Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance Mini Modules

Our Mini Modules are workshops that present information and engage students in activities designed to encourage them to apply the information in a meaningful way to their course work. Best teaching practices involve student engagement and active learning as keys for retention of information.

When you request a Mini Module, we will ask you to submit any assignments your students are currently working on and any pertinent readings or materials, and we can incorporate these into our materials for the workshop. For example, if we are bringing the MLA In-text Citation module into your history class, we will use examples from the kinds of books and articles your students will be reading for their papers; if you ask for the revision workshop, we will incorporate material from your assignment and rubrics to guide students through their revisions for your class.

After we have your assignment, syllabus, and any other materials directly related to the assignment, we will have a conversation about your goals for your students. We welcome questions about what we will present and about how we will work with your students and the materials in the workshop.

Yes! We need you to be present for your students.

What your students should have during the workshop will vary by workshop (for Revision, they will need their drafts; for Effective PowerPoint Slides, they may want to have a flash drive with the slide deck they are beginning or working on). The specific materials students need will be communicated to you once we have discussed the workshop choice, the assignment, and your goals for the workshop. In order to prepare your students, we ask that your students are ready to listen, write, think, and talk. Students are encouraged to ask questions and wonder about the materials. These are workshops and require students to participate in the activities and in their own learning.

We will provide any handouts needed for the workshops.

We will bring handouts or other materials needed for leading the workshop. Students need to have their work with them, if it is part of the workshop. Many of our workshops are accompanied by a PowerPoint component; for these, we will need the basic bunker and screen present in most classrooms at COD. Some of our workshops are best done in a computer classroom. If you do not meet in a computer classroom, we may be able to find alternatives.

Mini Modules take place in your classroom, in an arranged computer lab, or the Learning Commons classroom. Class visits to and tours of the Learning Commons can be coordinated through Angel Nance (nancea@cod.edu). If you are interested in having your Mini Module workshop in the Learning Commons classroom, please let us know in your request, and we will see if it is available for the day and time you need. 

The best time to request a Mini Module is before you think you will need it! Please try to allow two weeks between your request and when you want the workshop to occur. Mini Modules can be scheduled at any time during the semester when you think they will support your learning objectives.

We will respond to your request within two business days if not before.

If you need to change the date for a Mini Module, please contact us as soon as possible by emailing wrsa@cod.edu or by calling WRSA at (630) 942-3355. The more lead-time we have the better, especially if you wish to reschedule the Mini Module.

In most cases, yes; our Mini Module leaders are working WRSA coaches, though the hours and days they are available will vary.

Our workshop leaders are all professional coaches in WRSA who have created these workshops and who have trained to lead them in ways that actively engage students with the content and ask students to apply what they are learning directly to their work in the classroom. To learn more about our coaches, please follow the link to our Bio Page.

If you are not up to date on the most recent MLA or APA handbook, we can help. If you are asking students to create an academic poster but are unsure of how to help them prepare and incorporate their materials, we have a workshop that guides students through the process. If you are you asking your psychology students to write an annotated bibliography but are not sure the best way to do it, we have a workshop that shows students how to do it.

Our workshop coaches are here to support and enhance your classroom practice: most students in most academic areas will be engaged in some kinds of writing activities whether these are formal research papers, blogs, business reports, or traditional essays. Students are also likely to be asked to present information to their peers in formal and informal settings using multimodal materials. Our coaches work one-on-one with students on these activities on a daily basis, and when you request a workshop, we bring our particular expertise into your classroom for all your students.

Our coaches add another voice and source of knowledge that your students can draw on for your class and for their tenure as COD students. We will become familiar with particular assignments for the workshops, and we can also hold your course syllabus on file, so if students choose to visit WRSA, we will be able to guide and support the other work they are doing for your class.

Our Mini Modules are focused on students as active learners. Our Mini Module workshops present information and engage students in activities to help them connect the new knowledge to what they already know. We also work to connect the information we bring into classrooms directly to what they are doing for particular assignments, so the knowledge is immediately applicable. Our workshops include a range of informal writing activities, metacognitive writing and talk, and individual and small group work. If you request it, we ask students to evaluate the workshop and their learning; students’ anonymous and aggregate responses are sent to you after the workshop, so you can read what they say about the workshop experience.