Outreach

Rhetoric and Writing for Teachers of English

The DRW offers RHE 360M, a course that allows future teachers of English to become familiar with current theories in composition studies and to consider how these theories may inform the way they teach and evaluate writing.

Enrollment in Rhetoric and Writing for Teachers of English is restricted to students enrolled in UTeach Liberal Arts, a collaboration between the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Education. UTeach seeks to improve teacher preparation and certification processes from the ground up by providing each future teacher with extensive content preparation, integrated university courses on teaching, and ample supervised teaching experience in middle-school and secondary-school settings.

Students Partnered for Undergraduate Rhetorical Success (SPURS)

To help high school students prepare for the rigors of undergraduate writing courses, the DRW and Office of School and Community Relations have developed SPURS: Students Partnered for Undergraduate Rhetoric Success.

Each semester, SPURS pairs RHE 306 classes with junior AP English classes from school districts across Texas. Over the course of the semester, students in each pair of classes read a common text, learn the principles of rhetorical analysis, and participate in activities to reinforce those concepts. Then the UT students and their instructors read the papers written by the high school students and offer constructive suggestions for revision.

Directed and run by graduate student instructors, SPURS is reaching out this year to 7 school districts that are underrepresented at UT.

Facutly Outreach to Primary and Secondary Schools

To provide support for writing at every educational level, many of our faculty visit campuses to provide workshops in educational practices, writing instruction, and evaluation for primary and secondary school teachers.

In September 2006 Peg Syverson facilitated a one-day workshop on The Right Use of Power: Ethics for the Helping Professions, an educational program designed by Cedar Barstow, at St. Alcuin Montessori in Dallas. Currently she is assisting faculty and staff as they incorporate the Learning Record school-wide to create a public record of students' achievements and progress.