Fall 2023 Workshop Series
We are excited to announce our largest and most varied series of workshops to date! Demystify law, conquer your fear of ChatGPT, and write to see with colleagues from across the network this fall. Space in workshops is limited—please register only if you plan to attend. Registration for the Fall 2023 Workshop Series is open now!

December

12

Demystifying and Contextualizing the Law through Writing and Thinking

Tuesday, Dec 12|8:30 to 11:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:30 (Vienna)

When students encounter legal texts for the first time, they often struggle to understand the complexity and specificity of the discipline’s language. The language of law can be perceived by the untrained eye as highly technical, filled with jargon and obscure grammar, and sentence structures that don’t translate well into everyday life. This workshop offers OSUN faculty – who are interested in different facets of law and who may teach different legal systems – an opportunity to learn and practice writing-rich techniques that can help their students to critically read and understand legal texts. Writing-rich techniques help students break down legal texts as a way for students to build their own knowledge. Participants will also gain valuable insights into writing-based activities that will help their students to gain legal literacy; to understand the wider social, economic and political implications of legal concepts; and to reflect on their own learning processes. Register today!

November

08

Writing to See

Wednesday, Nov 08|8:30 to 11:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:30 (Vienna)

The increasing prioritization of visual images in the public sphere demonstrates the need for an examination of the distinct role they play in educators’ teaching practices. The dominance of visual materials not only necessitates a proficiency in a distinct form of literacy—visual literacy—but also requires students and teachers alike to rethink how knowledge production occurs and transfers across various contexts. This workshop explores how educators can boost students’ visual literacy and help them build confidence in interpreting and writing about images. We will explore such methods as “writing-to-read” and “writing-to-learn” as approaches to navigate the interpretative ambiguity inherent to images. Writing about images bridges the divide between written and visual literacies, giving students crucial skills to interpret images with skills they have already mastered. Questions to be considered might include: Where should students begin when interpreting images? How can students look beyond surface level interpretations of images? How can teachers help students confront and examine unsettling images? Our exploration will extend beyond simply learning how to constructively approach images; we will also discuss how to utilize their immediate accessibility and interpretative flexibility to foster inclusivity and a democratic ethos in the classroom.

13 14

IWT CLASP Fellows Inaugural Capstone Conference

Monday, Nov 13|8:30 to 11:00 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:00 (Vienna)

Tuesday, Nov 14|8:30 to 11:00 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:00 (Vienna)

Please join us to celebrate the inaugural IWT CLASP Fellows cohort as they offer insights into writing-rich, student-centered, liberal arts and sciences pedagogies through sharing the research conducted through their capstone projects. Beginning in the fall 2021, this cohort of fellows met monthly online, as well as in person for four week-long intensive workshops, all focused on best practices in liberal arts and sciences pedagogies, with an emphasis on increasing student engagement and transfer of knowledge beyond disciplinary and institutional boundaries. This two-day celebratory event will take the form of a conference, with panels of Fellows who will share excerpts from their research in the company of others working on similar topics. There will also be plenty of time for discussion.

Monday, November 13
Panel 1: What is / Why is Academic Writing?
Monday, Nov 13 | 8:30 to 9:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 15:30 (Vienna)
Panel 2: Writing Contexts / Student Writing in Context
Monday, Nov 13 | 10:00 to 11:00 (NY) / 16:00 to 17:00 (Vienna)


Tuesday, November 14
Panel 3: Writing in the Disciplines 1: Program/Disciplinary Perspectives
Tuesday, Nov 14 | 8:30 to 9:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 15:30 (Vienna)
Panel 4: Writing in the Disciplines 2: Course Cases
Tuesday, Nov 14 | 10:00 to 11:00 (NY) / 16:00 to 17:00 (Vienna)

September

12

Creating a Collaborative Classroom

Tuesday, Sep 12|8:30 to 11:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:30 (Vienna)

This workshop offers participants a theoretical and practical grounding in collaborative learning, a method of liberal arts and sciences pedagogy that puts learning in the hands of students and their peers. Collaborative learning allows students to take ownership of their own learning as they work together to develop course skills and understand course content. Through a focus on writing-rich collaborative strategies, participants will reflect on their own pedagogical practices and new ways to enrich peer-to-peer interactions. Facilitated by a multidisciplinary team of educators of both secondary and college students, the approaches shared through the session will be intentionally applicable across multiple disciplines including, STEM, social sciences, and literature.

