Project Description

Melike Yucel-Koc and Mehari Worku (Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures) redesigned MELC 101: Gateway to the Middle East as a writing-intensive course that uses writing as a tool for critical thinking, interdisciplinarity, and inclusion. Through their participation in the Writing@UW Fellowship, they developed scaffolded assignments that supported students in producing and consuming knowledge about the Middle East and Horn of Africa. Their project centered writing as a method for recognizing multiple narratives, connecting across geographic and cultural boundaries, and complicating dominant understandings of the region. In place of conventional assignments and rubric-based assessments, they explored formats like Pressbooks, oral histories, and infographics to offer students more meaningful ways to engage with course content and develop their voices as writers and thinkers.

Their work responded to pedagogical bottlenecks such as the limited integration of historical connections across the region and student difficulty with navigating complex, often unfamiliar cultural contexts. In dialogue with co-instructors and the professor of record, Melike and Mehari created low-stakes, episodic writing assignments for each module that culminated in a final project designed to synthesize learning across the quarter. They envisioned this culminating assignment as multimodal and modular—such as a chapbook or oral history collection—that emphasized the process of learning over polished product. The collaborative nature of the course presented logistical challenges, but they built in intentional touchpoints to share proposals and gather feedback from co-teachers as they moved toward full implementation. Their final deliverables included revised prompts, scaffolding activities, and evaluation criteria that aligned with Writing@UW’s equity-oriented principles.

Materials

  • Pressbook assignment prompt (forthcoming)
  • Oral history assignment prompt (forthcoming)
  • Revised weekly writing prompts (forthcoming)

Transforming Writing Instruction Through Collaboration

Through their participation in the Writing@UW Fellowship, Melike and Mehari reconceptualized writing instruction in MELC 101 as a process of critical and creative knowledge production. Initially focused on enhancing traditional assignments, they began to rethink their approach through a multimodal lens—considering how students both produce and consume knowledge. The fellowship’s readings and discussions encouraged them to reflect deeply on assignment design and evaluation criteria. While they had originally relied on conventional writing tasks and rubric-based assessments, exposure to alternative formats such as Pressbooks, oral histories, and infographics expanded their understanding of what writing can look like. This collaborative experience led them to shift their emphasis from standardized final products to a deeper engagement with the learning process.