[VPAAEtal] Celebration of Student Writing (thanks!)

[Academic Affairs]

Our first annual first annual Celebration of Student Writing appears to have
made quite an impression. More than 250 students participated in this event,
and many faculty, staff, administrators, and community members came by to
meet these ethnographers, hear about their projects, examine their
artifacts, review their research portfolios, and otherwise celebrate the
interesting research and writing they did for their English 102 classes this
semester. 

 

We have updated our website to include comments about the event and lots of
photographs. Check it out at
http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/csw.htm

 

The outpouring of support has been amazing. We are very proud of the
research and writing going on in our first-year writing courses, and it is
very gratifying indeed to learn we are not alone in that. 

 

Passionate About Learning? As one administrator put it the day after the
event, the Celebration of Student Writing "was a great example of passion in
writing and learning and teaching!" According to another, the "Celebration
of Student Writing was outstanding.  I have been a professor for 40 years
and I have never seen that kind of enthusiasm expressed over a writing
assignment in a required class." Yet another top administrator said of the
event, "I haven't seen that many students engaged in a project, ever!" 

 

Others noted the student's "authority" as researchers and the importance of
having a live audience with whom to share their work and findings.
According to one, "[t]he Celebration of Student Writing was outstanding. The
students who participated were excited and eager to talk about their
projects, and this event was a great venue for them to share their work with
a live audience outside their classrooms." Another describes her experience
this way: "It was refreshing to see student work celebrated rather than
complained about, and the students I talked to were able to speak with real
authority about the work they did."

 

The Celebration of Student Writing was a great day for us. In fact, it may
have been, as one administrator put it, "a great day for our [entire]
university."

 

Please join us again next year for the second, annual Celebration of Student
Writing. We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Shannon Carter (and the rest of the English 102 instructors)

 

Shannon Carter

Assistant Professor of English

Texas A&M-Commerce
shannon_carter at tamu-commerce.edu <mailto:shannon_carter at tamu-commerce.edu> 
http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/
<http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/> 
903-886-5492
 
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