • Compensation • $200 in research funds to full-time and part-time lecturers who complete all four sessions • Credit toward Certificate in Teaching Writing for graduate students Satisfies three constituencies: WP gets more informed teachers, FTLs and PTLs get research funding, graduate student teachers get credit toward secondary credential

14. Seminar series successful in first year and growingExpanded constituency for 2011-2012 seminars It's Not Training July 16, 2011 • Fall 2010 • Research Writing.16 participants from WP faculty. Facilitated by WP Assoc. Director. • Spring 2011 • Genre Theory. 24 participants (2 sections) from WP faculty. Facilitated by WP Director. • Scholarship in English as a Second Language. 18 participants from WP faculty. Facilitated by Director of ESL. • Fall 2011 • Information Literacy and Information Technology. Participants from WP faculty, College of General Studies Rhetoric Division faculty, and library staff. Facilitated by Head of Reference and Instructional Services (library). • Grammar and Style. Participants from from WP faculty, College of General Studies Rhetoric Division faculty, and library staff. Facilitated by WP Director. • Spring 2012 • Scholarship in English as a Second Language. Participants from from WP faculty, College of General Studies Rhetoric Division faculty, and library staff. 22 participants from WP faculty. Facilitated by Director of ESL.

15. Program Ethos and the Mentoring of Composition Teachers Deborah Coxwell Teague Florida State University

24. When professional development becomes public relations Laurie Cubbison Radford University

25. Pedagogy and public relations Faculty development workshops can be used to foster more positive attitudes toward controversial programs.

26. Situation A controversial Core Curriculum reform depends on the willing participation of faculty from across campus to teach sophomore-level courses that integrate critical thinking, information literacy, and written and oral communication. But the controversy (prompted by a conflict over resource allocation) has limited faculty willingness to participate.

27. Status of Faculty Development on Campus Our Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning has emphasized technological programming over pedagogical programming. Few workshops on pedagogical issues were being held.

28. Into the Gap The coordinators of the Core Sequence come out of the library, the writing program, the public speaking program, and the critical thinking program. Faculty teaching the sophomore-level courses need Across-the-Curriculum support in addition to the program-specific orientation workshops.

29. What Works The coordinators, working with co-presenters from the broader faculty, present pedagogical workshops, primarily for instructors in the Core, but open to all faculty. The topics vary from subjects specific to the Core courses to others of wide interest to faculty, such as grading and disruptive students.

30. Bringing faculty together Workshops are attended by Core faculty and other faculty, so through discussion faculty learn about the program and how the courses are being taught.

31. Suggested readings Hill, L., Kim, S. L., & Lagueux, R. (2007). Faculty collaboration as faculty development. peerReview 9(4) 17-19. McClure, A. I., Atkinson, M. P. & Wills, J. (2008). Transferring teaching skills: Faculty development effects from a first-year inquiry program. Journal of the First-year Experience & Students in Transition, 20 (1), 31-52. Meacham, J. & Ludwig, J. (2001). Faculty and students at the center: Faculty development for general education courses. Journal of General Education, 50(4), 254-269. Moon, G. F. (2003) First-year writing in first-year seminars: Writing across the curriculum from the start. WPA, 26(3), 105-118. Mullin, J. (2008). Interdisciplinary work as professional development: Changing the culture of teaching. Pedagogy, 8(3),495-508. doi:10.1215/15314200-2008-008 Steele, S. (2006). Curricular wars. JGE: Journal of general education, 55(3-4), 161-185. Willard-Traub, M. K. (2008) Writing program administration and faculty professional development: Which faculty? What development? Pedagogy, 8(3), 433-445.

32. Thinking Through Practice: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Pedagogical Seminar at a Community College 2006-2009 Dr. Peter Gray Queensborough Community College, CUNY

33. Nationally: • Many graduate programs have not yet responded to integrate pedagogical inquiry • Over 50% of first year students attending college today attend a community college • Ph.Ds are increasingly required for community college hires • MLA Job list: 2/3 of positions listed were in non-Research I or II institutions

34. Why at CUNY? “Graduate students who study and teach at large research universities, it seems, learn only about one academic culture, one ‘world’ of higher education” • Murphy, Sean. “Improving Two-Year College Teacher Preparation: Graduate Student Internships” • CUNY • 18 Campuses • 2 year, comprehensive, and 4 year colleges • adjunct model is primary mode of support for grad students and teaching experience

35. Doctoral Programs & General Education • Bridge the teaching orientation of the colleges with the rigorous research background of CUNY graduate programs • CUNY Interdisciplinary Pedagogy Seminar • Integrated into course of study, not external • Receive graduate credit • Rethink graduate education as Writing, Teaching, Scholarship

36. Queensborough CC A confluence of interests and agendas: • QCC • A new emphasis on pedagogical research • A Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning • Strong CUNY-wide and local WAC Program • CUNY General Education Initiative with a focus on graduation rates and transfer issues

37. Practicum Goals • Practicum participants should become reflective practitioners who are open to change • As they define their goals and refine their practices, practicum participants should become habitual scholars of pedagogical theory and practice • Practicum participants should become pedagogical researchers

38. Fall Semester Read scholarship Theoretical Practical Visit disciplinary classes Teaching Statement Design research questions Twice monthly meetings Spring Semester Teach class in discipline Revision of Teaching Statement Creation of Teaching Portfolio Conference presentations on research Twice monthly meetings

39. Mathematics History Art History Psychology English Political Science Sociology Graduate students with little teaching experience Selected by department as exemplary scholars The Students

40. Some of our Hopes • To prepare future college teacher-scholars • Potentially more marketable Ph.D.s coming out of the Graduate Center • To contribute to teacher preparation that reflects the goals of the colleges where the graduate students teach • Capitalize on local expertise of the college faculty

41. Reflective Practitioners: • willingness to examine their own assumptions / understandings of learning; • share how their disciplinary ways of thinking revise/adapt assertions about student learning • Habitual scholars: • what is the enterprise of a discipline at a community college without a major? What is GenEd? • Pedagogical Researchers: • Evidence of learning: what are students DOING and why have they responded as they have?

42. Your questions and contributions, please.