2 of 24

Design by Halle Cooper and Erin Genia

Halle Cooper and Erin Genia designed the mural on the Kenmore Classroom Building, and 80 people helped created through a collaboration between Keeley Bombard, and BU student groups.

“We recognize that the Boston University community benefits from the ongoing history of Indigenous dispossession, and students at this institution want to engage meaningfully with this reality. Art is a powerful communication tool that we hope can lead to lasting relationships between students and Indigenous communities.”

Language is also a powerful communication tool. I’d like to start today by acknowledging that we are meeting on the unceded ancestral homelands of the Massachusett and Pawtucket Peoples and by paying respect to them and to the neighboring Wampanoag and Nipmuc Peoples of this region—past, present, and future.

This beginning of our work together as teachers of writing is a fitting time to think about the act of acknowledgment—what words can and can’t do. Words are how we make sense of reality and also part of how we constitute reality—not through a single utterance or text, but over time and collectively. Language helps us negotiate shared understandings and helps us act together.

3 of 24

Agenda

Welcomes

Writing Center & superpowers

Language-focused keys

Small group discussions

Portfolio pilot

Kyna Hamill: Core opportunity

Joe Bizup: Language and justice across CAS

4 of 24

New instructors

Writing Program

Courtney Pina Miller

Swati Rani

Noel Reyes

Asha Tall

Abir Ward

…and welcome back, Pary Fassihi!

Romance Studies

Angelica Avcikurt

Kate Lakin-Schultz

Molly Monet-Viera

COM

Lucy Sutherland

CELOP

Catherine Mazur-Jefferies

Welcome!

5 of 24

New directions for the Writing Center

How can we best identify & reach the students that need the most support?

Continuing ELL outreach
Collaboration with DEI, student orgs, BU offices, etc.�

How can we involve all students in the life of the WP & make the writing skills we teach meaningful beyond the classroom?

Social media
Reenvisioning WR Journal�

How do we make WC work meaningful & sustainable for our consultants?

More training initiatives
Further integration into WP culture via coffee hours, advisory panel, etc.

7 of 24

Our students’ “writing superpowers”

Most votes

Thinking creatively, listening to & learning from others, analyzing evidence

Students are confident in their own ideas & in engaging with others’ ideas

Fewest votes

Translating, giving feedback & wordsmithery

Students are less confident in their use of language & in their ability to help peers

8 of 24

Language-Focused Keys: �Giving Students Access to Power with Explicit Attention to Language Across the WP Curriculum

9 of 24

1. BU Center for Antiracist Research

Esqueda, C.W., & Sutherland, T.P., “Linguicism,” Moving Toward Antibigotry: Collected Essays from the Center for Antiracist Research’s Antibigotry Convening (2022)

“The United States holds with a standard English ideology which promotes the use of English and views English language as superior to other languages. This ideology is so pervasive it permeates nearly every social institution and works to the detriment of people of color and immigrants in the United States. [...] Given our changing demographic, where people of color will be the majority, the use of foreign languages and accented speech will become more common. [...] At the same time, our reliance on standard English ideology and linguistic profiling creates inequities and injustice for those with foreign language or accented speech. Our goal should be a reconsideration of the place of language and the norms we rely on for inclusion.”

10 of 24

2. Critical Language Awareness

“Conversations about the writing classroom and curriculum are infused with a growing awareness of linguistic complexity. Now, more than ever, educators are eager for instructional strategies that celebrate and build on students’ linguistic resources. We do not just want to affirm the value of linguistic diversity, however; we also want to promote our students’ rhetorical agency—to empower them to use language for a variety of academic, professional, civic, and personal purposes” (Shapiro, 2022, p. 3).

