Reliving the History of WAC [electronic resource] : Every Day / Chris Thaiss.
In 1978, when writing across the curriculum (WAC) workshops began at George Mason University, some things were very different from today: (1) an outside speaker who had worked with educators in England testified to the fact that WAC was not just a "whim"; (2) session presentations were mad...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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1997.
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| Summary: | In 1978, when writing across the curriculum (WAC) workshops began at George Mason University, some things were very different from today: (1) an outside speaker who had worked with educators in England testified to the fact that WAC was not just a "whim"; (2) session presentations were made by local high school English teachers who had gone through the first institute of the Northern Virginia Writing Project; and (3) in the workshop announcements the term "writing to learn" was nowhere to be found. Comparisons between this first workshop and WAC today at George Mason attest to the fact that every stage of WAC history is alive and well--this is probably true at most schools. On a hypothetical WAC timeline, different groups of faculty seem to be living at different points in recent history. There are "pre-1978" faculty who either have never heard of WAC or who reject its usefulness if they have heard of it. The "early 1980s" faculty know some terminology, recognize the value of students' writing in disciplines, but have not really applied writing-to-learn techniques nor writing as revision to their own teaching. The "late 1980s" faculty are enthusiastic about WAC and are those most likely to write for the newsletter. The "mid 1990s" faculty teach interactive distance learning courses, lead multi-disciplinary service-learning courses, and serve on the university writing committee. (NKA) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED403597. |
| Physical Description: | 5 pages |
| Preferred Citation of Described Materials Note: | Composition Chronicle: Newsletter for Writing Teachers, v10 n1 p11-12 Feb 1997. |