English faculty present at composition conference at UMass Boston

Timothy Berrigan, M.A, Michael J. Cripps, Ph.D., Eric M. Drown, Ph.D., and Cathrine Frank, Ph.D., all faculty in the Department of English, presented as part of a panel at the Engaging Practices conference on composition, held at UMass Boston on Saturday, April 26, 2014.

The panel, "Supporting WAC through Composition: Writing Fellows, Peer Review, and Reading Development," examined the development, pilot implementation, and emerging lessons from the first year of UNE's writing fellows initiative.

The writing fellows initiative connects undergraduate tutors to specific classrooms, where they collaborate with a faculty member on a range of activities to support student learning and writing development. The first phase of this initiative focused on English Composition. In 2014-15, the program will expand to include writing emphasis courses in the Core curriculum.

Cathrine Frank coordinates the initiative and teaches the Writing Fellows Practicum, a course in which undergraduate fellows discover how their work fits within the theory and practice of peer tutoring in disciplinary contexts. Timothy Berrigan and Eric M. Drown teach English Composition, contribute to the development of models for implementing the writing fellows program, and participate in assessing the program. Michael J. Cripps directs English Composition and is the principal investigator for the Davis Educational Foundation award that helps support the writing fellows initiative.