Supporting Students’ Writing with Hawkes Learning: A Guest Blog by Dr. Stephen Whited

For many years in my 1101-1102 first-year writing courses, I have assigned the Hawkes Learning courseware to remediate grammar and mechanics and to complement manuscript and research content. In 2015, I met with a group of unusually weak writers; although nice people with a sketchy familiarity with the essay format, none brought basic editing skills to the class, not to mention any general awareness of grammar or mechanics. They wrote on autopilot; well, everything they did seemed conducted in a haphazard, inattentive manner. Their failure to meet deadlines or work independently also suggested a lack of personal responsibility and an inability to listen to or follow instructions. And yet they showed up regularly for class.

After a panicky review of all the support available through the publishers, I chose Hawkes to supplement my course at first because I liked The Reading and Writing Handbook, a well-selected collection of focused information presented in a simple, direct, well-designed format. As I reviewed the Hawkes courseware and the accompanying books, I particularly liked the editors’ recognition that proficient writing reflects reading skills, and reading skills inform the quality of skillful writing. It seemed to me that the approach in both Foundations of English and English Composition would be accessible at every skill level, but also to at-risk students. Best of all, I could quickly integrate the materials with no changes to my existing syllabus.

From my first attempts to implement the materials, I enjoyed excellent support from Hawkes representatives, making the set up and the first attempt in a class painless.

To my surprise, these first-year students were amenable to the lessons and quizzes probably because Hawkes’ homework formatting was more familiar than with the more speculative kinds of writing prompts that they were preparing for class. From the first weeks, the format worked very well, and positive results were at once evident in their work.

I have made very few changes since that first attempt. Along with a reader, I require 1101-1102 students to buy the Hawkes software bundled with the Handbook. For a more in-depth look at the materials the students have access to, the eBook for English Composition that goes with the “Compositions” lessons is included in the software. To motivate the students and encourage self-motivation, I set the Hawkes average as 25% of the final course grade. The general format is simple: each week I assign 5-6 lessons from a selection of chapters and topics and a quiz, about 45 minutes or less to completion. I have never needed to set late penalties for the lessons. With an email request, I make all quizzes available until the student is satisfied with the grade.

I realized assigning a little at a time and spreading out the topics, I could keep their attention on general and specific editing details without much comment in class. For example, a week’s lessons from English Composition involve only five questions for each of the six topics doled out week by week as the paper process develops. While getting the paper started, the week’s six lessons could be drawn from Chapter 3.1, 2 “Writing Process” [pre-writing, drafting, etc.], Chapter 4.2, 3 “Parts of the Essay” [introduction, thesis], Chapter 5.4 “Reading & Rhetoric” [understanding purpose], and Chapter 9.2 “Basics of Grammar & Mechanics” [characteristics of a sentence].

For me, planning involves only a weekly setup. I usually post on Fridays for the following week’s Monday to Sunday night due dates. The entire process of setting up the curriculum, the due dates, and the weekly quiz takes me about 20 minutes.

Assignments vary according to my syllabus for content expectations and class discussions, developing in complexity as we move through the semester. By the conclusion of the course, they have moved through all chapters and nearly all topics.

Hawkes’ excellent range of diagnostic reporting and analytics makes monitoring for “Outcomes” amazingly easy. I usually assign a low-stakes diagnostic quiz in the first week of class, and I add a post-course quiz to the final exam as a warm-up for the final writing sample, which I compare with the in-class midterm. In every class, I can point to data that suggests improvement for most students.