First Year Experience

This is from Marc Tumeinski, who is teaching an FYS on “Religion, War, and Peace”:

This comes to us from Joseph Baratta,  a long-time FYS instructor and professor in the History and Political Science department:

For my Freshman seminar on the Promise of the United Nations, I asked students to read and listen to the speeches of heads of government at the recent U.N. General Assembly annual debate.  This was a timely occasion, which provided high level discourse on world politics.  The speeches revealed how national leaders regard the United Nations as they confront such issues as the Syrian civil war.  I asked everybody to read President Obama’s speech, then, for comparison, a selected speech for another public leader, like Pres. Putin of Russia, Pres. Holland of France, Pres. Rouhani of Iran, Pres. Xi Jinping of China, P.M. Abe of Japan, Pres. Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, Pres. Aníbal António Cavaco Silva of Portugal, Pres. Donald Trask of the European Union, and so on.  The assignment was to write an analysis and appreciation of the two speeches.  To help students utilize such sources, we talked about them informally in class.  Some listened to the videos provided by the U.N. for alternative learning styles.  The papers, I thought, were more sophisticated than I had expected.  Nice job!  (See http://gadebate.un.org.)

This story comes from me (Charlotte Haller) – in addition to coordinating the FYE program, I teach an FYS on “Food in America.”  It is a History course, and I am an historian, so for this particular book and this particular course, it made sense for us to organize around a timeline.  But I think this could easily be adapted to multiple formats.

One of the things we are working on in my class is “Predatory Reading”:  learning how to read academic writing strategically, effectively, and quickly.  To put this in practice, I have been assigning my students more reading than I think they can handle using their older skills (two chapters from Three Squares, or 45 pages for one day of class – and a total of about 100 pages for the week, this week).

In class (they were expected to do the reading for homework and they need to bring their books to class), I divided them into six groups (there were some absences, so it ended up being 2-3 per group) and gave each group a pad of post-its.  Each group was assigned a page range from the book – about 7-8 pages and instructed to identify important dates or moments from the text and write each one on a post-it with the date (or date range), important event, and page number where they found the information.

In the meantime, I made a simple timeline on the whiteboard (1830-1930, marked by decade – I realized belatedly that I should have clearly indicated which part was the 19th century and which part was the 20th, as students get confused about whether or not 1924, for example, is the 19th century or 20th).  Students then put their post-its on the timeline.

This whole process took 15 minutes and, as I told the students, through collaborative work, strategic reading, and good note-taking skills, they were able to take 45 pages of a book and turn it into a useful and manageable (meaning short) outline.

I typed up the timeline and it will be a starting point for our discussion on Thursday.

Here is their timeline – it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good:  TimelineDinner

Part of what made this a powerful experience for the students, I think, was the visibility of the exercise:  they could see what they had collectively done because it was all there at the front of the classroom.

A note on reading load for FYS classrooms:  I really like the attitude expressed in this post – that basically, there is no magic number of how many pages you should assign, but you should be thoughtful about the purpose of the reading.  Abigail Carroll’s Three Squares:  The Invention of the American Meal is an academic book (with footnotes and a scholarly argument) but it’s very clearly written, free of jargon, and, for me, a “quick read.”  It works, then, for my goals in this particular classroom.

This comes from Mark Wagner, who is also Director of the Binienda Center for Civil Engagement at Worcester State:

During and after our training, some of you sent me some interesting links that I thought I’d share more broadly — and also keep here for my own reference.

There is a move afoot to have glass artist John Miller come to WSU to do an artist talk this fall.  His work recreates fast food in glass.  You can check out his portfolio here:  http://www.johnmillerglass.com/

After our discussion of information literacy, I was introduced to a zombie apocolypse approach to information literacy.  More information can be found here:  http://crln.acrl.org/content/72/7/390.full

And, another window into the world of Wikipedia, in this portrait of “Justin Knapp, The World’s Most Prolific Wikipedia Editor”:  http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/features/story.aspx?ID=1746000

For those of you interested in ways you might use the CSI data (the student survey that gives indications of their sense of themselves as students as well as their receptivity to various kinds of help on campus), here are two links:

https://www.noellevitz.com/upload/Student_Retention/RMS/CSI_AdvisorGuideFormB4year.pdf

Please feel free to share any other connections or possibilities!

{We will be addressing this topic on Thursday afternoon.  This is an electronic version (with links to assignments) of the handout that was distributed at the Wednesday, June 4th training.}

In the Fall of 2014, we will be collecting samples of student work in order to assess information literacy, written communication and critical thinking (in other words, 3 out of the 4 learning outcomes – and that’s just because we haven’t yet figured out how to assess oral communication at the program level given our limited resources).

Because we want to use this as a gauge to how well students are learning these skills in the FYS, your assignment should be in the second half of the semester.

We are looking for a 3-5 page paper (double-spaced) that incorporates research appropriate for a first year student.

In thinking about developing your own version of the FYS assessment, you may find it helpful to review and ponder some other models:

— Tona Hangen’s History Labs.

— In prior years, we offered two possibilities: (1) Evaluating Media Coverage of Science, and (2) Wikipedia Assignment

— “The Food Fight Project.” This is part of an integrated learning community that worked really well in that context, but much less successfully when pared down for a stand-alone FYS.

