Integrating Writing into the Classroom: Opportunities and Challenges for Teaching and Learning
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

To further our understanding about integrating writing into our teaching (regardless of setting), we have invited Dr. John Bean of Seattle University – an internationally renowned author, speaker and expert on writing – to join us as our keynote speaker. He will be promoting two broad themes of Writing to Learn and Writing Across/Within the Disciplines. His talk will frame the remainder of the day's events which includes three sets of concurrent sessions, lunch and a closing wine and cheese reception (watch for more details to come).

This year's event has the following goals:

• spotlight writing as a tool to promote learning within and beyond the classroom (e.g., online/hybrid/face to-face) regardless of discipline 
• showcase writing innovations and research at Laurier and beyond
• provide a forum to share ideas that can be translated to individual practice
• strengthen and reinforce new and evolving writing traditions at Laurier  

About the Keynote Speaker: Dr. John C. Bean

Dr. John C. Bean is a professor of English at Seattle University, where he holds the title of Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment. He has an undergraduate degree from Stanford (1965) and a PhD from the University of Washington (1972). He is the author of Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom (Jossey-Bass, 1996), which has been translated into both Dutch and Chinese. He is also the co-author of three textbooks -- Writing Arguments, The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing and Reading Rhetorically. He has published numerous articles on writing and writing-across-the-curriculum as well as on literary subjects including Shakespeare and Spenser.

In 2001, he presented a keynote address at the first annual conference of the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Since 2003, he has researched and written on the development of institutional assessment strategies that promote productive faculty conversations about teaching and learning. He is particularly interested in pedagogical strategies for accelerating students' growth in critical inquiry and argument and in teaching undergraduate research. His most recent research area is quantitative literacy, especially the use of writing assignments that ask students to think critically about numbers.

Keynote Address