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Call for Applications: Writing Across the Curriculum Starter Grants

The Writing Across the Curriculum Starter Grant Program

Call for Applications

2016-2017 Academic Year

 

General Description

The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program invites applications for the WAC Starter Grant Program. The program is intended as a “gateway into WAC,” so new faculty and faculty who have not yet worked with our program are particularly encouraged to apply. The purpose of the program is to foster improvement of student learning through writing in the disciplines. This goal will be accomplished through the design of innovative instructional approaches, assignments, and classroom activities. Grants will be awarded to assist faculty in designing activities, assignments, outcomes, and even courses that will improve the teaching and learning of writing in their departments and programs.

Individual full-time faculty members and small faculty teams from all departments and academic units are eligible to apply.

We particularly encourage applications from faculty members teaching GEP courses, online courses, and large courses, as well as courses that serve as gateways to a major.

Awards will range from $300 to $500, depending on the scope of the proposed project.

The winners of the grant will create their deliverable in the fall of 2016 and pilot it in one or several of their course during spring of 2017. Grant recipients who successfully complete the program will be given priority for admission into the WAC Fellows and other WAC faculty development programs at UCF.

Projects Eligible for Funding

Possible projects and deliverables include, but are not limited to the following:

  • New or significantly revised writing assignments that are carefully designed to provide opportunities for drafting, feedback, and revision. Such projects should also include assessment rubrics or other sets of assessment criteria.
  • Sequences of assignments suitable for large or online classes.
  • Classroom activities and exercises that support writing and/or use writing to support learning, including invention, revision, peer-review, editing, and other kinds of activities.
  • Revision of the outcomes for a program, major, or minor to include writing and communication, with a plan for how to teach to those outcomes across courses.
  • Plan for a new course for a program, major, or minor that integrates writing as a central feature of the course (design of a “writing intensive” course)
  • Other initiatives will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Projects Not Eligible for Funding

  • The grant funds may not be used to compensate graduate or undergraduate assistants for the teaching or grading of writing
  • Grant funds may not be used for travel or equipment or for OPS assistance

Requirements for Grant Recipients

  • Award recipients will be required to attend a planning and orientation session and a follow-up session, with either WAC Director Pavel Zemliansky or WAC Coordinator Lindee Owens during the early stages of the project.
  • The deliverable must be created by December 1, 2016 and piloted in the Spring of 2017,
  • Recipients will be asked to present their projects at the 2013 Winter FCTL Conference or write an article about their project for FCTL’s Faculty Focus publication.
  • Recipients will submit a brief project report to the WAC Program by April of 2017.

Fall Semester Deadlines

  • Online applications are due by September 15th
  • Funding decisions will be made by September 20th
  • Planning sessions with the WAC Program will be completed by October 10th
  • Follow up sessions with WAC consultants will be completed by October 30th.
  • Deliverable created and submitted to the WAC Program by December 1st

How to Apply

By September 15th, e-mail WAC Director Pavel Zemliansky at [email protected] a Word document attachment with the following information:

  • Your name, department, and college
  • Your contact e-mail and phone number
  • A 300-word (maximum) description of the proposed project. In your description answer the following questions:
    • What writing assignment or other deliverable do you want to create during the project?
    • How will that deliverable help you help your students learn better through writing?
    • What are your plans for piloting the deliverable in the spring of 2017?

 

Please contact WAC Director Pavel Zemliansky at [email protected] or WAC Coordinator Lindee Owens at [email protected] with questions.