WRRS is engaged in many projects win which we partner with other University units in ways that promote writing, reading, and rhetoric. The following partnerships are among our outstanding activities.
A Research and Development Project for the Improvement of Writing at PSU
Currently, we are conducting a systematic program of research and development to examine broadly the many sites in which writing instruction takes place throughout the university curriculum, to describe the current status of student writing abilities, and to gather the perspectives of all stakeholders—faculty, students, and community business partners. Our findings should provide a solid research-based foundation on which to improve existing methods of writing instruction and propose new ones.
Our research program will move through three stages in five years. Its goal is to survey students, faculty, and potential employers before designing experimental writing courses/programs, whose effectiveness will be field-tested. These new approaches will, in a sense, "reform" our recent curricular reform.
We are especially grateful for the PSU Foundation Faculty Development Grant and the Faculty Enhancement Program Grant for their contributions of over $12,000, which has helped made this project possible.
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The Academus Project
The PSU Challenge Program and McCullough Research are jointly sponsoring the Academus Project, [link to full Academus grant] a yearlong pilot study designed to enhance student achievement and improve college readiness by introducing computer technology to college-level English classes taught at Grant High School. The Academus team includes Karen Tosi, Sally Hudson, Chris Dreyer, Hildy Miller, and Zapoura de Ramos. Now well into its first phase, this project builds on the already successful and established Challenge Program in which college courses such as First Year Composition and Survey of British Literature are taught on site at local high schools by high school faculty working in partnership with PSU faculty. Beginning with one teacher’s classes, students have been provided with laptop computers linked to the PSU library and its vast electronic storehouse of global resources for learning. With this access, traditional readings in a literature course expand to include literary glossaries and concordances, intertextual readings, literary and nonliterary online texts, and primary and secondary research material of all sorts including author and sociohistorical sites. Traditional writing in a writing course expands to include increased technological competence, writing processes of inventing, drafting, revising, and editing using technology, online communication with the instructor and other students, electronic research, citation manuals, and the opportunity to create electronic portfolios used increasingly for college applications. Furthermore, PSU faculty whose research expertise lies in these scholarly areas can enter the high school classroom by delivering online lectures or engage in dialogue with students on topics ranging from Shakespeare’s tragedies to the history of rhetoric. In fact, students can even journey electronically to the Globe Theatre or to ancient Athens. Ultimately, the Academus project aims to demonstrate that this experiment in “learning without walls” and forging a close link between the University and the community can be accomplished at a manageable cost. If it proves to be successful in significantly enhancing student learning in its first phase, the project will expand to more classrooms in more disciplinary fields in high schools throughout the Portland metro area and beyond.
We are grateful to private donor McCullough Research and the PSU Challenge Program for their contributions totaling $40,000, which has made this project possible.
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Improving Student Transition from High School to College Project
During 2004-6 Hildy Miller, Sydney Thompson, Grace Dillon, and Jens Larson joined with English and other faculty from many Oregon universities, colleges, and high schools in working to articulate better the transition students make from high school to college. A FIPSE grant of $50,000 awarded to University of Oregon to distribute amongst the projects of participating institutions provided the funds to undertake this effort.
Our project partnered one of our first year composition classes with a senior English class at Glencoe high school. Many students there do not see attending college as a viable option. So our first year students collaboratively wrote a “survival manual” from a college student perspective, including such important advice as how to finance schooling and how to choose the appropriate college. For their part, the Glencoe students researched possible schools for further education and filled out application forms, though, of course, it was up to them whether they actually sent them. The project culminated with a panel of first year composition students traveling to Glencoe high school and appearing on a panel for a question-answer exchange with students there. As a result of this student to student interaction, many Glencoe students began to envision themselves entering college.
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Tenure Track Faculty Development Writing Support Project
In year 2005-6, WRRS partnered with the Center for Academic Excellence in setting up a writing consulting service for faculty in the Writing Center in order to support the scholarship of tenure track faculty at PSU. The initial project funded a yearlong writing consulting services to a dozen faculty members working on such projects as chapters, articles, books, and grants. George Karnezis served as faculty consultant, with Martha Balshem, then director of CAE, Hildy Miller, and Kate Sage and Dan Deweese, former and current writing center coordinators, collaborating in the effort. The yearlong project was successful in supporting many of these faculty through their projects. We hope to resume this service in upcoming years.
We are grateful to the Center for Academic Excellence for their $4,000 contribution, which enabled us to pilot this service.
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