Download Literacy Practices Across the Curriculum

Literacy Practices Across the
Curriculum
Dr. John Wittman; Department of English
Purpose
• To explore to what extent courses in the writing
program had on student writing across the
curriculum
• To determine how students’ literacy practices
developed during their tenure as CSU
Stanislaus students
• To better align literacy practice across the
curriculum
Grounded Theory
• Data
– Student interviews
– Faculty interviews
– Writing samples (ENGL 1000 to WP courses)
• Analysis
– Coding with MaxQDA: open, axial, and selective
– Rubric Analysis: CWPA and Frameworks
– Source Analysis; Critical Thinking
• Fall 2011; Various graduate students (CEGE)
Source Analysis
Data Coding
 Green – Plagiarism
 Purple – Patchwriting
 Blue – Quoting
 Red – Student’s own words (explication, when
needed)
Every individual respects the values and traditions of
India. Since Indians respected their culture, they were also
treated with respect… In the essay, Indian boyhood by
Charles Eastman, Charles talks about where he grew up
and what the society and his family expected of him. He
was given a role that he had to live up to in order to make
his family and society happy. Charles Eastman said that in
India “the boys were trained in the skills of the hunter and
warrior while girls learned to cook. To make clothing, and
to build shelter (111). In America, boys and girls do not have
a set role that the society expects of the person.
Regardless of where the UV rays are coming from, they are still
dangerous. Tanning beds have higher overall levels of UV rays than the sun
on a typical day, so the exposure times are shorter than the average session
spent in the sun to achieve the same amount of tan. Kevin Cooper, professor
and chair of the department of dermatology at Case Western Reserve
University was quoted as saying “I am not satisfied with the message that
burning is bad, but tanning is good. There’s no way you can get a tan
without damaging the skin, that’s what the tan is” (Tanning Beds and
Cancer). Kevin’s claim makes it clear for anyone to see that tanning beds are
in fact not something to be used. The fifteen minutes a person spent in a
tanning bed is equivalent to almost if not more than three hours in the sun.
This is what mainly increases the risk of having multiple types of harmful
effects.
Speaking on terms of the whole world, facebook is actually extremely
popular. If you didn’t know already, seventy percent of active facebook users
don’t live in the United States. This is an incredibly large percentage and I was
actually surprised that most of the users weren’t United States citizens. In this
perspective, facebook is a great resource for, let’s say, businesses trying to get
some publicity, individuals trying to become famous, or even for the Arab
protestors. “Many have called, via Facebook, for the need to organize a
peaceful protest in the capital Nouakchot against deteriorating economic and
social conditions” (Friday protests rage across Arab World). It’s also a way for
anyone in the army to keep in touch with their families.
Lessons Learned
Students are not critically reading sources:
• that students are patchwriting (changing
sources only slightly and passing the writing off
as their own)
• selecting poor sources (“Tanning” article from
buysteriods.net)
• plagiarizing several sources in a single paper
(which is often less than three pages itself)
• completely mischaracterizing sources and quote
mining
End Result
• Trading one functional idea of writing (MLA
format, 5 paragraph essay) for another
(organization, transitions, etc.)
• Ceiling to academic literacy—growth slows as
functional/conventional strategies are obtained
• No deep engagement with sources
• GE courses do not overlap in content or
curriculum
Intervention Protocol
• Development of a critical reading curriculum
• Discipline specific pathways—nursing students
in ENGL 1001
• Negotiating (humanities) disciplinary needs with
content from other fields