Kelly Ritter - Böcker

Leading with the provocative observation that writing programs administration lacks “an established set of texts that provides a baseline of shared knowledge . . . in which to root our ongoing conversations and with which to welcome newcomers,” Landmark Essays on Writing Program Administration focuses on WPA identity to propose one such grouping of texts. This Landmark volume is the cornerstone resource for new Writing Program Administrators and graduate students seeking an ever-important overview of the literature on Writing Program Administration. Drawing broadly across scholarship in writing programs and writing centers, Ritter and Ianetta work to historicize, theorize, and problematize the ever-shifting answers offered to the question: Who—or what—is a WPA?

Leading with the provocative observation that writing programs administration lacks “an established set of texts that provides a baseline of shared knowledge . . . in which to root our ongoing conversations and with which to welcome newcomers,” Landmark Essays on Writing Program Administration focuses on WPA identity to propose one such grouping of texts. This Landmark volume is the cornerstone resource for new Writing Program Administrators and graduate students seeking an ever-important overview of the literature on Writing Program Administration. Drawing broadly across scholarship in writing programs and writing centers, Ritter and Ianetta work to historicize, theorize, and problematize the ever-shifting answers offered to the question: Who—or what—is a WPA?

This volume examines the ways in which college students engage in online discussions about, and debates over, their relative authority in postsecondary literacy education. Spotlighting sites of online extra-institutional discourse that challenge what faculty believe about the interconnected acts of reading and writing, as well as the purposes of teacher evaluation, this book argues that while college faculty frequently enact student-centred pedagogies, and just as frequently employ various technologies in their teaching, non-“academic” technologies continue to be the most active venue for student discourse about education. Though many teachers strive to empower their students via liveratory or critical pedagogies, particularly in first-year writing and reading-based courses, many of these students still feel sufficiently disengaged from their own authority over the learning process as as to seek opportunities to voice this disengagement online, outside the confines of the educational system. As evident on several commercially sponsored or profit-bearing web sites, students express among their peers—which importantly include those living outside one’s home or school communities—trepidation about their relative agencies and ownership of their own education, including their ability to read and interpret texts; write proficiently (or even adequately) in a high-stakes setting; and be heard as valid participants in education reform/teacher evaluation.

This volume examines the ways in which college students engage in online discussions about, and debates over, their relative authority in postsecondary literacy education. Spotlighting sites of online extra-institutional discourse that challenge what faculty believe about the interconnected acts of reading and writing, as well as the purposes of teacher evaluation, this book argues that while college faculty frequently enact student-centred pedagogies, and just as frequently employ various technologies in their teaching, non-“academic” technologies continue to be the most active venue for student discourse about education. Though many teachers strive to empower their students via liveratory or critical pedagogies, particularly in first-year writing and reading-based courses, many of these students still feel sufficiently disengaged from their own authority over the learning process as as to seek opportunities to voice this disengagement online, outside the confines of the educational system. As evident on several commercially sponsored or profit-bearing web sites, students express among their peers—which importantly include those living outside one’s home or school communities—trepidation about their relative agencies and ownership of their own education, including their ability to read and interpret texts; write proficiently (or even adequately) in a high-stakes setting; and be heard as valid participants in education reform/teacher evaluation.

Guidance on teaching writing to first-generation college students.Beyond Fitting In interrogates how the cultural capital and lived experiences of first-generation college students inform literacy studies and the writing-centered classroom. Essays, written by scholar-teachers in the field of rhetoric and composition, discuss best practices for teaching first-generation students in writing classrooms, centers, programs, and other environments. The collection considers how first-gen students of different demographics interact with and affect literacy instruction in a variety of public and private, rural and urban schools offering two- or four-year programs, including Hispanic-serving institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, and public research universities. By exploring the experiences of students, teachers, writing program administrators, and writing center directors, the volume gives readers an inside view of the practices and structures that shape the literacy of first-generation students.

Guidance on teaching writing to first-generation college students.Beyond Fitting In interrogates how the cultural capital and lived experiences of first-generation college students inform literacy studies and the writing-centered classroom. Essays, written by scholar-teachers in the field of rhetoric and composition, discuss best practices for teaching first-generation students in writing classrooms, centers, programs, and other environments. The collection considers how first-gen students of different demographics interact with and affect literacy instruction in a variety of public and private, rural and urban schools offering two- or four-year programs, including Hispanic-serving institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, and public research universities. By exploring the experiences of students, teachers, writing program administrators, and writing center directors, the volume gives readers an inside view of the practices and structures that shape the literacy of first-generation students.