2008 ASU Composition Conference

Welcome from the Conference Committee

Welcome to the 2008 Arizona State University Composition Conference, the conference designed by Writing Programs faculty especially for Writing Programs faculty. This conference was planned and developed by a committee of Instructors in response to needs Writing Programs faculty identified in surveys last year.

Today we will have the opportunity to learn from 35 outstanding experts predominantly from within our own department on topics specifically requested by Writing Programs faculty. We hope this conference will become an annual event, providing faculty a vital opportunity to build community within the department while sharing their creative ideas with one another. We hope that at the end of this conference, we will each return to our duties with exciting new ideas and acquaintances.

We would like to thank our presenters without whom this conference would have been impossible, especially the 15 lead presenters who accepted additional planning responsibilities. We would also like to thank Neal Lester, the Provost’s office, and the Distinguished Teaching Academy for funding this conference; Greg Glau for caring enough to ask faculty how Writing Programs can best meet their needs; and Demetria Baker and all the Writing Programs support staff for copying and distributing our many surveys and fliers. We are grateful too to Rossana Lhota for serving as conference journalist, Don Ownsby and Corri Wells for serving as conference photographers, Bruce Matsunaga for setting up our conference webpage, and for all those who are helping with registration and set up, particularly Janice Kelly, Angela Christie, Balbir Backhaus, and Elizabeth Lowry. Finally, we would like to thank all of you who have attended today as an expression of support for your peers in Writing Programs.

Together, we will excel beyond our individual capacities and make Arizona State University Writing Programs a model for the New American University.

Your 2008 ASU Composition Conference Committee,

Wendy King, Writing Programs Instructor, Chair
Laura Cruser, Writing Programs Instructor
Susan Davis, Writing Programs Instructor
Ginny Simmon, Writing Programs Instructor
Amisha Patel, Writing Programs Instructor

Agenda

Abstracts

Opening Session
9:00 am to 9:50 am
Room LL02

Welcome and Program Introduction
Wendy King

Greeting
Neal Lester

Introduction to Teaching Buddies
Susan Davis

A brief presentation on an innovative mentoring opportunity now available to all Writing Programs faculty

Writing Programs Website Resources
Katherine Heenan

A brief presentation on the Writing Programs website

Introduction of Contest Winners
and Winning Presentations
Samantha Ruckman

As Instructors and Faculty Associates rarely qualify for the various teaching awards offered at ASU, the English department instituted an award program specifically for this group of teachers.  The Teaching Awards Committee asked Instructors and FAs to submit a mini-lesson, paper assignment, group activity, or a peer-review activity and four (4) selections were chosen for a $500 honorarium.  These are the finalists of the first annual ASU Teaching Awards and the titles of their winning entries:

Marian Crotty, "What Not to Write"

Steve Beatty, “Peer (Group) Grading: An Alternative to the Peer Edit”

Adelheid Thieme, "ENG 102 Mini Lesson: Rhetorical Analysis of an Argument"

Shavawn M. Berry, “Creating Effective and Inspiring Online Writing Portfolios”

Conclusion
Laura Cruser

Concurrent Session 1
10:00 am to 10:50 am

Successful Vitas and Statements of Teaching Philosophy
Room LL10
Lead Presenter: Cornelia “Corri” Wells, Ph.D.
Member: Scott Hermanson, Ph.D.   

A former Assistant Professor of American Literature and a former Director of Composition conduct an interactive session in composing effective Vitas and Statements of Teaching Philosophy.

Getting Past “It's Good”: Making Peer Reviews Useful and Effective
Room LL02       
Lead Presenter: Ryan Skinnell,
Members: Susan Shibe Davis,
Bruce H. Glenn & Tisha Slabaugh

This panel is concerned with encouraging students to give better peer review comments than “It's good.”  The presenters, therefore, suggest ways to make peer reviews more effective for students as well as teachers.

SlabaughStudentFeedbackOnFeedback (doc)
 
Teaching Hybrids—Problems and Possibilities
Room LL60
Lead Presenters: Amisha Patel &
Roberta Binkley 

An open forum on the problems and possibilities of teaching and learning in the hybrid format. This will be an open discussion mediated by the presenters. Everyone is encouraged to contribute his or her experiences with the goal of sharing practical advice that can help to strengthen our hybrid teaching.   

BinkleySitesForUseTech (doc)

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the Composition Classroom: Faculty Journeys Down the Rabbit Hole of SoTL
Room LL12
Lead Presenter: Jan Kelly, Instructor
Member: Judy Grace, Center for Learning and Teaching Excellence

Participants in this working session will review examples of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in writing classes and develop ways to document their teaching effectiveness.

KellyGraceSOTL (ppt)

Library Research Modules
Room LL14
Lead Presenter: Ginny Simmon
Members: Lydia LaFaro & Julie Tharp

Help students learn to research through easy, effective research lessons. Increase information literacy through knowledge of library databases and other resources.

