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What are a Division Chair’s obligations relative to the W requirement?
Answer: 1) With each department
director’s input, determine which courses in the major and in the Core
(if applicable) will be W-designated for an upcoming academic year; 2) communicate with the Director
of the Writing Program (Tim Doherty) on an annual basis, informing him
of which courses have been decided upon (deadline: October 1st
(nearly a full year in advance of the academic year being planned);
3) ensure that these courses have been through the Writing Committee
approval process; 4) and ensure that instructors slated to teach such
courses have pursued the requisite faculty development. Please
contact Tim Doherty for details (tdoherty@rivier.edu;
x8483).
What is “faculty development”?
Answer: Every year,
typically in May, faculty slated to teach a W course for the first time
are invited to participate in a week-long retreat which will focus on such matters
as assignment design, responding to student writing, using peer groups,
scaffolding writing expectations, using rubrics, addressing grammar
problems, integrating reading and writing instruction, etc. Each year,
contingent on budget conditions, faculty will each receive a $500
stipend to participate in this retreat; however, the retreat is open to
all faculty interested in designing and teaching W courses.
Alternatives to the summer retreat are certainly possible. Please
contact Tim Doherty for details (tdoherty@rivier.edu;
x8483).
What is the
relationship between the Writing Committee and the Curriculum Committee?
Answer: If a department
intends to revise a program and has not yet acquired approval of a W
course within that program, it must receive that approval before the
revised program comes before the Curriculum Committee; similarly, before
coming before the Curriculum Committee, any new course that will be
designated Writing-Assisted should receive Writing Committee approval
first.
If two different professors offer the same course,
could one section be a W course and the other not?
Answer: Yes. Simply
designate the section # that will be Writing-Assisted; Sr. Joan Joyal
and Tim Doherty will take care of the rest. The professor teaching the
course must enroll in faculty development if teaching such a
course for the first time.
Why should instructors consider teaching a W course?
Answer:
Capped at 18-20 students, W courses afford faculty the opportunity to
explore more fully the potentially rich ways that written language can
fuel disciplinary learning. W courses are part of a four-year
experience, thus promising a more effective and thorough-going
instruction in writing, raising the level of competence of our
graduates. Further, teaching a W course will make a significant
contribution to the teaching portfolio of those seeking promotion and
tenure.
Once a course is approved as W, does the Chair ever
have to have the course re-approved?
Answer: No. However, the
assumption is that any time the course is designated “W,” it will indeed
resemble the course which the Writing Committee approved, and be taught
by a professor who has pursued the requisite faculty development.
Aren’t some courses at Rivier College already “writing-assisted,” filled
with writing expectations?
Answer: Many courses at the
college already assign various formal writing assignments, and thus
could be designated W with little modification, or with only modest
changes to meet W course parameters. The critical difference that the W
designation seeks to make is to assure that student writers achieve
better thinking and communication through a sequential approach to
writing instruction, involving drafting and informal modes of writing,
and that writers benefit from feedback from peers, tutors, and
professors.
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