by Ellen C. Carillo On February 29, on the Waterbury campus, I hosted an event titled “Bad Ideas About Writing Live!” The event featured the writing of students in ENGL 2013W: Introduction to Writing Studies. Students developed their own “bad idea about writing” and presented them before an audience comprised of staff, students, and OLLI […]
Pedagogy
Re-Engaging Students
by Kelly Coons Let’s set the scene. You’re midway through the semester—one or two projects down, so two or one project to go. Most of your class is along for the ride. Key word: most. One of your students has disappeared over the course of the semester. You reached out to the student over email, […]
Transforming Feedback Practices with Screencast Video
By Sarah DeCapua & Heon Jeon On February 28, we had the pleasure of co-leading a workshop for FYW instructors called “Transforming Feedback Practices through the Use of Screencast Video Feedback in Second Language (L2) Writing Classrooms.” This workshop came about as a result of our investigation into using screencast video feedback to respond to […]
The Teacher’s Body
image from “Welcome Back, Kotter” (popular sitcom, c. 1975); paper airplane stuck in teacher’s thick, curly hair This week in the 5100 seminar (you know, the Theory and Teaching of Writing gig), we are turning our thoughts, talk, activities, readings to: The Teacher’s Body. Yes, we all have one! And some of you have probably […]
February Teaching Roundtable: Teacher Immediacy in the Digital Age
I became interested in the topic of immediacy in teaching—students’ perception of the physical and psychological distance between teacher and student (as defined by Gorham)—by reflecting on my own early teaching experience. As a young college instructor, I was often concerned about my authority in the classroom and what I was projecting to my students. […]
Should First-Year Writing Be Academic Writing Only?
Every August, when I introduce the UConn’s First-Year Writing course to new instructors, I present the course—“the pedagogy”—as a fairly coherent set of approaches and practices coming out of a particular tradition, which we do our best to engage with, revise, and renew each year. I encourage new instructors, who may be best positioned to […]
The Anti-Thesis Thesis; or, Why I Don’t Use the Word “Thesis” [Very Often] in Class
I may well be setting myself up for some charges of “composition” heresy: I try to avoid using the word “thesis” when I’m teaching Freshman English. Although I’ve practiced this erasure for a while, I recently made a public statement about it at our August Orientation and was interested in reactions from several who heard […]