MCELA Webinar with Ryan Dippre from UMaine

A Negotiable Chasm: From High School English to First-Year Writing

First-year writing courses have been in existence for nearly a century and a half in the United States. A 2017 survey of nearly 450 higher education institutions revealed that first-year writing is overwhelmingly required (96%) in one form or another. But what does first-year writing look like? What do students learn there? What should they know and be able to do as they come into it?  And what aspects of the movement from high school English to first-year writing should both secondary and postsecondary teachers pay attention to? 

In this webinar, we will explore the overlaps and divergences between high school English and first-year writing. We will explore the history of first-year writing, as well as current guiding documents from professional organizations (NCTE, CCCC, NWP, CWPA) for teaching first-year writing. We will review the contexts of high school English and first-year writing that enable and constrain different kinds of teaching choices. Using information from particular institutions, we will consider what students encounter with writing throughout their college educations. The webinar will conclude by discussing how teachers in high school and first-year writing settings might navigate the tensions between the two classes.