DOCUMENT RESUME ED 454 552 CS 217 641 AUTHOR McLeod, Susan H., Ed.; Miraglia, Eric, Ed.; Soven, Margot, Ed.; Thaiss, Christopher, Ed. TITLE WAC for the New Millennium: Strategies for Continuing Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Programs. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-5648-7 PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 358p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 56487-1659: $27.95, members; $37.95 nonmembers). Tel: 800-369-6283 (Toll Free); Web site http://www.ncte.org. PUB TYPE Books (010)-- Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC15 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Computer Uses in Education; Educational Change; English (Second Language); Higher Education; Interdisciplinary Approach; Literature Reviews; Naturalistic Observation; Peer Teaching; *Politics of Education; Program Evaluation; *Service Learning; Tutoring; *Writing Across the Curriculum; Writing Laboratories; Writing Research ABSTRACT Celebrating the achievements of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) by highlighting the promise of its future, this book presents 12 essays that describe how WAC programs have adapted and continue to adapt to meet new challenges. Essays in the book explain strategies for continuing WAC programs in an atmosphere of change; explore new avenues of collaboration, such as service learning and the linked-course curricula of learning communities, and predict areas into which WAC programs need to move; and suggest new directions for research on writing across the curriculum. After a foreword by Elaine P. Maimon, essays in the book are: (1) "Writing Across the Curriculum in a Time of Change" (Susan H. McLeod and Eric Miraglia);(2) "Accommodating Complexity: WAC Program Evaluation in the Age of Accountability" (William Condon); (3) "WAC Wired: Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum" (Donna Reiss and Art Young); (4) "Writing Across the Curriculum and Service Learning: Kairos, Genre, and Collaboration" (David A. Jolliffe); (5) "Is It Still WAC? Writing within Interdisciplinary Learning Communities" (Terry Myers Zawacki and Ashley Taliaferro Williams); (6) "ESL Students and WAC Programs: Varied Populations and Diverse Needs" (Ann M. Johns); (7) "The Politics of Literacy Across the Curriculum" (Victor Villanueva); (8) "Writing Centers and WAC" (Joan A. Mullin); (9) "Curriculum-Based Peer Tutors and WAC" (Margot Soven);(10) "Writing Intensive Courses and WAC" (Martha A. Townsend);(11) "Where Do the Naturalistic Studies of WAC/WID Point? A Research Review" (David R. Russell); and (12) "Theory in WAC: Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going?" (Christopher Thaiss). (RS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. D I I I o ti U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 WAC FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM 3 NCTE EDITORIAL BOARD: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Willie Mae Crews, Colleen Fairbanks, Andrea Lunsford, Gerald R. Oglan, Jackie Swensson, Gail Wood, Paul Bodmer, Chair, ex officio, Zarina Hock, ex officio 4 WAC for the New Millennium Strategies for Continuing Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Programs Edited by SUSAN H. MCLEOD University of California, Santa Barbara ERIC MIRAGLIA Washington State University MARGOT SOVEN La Salle University CHRISTOPHER THAISS George Mason University National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 5 We gratefully acknowledge Luis J. Rodriguez, who generously gave us per- mission to reproduce his poem "The Calling," © by Luis J. Rodriguez, from Poems across the Pavement, published 1989 by Tia Chucha Press, Chicago. Staff Editor: Bonny Graham Interior Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf Cover Design: Pat Mayer NCTE Stock Number: 56487-3050 ©2001 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including pho- tocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holder. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teach- ing of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data WAC for the new millennium : strategies for continuing writing-across- the-curriculum programs / edited by Susan H. McLeod. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. "NCTE stock number: 56487-3050"T.p. verso. ISBN 0-8141-5648-7 (pbk.) 1. English languageComposition and exercisesStudy and teaching. 