University Writing Center

Class lessons are real in ‘Writing in the Woods’

 

Assistant Professor Roel R. Lopez of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.

Lopez teaches his students about wildlife’s natural habitats, which become the backdrop for his students’ writing projects. To illustrate the value of writing, he issues grades in dollar amounts rather than point values.

Assistant Professor Roel R. Lopez of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences will receive $3,000 as the first winner of the new University Writing Center W Course Teaching Award. The award recognizes W course instructors who approach the teaching of writing with innovation and insight.

Lopez’s course on wildlife and habitat management seamlessly integrates writing and course content and gets students personally invested in their learning. Lopez notes that he’s always made writing part of his courses but intensified that focus in response to the W course initiative.

“Writing in our profession, as in other professions,” Lopez says, “is a critical component.” That’s why Lopez always evaluates both a student’s ideas and the expression of those ideas and why he has high standards for both.

Lopez’s W course includes a number of short writing assignments, called “Writing in the Woods,” that challenge students to put concepts learned in class to use as they make observations during field trips to local wildlife habitats. Each assignment comes with a grading rubric, so students know Lopez’s expectations.

For the major course project, Lopez requires students to develop a wildlife management plan for a local landowner. This is no mere role-playing exercise; the students meet personally with the landowners to develop a multi-layered plan specifically aimed at the landowner’s real-world needs. At the end of the semester, the students present their written plan to their classmates. Officials from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the local landowners attend the presentation and ask tough questions about the students’ recommendations.

Lopez expects students to turn in assignments using the format of a professional journal in the discipline. He also expects students to comment on their classmates’ work. They then receive extensive written comments from Lopez on each phase of the assignment, as well as grades rendered in dollar amounts to further enforce the idea that in the professional arena quality written work brings tangible rewards.

According to Sarah Bednarz, a member of the award selection committee and an associate professor of geography, “What the committee especially liked about Lopez’s approach to writing is its tight connection to thinking in the major. We also recognized that he had designed an exciting writing course in a major that does not have a tradition of being writing-intensive. Aggies in every major need to write well.”

The award’s selection process was coordinated by the Center for Teaching Excellence. Additional $3,000 awards will be given annually for the next four years with nominations for the 2006 teaching award being accepted in the spring.