Composition Program “Field Trip” to Brigham City

On November 15th, the Composition Program held its monthly Professional Development session in Brigham City. The goal of these Professional Development sessions is for all teachers in the Composition Program to engage with current conversations in writing studies, innovate pedagogy, and collectively create a space that allows the Composition Program to foreground its expertise on the teaching of writing at USU. The theme for this year's Professional Development is Interdisciplinary Collaborations, and each month the Composition Program invites faculty from various disciplines to discuss teaching written and oral communication. The English Department has also been promoting Statewide collaboration, and the Composition Program in particular reaches all students across the state. Any USU composition teacher who teaches online or via Connect teaches Statewide students, so this trip to Brigham City was an important opportunity for the Composition Program as a whole to connect with Statewide faculty and learn more about the needs of Statewide students. Brigham City Principal Lecturer Nikole Eyre, was instrumental in helping to arrange this trip. Nikki invited the four following interdisciplinary faculty who teach at the Brigham City campus to meet with composition instructors: 

• Jessica Baxter (Lecturer in Business Education) 
• Jessica Habashi (Principal Lecturer in Biology) 
• Jeralyn Perkins (Lecturer in Kinesiology and Health Science) 
• Trevor Robinson (Professional Practice Associate Professor in Technology, Design, and Technical Education) 

During this Professional Development session, composition teachers learned more about the kinds of written and oral communication that students in the above disciplines are expected to engage in, as well as the challenges students experience. This discussion provided composition teachers with examples and priorities that they can highlight in their classes, which will help students better understand how the material they are learning in English 2010 and 2020 prepares them for their disciplines and professions. The Brigham City faculty also had the opportunity to learn more about how English 2010 and English 2020 prepare students for interdisciplinary writing. Composition instructors emphasized key concepts that interdisciplinary teachers can reinforce to help students transfer their learning from CL2 to their disciplinary writing courses. Instructors also collectively discussed the role of AI in writing and learning across the disciplines. After the session, Associate Vice President Dan Black gave those in attendance a tour of the Brigham City building, sharing its connection to the local community and history. 

“The meeting was really valuable because I learned how my colleagues in other disciplines expect their students to communicate,” reflects Nikki. “It was so useful for professors from health, science, education, and technology programs to explain the practical purposes and audiences for their students’ work and then for me to talk with other composition instructors about how these ideas can inform our teaching.”