This document discusses academic reading and writing retreats for students. It considers how current learning development events draw together academic skills and course content, and how academics and learning developers collaborate. It then describes academic writing retreats, which provide structured writing time and space for students to discuss their work with peers. Evaluations found retreats improved productivity, format kept students focused, and interactive workshops using reading techniques were effective. Students requested additional retreats on research methods, writing structures, and extending retreat length. The document advocates for staged reading retreats and structured writing retreats to further develop students' academic skills.

1. Angela Rhead, SFHEA, a.rhead@keele.ac.uk, Twitter: @WellReadHE
Dr Chris Little, SFHEA, c.w.r.little@keele.ac.uk, Twitter: @drlittle26
(Student Learning, Keele Institute of Innovation and Teaching Excellence: KIITE)
Academic reading & writing retreats
for students:
Using extracurricular provision to explore curricular
content and enhance student learning

2. Consider:
How far do our current LD events draw together
academic development practices and disciplinary
learning?
How successfully do our academics and
developers currently collaborate?

3. Academic Writing Retreats
(for students)

4. 4
What is a writing retreat?
Structured
writing time
Shared
writing
space
Discuss
with
peers
● Typically offered to academic staff, research staff, PGR students NOT
undergraduates or PGT.

5. 3 minute reflective
writing task
You have 5 minutes to consider and
answer the following questions:
1. What have you achieved this
academic year?
2. What do you wish to achieve in
the next academic year?
3. What can you do over the
summer period to prepare for
next academic year?
Rules:
You MUST write in full sentences.
Don’t worry about spelling, etc as
only you will read it.

6. Academic Writing Retreats - The journey...
Staff and researcher writing retreats have a range of benefits from improved
productivity and motivation through to an increased self-identification as ‘writers’
(Moore, 2003; Murray and Newton, 2009; Papen and Theriault, 2017; Swaggerty et al.,
2011)
2016/17 -
● Pilot run with Year 3 BSc Midwifery inspired by own attendance at staff writing
retreats
2017/18 onwards -
● Made a core part of our freestanding provision.
● ALSO Embedded in all 3 years of BSc Midwifery and other programmes.

7. 7
Making them work...
● Clear communication
● Strict ‘enforcer’
● Lead by example

8. 8
The evaluation...
Environment
“As someone with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, I often cannot work in the library,
especially alone, so the environment was perfect for me”
Productivity
“I was able to write much more in the format than i usually would have done in the
time … the quality of work i produced was very high”
Format
“I dont know why it works but the structure of the day means that you are
completely focused on your work”
“It would be great to come up with a different type of retreat aimed to address other
struggles students may face”

9. Hybrid Retreats
Type - Is there space
for something that
delivers space to
write, instruction and
other academic
practices?
People - Staff and
UG/PGT retreats?
Location is key
Hard to establish the
retreat ’vibe’ in
central PC Labs.
Trialling BYOD
retreats in Summer
2018/19.
‘Levelled’ Retreats?
Often, Year 1 and 2
students felt whole
day events needed
to be shortened or
have an instruction
element.
Some thoughts...

10. Academic Reading Retreats
#WellReadHE
What do YOU mean by
‘critical’ or ‘academic’
reading?

11. Why?
“I get lost in the
middle and forget
what I read before.”
“I’ve written my essay…
I just need to find references
to support it now.”
“How many sources
do we have to put in
for references? Ten?
Twenty?”
“Range?
Is it some books, some
journals and some
websites?”
“Sometimes I have to
read the same thing over
and over again”
“I get bored”
?...?

12. The inspiration

13. The Scenery
The
Players
Stage Directions
Method 1: The Stage
“I’ve written my essay…
I just need to find references to support it
now.”
“How many sources do we have to put in for
references? Ten? Twenty?”
“Range?
Is it some books, some journals and some
websites?”

