WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
CIIA > SHOWCASE INDEX > SHOWCASE 2007
Center for Instructional
Innovation and Assessment

INNOVATIVE TEACHING SHOWCASE

2007
2008
ISSUE 09

This year's Showcase theme, Creating a Culture of Writing, honors three faculty members who embed the writing process into their coursework and engage students with quality writing assignments.

THEME 

Robert Mitchell, associate professsor in the Department of Geology, infuses disciplinary writing into his science courses and helps bring his students a better awareness of the importance of appropriate writing both within the field and in their future professions.


Julia Sapin, assistant professor in the Department of Art, focuses on writing in all of her courses, providing writing opportunities that use different strategies and levels of intensity. She then uses her writing assignments as a way to enhance classroom discussions that explore the rich artistic traditions of Japan and the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest.


Kathleen Saunders, lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, utilizes extensive writing in her large introductory courses, hoping to better prepare students for the rigor of upper division writing. She believes such experiences help students enhance their academic knowledge and discovery.


One of the most powerful ways of helping students build and change their knowledge structures is to have them write for themselves as audience—to explain things to themselves before they have to explain them to someone else.

— Sue McLeod, Writing Across the Curriculum