See below the call from Elizabeth Wardle, Director of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence. Note that this requires a team submission involving multiple faculty. You might ask Brooke, Vrinda, and Yvette (featured below) about their experiences if you are interested, and please let me know if you intend to apply.
What is the Howe Faculty Writing Fellows?
This semester-long “master class” is designed to support faculty members and their departments/programs in their efforts to teach their students to write more effectively in their professions/disciplines and to use writing in ways that support deep learning of disciplinary material.
The program is designed on the premise that a) teams can make more lasting and wide-reaching change than individuals b) faculty already have expertise with writing in their disciplines that they can tap into to better help students and 3) a theoretical framework around writing and disciplinary thinking helps faculty design more innovative writing experiences for their students than typical “tips and tricks” workshops.
Participants must attend in teams from their programs or departments. Each Fellows cohort consists of teams from at least three different departments. The goal is to ensure that you have conversation both within your program about how to make change, and that you have the opportunity to talk with faculty from other disciplines about what writing looks like for them.
You can read more here. Since Spring 2017, 55 faculty members from 17 programs and 4 colleges have completed the program. 18 more will complete it by the end of this year.
What do Fellows Do?
During the fall and spring, attendees meet each Monday from 3:30-5. In the summer term, participants meet daily for 3 hours over a two week period.
Fellows read and discuss theory about threshold concepts in their disciplines and about writing, and read theory and research on transfer of knowledge, how learning works in relation to writing, and linguistic conventions of texts across disciplines. They engage in frequent brainstorming activities and share their own practices and ideas with teams from other departments.
At the end of the program, teams have time to work on a project of their own choosing related to writing in their programs/departments, which they then present to the other teams and take back to their departments.
What Does This Look Like in Practice?
If you would like to see what other teams have to say about their experiences, please read these Miami Writing Spotlight features:
History: “Crossing Thresholds”
Gerontology: “Discovering the Voice of Gerontology”
Development Psychology: “A Howe Fellows Journey”
You can see materials that teams have created to explain writing to students here.
Who Can Participate and What are the Incentives?
Teams should primarily consist of continuing faculty (tenure-line or lecturer, for example) in order to ensure there is continuity in implementation of ideas across time. Exceptions can be made in some circumstances, so please ask if you have questions. Departments who have not had teams participate previously will receive first priority. Teams from both Oxford and Regional campuses are welcome.
All individuals who complete the program receive $2,000 in professional development funds.
Departments whose teams complete the programs have access to additional services from the Howe Center for Writing Excellence, including grants for related research and curriculum development; embedded writing center consultants in their classrooms; collaborative research projects; department-wide workshops and more.
How Do You Sign Up?
If you are interested, please email Liz at [email protected] and tell her which department/program you represent, who else might be interested from your program, and whether you are interested in participating for Fall 2019 or Spring 2020. Depending on interest, we may offer the program in Summer 2019 (a two week program beginning immediately after school ends).
