Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) training is required for instructors teaching writing intensive courses at WCC. The training is designed to meet the needs of any instructor who hopes to deepen student thinking and learning by using writing as a tool for learning.

Learning outcomes: 

• To increase the collaborative and creative capacity of faculty to help students use writing as a learning tool.
• To support instructors interested in writing pedagogy, especially those developing courses with a writing intensive (WI) focus.
• To engage faculty in a peer-supported, reflective process of curriculum design and course planning.  

Training components:

1. Low-stakes writing that helps students build community, access prior knowledge, and engage more deeply with course content. 
2. Scaffolding techniques that guide students toward polished, formal writing assignments.
3. Writing and peer-review activities that remind instructors what it’s like to be a novice or learner (because we can forget how hard it was once). These activities present a variety of reasons and means to reduce the cognitive load of assignment prompts, instructions, and sequences.

Participant deliverables:

1. At least one revised (or newly designed) writing assignment.
2. A reflection on, or reaffirmation of, preferred ways to respond to and grade student writing. Instructors consider a range of grading and commenting priorities, among them efficiency, student (and instructor) motivation, student agency, and demonstration of caring.
3. A course game plan, which is also a first draft of the application for a writing intensive designation.