WAC in the Classroom
Strategies for incorporating WAC
pedagogies into YOUR class!
The WAC philosophy is
applicable to courses in
disciplines throughout
the university.
The main tenets of WAC are:
• Writing is the responsibility of the entire
academic community
• Writing must be integrated across
departmental boundaries
• Writing instruction must be continuous
during all four years of undergraduate
education
• Writing promotes learning and only by
practicing the conventions of an academic
discipline will students begin to
communication effectively within that
discipline
So, how do we incorporate a
WAC model into various kinds
of classes?
And why?
First, we must recognize that
our students are already
writers:
• TXT messaging
• Blogging
• Email
From Susan McLeod’s presentation “What is Writing Across the
Curriculum? What Does a WAC Program Need to Succeed?”
From Susan McLeod’s presentation “What is Writing Across the
Curriculum? What Does a WAC Program Need to Succeed?”
The teaching of writing is not
just the job of “writing
teachers.” Part of WAC’s
mission is to reinforce the
value of writing in and to all
disciplines.
The Colorado School of Mines
WAC website answers many
questions that faculty
consider when presented with
a WAC pedagogical model,
most notably:
"Isn’t teaching writing the job of the high
schools and first-year composition courses?
Why is this being pushed over on us?”
"These students today! I tell ya, they just can't
write! Where do I begin?”
http://www.mines.edu/academic/lais/wc/wac-FAQ.html
Professor Julianne Newmark
“Writing Across Communities: Community Safety
and Health”
Welcome to English 111. Our course will be designed around various
concepts of “community” – this can mean the community from which you
come, the community to which you aspire to belong professionally, or the
community of which you are currently a member, the university community.
We will be “Writing Across Communities” in our course this semester, and I
will ask you to draw upon the writing experiences you have had already to
help you to enter new community discussions. One of the most important
communities we will discuss this term will be the community of our
classroom. We will examine the ways in which our community of students
engages with itself and with the outside world, at various removes. How do
you all – as students – interact with the larger university and its various
academic departments, with the city of Socorro, with New Mexico as a state,
with our nation, and with our world? We will bring all of these various
communities into conversation through the texts that you read and, more
importantly, that you create this semester. How do we express community
through writing? How do we create community through writing?
Key community-building aspects of my course:
• Group discussion
• Non-graded expository exercises
• Peer review exercises
• Writing in various genres
Group Scaffolding Exercise,
as used by a Colorado School of Mines Seniorlevel Geophysics course.
Like a scaffold, each part of this project builds
upon the previous part. Some professors might
incorporate this scaffolding scheme over the
course of an entire semester. I chose to utilize
this model over five weeks.
Four-part project:
1. Problem Definition
2. Audience Analysis
3. Solutions Report
4. Final Problem Solving Report
With creative and innovative assignments, a
WAC model of involving writing across
disciplinary communities and in individual
courses allows writing to “complement--rather
than hinder--course goals,” as the Campus
Writing Program at CSM succinctly states.
WAC at UNM is dedicated to “bridging
boundaries” and enabling students to
communicate across and from various kinds of
communities through writing.
Within your disciplinary community, how might
you incorporate writing in your classroom?
Consider these questions:
1. How do you -- or do you -- use writing in
your class?
2. How could you apply some of the tenets of
the WAC philosophy (as demonstrated by my
class’s scaffolding exercise) to your class?
3. What benefits can you envision from
applying WAC to your class? What challenges
do you envision?