Putting Writing to Work: Designing Authentic and Effective Assignments

Event Date & Time

Event Description

School writing too often requires students to simply repeat the knowledge they have gained through lectures and readings to an audience who doesn’t need it — the instructor. Rarely are they given a chance to write to different readers for the wide range of intentions that authors can have: to propose, argue, explain, instruct, challenge, analyze, and so on. The result is that students don’t struggle with course knowledge in order to make it accessible and useful to others — a struggle that is far more likely to lead to deep learning than mere repetition. This workshop will engage participants in the design of assignments that go beyond traditional school work and create opportunities for more profound learning. We will consider participants’ teaching goals, their usual assignments, and ways in which those assignments might be tailored to produce challenging and engaging writing projects aimed at various audiences for various purposes. Participants are encouraged to bring descriptions of assignments with them.

This workshop is presented by the Writing Across the Curriculum+ Program (WAC+). WAC+ is a TLEF-funded collaboration between the Science Centre for Learning and Teaching, the Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication and the Department of Chemistry and is designed to support the teaching and learning of written, oral, multimedia and other non-traditional forms of communication in the sciences. WAC+ events are open to all educators (faculty, post-docs, graduate students, staff, etc.).

Facilitated by Dr. Anthony Paré, Professor and Head, Department of Language and Literacy Education

For more information visit the WAC+ website or register here.