New Year, New Syllabus, New Pedagogical Focus ...
It's now September and many of us in higher education have already started our semesters, or will begin our quarters near the end of the month. Here at the University of Washington Tacoma, we start our Autumn quarter on September 30. So many of us have been planning our courses, and writing or revising our syllabi (or syllabuses, depending on your feelings about Latin and English's migration of Latin plural endings). This has got me thinking about what makes for good learning, for productive learning, for meaningful and compassionate learning in writing classrooms, or classrooms with significant writing in them. My answer may not be as obvious as you may think. The new "W" on campus at UWT. I've directed several university-level writing programs over the last ten years, from First-year writing to Writing Across the Curriculum to Early Start programs. What I've seen in student populations are at least three common issues that I believe many college stud...