Teaching with writing in large classes 

          Teaching a large class does not mean that you cannot ask students to write and thus to gain the learning benefits and experience with disciplinary discourse that writing allows.  Though WIP courses are usually designed for  enrollments of not more than thirty students, some faculty teach writing intensive courses successfully designed for large classes.  Typically, these courses involve the assistance of WIP TAs with breakout/discussion sections.  

          Kathleen McKinney (Illinois State University, kmckinne@ilstu.edu) offers the following ideas for using writing in large classes.  They emphasize writing intensive program pedagogy, which holds that though students need to be given more opportunities to think and write, not all of their writing assignments need be lengthy, nor responded to, nor "graded" in a traditional (and often overly time-and-labor-intensive) way.  They recognize that what students do need is opportunities to become involved with the writing process and opportunities for writing without formal penalties,  as well as opportunities for feedback and  revising.  As McKinney points out, TAs and peers can be important sources of feedback,especially in large classes.   As far as revising goes, it is especially helpful in large classes to  consider that "simply going through the writing process, even without guidance, helps students to become more effective writers" (Bedford Guide to Teaching Writing in the Disciplines 5).   Faculty who design courses and assignments to allow for revising give students an advantage.   Appearing below, McKinney's suggestions show that you can create a writing intensive environment n large courses that are assumed to prohibit such a level of instruction:  

          • DO remember that students learn to write better by writing.  They do not have to have  feedback on all writing (just writing is important).
          • YOU, the primary instructor, do not have to give all the feedback that is given (TAs and peers can do so as well). 

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          • Writing assignments do not have to be lengthy. 
          • Writing can be done individually and in groups.

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          • Writing can be done inside and outside of class. 

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          • Writing assignments can serve dual [actually multiple] purposes: i.e., [students ] are  writing when they draft ideas for a review sheet or write exam questions for you. 

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          • Not all writing has to be required.  [See # 8 below/] 

          Increase writing opportunities without overwhelming yourself and your TAs.  McKinney notes that she has done "all of these types of things in classes of 350 students with one TA":  

          1) Require posting to a class listserv or emails to your TAs.
          2) Have [students] do very short written reactions to readings or summaries or counter  arguments, etc. in or out of class that you simply check off as completed. 

          3) Have them write one or more short papers; part of the assignment and grade is to  exchange their papers with two peers who do peer reviews.  The average of the peer reviews can be their grade.  

          4) Have them write up the first draft of a review sheet of possible essay questions or a  lecture summary handout.  The reward is that they learn, or you can check them off a few  points.  

          5) Have them write what they did learn or didn't understand from a given lectures once per  week or once per month.  No grade.   [Doing these activities might net "participation" or other kinds of points.]

          6) Have them write in response to discussion questions or an application assignment for a few minutes in class as individuals, break into groups and rewrite a stronger response as  a group.  Grade [or count] only the group response (smaller number to grade).  

          7) Have them write good discussion questions for lecture (give a few points credit).  Then use the best ones for a think-pair-share in lecture (that is, each student writes for 2-3 minutes individually on the question, then talks to a neighbor about the question, then  volunteers share theirs with  the whole class). 

          8) Have some writing assignments be optional or for extra credit.  Fewer to grade but  those students who want to learn more and improve their writing more have the  opportunity to do so. 

          9)  Break up lengthy papers into logical subparts and have these due at different points in  the semester to spread out grading.  

          10) Stagger the due dates of a paper so that 1/3 of a class turns it in one week; 1/3 1-2 weeks later; 1/3 later . .  . OR encourage some students to turn papers in early (for extra points or because it is good for their schedule).  
           

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