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Programming Overview
Reading and Writing in the Disciplines is a bold new multiple certificate pathway and engagement practice designed to meet the ongoing needs of reading and writing instruction for all disciplines. These programs are done as a mixture of fully-online, self-paced courses, or webinars. Please note a consultation and teaching artifact submission are asked for both certificates.
Writing in the Disciplines Certificate on Hold and All-New Program!
Starting this Fall 2020 Semester, join our new program launch of Active Learning Online: Reading Apprenticeship! This new program is specifically for supporting faculty in leveraging their reading in classes through Active Learning Strategies and the Reading Apprenticeship Framework. See below for more details.
For the Fall 2020 Semester our Writing in the Disciplines Certificate Program is currently on hold. Please look for its hybrid return!
Reading and Writing in the Disciplines: Our Approach
Every year CETL receives many requests from faculty from all different disciplines for support and best practices on reading and writing instruction in their field. In response, our CETL Faculty Fellow for Reading and Writing, Dr. Margaret Finnegan, who has helped us develop two new certificate series that will introduce you to best writing practices and provide tips for lightening the grading load.
Dr. Finnegan has worked at Cal State LA for over 15 years and received her PhD in History from UCLA. Her work has appeared in American Quarterly, College Composition and Communication, The Los Angeles Times and other publications. She is also the author of Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women (Columbia University Press) and her middle-grade novel We Could Be Heroes is forthcoming from Atheneum Books for Young Readers. With her diverse experiences and scholarly practice, Margaret has honed the best and most practical strategies to approach reading and writing at the university level.
We strongly encourage any faculty who assigns reading or writing in their class to join us in this important work!
Consults and Office Hours
Active Learning Online: Reading Apprenticeship Workshops and Descriptions
This pathway consists of 6 workshops. One required Initial Workshop and 5 Elective Active Learning Teaching Practice, or shorter workshops. You'll need to complete the one initial workshop and 3 of the 5 other electives to qualify for the final practice and certificate.
To complete the program and earn the certificate, faculty should expect to:
- Participate in at least 4 Active Learning Online: Reading Apprenticeship workshops.
- Choose one of the RA strategies that you learn.
- Create a video of you introducing and then modeling the strategy.
- Create a Canvas assignment or discussion board that asks students to use the strategy themselves. You should embed the video you made into the assignment or discussion board.
- Submit your completed assignment or discussion board.
- Do an exit interview/consultation with a CETL staff member.
Active Learning and the Reading Apprenticeship Framework (prerequisite for all workshops in this series)
This webinar provides an overview of the RA model and how we’ve internalized it at Cal State LA. Instructors will learn about the 4 dimensions of reading and practice using one of our favorite Active Learning Reading techniques, the Think Aloud!
Workshop Duration: 1.5 Hours
Creating Safe & Collaborative Learning Environments
This active webinar will introduce instructors to the best ways to make reading part of the culture of your course. In this demonstration and practice, we will model how to do a classroom community agreement and reading list, to provide appropriate and safe conditions for teaching reading.
Workshop Duration: 45-minutes
Evidence Interpretation Charts
This active webinar will introduce instructors to a best practice for making reading into an active process of understanding and reflection. In this demonstration and practice, we will model how to use Evidence Interpretations Charts with readings; both individually and collaboratively.Getting the GIST
This active webinar will introduce instructors to the power and struggle of making summaries. In this demonstration and practice, we will model how to use the GIST summary strategy as a more dynamic and reflective way to summarize texts both with and for students.Just the Facts
This active webinar will introduce instructors to the best ways to make reading an active process for students. In this demonstration and practice, we will model how to preview readings with your students as well as how to use reciprocal teaching to add to layers of understanding and reading accountability.Talking to the Text
This active webinar will introduce instructors to a best practice for making reading an active and metacognitive process. This webinar explicitly focuses on highlighting the Expert/Novice divide when it comes to reading.Writing in the Disciplines Workshops and Descriptions
This pathway consists of 5 workshops. All workshops are required but focus on techniques for assigning writing and addressing feedback and grading.
To complete the program and earn the certificate, faculty should expect to:
- Attend and participate in all five workshops.
- Incorporate best reading and writing practices into your syllabus/course schedule.
- Incorporate best reading and writing practices into ONE assignment.
- Conference at least once with CETL staff about what you've done.
Threshold Writing Concepts (prerequisite for all workshops in this series)
Threshold concepts get at the heart of not only what you know in a discipline, but how you think and act in one. Unpack key threshold writing concepts and learn how you can use them—paired with your disciplinary expertise--to help students with metacognition, transfer of knowledge, and real-world writing situations.
Workshop Duration: 1.5 Hours
Feedback that Counts
Drowning in papers? Learn best practices for responding meaningfully to student writers without sacrificing your sanity or writing integrity. Please bring a student writing sample to practice on!
Workshop Duration: 1.5 Hours
Not your Grandma’s Grammar Workshop
Tired of playing the grammar cop? Drawing on meta-analyses of grammar and writing instruction, this workshop shares tips and activities for helping students (and graders) deal with grammar demons.Making Writing Matter
Research suggests that students find writing assignments meaningful when they foster personal agency, build social engagement, and provide opportunities for knowledge transfer. Learn how to design assignments that leverage these powerful factors and improve student learning. Please bring a writing assignment that you think might be ready for updating.Just the Facts
Are your students struggling with choosing and using evidence? We’ve got you covered. This workshop provides active-learning strategies for helping students identify credible sources, select relevant evidence, and integrate quotations, paraphrases and summaries into writing.Workshops & Events
Certificates & Transcripts
Have you completed all the workshops? Need to request your certificate or transcripts?
Complete the CETL Faculty Development Transcript request form.
