Hello, all!  Apologies for any repetition due to cross-posting!

I've just returned for a meeting with the coordinator of our
university's English Composition program, who wants to coordinate her
program with the Weatherspoon Art Gallery and encourage more of her
teaching assistants to use the museum as a resource in teaching
Freshman Composition courses.

In the past, several TA's have brought their classes to the Gallery for
tours or looking exercises so they could write descriptive papers
based on a work in the Gallery.  This is great, but we want to go
beyond description to enable English instructors to use the gallery in
different ways.  Some of our ideas include a sequential program in
which students move from writing description to writing about the
"argument" that a particular work of art presents, or perhaps thematic
tours in which students look at, discuss, and write about works of art
that relate to the theme of their composition class (themes include
Gender Identity, Media Culture, Civil Rights, etc.)

Do any of you (in museums of any discipline) have writing programs for
university English Composition students in place? What kinds of
programs do you do?  Do you have advice on particular successes or
pitfalls in a program like this?

As always, thank you in advance for your help!

Pam Hill
Curator of Education
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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