University of Delaware faculty members in all departments are invited to participate in a workshop Aug. 15-17 that will focus on ways to design and support effective student writing assignments.

Sponsored by UD’s Writing Center, the workshop will meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day in Room 016 in Memorial Hall, where lunch and refreshments will be provided. The workshop is free, but space is limited, and the deadline to register is Aug. 6.

Faculty members know that writing is a fundamental way professionals in many disciplines create and share knowledge, but teaching writing in courses can be challenging.

The workshop is designed to help faculty rethink how the courses they teach can provide students an opportunity to learn the kinds of writing valued in a particular field. Participants will learn strategies to incorporate high-impact writing activities into their courses.

Each day’s session will include mini-presentations, discussions and time to work on syllabi, lesson plans and writing assignments. By the workshop’s end, participants will be better able to:

• Improve student engagement and thinking through “write to learn” activities.

• Better understand how to scaffold the learning of their students, including international students.

• Design a variety of informal and formal writing assignments that allow students to practice the kinds of writing valued in a particular discipline.

• Identify best practices in grammar and mechanics.

• Employ strategies to efficiently and effectively respond to student writing.

• Manage the paper load.

All participants will receive copies of John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom and Gottschalk and Hjortshoj’s The Elements of Teaching Writing: A Resource for Instructors in All Disciplines.

More information is available on the website.