Writing in STEM Classes

Steve BernhardtKirkpatrick Chair in Writing, University of DelawareJune 2014

What do we know?

Writing is the one skill students most want to improve

Writing increases the amount of time students spend on courses, their intellectual challenge, and their level of interest (Light)

Short, frequent writing activities (and oral discussion) improve content learning, course satisfaction, and persistence (various research)

What’s new from NSSE?

Meaning-constructing writing significantly improves all important measures of engagement: increased higher-order thinking, integrative learning, and reflective learning

When do your students write?

What do your students write?

Informal or Formal?

Exploratory questioning tentative (WAC)

Free writes, learning issues, notes, questions and confusions, brainstorming, clustering, exit tickets

Polishedpublished

delivered (WID)

Plans, progress reports, task maps, mini-themes, learning logs, discussion, Q/A, reporting out

Written exams, lab reports, solutions, summary/response, cases

Reports, presentations, posters, publications, proposals, research studies

WAC or WID?

WAC = Writing to learn

Emphasis on the ways writing improves instruction, enhances learning, engages students

WID = Learning to write

Emphasis on professional skills, language of the discipline, thinking and communicating (like a nutritionist or accountant)

At your table: WAC or WID?

WAC = Writing to learn

Identify several writing activities

How would you (do you) stage and use?

(Math example)

WID = Learning to write

Identify several specific genres you might use in your classroom.

How would you assign, provide feedback, and evaluate?

What do (go0d) writers think about?

What’s my purpose? What do I want to do?

Who is my audience? What do they want? What’s the situation? What’s the genre? What’s the medium? Can I find a model?

Good WID assignments

Require students to construct meaning

Suggest a purpose, audience, situation

Vary in genre, length, formality Stress process as well as product Provide good models Offer multiple opportunities for

success

Create real/realistic assignments

Problem-based learning Field studies Case studies Project-based learning Service learning Active learning Team-based learning

Professionals-in-Training (WID)

Students consistently had difficulty, across

all disciplines: gathering sufficient specific

information constructing the audience and the self stating a position (taking a stance) using appropriate discipline-based

methods managing complexity & organizing

information

Walvoord & McCarthy: Thinking and Writing in College

Make writing public

Take time to talk through assignments

Use rubrics so standards are shared Describe your writing process—have

students discuss theirs Use peer review Use forums or other posting apps Share models

Where do we go wrong?

Not providing a rhetorical context Spending time on post mortems Editing instead of responding Loading on big papers at end of term

Help!

WAC Clearinghousehttp://wac.colostate.edu/

Steve Bernhardt Writershelp.com

sab@udel.edu