The DRW prides itself on setting high standards for student performance in rhetoric and writing. We are also committed to helping high school teachers prepare students to meet those standards upon entering college rhetoric courses.
To meet that objective, we’ve compiled a list of web resources to support the effective teaching of writing. They explain our performance expectations, provide handouts and other tools to support writing instruction and evaluation, and offer examples of the kind of feedback students can expect to receive in DRW courses and other SWC (Substantial Writing Component) courses.
We’ve also provided some information on our outreach efforts to high schools in school districts that are under-represented at UT Austin.
WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
The Writing Across the Curriculum initiative within the College of Liberal Arts seeks to ensure that UT undergraduate students receive consistently high-quality writing instruction. WAC was created in response to accumulating evidence that students improve their writing substantially when they write not just in English or rhetoric classes, but also in courses not typically thought of as "writing classes."
This site provides sample handouts and assignments, tips for teaching the writing process and developing evaluative criteria, and suggestions for responding to student writing efficiently and effectively. It also contains a section explicitly developed to support high school writing instruction.
UNDERGRADUATE WRITING CENTER
"Any UT student. Any paper assignment. Any stage of the writing process"--that's the UWC's motto. But the materials at this site provide practical support for teaching writing to high school students, too. We’ve posted downloadable handouts on research, grammar, punctuation, and documentation; and our e-tutor, VIRGIL, provides step-by-step advice to guide students through a variety of writing tasks. You may also enjoy browsing the most recent edition of Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, which is edited by the administrators and consultants who work here.
THE LEARNING RECORD ONLINE
Looking for a simple, user-friendly eportfolio grading system? Try the Learning Record. Working with a team of scholars from around the world, Professor Peg Syverson and UT graduate student instructors have adapted The Learning Record into a simple Word format. Both K-12 and college-level LR forms are available for your perusal, along with a Teacher's Manual and Reference Guide.
Originally designed for K-12 use by the Center for Language and Learning, the Learning Record allows students and teachers to assess a students' progress not on the basis of a few major assignments, but on a diverse array of evidence collected over the course of a term. It provides a means of measuring how much students' mastery in various dimensions of learning has developed over time, regardless of their proficiency upon entering the course. In some cases, completed Learning Records have served as the necessary evidence to help previously rejected students gain admission into colleges.
UT LIBRARY WEBSITE: USEFUL REFERENCE SITES
Bring the UT Library system right into your classroom! Many of the reference materials at The University of Texas Libraries website are accessible to non-UT users.
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH
Founded in 1911, the NCTE strives to promote literacy and enable students to use language to participate fully in society. Their website provides lesson plans, professional readings about best practices, updates on policy issues in education, and tips about where to publish student writing, as well as many other useful materials.
PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS
RHETORIC AND WRITING FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH
The DRW offers RHE360M, a course that allows future teachers of English to become familiar with current theories in composition studies and to consider how these theories may inform the way they teach and evaluate writing.
Enrollment in Rhetoric and Writing for Teachers of English is restricted to students enrolled in UTeach Liberal Arts, a collaboration between the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Education. UTeach seeks to improve teacher preparation and certification processes from the ground up by providing each future teacher with extensive content preparation, integrated university courses on teaching, and ample supervised teaching experience in middle-school and secondary-school settings.
STUDENTS PARTNERED FOR UNDERGRADUATE RHETORICAL SUCCESS (SPURS)
To help high school students prepare for the rigors of undergraduate writing courses, the DRW and Office of School and Community Relations have developed SPURS: Students Partnered for Undergraduate Rhetoric Success.
Each semester, SPURS pairs RHE 306 classes with junior AP English classes from school districts across Texas. Over the course of the semester, students in each pair of classes read a common text, learn the principles of rhetorical analysis, and participate in activities to reinforce those concepts. Then the UT students and their instructors read the papers written by the high school students and offer constructive suggestions for revision.
Directed and run by graduate student instructors, SPURS is reaching out this year to 7 school districts that are underrepresented at UT.
FACULTY OUTREACH TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS
To provide support for writing at every educational level, many of our faculty visit campuses to provide workshops in educational practices, writing instruction, and evaluation for primary and secondary school teachers.
In September 2006 Peg Syverson facilitated a one-day workshop on The Right Use of Power: Ethics for the Helping Professions, an educational program designed by Cedar Barstow, at St. Alcuin Montessori in Dallas. Currently she is assisting faculty and staff as they incorporate the Learning Record school-wide to create a public record of students' achievements and progress.