Peer Mentoring and Collaboration:
"Collaborators Without the Machine: Teaching Writing, Writing Culture" (Trevor Jackson)
Engagement, relevance, and collaboration are often keywords for teachers in general. As writing teachers–whose essential skills allow collaboration and communication within and across all disciplines at all levels–these (hopefully) core ideas are perhaps even more specifically urgent. This presentation seeks to do two things: first, to showcase teacher-student collaboration in the first year college writing classroom; and second, to examine the barriers standing in the way of achieving rigorous and meaningful collaboration between the high school and the college or university.
Drawing on experiences from Academic Writing courses, the first part of the presentation displays how teacher-student-peer collaboration might be facilitated better through the employment of relevant artifacts or themes from our shared, contemporary culture. However, what is permitted in a college classroom or what an instructor might feel comfortable delving into might be different from place to place, and person to person, and different in the high school, middle school, or primary school classroom.Although the first part of this presentation posits a model for socially engaged teacher-student-peer collaboration, there is little novel in talking about such approaches.The second portion would query into the preventative barriers that keep collaboration between teachers of writing at different institutional levels apart. There is much about practice, theory, and potential that we already know. What this section of the presentation muses on are the gaps and walls that complicate collaboration. Eroding these challenges to communication and collaboration might be one way to reinvigorate the efficacy of education in writing.
"Building Collaborative Academic Partnerships: A Framework for Peer Mentoring in Writing and Publication" (Kara Mac Donald)
Mentoring colleagues in academic writing and publication fosters a collaborative and productive workplace and research environment. However, when peers with differing level of experience in academic publication write together, they can inadvertently face challenges that may lead to a breakdown in effective collaboration and the inability to generate a final manuscript as intended. To avoid such obstacles, there needs to be an established structure of writing responsibilities, forms of mentoring to be used, and candid opportunities for dialogue. In such cases, a more experienced peer can play a pivotal role in assisting a more novice colleague in navigating the often complex and competitive process of publication by providing guidance on the nuances of academic writing, offering advice on selecting appropriate journals, and responding to reviewer feedback. The practice of peer mentoring not only fosters growth in the individual/s, but also fosters a community of practice, strengthening the academic society and advancing the dissemination of knowledge. Based on the presenter’s role as an in-service faculty development trainer who has mentored numerous colleagues in academic co-publications, the session shares a framework to effectively collaborate with colleagues, while engaging in a mentor/mentee role working as co-authors on a manuscript for publication.
"Refining Craft Through Connection: Camaraderie is the Most Valuable Resource" (Elizabeth Spicer)
In this session, I will discuss how an initiative grew from a multi-grade summer writing experience founded on the idea of community culture. Students considered whether community identities can be curated or intentionally rebranded to overcome troubling history. Our work took us out into neighboring towns as observers of contrasts, interviewers of community figures, and artists open to a (local) world of muses. What is “authentic” culture? Identity? Free to explore their answers creatively or directly, students engaged with their writing and with each other. Our experiences together created bonds between students and established faculty sponsors as encouragers and safe spaces. In studying the larger community, we fostered our own community of writers. Another successful camp the following summer convinced us of the need to bridge these enriching writing extracurriculars, welcoming students without room in their schedules for an official class or the freedom to come during summer months. In the fall of 2022, we created a program with one mission (to elevate and celebrate writers and writing) and clear goals (offer consistent opportunities for students to share work and get and give feedback; expand connection to our greater community). We set up a student advisory board to lead our efforts. Since then, we’ve hosted open mics and an annual writers conference; worked with local libraries, museums, and universities; and founded a partnership with a nearby elementary school, where our students are adored by enthusiastic children who can’t wait to write.
Presenting writing as a creative extracurricular shifted our school’s culture and helped students grow academically, socially, and mentally/emotionally. By design, our writing initiative ties students to a close community of peers and fosters connection to the world off campus. Witnessing our program thrive, students see the value of their own contribution and of their own voice.
Peer And AI Review and Reflection - Roundtable (Marit MacArthur, Aparna Sinha, Carl Whithaus)
The rapid integration of generative AI (GenAI) into professional and academic writing practices has created new challenges for educators. A team of writing faculty from UC Davis, CSU Maritime, CSU Bakersfield, Sacramento State, American River College, Glendale College, College of Marin and LA Mission College have been working to ensure that students develop critical writing and problem-solving skills while also learning how to use GenAI.
This presentation shares the current iteration of Peer & AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR), a collaborative model that enhances student engagement and equitable writing support through structured peer review and AI-assisted feedback. We report on findings from the initial PAIRR pilot at UC Davis in 2023-24, compared to survey data in 2025, and then focus on sharing curricular materials that have been developed by the cross-campus team in 2025. We share strategies for developing AI-literate assignments; using AI in critical ways; and, addressing the AI literacy gap to ensure that all students—regardless of their background—can engage with AI effectively.
