For Junior Year Writing Instructors
The JYW Program is dedicated to supporting instructors in writing pedagogy through course development guidelines and teacher resources. On this page, you can find information about both processes: designing and proposing a Junior Year Writing course, and writing pedagogy resources for teachers of existing JYW courses.
Proposing a New & Renewing an Existing JYW Course. Faculty who are proposing a new JYW course, adding a JYW designation to an existing course, or completing a Quinquennial review of your current JYW course can find information about University requirements for a JYW course here, and proposals can be submitted through the UMass Course and Curriculum Management System.
Teacher Resources. The JYW Program aims to support JYW instructors as you design curricula for a discipline-specific writing course and explore options for classroom practice. During the academic year, the JYW Program hosts workshops focused on teaching writing-intensive courses at UMass, and we are happy to talk with JYW instructors in one-on-one consultations.
Here you will find a brief introduction to teaching and learning in discipline-specific writing courses as well as support for the following:
- Designing and sequencing course assignments
- Developing peer review activities
- Giving effective feedback and managing paperloads
- Grading student writing
Instructors can find more sample materials and further information about teaching JYW at UMass in the 2007-2008 JYW Sourcebook. In 2000, the cross-disciplinary Writing Across the Curriculum Assessment Group, brought together by the JYW Program and the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment (OAPA), wrote a report on establishing shared learning objectives and assignments for JYW courses. The full report, including sample assignments and resources, is available on the OAPA website.
Some resources and further reading about teaching writing in the disciplines can be found here.