Jessie Blackburn Director of Composition University of Pittsburgh Bradford jbb35@pitt

1. The Archeology of Learning: When Our Students Write Their Way into Knowledge Jessie Blackburn Director of Composition University of Pittsburgh Bradford jbb35@pitt.edu 814.362.7522

3. What is college-level writing?

4. College-level writing is the use of writing to answer college-level questions.

5. Frameworks for Success(NCTE/WPA/NTP) • Habits of mind—ways of approaching learning that are both intellectual and practical—are crucial for all college-level learners. • Beyond knowing particular facts or completing mandatory readings, students who develop these habits of mind approach learning from an active stance.

6. Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world. Curiosity is fostered when writers are encouraged to • use inquiry as a process to develop questions relevant for authentic audiences within a variety of disciplines; • conduct research using methods for investigating questions appropriate to the discipline; and • communicate their findings in writing to multiple audiences inside and outside school using discipline-appropriate conventions.

7. Openness–the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world. Openness is fostered when writers are encouraged to • examine their own perspectives to find connections with the perspectives of others; and • practice different ways of gathering, investigating, developing, and presenting information.

8. Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning. Engagement is fostered when writers are encouraged to • make connections between their own ideas and those of others; • find meanings new to them or build on existing meanings as a result of new connections; and • act upon the new knowledge that they have discovered.

9. Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas. Creativity is fostered when writers are encouraged to • take risks by exploring questions, topics, and ideas that are new to them; • use methods that are new to them to investigate questions, topics, and ideas; and • represent what they have learned in a variety of ways.

10. Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands. Flexibility is fostered when students are encouraged to • approach writing assignments in multiple ways, depending on the task and the writer’s purpose and audience; • recognize that conventions (such as formal and informal rules of content, organization, style, evidence, citation, mechanics, usage, register, and dialect) are dependent on discipline and context; and • reflect on the choices they make in light of context, purpose, and audience.

11. Metacognition – the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking Metacognition is fostered when writers are encouraged to • examine processes they use to think and write in a variety of disciplines and contexts; and • connect choices they have made in texts to audiences and purposes for which texts are intended.

12. Promoting college-level writing and habits of mind through in-class writing assignments. • Admission tickets: index cards for intellectual attendance or write for the first 5 minutes to recap last class. • Beginning of class sessions: pose a problem, offer a quotation or observation, then allow 3 minutes solid for freewriting. • Middle of class sessions: brief problems or quandaries, one-minute paper, or 2 PLUS 2. • End of class to sum up and/or point to next class session: 2 PLUS 2, “Tie Your Shoes,” “WAW.”

13. Promoting college-level writing and frameworks for success through informal writing. • Reading and/or experience journals (on-line?) • Annotations from readings, perhaps Post-Its • Dialogues and Exploratories • Self-assessments: Facebook, texting, emailing, or F2F social encounters • Metacognition: writing about writing/ math & sciences= have students write about problem solving

14. Formal WAC/WID Assignments • Think of them as written solutions to college-level questions (or “ill-structured problems”-David Jolliffe). • Lab reports • Case studies • Essay exams– in-class or take-home (*writing center) • Fully fleshed-out exploratory essays • Reflection papers • Model & demonstrate

15. Resources • Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project. “Frameworks for Success in Postsecondary Writing.” NCTE: National Council for the Teachers of English. 1 July 2011. Web. • Jollffe, David. Inquiry and Genre: Writing to Learn in College. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998. Print. • Mars, Bob. “Writing Across the Curriculum.” YouTube. YouTube, 12 Sep. 2011. Web.

16. The Archeology of Learning: When Our Students Write Their Way Into Knowledge Jessie Blackburn Director of Composition University of Pittsburgh Bradford jbb35@pitt.edu 814.362.7522