Concurrent Session 2
11:00 am to 11:50 am

A Question and Answer Session with Former Students
Room LL10
Lead Presenter: Susan Shibe Davis

A panel composed of former students from a variety of First Year Composition courses will answer questions from the audience.

Free Enterprise in the Classroom: A Case for Unlimited Rewrites 
Room: LL14
Lead Presenter: John F. Birk

I will discuss my method for evaluating student writing and will present data backing the efficacy of this approach. I will also touch on emotional intelligence (EI) as a requisite for student success.

BirkUnlimitedRewrites (doc)

How Classes are Assigned; Instructor Application/Reapplication; Instructor Self-Evaluation and the Review Process          
Room LL02
Lead Presenter: Dr. Greg Glau
Member: Dr. Zach Waggoner

This presentation will help instructors understand course assignments, applying for appointment, and the annual review process.

Online Teaching - The Plusses and Pitfalls
Room LL60
Lead Presenter: Shavawn M. Berry, MPW

As online universities have flourished during the past decade, the need to remain competitive in our “brick and mortar” institutions has demanded that greater numbers of our classes be offered in a virtual format.  However, teaching online requires more than just posting online lecture materials and assignments guidelines. Online courses challenge us to make the course materials engaging and interactive, in much the same way they are in a face-to-face classroom.  How can we make our online classrooms successful?  What sorts of assignments work?  Why is it important to help students to understand their responsibilities in the virtual classroom? Is the online environment more work than the regular class room?  In this presentation, the plusses and pitfalls of virtual teaching will be examined and discussed in order to deepen our understanding of a teaching technology that—like it or not—is here to stay. 

Effective Assignment Design
Room LL12
Lead Presenter: Rossana Lhota
Member: Susan Flores

The Analytical Summary
Rossana Lhota

Assigning analytical summaries that go beyond the standard summary is not only a great way for composition students to get to know their sources but also to plan their drafting of an argumentative research paper—a´ la Toulmin method!

The Critical Analysis
Susan Flores

The critical analysis project helps students plan their research paper in four parts: 1) Choosing a source and 2) Rewriting the source, 3) Critically analyzing the source, and last but not least, 4) Completing a rough draft for peer review.

LhotaEffectiveAssignDesign (doc)

Concurrent Session 3
1:00 pm to 1:50 pm

Making the Rewrite Real
Room LL12
Lead Presenter: Steve Beatty

Discusses an approach to making the rewrite a real re-visioning of the paper as opposed to the often artificial rewrite necessitated by the time limits of a course.

Student Evaluations: Raising Scores, Understanding Departmental Usage
Room LL02
Lead Presenter: Zach Waggoner
Member: Judith Van    

This presentation will provide audience members with strategies that can help teachers raise their student evaluations and will discuss departmental usages of student evaluations as well.

WaggonerVanRaisingStudEvals (doc)

Effective Online Discussions and Online Writing Portfolios
Room: LL60
Lead Presenter: Tom Skeen,
Members: Shavawn M. Berry, MPW
& Heather Hoyt

This 50-minute session will be held in a 30-minute roundtable format with 20 minutes for further discussion with attendees.

Re-Defining Active Learning: Collaborative and Constructivist Strategies
Room LL10                    
Lead Presenter: Michael A. Pfister, Ph.D. Student, English Literature, Arizona State University
Members: Rita Hendin, Ph.D. Faculty Associate, English, Arizona State University

Our group will be focusing on two prominent pedagogical tools in the college composition classroom: PowerPoint Lectures and Student Groups. We hope to further a discussion of active learning strategies that position a student centered classroom as fundamental to the facilitation of individual and collective
intellectual growth.

PfisterInteractivePPTs (ppt)
PfisterInteractiveLectures (doc)
PfisterHyperlinkExample (ppt)

Americana: Developing Audience Awareness through Greeting Cards, Commercials, and Drive-in Theatres
Room LL14
Lead Presenter: Mandy Solomon

This presentation will demonstrate how various texts that pertain to Americana (artifacts/events that reflect American culture) can be utilized in the classroom to raise students’ awareness of effective communication.  The first part of the presentation will cover activities that introduce students to audience awareness such as viewing then analyzing commercials, and writing greeting cards and letters.  The second part of the presentation will feature texts used to familiarize students with Americana and writing essays of definition.  These same texts are also utilized as models to show students strategies authors use to communicate with their audience.  Steps in the writing process and how they relate to audience awareness, such as essay plans, personal workshops, and peer reviews, will also be discussed.

Assignment Contest Winners

• Marian Crotty, "What Not to Write"
• Steve Beatty "Peer (Group) Grading: An Alternative to the Peer Edit"
• Adelheid Thieme, "ENG 102 Mini Lesson: Rhetorical Analysis of an Argument"
• Shavawn M. Berry, "Creating Effective and Inspiring Online Writing Portfolios"

Conference Report (PDF)