11 of 24

3. WP Values Statement

“[W]e strive to recognize the whole person–inclusive of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, national origin, language background, and ability. [...] We encourage a diversity of perspectives and opinions while striving to disrupt systems of inequity [...]. [W]e aim to equip students with strategies to participate in academic and non-academic discourse communities, acknowledging that the norms of academic writing, and even language itself, are not static or monolithic but constantly evolving. We recognize the communication strengths of all learners and the value of multiple Englishes, especially in ways that empower our multilingual students. [...] Recognizing that language can be both an instrument of oppression and a tool for freedom and justice, we value how writing and rhetoric help us learn how to listen, how to be heard, and how to change the conversation [...].” � (https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/about/values/)

12 of 24

Past to Present: Language in the WP Curriculum

WP Founding (2001): Prescriptivist approaches to language

Grammar diagnostic (pre/post semester tests) across all levels of the program
Explicit instruction in grammar fine points across all levels of the program

Middle Years: Evolving perspectives on language

WR 111-WR 112 retaining a core focus on style and diction
WR 120 moving away from prescriptivist approaches
WR 15x considering sentence-level choices as style

Recent History: Curricular developments adjacent to language

Alternatives to traditional grading
Focus on genre and also on metacognition/reflection
CLA guest speaker and faculty seminar

Looking Ahead: CLA approaches to language

Building on faculty’s interests and strengths in discussing language
Expanding our repertoire of reflective and metalinguistic strategies
Emphasizing the importance of transparent discussions of language as keys to power

13 of 24

More Thoughts on Language in the Classroom

Language Instruction vs. Critical Language Awareness

Language within a culture of� reflection and discussion

Language connections � to power and inequity

Language concerns as essential, not additional: contextualized �and central to the core work of your class and your content.

14 of 24

Small Group Discussions

What are ways that we can draw on students’ linguistic assets and/or linguistic diversity in our classes?

How can we use conversations about language to raise awareness of the relationship between language and power?

15 of 24

Portfolio Pilot AY 22-23

We recognize the value of metacognition

Our curriculum has changed a lot since we adopted portfolios

Pandemic + changes in the field have led to new ways of incorporating reflection

We can become a better program through consensus on a common portfolio assignment that reflects all of the above

16 of 24

One cumulative WR portfolio

Assigned once at the beginning of the first WR course

Set up outside of class time

Built throughout subsequent WR courses

Include reflections on writerly identity, transferable skills, and theories of writing, as well as products the writer identifies as meaningful from across (and beyond) WR experiences

17 of 24

Fall 2022 (WR 112 or 120)

Literacy Narrative (common

assignment)

Three pieces of reflective writing that the student selects

One polished assignment to feature

By the end of WR 15x

Additional reflections, one featured assignment for each WR course

One piece of writing from a context outside of WR to feature

Final reflection on the cumulative portfolio (common assignment)

18 of 24

Reflection for Metacognition

Reflecting on individual learning or choices made within disciplinary activity to move toward action

Reflection on writing skills, writing processes, scaffolding activities

Reflection on reading skills/techniques

Reflection on feedback and revision

19 of 24

Reflection for Metacognition

Reflecting on individual learning or choices made within disciplinary activity to move toward action

Traditional Reflection

Reflecting on personal knowledge, reactions, experiences, positionality

Reflection on personal relationship to course content, language, genres, etc.

Grappling with Belief Systems

Reflecting on concepts examining broader social elements beyond personal experience

Categories adapted from Goldsmith, Christy, and Birt. (2022). “Expanding Reflective Writing Theory for Inclusive Practice.” Association for Writing Across the Curriculum, online workshop, April 6, 2022.

Critical reflection on academic prose, standard written English, language and power

Reflection on how genres shape writers and how writers shape genres

20 of 24

Building on students’ linguistic resources

21 of 24

Thank you, piloters!

Chris McVey (co-chair)

Brandy Barents

Carroll Beauvais

Amy Bennett-Zendzian

Jake Burg

Maggie Ferguson

Aleks Kasztalska

Maria Gapotchenko

Stephen Hodin

Katherine Lakin-Schultz

Matthew Schratz

David Shawn

Kim Shuckra

Max White

22 of 24

Kyna Hamill

23 of 24

Linguistic Justice, the Writing Program, and the College of Arts & Sciences

A Conversation

Joe Bizup, CAS Assoc. Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs and Policies and former Director of the CAS Writing Program

David Shawn, Assoc. Director for Writing in the Disciplines