About the DRW
People
Courses
News & Events
First-Year Writing
First-Year Forum
ProgramsUnitsResources |
Linda Ferreira-Buckley, Chair | Parlin 3 | 1 University Station, Mail Stop B5500 | Austin, TX 78712-0200 | 512.471.6109
SPURS Students Partnering for Undergraduate Rhetoric Success There's no denying that the transition from high school writing to college writing is a challenging one. College freshmen are generally required to produce more papers than high school seniors—and in less time—and the assignments they receive often look quite different from those they've previously encountered. The adjustment can be particularly daunting for students from high schools that are under-represented at UT, who face special challenges in getting the preparation they need for success in college writing. So what kind of writing needs to be happening at the high school level to make the transition to college writing easier? SPURS, Students Partnering for Undergraduate Rhetoric Success, was designed to address that question.
Graduate student AI's Jim Warren and Kristin Cole piloted SPURS in 2005-2006, working with high school groups at Reagan High (Austin) and Beaumont Central (Beaumont). This year the program has expanded, reaching out to 7 under-represented school districts. SPURS is the culmination of a sustained effort by the Office of School and Community Relations to help high school students become "college ready" writers. In trying to design a program that would have the most impact, Janice Giddings, Program Coordinator for the Office of School and Community Relations, contacted English teachers at urban high schools to find out what would help their students perform at the highest level in writing. "Again and again, I heard the same answer: a connection with a university community." So Giddings approached John Ruszkiewicz, then director of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and together they determined the program's structure and components. "The choice to pair UT classes with Junior AP classes was deliberate," says Giddings, who taught all levels of high school English in her twenty years in public school education. "The most recent released prompts for the AP test have been rhetorical analysis prompts, so to ensure students' success, it makes sense to give them sustained instruction in this type of writing." She also notes that students take their exit-level TAKS test junior year, along with the ACT and SAT, so the program is timed to provide support at the point when it can be most beneficial to students who seek college admission. This year, in addition to rhetorical analysis, the students will also write "synthesis essays," which are researched arguments similar to those required of RHE306 students. The program requires close partnership between the DRW assistant instructors and the teachers from the participating high schools. During the summer, UT hosts a workshop in which DRW faculty, AI's, and participating high school teachers review and discuss the curriculum and agenda for the coming year. And throughout each semester, AIs are in frequent communication with the seasoned teachers at the participating schools, an experience Jim Warren, program coordinator of SPURS, describes as "humbling." "Until I became a colleague of these teachers and observed their working conditions on a daily basis, I never appreciated what a Herculean task it is to be a high school English teacher," Warren says.
But Warren sees evidence of the program's impact already. "The main thing [SPURS has done], beyond making these students more sophisticated writers, is that it has demystified college, or UT, material. [The high school students'] interaction with DRW Assistant Instructors, and especially UT students, makes them part of the UT community, and they quickly realize they belong." And he contends that as much as the program benefits high school writers, it also benefits the UT students--especially the freshmen--who participate in it. "UT is a tough place for 18-year-olds who are on their own for the first time. One of the ways students sometimes cope, I think, is by retreating into a shell of self-preservation...By participating in SPURS, UT freshmen are constantly reminded that their expertise is needed, that there are young people out there who want to emulate them, that they already have something to give back." Participating Instructors
|
Each semester, SPURS pairs RHE 306 and 309 classes with junior AP English classes from under-represented school districts across Texas. Students in the paired classes learn the principles of rhetorical analysis and participate in classroom activities to reinforce those concepts. Then the UT students and instructors read essays written by the high school classes and offer suggestions to help them revise and refine their work. 
Sometime next year, OFSR will have hard evidence of the program's success. They are currently running pre- and post-tests to measure improvement in the students' writing, and have hired a certified standardized-test scorer to make the assessment.