'Teachers Teaching Teachers' Workshop at UMN-Writing Studies

21 February 2013

SLO-focused Assessment

by Kimberly Thomas-Pollei

Questions

What are SLOs (student learning outcomes)? And how are we ensuring these are being taught at he university? How can teaching observations/peer feedback support constructive alignment of SLOs in our teaching? How do we leverage our teaching practices to make the “surface-learner” become more engaged like the highly-engaged learner?

UMN’s SLO Page

SLO-focused teaching

1. Must have a clear conception of underlying assumptions of teaching practides
2. Transformative reflections
3. Receive collab peer feedback
4. Set goals and/or implement feedback; (This is the place where I feel like I haven’t experienced much help.)

Wondering if she has looked at a particular writing program who utilizes these methods already.

Like the idea about teaching portfolio help along the way. This process shows/conveys pro-active approach to pedagogy.

Seems like this worksheet inhibits, in some ways, and makes it difficult to process what might happen in a day. I like the idea of thinking about SLOs while providing feedback, but this is hard to put into buckets as one is observing.

A Model Approach to Business Writing

by Timothy Oleksiak & Joe Bartolotta

The two desire to systemize an approach to writing as craft

Students in Bartolotta and Okleksiak’s classes worked with local businesses, which were established via the students’ existing relationships. //Did any students have issues with this process? If so, how was it handled?

One of the texts used: Searls, which is a model that contrasts their model: - Searls presents a limited rhetorical approach - Searls is a genre-based approach - Searls works best in a large-scale, business/corporation setting - Searls admittingly is “short on theory, long practical applications” (xi). - Searl, according to Oleksiak, is “too How-to” for this situated, small-business approach to business writing.

This last issue created some issues for students in the process of working through their project. //Thinking that the Searls text, despite these flaws, still provides a nice contrast to the other texts that are discussed; a sort of, “do you see how writing really operates differently here?” for the students and teachers to reflect on.

problems w/ Searls’ text

Students were struggling with Searls text; Genre is not enough; it is too decontextualized and too corporatized in contrast with the local small businesses. //Makes me wonder how many business writing texts approach a model of local, situated business writing practices.

some goals:

Disrupt the idea that writing is a part of the work/labor process; in fact, it’s central to ideas and construction of relationships; looking at writer as craft, not ephemeral; this is work, it moves bodies, it has an affect/effect in any situation.

Craft Model in the Classroom (first 4 weeks)

Students also read “Why Women Can’t Have it All” (Slaughter 2012)

How does writing operate as labor in the situations Slaughter articulates?

Pre-Writing Activity: Policy change is done in the mundane workplace activity; makes me think about Spinuzzi’s new book, Topsight (2013). 1) Find a policy in business or that is common to businesses as it is written; 2) Describe the work of this policy; 3) What ‘mundane’ battles might we wage to craft change?; 4) Project Distribution Activity.

Return to a discussion of the value of writing in business context

Reading Anyon (2011) with attention to the role and value of labor in the context of business writing

Reading Albini to look for where writing happens and how value can be tracked and shown as part of the worklow process (paraphrased slide here)