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Articles Conference Reviews |
2007D20OMearaD.20: “Creative Tensions and Coordinated Efforts”: Composition Teachers and Librarians in Collaboration” Overview This session described a successful (and ongoing) project to create a well-integrated information literacy component for a first-year writing course through the collaborative efforts of faculty, librarians and Writing Center tutors at West Virginia University. Judging by the comments at the conclusion of the presentation, the audience appreciated not only the information about information literacy, but also the description of a well-thought-out model of collaboration. The participants collaborated on their presentation as well, interweaving their contributions as the story progressed; a session handout contained a summary of key ideas and a bibliography. Presenters
Context Last spring, a reference librarian at WVU initiated conversations with the English department about jointly developing an information literacy component for English 102, the second course in the required two-course sequence. The department was then completing work on a new course, English 103, which would fulfill the writing requirement for advanced writers. The presenters maintain that piloting an information literacy component in the eight sections of this new course seemed more manageable than introducing it in the seventy-five (75) sections of English 102. Further, the panelists indicate that English 103 instructors already have experience working together during the development of the course, experience that provides a solid foundation for additional collaboration with faculty from the library and the Writing Center. The presenters next provided an overview of English 103, which views writing, reading, and research as intertwined processes, and has course goals based on the WPA Outcomes Statement. Students are required to compile a portfolio, including four major assignments, some informal writing and reflective writing. All but the first assignment require finding and using outside sources. Information Literacy Sessions As a former composition instructor, librarian Kelly Diamond was ideally suited for this project. She acknowledges that she is also committed to helping students realize that writing, reading and research are intertwined processes that mutually inform each other. She also brings to the table information from the long-standing discussion among librarians about information literacy and the place of the library in the university. Diamond discusses how the team made use of the following goals articulated by the Association of College and Research Librarian’s (ACRL) Competency Standard for Higher Education:
Diamond states that, in their model, librarians teach the information literacy sessions. In the fall, the first session emphasizes evaluating information and features the use of Network Solutions to find owners of websites along with a demonstration by well-known research expert Stephen Colbert of the fluidity of Wikipedia information. The second session emphasizes advanced search procedures to help students develop focused research questions. Based on feedback from first-semester students, these sessions have been retooled and three sessions are now offered. Librarians are also the ones who read and respond to the required research logs that result from the sessions; the logs are worth 10% of the final portfolio grade. Writing Center Involvement Collaboration on the English 103 information literacy project offers an opportunity for the Writing Center to move beyond common perceptions of the writing center as a merely supplemental place for remediation and grammar fix-its. Emulating the model established by Stanford’s Writing Center, WVU’s seeks to influence the campus culture of writing, being a place where writing instruction continues beyond the classroom and where instructors across the curriculum can seek help in teaching writing. Also a composition instructor, Writing Center Coordinator Natalie Singh-Corcoran brings expertise from multiple areas to this collaboration. Three (3) Writing Center tutors have been trained in information literacy and now visit all 103 sections to promote the Writing Center’s role in this project as well as its other services. In the fall, about 10% of English 103 students visited the Center, a showing comparable to other composition courses; since students in 103 are Honors students, this is a significant enactment of the envisioned broader mission, however, according to Singh-Corcoran. This spring semester, Diamond and Singh-Corcoran will team up to offer “Writing and Research Clinics,” an idea borrowed from the Writer’s Center at Bowling Green State University, which combines help with research and writing in one session, further emphasizing the complementary nature of the two processes. Revisions and Further Possibilities Other factors in the success and continued forward momentum of this collaborative include the polling of students to see what has and has not worked in order to add a systematic approach to considering and incorporating feedback. Specifically, students complete Zoomerang surveys after library information literacy sessions, which have resulted in significant revisions in content, scope and purpose from one semester to the next. Similarly, student responses to mid- and end-of-course evaluations have led to the redesign of assignments and to improved coordination so that students are better prepared for the library sessions and primed to make use of the information they gain. Conversations continue not only about further revisions and implementation of this project but about future collaborations, such as sessions presented by the Writing Center for faculty across the campus to support their teaching of research and writing in their classes. More broadly, the team continues to pay attention to such issues as the evolving meaning of “information literacy,” efforts to assess it, accessibility, and its contributions to student success. Comments? |