Making bricks without straw: Teaching and assessing new literacy skills at a small, private HBCU

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: Scope of the study comprised a three-phase Participatory Action Research study of teaching and assessing New Literacy Skills in small, private HBCUs using open source tools

Findings and Conclusions: This project describes a small-scale case study, using Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods, documenting three semesters of first-year writing courses at Wilberforce University, specifically focusing on teaching and assessing New Literacy Skills. The case study is broken into three phases: Phase 1 is the pilot study conducted from August -- November, 2010; Phase 2 is the continuation, collecting survey responses from two other first-year writing classes, and other first-year writing faculty members at other small, private HBCUs from August -- November, 2011; Phase 3 is the conclusion of the study, which includes sharing the findings and recommendations from Phases 1 and 2 with my colleagues who teach in the First-Year Program and Writing Program at Wilberforce University in August 2012, and submitting a course proposal for digital composition courses to implement during the summer semester in June, 2013.