KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Writing Across the Curriculum Certification Program
Option A: On-Campus Workshop Series.
The medium is the message.
Not information transfer, but knowledge construction through interaction and reflection.
Interactive workshops that focus on topics such as support for reading, assignment design, and response
to student writing.
Coffee, tea, and fruit served.
Winter 2012: 9 sessions, Mon and Thur, 1 – 3:30 PM: Jan . 5, 9, 12, 19, 23, 26, 30,
Feb. 2, 6
Provisional course portfolio due: Thursday, February 16th
Attendance: The KCC WAC Seminar aims to teach about the uses of reading/writing by having faculty
experience writing-intensive ways of interacting with others in a series of workshops that build on one
another. For this reason, you need to be able to do the reading and writing homework, find time to think
about and restructure your course, and attend all the sessions.
Because the very substance of the work of the course is located in the space it provides for reflection,
feedback from others, and discussion, being late or needing to leave early would be disruptive to the work
of the group and counterproductive to your own learning processes.
For the same reasons, you need to be able to attend all the sessions. It is our hope that the topics and our
discussions of them will build on one another. Dialogue is at the center; thus listening is also key. The
work will be recursive.
Note: Should you have to miss a session, you will be expected to do the work for that session and submit
it to the facilitator, using the online Blackboard tutorial as a guide.
A Focus on Your Own Learning Process: Seminar participants are drawn from throughout the college,
from disparate disciplines and programs. Central to our pedagogy is the assumption that there is always
something to be learned by listening carefully to the ideas of others, and by talking about your own views
and concerns. At every moment, the question will be, “What can you take with you from this interactive
experience that might move you forward in your own thinking about the kind of teaching and the learning
that you want to go on in your course?” Short form: What will you take with you?
Homework: The reading assignment will always include a chapter from John Bean’s Engaging Ideas
with a reflective writing task. You will also often need to redesign some aspect of your teaching of your
course and bring it to the session (revise an old assignment, create a new one, introduce a new practice
into the course). Estimated time required: 2 hours of homework for each session.
Of course we know that learning doesn’t occur in lockstep, one workshop at a time. It may take time for
new versions of your course to take shape in your imagination. At the same time, change is facilitated
through incremental activity. For this reason it is important to keep up with the assignments, however
provisional they may seem in the moment.
Working with a Writing Fellow: You will be able to work with a Writing Fellow partner during both the
Winter workshops and the Spring semester. He/she will function as a special interlocutor on your course
planning and piloting.
Handouts and the book: The seminar experience has always involved a lot of handouts. You’ll want to
create a special notebook or bag for your WAC work so that all the various handouts that support our
work will be handy during the seminar. Please bring them to every session.
Blackboard component: Once a week, participants will be expected to post an original contribution to
the WAC conversation on our WAC Blackboard site’s Discussion Board. Please read the postings of
others, and respond to at least 2 colleagues’ posts.
Timeframe: Winter 2012
Begin in early January and finish by the middle of February. Submit your provisional course
portfolio by: Thursday, February 16th.
Provisional portfolio: Revised syllabus, new assignments, a reflective statement that
describes the revised course and the thinking that went in to its creation. Include your
“inquiry question” for the semester concerning your teaching of the course.
Step 2: Pilot your course during the SP 2012 semester
Receive a course cap of 25 and the support of a Writing Fellow (who will attend class once a
week throughout the semester.) As you pilot, consider the effectiveness of what you do and how
well your revised assignments are working. Discuss the course with your Writing Fellow on a
regular basis. Collect samples of student work in response to your assignments. (Estimated time
required: 2 hrs/wk. for reflection, meeting with Fellow.)
Step 3: Final, Revised “Certification Course Portfolio”
At the end of the semester, write about your experience teaching this course for the first time.
Revise what needs to be revised, and assemble a new course portfolio: (Est. time: 10 hrs)
Elements: A table of contents. A checklist. A reflective statement. A revised
syllabus. Copies of significant assignments with sample student work attached.
Due date:
June 30, 2012 (Submission date firm. No exceptions)
Upon submission of the final course portfolio, you are eligible for 3 hrs of release time or
cash payment @ 60% of your hourly rate.