The Winter Window: Five Ways to Take Stock (and Up Your Teaching Game) Before Next Semester

The window between fall and spring semesters is an ideal time to reflect on our work and brainstorm new teaching strategies. After finalizing fall grades and taking time to rest and recharge, we have just a few short weeks to prepare for spring. In this month’s blog post, we recommend strategies for productive reflection and revision that will make your midwinter less bleak.

1. Celebrate What Went Well 🎉

Thoughtful teachers can be our own worst critics, able to rattle off laundry lists of things we’d like to improve each semester. But it’s important to take time to recall and appreciate what went well. Where did students succeed? What long-standing practices or new experiments showed promising results? What positive feedback did students share? 

Reflecting on our successes can help us maintain and build on effective practices moving forward. One strategy is to start and maintain a bank of positive student comments and successful teaching strategies that you add to through your years of teaching. Many teachers find that collecting positive comments to look back on can buoy them on low days and remind them of effective practices they want to maintain over time even as they continue to tinker with their materials. Pragmatically, tracking these successes can also support promotion cases and award applications.

2. Show Off Successes with Samples 📑

Throughout the semester, you likely encountered examples of student writing that were particularly effective, insightful, or creative. Winter is a perfect time to gather and annotate those exemplars to use with future students.

Consider taking a few minutes now to email students who authored particularly effective documents and ask permission to share their work anonymously with future students.* You can also ask those students to share process materials—drafts, brainstorming documents, annotated sources—which can help illustrate for future students the process required to develop effective writing. Finally, you might request they share tips or strategies for success in your course for future students, which can form the basis of a running document of authentic peer advice you share with incoming students in your courses. (In future semesters, you might even formalize this strategy by creating an end-of-semester survey asking all students for tips for future students and permission to use writing samples.)

3. Identify Improvements 🛠️

Of course, even while we celebrate successes, we can always continue to iterate and improve our teaching over time. While winter usually doesn’t provide enough time to fully revamp a course, it’s a good opportunity to introduce some targeted interventions to address specific challenges students encountered in fall. Consider these and other strategies from our previous blogs and online resources:

• Projects starting out well, but not coming together? Getting student complaints that activities are too difficult or complicated? Consider increasing scaffolding.
• Want students to engage course content more deeply? Consider opportunities to integrate in-class writing and reflective writing.
• Students want or need more feedback on writing? Consider effective, efficient feedback strategies and opportunities for peer feedback, and don’t forget to connect students with Student Writing Support.
• Widely varied student interests or levels of preparation? Consider opportunities for differentiation.
• Students confused by your AI policy or misusing AI tools? Revamp your AI policy and consider strategies for discouraging AI misuse. 

The WAC team is always happy to discuss these or any other concerns related to teaching with writing in a consultation.

4. Address Accessibility 🔓

As you work on your materials this winter, don’t forget that April 2026 is our deadline to update all digital materials for accessibility. As CBS Associate Professor (and WEC co-liaison!) Dr. Deanna Koepp reminded us in a recent interview with ATSS, “You don’t want to wait until the end of March … this process takes time, and the hardest part is just starting.” As a starting point, we recommend reviewing the Office for Digital Accessibility’s Digital Accessibility Resource Guide. ODA is available to consult on technical digital accessibility questions, and the WAC team is happy to consult on questions about writing assignment design, including as it connects to digital accessibility.

5. Connect with Community 🤝

Teaching can too often feel isolating! Finding opportunities to connect with other faculty navigating similar experiences and challenges can reinvigorate your teaching practice. While most of us intend to pursue professional development during the semester, it’s easy to let it slide once the hubbub of the semester ramps up. Taking a few minutes in the relative quiet of winter to sign up for spring events can ensure you carve out that time before other obligations emerge. WAC is offering a slate of exciting events this spring; we hope you’ll make a plan now to join us!

• Our upcoming Winter Workshop, co-hosted with University Libraries, explores strategies for supporting students with researching, reading, and writing in the AI era. Register by Jan. 8!
• This spring’s WAC workshops and panels include sessions on generative AI, promoting group discussion, supporting undergraduate research, and developing or revitalizing your WI course. Our book circle will explore how to develop writing assignments that are meaningful and motivating to students. Register now for our spring events!
• New this spring, our teaching hunkers—inspired by our popular faculty writing hunkers—will provide faculty space to work on writing assignments, feedback and grading, and any other aspect of teaching with writing in community with other dedicated instructors. Good company, caffeinated (and uncaffeinated) beverages, and yummy snacks will be provided—join us!
• If you are interested in connecting with colleagues in your department to discuss writing instruction, encourage your colleagues to apply to be a WEC unit or participate in the WEC Legacy Program. Applications for both new and legacy units are due January 25.

How are you updating your courses this winter? Tell us about it in the comments below.

*While students generally feel comfortable sharing their work, remember to assure them that they are free to decline the request. If students agree to share their work, ask them to provide an editable version (e.g., a Google Doc) so you can create a shareable copy that meets accessibility requirements and redacts any identifying information such as the student’s name, the semester they took your course, and personal details.

Image credit: StockCake