[Pre-workshop preparation: Read chapters 1-4 of Miller.]
- 8:30-9:00 AM
- Opening Remarks, Introductions, Discussion of Personal Workshop Goals
- 9:00-9:20 AM
- Where Are You with Numbers?
Background: In an Amazon.com reader review of Jane Miller's The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers, the reviewer makes the following observation: The one real weakness [of the book] comes from one of the book's strengths. Miller really does address number users of many levels of sophistication. She does realize that some people need to make sense of mileage comparisons and slanted percentages in the news and in ads, but others deal in z-scores, p-values, and wilder exotica. The problem is that the numerical novice and sophisticate are usually addressed in the same sentence, or at least paragraph. This may be a turn-off for people struggling with the basics, i.e. the people most in need of advice.
Discussion Questions for sharing at your table:
- Where are you along the scale from "numerical novice" to "numerical sophisticate"?
- Do your courses typically deal with numbers? At what level of sophistication?
- If your courses typically don't deal with numbers, where and how might you introduce a numbers-oriented writing assignment into a course?
- Where do you encounter numbers in your own reading and research?
- 9:20-10:10 AM
- Suggested Principles for Designing Writing Assignments, John Bean
Give Your Students a RAFT and a TIP
Examples of assignment handouts:
- Stacy Jones: Taxed out of State (Acrobat (PDF) 15kB Aug6 08)
- Melissa Eblen-Zayas: An exploration of spring systems: Asking and answering quantitative questions
For further examples of quantitative writing assignments see the SERC web site Quantitative Writing.
- 10:10-10:20 AM
- 10:20-11:15 AM
- Writing with Numbers at Seattle University: Some Pedagogical Experiments and Discoveries, John Bean
The 5th grade playground project
Assignment Decomposition One: Ping Pong Consultation (Acrobat (PDF) 10kB Aug8 08)
The Seattle University's economics department's recent assessment project (Acrobat (PDF) 8kB Aug7 08)
- 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
- Writing with Numbers at Carleton College: Discoveries from Portfolio Assessments, Neil Lutsky
- Carleton's QR Assessment Rubric(Microsoft Word 71kB Dec7 09)
Read New York Times article "Maker of Lipitor Digs In to Fight Generic Rival" What kinds of concepts do students need to know in order to make sense of this article?
- 12:30-1:30 PM
[Pre-workshop preparation: Read Tufte. Begin designing your own assignment.]
- 8:45-9:35 AM
- Finding Data: Session One, Kristin Partlo
- 9:35-10:05 AM
- Participant Exploration of Data Sources
- 10:05-11:15 AM
- Visual Display of Data, John Bean
- 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
- Finding Data: Session Two, Kristin Partlo
Tips for Finding Data (Acrobat (PDF) 11kB Aug8 08)
- 12:00-12:30 PM
- Participant Assignment Creation Session
[Pre-workshop preparation: Create assignment rough draft. Bring five copies to workshop. Wear really ugly socks.]
- 8:45-9:25 AM
- Discussion of Scoring Rubrics, John Bean
Example Rubrics (Acrobat (PDF) 34kB Aug8 08)
- 9:25-11:30 AM
- Participant Peer Review of Draft Assignments
- 11:30-11:45 AM
- Further Support Available from the Writing Program and QuIRK, Nathan Grawe
- 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM
- Workshop Assessment
- 12:00-1:00 PM
- Lunch and Ugly Socks Competition