Writing-to-learn (WTL) activities, sometimes referred to as “low stakes” writing, can quickly engage students and often require minimal feedback from instructors. These brief, in-class or online writing activities provide students with opportunities to develop conceptual knowledge and to practice core writing abilities such as summary, synthesis, analysis, and data visualization. In this workshop, we will review examples of WTL activities from a variety of disciplinary contexts, identify timely places to integrate WTL into courses, and design at least one WTL activity.

When writing is flexibly defined as an articulation of thinking that takes many forms—textual, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural—instructors can often design authentic tasks that enable students to compose for varied audiences and purposes. This workshop will provide participants with opportunities to develop and assess multimodal assignments (e.g., digital stories, podcasts, websites, Storymaps, Public Service Announcements).