14. “I get lost in the middle and forget what I read before.”
“Sometimes I have to read the same thing over and over again”
“I get bored”
Scan MapSkim
Method 2: Textmapping

15. Evaluations
Structure
Time
Discussion
Delivery
1:1
“The interactive nature of the workshop.
Angela introduced us to key techniques (the
stage, the scene, finding space, scrolling,
mapping) and then allowed us time to put
these reading techniques into practice using
our own selected articles.”
“Stop reading articles like novels and
realise that academic reading is purposely
difficult/complex: it's not (just) me being
stupid! I have already started to incorporate
Angela's mapping technique into my
reading practice by mapping the call for
paper abstract for a paper I'm currently
working on. This will help to ensure that my
paper meets the brief.”
“The environment, the passion of the
facilitator, the worksheets. It has
genuinely given me loads of stuff to
take back and use that will
undoubtedly make me a more
effective reader. The fact that it will be
more efficient is an added bonus It
was ace seeing students so enthused
and excited about reading.”
“Use the abstract/conclusion method
to drive more focused, selective
reading - like i used to!”

16. Post Retreat Evaluation, Q.10:
What other workshops would you like to see?
“A non-taught academic reading
retreat as a follow up to The
taught sessions. It could be a
structured day I could use as an
opportunity to practice these
techniques.”
“Research methodology
workshop”
“The writing retreats are good but it
would also be useful to have a session
which had practical tips for writing and
structuring articles, thesis chapters etc”
“Extending the retreat over
a two-day period to allow
for more 'reading' time “
“writing retreats in a similar
fashion”
“More Reading retreats ! perhaps in
conjunction with writing ones”
“course of reading retreats over
weeks”
“More info on how to go from reading information to collecting and
organising the research”

17. Possibilities?
● Staged reading retreats?
● Structured and instructional writing retreats?
● Research retreats?
● ARR as professional academic development?

18. Share with us via:
● Coffee
● @WellReadHE / @drlittle26
● #WellReadHE
● ARR Blog- https://tinyurl.com/ARRKeele
Immediate Reflections?

19. Bibliography
Abraham, Ulf. (2016). On Their Own but Not Alone: The Difficulty in Competence-Oriented Approaches to Teaching Reading and Writing of Thinking of
"Performance" in Communal Terms. Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 23(3), 209-226
Kornhaber, R., Cross, M., Betihavas, V., & Bridgman, H. (2016). ‘The benefits and challenges of academic writing retreats: An integrative review’. Higher
Education Research & Development, 35(6), 1210-1227.
MacMillan, M. (2014) ‘Student connections with academic texts: a phenomenographic study of reading’. Teaching in Higher Education, 19:8, 943-954
Middlebrook, R. D. (1994) Instructional Benefits of Textmapping [on-line]. Available at http://www.textmapping.org/benefits.html
Murray, R. and Newton, M., (2009) Writing retreat as structured intervention: margin or mainstream?, Higher Education Research & Development, 28(5), 541-
553.
Moore, T. (2013) Critical thinking: seven definitions in search of a concept, Studies in Higher Education, 38(4), pp.506–522
Papen, U. and Thériault, V., (2017) Writing retreats as a milestone in the development of PhD students’ sense of self as academic writers, Studies in
Continuing Education, 40(2), 1-15.
Saltmarsh, D. & Saltmarsh, S. (2008) Has anyone read the reading? Using assessment to promote academic literacies and learning cultures. Teaching in
Higher Education, 13 (6), 621-632
Swaggerty, E., Atkinson, T., Faulconer, J. & Griffith, R., 2011. Academic writing retreat: A time for rejuvenated and focused writing. The Journal of Faculty
Development, 25 (1), 5-11.
Wallace, M., & Wray, A. (2016). Critical reading and writing for postgraduates (Third ed., SAGE study skills). London: SAGE.
Weller, S. (2010) Comparing Lecturer and Student Accounts of Reading in the Humanities. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Vol 9, Issue 1, 87 – 106
Wisker, G. and Robinson, G. (2009). Encouraging postgraduate students of literature and art to cross conceptual thresholds. Innovations in Education and
Teaching International, 46, 317-330