Best Practices and PT Faculty
Hey folks,
So, we're starting a new project here to further integrate our part-time faculty by putting together some sort of manual/web page/etc to convey what we see as the best way to teach composition. Of course, most colleges deal with the same dilemma of a consistently rotating part-time faculty, so I want to know how y'all handle getting all those contingent folks on the same pedagogical page. Do you even worry about it? Have meetings? Private mentoring? What?
Samm
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portfolios is one way
At Spokane Falls, I'd say we get all writing faculty on pretty much the same page with our mid-term and end-of-term portfolio readings. The way it gets folks on pretty much the same page is that everyone can see the sorts of assignments others are giving and the writing those assignments elicit (hope that's the best verb). If someone were to be giving 500-word, five-paragraph personal essay assignments and notice that everyone else is asking for 1000+ words that respond to some sort of text, they are gently, perhaps, nudged into line. Additionally, we have a somewhat agreed upon criteria for passable writing and we spend time norming according to that criteria with each reading so we approach the essays from a somewhat similar perspective. If all this doesn't clue folks in, I think the comp director might have a chat with them.
bradley
bleckblog.org
Re: Portfolios
Hi, Bradley and Other Readers,
Yes, in graduate school, we did a very similar process and it seemed to work well. There was certainly some conflict, but I think it helped to get people on the same page. Do PT faculty participate in these norming activities? If so, do they get paid extra or separately, or is it just part of the expectations and requirements for the job? How do you handle new PT faculty, who would probably only start this norming process after the first term and may not have it really down for a year? Also, who sets the norm?
Samm