Produced by: Anne Ellen Geller
December 3, 2018
Faculty Guidelines for Collaboration with Writing Across Communities
Are you interested in…
Reflecting on the function of writing in communities (including in your classes)?
Valuing and enhancing students’ communicative resources?
Developing more equitable assessment practices?
Creating engaging writing projects to establish a community that values writing?
Connecting the writing community of a course to other writing communities?
Thinking about how students’ identities influence writing?
How Can We Work Together?
St. John’s University’s Writing Across Communities program encourages and supports students and faculty who strive to use writing to sustain diverse academic, cultural, civic, and professional communities both across St. John’s and beyond the university. (https://www.stjohns.edu/academics/office-provost/writing-across-communities) Writing Across Communities works with a “Students as Partners” philosophy, and Undergraduate Writing Coordinators are fully collaborative partners with “distinct, yet equally valuable expertise and experience to contribute” to projects (Bovill, Cook-Sather, Felten 2011).
Faculty from any discipline and college at St. John’s University, including University Libraries, are invited to propose collaborations. Below you’ll find a list of suggestions for projects. Based on the project faculty propose and develop with Writing Across Communities staff, faculty will receive a stipend in the range of $250-$1000. The determination of the actual amount of faculty stipends will be informed by contact hours, duration, and scope of engagement, as well as the integration, implementation, and impact the project will have within writing communities.
This list is meant to assist with imagining the kinds of collaborations available, however these examples are illustrative, not exhaustive - by no means do these represent the only ways in which our program works/can work with faculty.
- Co-develop a writing assignment or sequence of assignments with an Undergraduate Writing Coordinator for a course of the faculty member’s choosing ($250)
- Partner with an Undergraduate Writing Coordinator to implement a mid- or end-of-semester writing project in a course of the faculty’s choosing, potentially including work with students ($250) | Partner to newly design and implement a project ($500)
- Partner with an Undergraduate Writing Coordinator to receive feedback on the teaching of writing from class observations and co-reflections -- this could range from a one time partnership ($250) to a semester-long ($750) partnership
- Partner with an Undergraduate Writing Coordinator to gather student feedback about writing in a course of the faculty’s choosing ($250) | Use student feedback to develop a new plan for writing and assess outcomes in the following semester ($500)
- Take part in a semester-long partnership with an Undergraduate Writing Coordinator to integrate them fully into a course of the faculty member’s choosing and co-develop course materials together.This may also include Undergraduate Writing Coordinator(s) meeting with students individually and mentoring them on their writing in the course ($1000)
- Co-implement a writing group (on or off-campus) or a reading group considering texts about writing and/or literacy and/or the teaching of writing ($250-$1000)
- Co-develop and produce videos, or other materials, which discuss, analyze, or highlight writing in a community (course, department, or organization) ($750-$1000).
- Co-develop a research project related to literacy, writing and/or learning in a community (community for example being in a course, a department/major, etc.) ($250-$1000)
- Partner with an Undergraduate Writing Coordinator to become fully integrated in a community beyond the university that is incorporating writing in its mission or work. ($250-$1000)
- Partner on a writing initiative with SJU communities outside of classrooms, such as library, clubs, student organizations (with faculty advisors) ($250-$1000)
- Co-develop a workshop or initiative that is centered around writing and activism for/by faculty members and/or students. ($200-$750)
A proposed project:
- Must be relevant to writing/literacy, regardless of academic discipline
- Must engage with difficult questions/problems facing the writing community(ies) and its participants/co-creators/inhabitants and strive to develop a critical awareness of how writing is used in the community(ies)
- Must integrate truly collaborative methodologies when enacting all stages of the project
What Is Required During a Partnership?
The faculty member and Undergraduate Writing Coordinator(s) they are paired with will take part in the following activities through their partnership together:
- The creation of a contract that outlines the ways in which the faculty member and Undergraduate Writing Coordinator(s) (and possibly Assistant Directors/Director) will work together as well as develop outcomes for their partnership, including a plan for regular meetings during the duration of the project.
- Mid-project check-in with Director of Writing Across Communities
- End of project report in which both partners reflect on their work together and describe as well as detail if and how the outcomes they set out were met and why or why not they were able to meet them.
- Partners are asked to complete an online evaluation to provide their input and feedback on the Writing Across Communities program.
- Partners are asked to compose blog posts for the Writing Across Communities blog reflecting upon the experience of working alongside Writing Across Communities members (UWCs, Assistant Directors, Director) throughout the duration of the collaboration, under the condition that the information within these posts may be used for research purposes at conferences, assessment materials, and/or planning of collaborations with WAC in the future.
- Stipends will be remunerated after the agreed upon conditions are met, including assessment/post-project reflection.
How to Apply:
To apply, please email a Word Document to ([email protected]) addressing the provided questions below. We look forward to receiving your proposals. All applications will be reviewed and approved, on a rolling basis, by a selection committee comprised of five Undergraduate Writing Coordinators, the Assistant Directors and the Director of Writing Across Communities.
Proposal Application (please answer all of these questions):
Date of submission:
Applicant name:
What divisions/departments and which faculty will be involved with this project?:
Description of project:
What is the projected start/end date and the proposed timeline for your project?:
How will your project engage with Writing Across Communities and Students as Partners as they are described at the beginning of this document? Please explain with examples.:
What is the scope of this project in relation to the stipend requested? For example, what is/are the intent, reach, implications, and/or impact of your project for members of the writing community(ies)? What would be your level of engagement or investment?:
* Upon submission of this application, Writing Across Communities staff will be in touch with you to discuss your proposal. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or to contact Dr. Anne Ellen Geller at [email protected] if you would like assistance with your application.