The PAIRR model enhances collaboration by combining peer review with AI-generated formative feedback. This method provides students with diverse perspectives on their writing and democratizes access to individualized feedback. Early results at UC Davis (2025) show promising improvements in writing support and AI literacy. PAIRR stresses the need for students, and faculty, to develop critical and ethical approaches to using AI; students reflect on a short set of readings that address AI’s effects on cognitive processes, the linguistic and cultural bias in LLMs, and the environmental impacts of GenAI. Our session offers practical insights on how college writing instructors can integrate GenAI into collaborative classroom practices. By fostering AI literacy alongside peer engagement, we aim to bridge equity gaps in writing instruction while preserving the vital human elements of mentorship, audience awareness, and critical thinking.
Simulated Workplaces - Roundtable (Mohamed Yaoub, Omar Yacoub, Youssef Yakoub, Ibrahim Yacoub)
This workshop explores an innovative pedagogical approach to teaching writing through collaborative, technology-driven simulations of workplace communication. Rooted in the ENC 3213 Final Project, this activity immerses students in a mock job application process, requiring them to create virtual companies, draft job postings, submit applications, conduct interviews, and make hiring decisions. This hands-on experience fosters collaboration among students, improves digital communication proficiency, and enhances their practical understanding of professional writing genres such as resumes, cover letters, and interview scripts. The session will demonstrate how writing instructors can integrate simulated workplace activities into their curricula to cultivate writing skills in real-world contexts while promoting teamwork and peer engagement. This workshop is designed for high school and college-level writing instructors, composition scholars, and educators interested in integrating collaborative, technology-enhanced writing practices into their curriculum. By the end of the session, attendees will leave with practical tools and ideas to implement collaborative, workplace-oriented writing projects in their own classrooms.
Community Service Learning
"Building a Crowdsourced, Open-Access Repository for Community Writing Projects" (Charles McMartin)
As the former director of Wildcat Writers, the community writing pathways program at the University of Arizona, I navigated the complexities of institutional demands while centering community-engaged, justice-oriented writing pedagogy. A key challenge was ensuring that the program’s digital infrastructure meaningfully supported the collaborative work of teachers, students, and community partners. An on-going tension of that work was developing a crowdsourced, open access repository of community-engaged writing lessons and projects. Now, I am researching models of locally focused, crowdsourced repositories for community writing projects—ones that supports collaboration across educational levels and fosters sustainable partnerships between teachers, students, and local stakeholders.
This presentation will discuss the results of my landscape research on open-access, community-driven resources that curate and share lessons, project models, and reflective materials for educators engaged in community writing. Drawing from design justice principles (Costanza-Chock) and OER scholarship (Wiley et al.), I will highlight how open-access repositories can support writing teachers in developing shared curricular resources, making community writing pedagogy more accessible, and amplifying the work of students and teachers alike. I will also examine how this project builds on the values of community writing programs, such as fostering student agency, bridging classroom and community contexts, and resisting corporatized metrics of educational success (hooks).Participants will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of developing collaborative teaching resources, and they will be invited to contribute ideas for building an inclusive, dynamic repository that responds to the needs of diverse writing classrooms and communities.
"Fostering Collaborations through Public Writing and Service Learning: Insights from a College Writing in the Disciplines Class" (Sophia Minnillo)
Despite the historical emphasis on academic literacies in (college) writing education, scholars have argued for the importance of honing students’ public writing skills and community literacies (DeLuca, 2018; Mathieu, 2005; Sundvall & Fredlund, 2017). Particularly in Writing in the Disciplines (WID) classes, in which students learn about writing as contextualized in their fields, public writing offers an opportunity for students to understand how they may leverage their disciplinary knowledge to serve their communities. Public writing can complement service learning, as both require students to engage with community members, learn more about their communication styles, and accomplish goals using community literacies. For these reasons, I incorporated a public writing group project and a service learning individual project in my Linguistics WID course. In the presentation, I will describe how I designed the projects and what I learned from the first iteration of the course. The public writing project asked students to choose a topic that interested them and a public audience that might benefit from learning more about the topic. Then, students created an annotated bibliography of sources on the topic, which they used as a springboard for crafting a public-facing literature review and an infographic. For the service learning project, students wrote a proposal about their intended service, collaborated with a partner for 5 weeks, and wrote reflective essays about their experiences. Students reported realizing how applicable their college coursework is to accomplishing their professional and personal goals through these projects. I will showcase students’ compositions and feedback on the course to offer further insight into the affordances and areas for improvement of my pedagogical approach. Additionally, I will guide the audience to consider how this approach might be tailored to other educational contexts.