Rachel Rys

Writing 501
Professor Johnson
12 December 2015
Genre Project and Cover Memo
From past years serving as Lead TA in the Feminist Studies department, I have found my
fellow graduate students to hold sophisticated and critical views about pedagogy and classroom
spaces. Since our department centers questions of power and privilege, my colleagues are wellequipped to discuss power in the classroom and to imagine the tenants of a transformative
pedagogy. However, many of my fellow students do not have the nuts and bolts pedagogical
training that often helps to implement these beliefs in a tangible way (for example, writing
learning objectives, backward planning, designing scaffolded assignments, etc.). Moreover, the
focus of pedagogy in our department tends to focus on reading and discussion, rather than
writing. Although our department offers pedagogy workshops once a quarter, these sessions are
facilitated by graduate students who may or may not have this training themselves.
For this reason, my genre translation for 501 is a training module about writing that could
potentially be used during one of these quarterly sessions. To bridge the gap between ideology
and practice, I have chosen to create a writing training module that integrates reflection and
theoretical discussion with plenty of samples and work time. My goal with this translation is to
create a document that can also be added to our departments teaching resource site to be read or
implemented by future Lead TAs or faculty. In order to create a document that can be used by
future and unknown audiences, I have tried to be as clear as possible when outlining the agenda
and the potential questions that can be used to facilitate discussion. For additional clarity, I have
also included suggested time limits and resources within the same document so that this training
module could be easily downloaded and used in the future. By framing these topics around
questions rather than lecture, this training will hopefully be able to access what people already
know and have found effective in the classroom.

Rys 2

Feminist Studies Writing Pedagogy Training Module

Agenda
Introductions & Context
Surfacing Our Beliefs About Writing
Situating Writing in the Feminist
Studies Classroom
Writing & Power
Commenting & Grading
Project Work Time

Materials
Board and chalk/pens
Sample syllabi, assignment
descriptions, and revision lesson plans
Outline of writing strategies and
resources, if applicable

Total Time: 2 hours

Module Goals
By participating in this training module, participants will:

Articulate their personal beliefs about writing and how they relate to pedagogical best
practices
Consider how ideologies about writing shape assignments, activities, and assessment
Develop syllabi and course assignments that center writing, revision, and metacognitive
reflection

Pre-Training Setup
Circulate the following readings:
o Elbow, Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking By Teaching Writing
o Yancey, Reflection in the Writing Classroom
o Anson, Davis, and Vilhotti, What Do We Want in this Paper?
o Reid, Quick Guide to Commenting

Ask participants to bring a syllabus, lesson plan, or assignment description that they are
interested in revising during work time

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Introductions & Context

Participants share standard introductory info and describe something that they are
currently writing (including audience, scope, timeline, step in process, etc.)
Surfacing Our Beliefs about Writing (30 minutes)
Freewrite (10 minutes)
o What is the purpose of writing? What types of writing do you do and why? How
do you approach your own writing assignments and why? What connections exist
between feminism and writing? What makes writing feminist?

Discuss freewrite with partner (5 minutes)

Small group discussions (15 minutes)

o How are your beliefs about writing reflected in your course assignments? What
steps have you built into your assignments that will help students to understand
and complete their writing tasks? What gaps do you notice, if any?
o How are your beliefs about writing reflected in your class activities? How are you
currently bringing writing into your daily classroom? What types of writing do
you ask students to engage in?

Bringing Writing into the Feminist Classroom (30 minutes)

Course Assignments (15 minutes)
o Discussion: What role does writing play in your course? What relationship do
your assignments build between reading and writing? Is writing primarily used for
assessment or does it have other purposes? What clarifications or requirements
could be added to your course assignments to scaffold the writing process?
o Circulate examples of effective writing-driven syllabi and project descriptions
(including scaffolding assignments and metacognitive reflection)

Section activities (15 minutes)

o Discussion: What are TAs responsible for in terms of writing? Even if your
instructor does not center writing, how can you support the writing process
through section activities? What types of writing, reflection, and revision can be
practiced in the section classroom? How does writing transfer?
o Circulate examples of effective in-class activities (including freewriting,
reflection, assignment clarification and scaffolding)

Writing and Power (30 minutes)

Writing and Multilingual Speakers (15 minutes)

o Campus resources and services

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o Discussion: As instructors, how can we structure lecture and class discussion to
include visual examples and outlines? How can we encourage students who are
uncomfortable with spontaneous speech and writing to participate in classroom
discussion (increased wait time, online forums, pre-circulating prompts or
questions, etc.)? How can we bring students multiple literacies into the
classroom?
o Recommendations from the literature

Writing and Disability (15 minutes)

o DSP requirements and resources (http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu/faculty-proxy/faq)
o Discussion: As instructors, how can we make our writing tasks as clear,
structured, and accessible as possible? How can we model the processes of
brainstorming, pre-writing, writing, and revision for students with different
learning styles and needs? How can we incorporate both written and oral
brainstorming and feedback mechanisms into the classroom? What does writing
accommodation look like?
o Recommendations from the literature

Assessment, Commenting & Grading (20 minutes)

Grading and Commenting (10 minutes)
o What is the purpose of grading (for instructors/ for students)? What criteria do
you look for when grading writing? What do you weigh most heavily when
grading and why? How do students interact with the grades you assign? What
types of commentary are most effective for students learning and why?
o Recommendations from the literature
o Circulate examples of effective endnote commentary

Encouraging Self-Assessment and Revision (10 minutes)

o Discussion: How can we encourage students to take ownership of the assessment
and revision process? What do students gain from reflecting on and revising their
own work? What do they learn from helping other students to reflect on and
revise their work? What are some strategies for encouraging or requiring this
work in the classroom? How can we build the structure of revision and reflection
into the course syllabus?
o Recommendations from the literature

Work time (30 minutes+)

Consider splitting participants into groups depending on what they are working on (i.e.
drafting writing assignments for summer courses vs. designing section activities vs.
outlining a rubric vs. preparing for in-class peer review)