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OHIO instructors are invited to join a spring 2025 Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on “Helping College Students Write.”

Many educators struggle to help students with writing, an important skill for intellectual development and employability. In this FLC, facilitators will guide discussion around common challenges in supporting student writing development and provide concrete strategies for addressing them effectively.

Grounded in the scholarship on writing pedagogy and the facilitators’ lived experience as faculty, dissertation chair and writing coach, this FLC will offer participants resources appropriate for an increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse student population.  

will utilize a discussion-based format to identify common challenges with helping students write, particularly in courses where writing is required, but not the subject at hand. Facilitators will invite participants to brainstorm and share the concerns that brought them to the FLC.

With the book “Helping College Students Write: A Guide for Educators,” facilitators will provide tips for incorporating information about topic generation, search/research skills, effective writing practice, peer review and revision into courses with limited time for writing instruction.  

Additionally, they will discuss strategies for offering feedback that is thoughtful and useful to students, build awareness of a variety of cultural and linguistic similarities and differences that may be present in any classroom, and explore various methods for making writing accessible to all students. Participants will brainstorm additional strategies based in their own experiences and expertise.

Outcomes

• Participants will gain strategies for producing higher quality feedback students can understand and act upon. 
• Participants will acquire tools to help students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds write more effectively. 
• Participants will develop strategies for their own time/energy/bandwidth management in the student feedback process. 
• Participants will consider a variety of approaches to ensure accessible writing pedagogy for all students.

FLC meetings

The FLC will meet from 4 to 5 p.m., Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25. Location TBD with hybrid option.

Facilitators

• Laura Harrison, professor, Counseling and Higher Education; Patton College of Education
• Rebecca Challenger, professor of instruction, Ohio Program of Intensive English, College of Arts and Sciences

Additional information

FLC participants who complete the experience and share course assignments/materials developed and/or reflection on their experiences receive a $500 stipend. The FLC is open to 12 participants. The deadline to apply is Dec. 16