2. Interdisciplinary approach in education. I. Title: Strategies for continuing writing-across-the-curriculum programs. II. McLeod, Susan H. LB1576 .W23 2001 808'.042'071dc21 2001032712 6 CONTENTS FOREWORD Vii Elaine P. Maimon 1 Writing Across the Curriculum in a Time of Change Susan H. McLeod and Eric Miraglia 1 2 Accommodating Complexity: WAC Program Evaluation in the Age of Accountability William Condon 28 3 WAC Wired: Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum Donna Reiss and Art Young 52 4 Writing Across the Curriculum and Service Learning: Kairos, Genre, and Collaboration David A. Jolliffe 86 5 Is It Still WAC? Writing within Interdisciplinary Learning Communities Terry Myers Zawacki and Ashley Taliaferro Williams 109 6 ESL Students and WAC Programs: Varied Populations and Diverse Needs Ann M. Johns 141 7 The Politics of Literacy Across the Curriculum Victor Villanueva 165 8 Writing Centers and WA C Joan A. Mullin 179 9 Curriculum-Based Peer Tutors and WAC Margot Soven 200 10 Writing Intensive Courses and WA C Martha A. Townsend 233 11 Where Do the Naturalistic Studies of WAC/WID Point? A Research Review David R. Russell 259 - V Contents 12 Theory in WAC: Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going? Christopher Thaiss 299 INDEX 327 EDITORS 341 CONTRIBUTORS 343 8vi - FOREWORD ELAINE P. MAIMON Arizona State University West The signs are positive that WAC has staying power. WAC for the New Millennium itself testifies that the National Coun- cil of Teachers of English believes that writing across the curricu- lum has a future as well as a past. The first chapter, Susan McLeod and Eric Miraglia's "Writing Across the Curriculum in a Time of Change," gets at the heart of the matter. Like every educational reform movement, WAC has developed within the paradox of the academy, the simultaneous commitment to conservatism (the preservation of knowledge) and to radicalism (the generation of new knowledge). WAC's staying power as aneducational reform movement is based on its resilience in resolving thisparadox. In addition to resolving the paradox inherent in the mission of higher education, leaders of the WAC movement have also navigated well through a key administrative paradox, or Lesson Six, to paraphrase Michael Fullan and Matt Miles's "Eight Basic Lessons for the New Paradigm of Change": Neither Centraliza- tion nor Decentralization Works Alone (both top-down and bot- tom-up strategies are necessary) (see Chapter 1 of thisvolume). My own academic career allows me to reflect on WAC from the bottom up and from the top down. As Joni Mitchell might say, I've looked at WAC from both sides now. I can date my own work in writing across the curriculum to 1974, when as a very junior faculty member at Beaver College (I was on part-time appointment) I wasmade director of first-year composition and simultaneously the flash point for faculty com- plaints about student writing. To my innocent and much younger eyes, it seemed neither sensible nor fair to holdonly one depart- mentEnglishresponsible for students' progress in something vii Foreword so complex and various as writing. If it took a village to educate a child, it certainly took a university to educate a writer. In those early days, I was frequently astonished by allega- tions that the idea of university-wide responsibility for writing was nothing more than a fad. How could something fundamen- tal be called a fad? As I reflect on those early days from my cur- rent vantage point of campus leadership at Arizona State University West, I see that writing across the curriculum has deep roots in long-standing principles of the academy; yet the act of reminding people of those roots necessitates strategies for change. The early leaders of writing across the curriculumHarriet Sheridan, Toby Fulwiler, Art Young, Barbara Walvoord, Chris- topher Thaiss, Charles Moran, Anne Herrington, Susan McLeod, Margot Sovenunderstood that fulfilling the promise of the academy's traditions requires strategies for renewal and change. Moreover, the early leaders exercised a student-centered prag- matism, reflecting the virtues of common sense. It simply made sense, for example, to develop faculty writing workshops. Yet creating this special nonhierarchical space within the university for exchanging ideas about everything from edu- cational values to writing style proved to be revolutionary. Who would have thought? As Michael Fullan, who is cited in McLeod and Miraglia's essay, pointed out two decades later, effective change depends on work done at the local levelwith individual teachers on their pedagogic practice, in collaborative workshop settings. It also made sense to emphasize connections. E. M. Forster's guiding principle, "Only connect," was a motto of the early WAC movement. Connections across disciplines, among faculty mem- bers, and among students were fundamental to learning.