27

The Many Faces of Active Participation

Wednesday, Sep 27|8:30 to 11:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:30 (Vienna)

How do we, as faculty, offer engagement opportunities for all learners, not just those who speak up regularly in class? Active participation doesn’t have one face: it looks different for different learners and for classes in different contexts. More specifically, the online classroom offers a unique opportunity for teachers to engage all students in creative, innovative ways. This workshop explores different ways of fostering active online participation through identifying what participation looks like and what key barriers are and will result in the development of a ‘toolkit’ with practical ideas to ensure inclusivity and active participation. The workshop is facilitated by educators with years of experience in designing online curricula and facilitating online learning for students in different environments and situations.

October

04

Teaching Sensitive Topics in the International Classroom

Wednesday, Oct 04|8:00 to 9:45 (NY) / 14:00 to 15:45 (Vienna)

This workshop is offered in partnership with the CEU Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research/OSUN DTP.

This session will introduce faculty to some of the central principles and strategies for creating inclusive learning environments. We will consider some of the following questions: What does an authentically inclusive global classroom look like? What strategies are helpful when designing courses for students who come from diverse cultural, institutional, and educational backgrounds? What do “sensitive topics” and “difficult conversations” look like in these contexts? What best practices can faculty use to create the kind of classroom where all students feel comfortable actively participating?

17

Collaborative Tools: Written Conversations & The Dialectical Notebook

Tuesday, Oct 17|8:30 to 11:30 (NY) / 14:30 to 17:30 (Vienna)

This practical workshop invites participants to explore how writing-based teaching practices can be used as a tool to foster collaborative conversations between students, giving them agency over their own learning processes. More specifically, we will explore the dialectical notebook; a strategy that helps to foster collaborative written conversations in your teaching and learning spaces, engaging with topics that may pose challenges. Through experiential work with this practice of conversing through writing, we aim to explore ways to support and encourage understanding and empathy through exchange and engaging with peer writing that may be at variance with each other. This workshop also includes the opportunity for you to create and share your own dialectical notebook activity to use as a resource in your own classrooms. We welcome participants from across disciplines and grade levels, to join us as we explore how issue focused conversations can be held in a generative and supportive forum.

18

Understanding the Brain: Empowering Emotional Regulation in the Classroom

Wednesday, Oct 18|8:00 to 9:30 (NY) / 14:00 to 15:30 (Vienna)

This workshop is offered in partnership with the OSUN Online and Network Collaborative Courses.

The field of neuroscience has made significant advancements in our understanding of the brain and its impact on human behavior and emotions. In the context of education, this knowledge can be immensely valuable in supporting students’ emotional regulation skills, which are crucial for their overall well-being and academic success. This workshop aims to provide educators with insights into the neuroscientific principles underlying emotional regulation and practical strategies to foster a positive and emotionally supportive learning environment.

24

Who is afraid of ChatGPT? Writing-based Teaching Practices in the Era of Automated Thinking

Tuesday, Oct 24|8:30 to 10:00 (NY) / 14:30 to 16:00 (Vienna)

The impact of Open AI platforms like ChatGPT has raised widespread concerns among educators about the need for rethinking writing pedagogy. Educators have begun to emphasize the need for reinforcing the ‘human’ factor in reading and writing processes in the classroom, calling for the prioritization of the act of writing as a self exploratory act. Given this context of heightened anxiety about the “death” of authors, text, and writing as a practice, this workshop invites participants to explore Open AI platforms through writing-based teaching practices. During the workshop, we will invite ChatGPT to be a workshop ‘participant’ in order to demonstrate the limitations and differences between the ways in which Large Language Models (LLMs) process critical reading prompts and writing tasks in comparison with human participants. In doing so, participants will engage in writing-rich activities that they can take back to their classrooms that critically and creatively engage with Open AI platforms. These strategies enhance students’ learning experiences, giving them new perspectives on the value of writing for themselves and making AI work for them, not replacing them.

25

Using Old-School Methods in New School Contexts

Wednesday, Oct 25|8:30 to 10:00 (NY) / 14:30 to 16:00 (Vienna)

The rise of technology has happened steadily over decades, and the latest iteration of AI has caused much consternation across the globe, mainly around how learning happens. With this in mind, this workshop explores the productive possibilities of going intentionally low tech. We invite participants to explore an environment in which student voice is paramount, and in which they are encouraged to question themselves and their colleagues in spaces away from screens. This workshop will focus on high-impact, low-tech strategies that use writing and sharing practices that a) engage students both with the material and in their own learning; and b) create meaningful and engaging learning spaces for “digital natives” without the use of technology. Join us to (dis)connect, find joy in writing, and to bring these practices to your students and into your classrooms.