Writing in Large GE Classes: Resources for Doing the Impossible

http://www.washington.edu/teaching/files/2012/12/WritingInLargeClasses.pdf 

“Assigning and Assessing Writing in Large Classes.”  Teaching and Learning Bulletin 2009 (12:4). Center for Instructional Development and Research.

Includes a good discussion of  “Responding to Assignments Efficiently and Effectively” and also offers practical tips for returning graded work (obviously a special challenge in a big class: you can’t call out individual student names for this). 

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon 

Yes: a series of comics (available in poster form) explaining how to use semicolons.

Also potentially useful from the same authors: how to use apostrophes, available at http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe.  

Want more? They also have Who vs. Whom: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/who_vs_whom

John C. Bean's book (now in its second edition, 2011) provides invaluable advice about ways you can get students to learn by writing.  Here's a sampling from Ch. 7: Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities:

• "thinking pieces" that ask students to respond to a disciplinary problem that you identify or provide (121).  Think of "an architect's sketchbook of possible designs for a project" (125).  "Exploratory writing is thesis-seeking, whereas exam writing is thesis-supporting" (125).
• Bean lists "Twenty-Two Ideas for Incorporating Exploratory Writing into a Course" (131ff.) including "Tasks to deepen students' responses to course readings" and "Low-stakes 'shaped exercises' to practice thesis-governed writing.
• Ask students to write in response to a question, and explain that "Before you can do so, you'll need to read Chapter Ten" (or whatever reading assignment was going to be due that class anyway) (134-5)

Bean also includes a helpful how-to discussion about grading exploratory writing.  "The key question is not 'How well written is this piece?' but 'To what extent does this piece reveal engaged thinking about this topic?'....[R]eward the process of thought rather than the product." (143)

Weimer's short piece raises four questions about who benefits from large classes--and who might be hurt:

1. How many students make it a large class? 
2. Who should be taking large classes?
3. What content is best suited for delivery in a big class?
4. Who should be teaching the large classes? 

Weimer, Maryellen. "Four Key Questions about Large Classes." Faculty Focus. 2 Sep 2015. Online. Accessed 2 Sep 2015.

The LRC has a Writing Center with tutors who can "assist student writers by offering individualized feedback on their writing, at any stage of the process, including understanding the assignment, brainstorming, forming a thesis, developing content, organizing ideas, and learning proofreading skills."  They also offer Writing Workshops on various topics each semester.  New in spring 2015: LRC FAQs for Faculty, which explains what happens during a Writing Center conference, how you can encourage your students to visit the Writing Center, what to do if students need long-term help with their writing, and more.

There were two handouts:

1. Notes for discussion: Working with writing in large GE classes (Sharon Klein), which focused on types of assignments.

2. University Writing Center (Anne Kellenberger): helping your students get the most out of the LRC, including a draft of the Spring 2015 Writing Workshop Schedule

 And here's a photo of the whiteboard summary of strategies from the session, followed by a list elaborating on those strategies:

 Strategies:

• Assessment meeting of program faculty to note where desired skills are Introduced, Practiced, and Demonstrated. 
• They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein: a useful book for students that offers templates to scaffold arguments
• Thinking pieces and microthemes
• Reconsider whether comments are necessary, and if so, how much commenting will be useful
• Rubrics: keep them simple to begin with and try just one on a single assignment if you are new to this process
• Spread out the grading: take breaks
• Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom by John C. Bean (2nd ed., 2011): available online for CSUN users only; also available for checkout in the Academic First Year Experiences Library in CIELO and at Oviatt Library.  See esp. p. 297 on how to support successful peer reviews.
• Try this psychological adjustment while grading writing: instead of asking yourself, "How well written is this piece?" try asking, "To what extent does this piece reveal engaged thinking about this topic?"  You will still be able to make distinctions between more and less successful writing--but you won't start each paper depressed by its shortcomings.  (More about this in Engaging Ideas (2nd ed.), p. 143.)

The other materials from this session have already been posted on this webpage.

http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/large.html: "Teaching with writing in large classes." Robin Brown.  Offers some "principles" and suggestions.  Sample:   

Formality: Consider the distinction between formal and informal pieces of writing. Formal pieces require more time spent teaching and evaluating the writing process; informal assignments give students a chance to use writing to explore the course content without too much emphasis on the writing process.

"More effective are future-focused discussions. Based on their performance, what do they need to do next time? The discussion should identify specifics; things done well that they should continue doing, along with things to stop and start doing." 

See more at: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/use-whole-class-feedback/#sthash.BxnZyeRJ.dpuf

http://www.cte.umd.edu/library/teachingLargeClass/guide/ch8.html

U. Maryland. Sloppy but some good suggestions about types of ungraded writing you can assign.