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Over the next few months we will be building up this section of the Web site as we continue our work on the Davis Foundation Fellowship. Please check back for updates!
Creating a Consistent Culture of Writing at Brandeis
With the help of the Davis Educational Foundation, the members of the writing program aim to significantly improve the writing skills of Brandeis graduates by extending the systematic application of writing pedagogy into our upper-level writing-intensive course across the curriculum.
A core group of faculty from various disciplines including politics, biology, sociology and English literature is working together to develop a set of standards for teaching and evaluating writing in the various disciplines. These 2008-09 Davis Faculty Fellows will teach writing-intensive courses during the spring term with the help of graduate student teaching fellows who are specially trained in the teaching of writing.
During the first year of the grant, we will introduce a systematic assessment process, which will include an online e-portfolio system on which examples of student papers can be uploaded, evaluated and compared against the new standards. As part of this assessment, we will use writing samples from upper-level students in writing-intensive classes that have not implemented the new standards and pedagogy as a "control group" to test the effectiveness of the methods.
To further the reach of these initiatives, six more faculty members and six more graduate students will join the program in 2009-10 and continue the discussion on writing at Brandeis University.