Krista Varanyak (University of Virginia), Rich Ross (University of Virginia)
Abstract
As educators and statisticians, we acknowledge written communication is important and we hope that by the end of their academic experiences, students will have the writing skills needed to succeed in their careers. However, there is not typically dedicated time spent teaching students how to do this well. Further, after we acknowledge the expectation gap on student writing and begin to think about incorporating writing into statistics courses, especially large lecture-based ones, the task becomes a daunting one. In this session, we will describe some common challenges and propose solutions with writing in large statistics classes. Then, we will walk through two examples of taking a writing centered approach to an assignment - one which focuses on how to preserve your chosen learning objectives, and one which focuses on how to preserve time spent grading. For each example, we’ll show one strategy for shifting towards writing, then provide time for participants to discuss parallel strategies. We will conclude the session by providing scaffolding and resources on how to implement these practices on your own assignments and activities. We will also provide time for those in attendance to create a plan for an existing assignment. Participants will learn how to 1) preserve your chosen learning objectives, 2) do so in a time-efficient manner and 3) implement these ideas for an existing assignment. We encourage participants to bring an assignment which they’d like to workshop or revitalize.