Again, the goal here is not to impose an assignment upon you (and your students), but to encourage you to develop an assignment that works for you in the context of your course.

Please note:   You have considerable flexibility in designing your signature assignment for your specific needs. Student research often lends itself well to oral presentations and/or poster sessions. If you decide to have the signature assignment be primarily an oral presentation and/or poster presentation (which is a wonderful way to approach it), consider assigning an annotated bibliography which will serve as the “signature assignment,” for FYE assessment purposes.

The technical process of how and where students will submit their work will likely not be available until about mid-way through the Fall semester. We will convey that information to you when we have it.

It is a honor to co-coordinate this program with so many engaged, thoughtful and committed faculty.  I greatly enjoyed Monday’s session and I look forward to Wednesday and Thursday.  One of the things that Maria and I are trying to do throughout this week’s training is to incorporate some teaching techniques that we use (or plan to try to use) in our FYS’s in the training.  Monday’s sessions were a perfect example of what often happens to me – I didn’t have enough time to cover everything I had planned to cover and the class ended with the bell rather than with a nice, coherent conclusion.

One of the techniques I have begun to use is a course blog (I do mine on wordpress, but there is also functionality to do this in Blackboard, if that is your preference).  I found this particularly helpful when I taught on a MWF schedule (50 minute classes) and less necessary with an 1 hour 15 minute class.  I certainly don’t do it all the time, but when I feel that too many loose ends are dangling, I will try to offer some summary and connection that I didn’t get a chance to offer in the class period.

{This poster, created by sign painter artist Amos Kennedy, hangs in my dining room at home.}

First of all, I really appreciate the feedback that you all offered at the end of the day.  A couple of themes emerged:

— feeling energized and excited about teaching FYS

— Many of you are still figuring out what your particular FYS might look like.  In particular, many of you mentioned struggling (in a good way!) with the balance between teaching skills and teaching content.

— confusion about the peer mentoring program

In addition, on a process level, many of you implicitly or explicitly addressed the fact that much of the day was lecture, and that there was not much time to process the information.  Wednesday and Thursday should provide more opportunities for processing and discussion (that was part of the plan to begin with, but your comments reinforce the importance of that).

We’ll be in Sullivan 110 and Sullivan 109 on Wednesday (we’ll start our day in Sullivan 110).  During the lunch hour (pizza and salads, for those worried about an0ther round of wraps), anyone who would like to discuss syllabus development, talk through some problems, and throw out some ideas is welcome to convene in Sullivan 110.  I’ll talk briefly about the way that I organize my syllabus, so that you have another model to consider as you develop (or refine) your own course.  Those who want to make other connections or conversations can stay in 109.

A little clarification, too, about the readings:  first thing on Wednesday, I’ll go over our “syllabus” and explain a bit why the readings were chosen and how you might use them.  You do not need to make hard copies of the readings and bring them with you (though you are welcome to do so).  These are background readings to help get your minds thinking about these issues and give us a shared vocabulary or set of ideas (and also to limit the amount of time we spend in the session reading).  Some of them also are handouts or readings that you might choose to use with your own students.

What follows are my sense of some of the highlights from the day (written up in part for those who could not attend the training).  Please feel free to add more observations or thoughts in the comments!

— Please check in on “Syllabi” and “Resources” on this website where I’ll put electronic copies of handouts and model syllabi distributed in the sessions as I get them.

Here is the video produced by the Academic Success Center about First Year Seminars:

For those of you who are interested in doing integrated learning — perhaps two or more FYS’s collaborating to see a film together, or a field trip, etc. — there is money available through the Center for Teaching and Learning.  More information can be found here: http://wsufacultycommons.wordpress.com/  The dates are not current, but I have been assured that the CTL is accepting applications.

If you would like to do something extra with your students — one professor would like to bring her students to a play at Holy Cross, for instance, and another is hoping to provide an honorarium for a speaker — FYE does have a small pot of money available to fund these kinds of things (they can be academic or social).  The best thing to do to start the process is to send an email to me or Maria (challer1 [at] worcester.edu or mfung [at] worcester.edu) detailing your project and providing a budget.

I mentioned this multiple times on Monday, but it bears repeating:  within the goals of the FYS (oral and written communication, critical thinking, and information literacy), you have considerable freedom to design a course that meets your needs, strengths, and goals as a professor.  I loved Tona’s suggestion to write the program goals in your own language, reflecting your sense of what these mean (you can see a copy of Tona’s Fifties syllabus in the “Syllabus” area of the website.)

I also think that the more that we can encourage students to take advantage of the FREE services for students (or, already-paid-for), the better off they will be.  This includes Counseling, and I would reiterate the point that Laurie Murphy is an excellent resource on campus, and when I have encountered a student in crisis, I have found her calm, compassionate, and professional.

Tammy Tebo has done so much to move the FYE program forward.  I know many of you are still figuring out what the peer mentoring might look like and how exactly this is going to work.  I appreciate your willingness to explore and move forward with us.  I will keep you posted as we get more concrete information about peer mentors schedules, and the specifics particular to your FYS.

Last week, WSU had a Summer Institute sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.  I was not able to attend all the sessions, but I greatly enjoyed the ones that I did.  A couple of observations that I think are relevant to FYS:

One faculty member noted that for our students, “all learning takes place in the classroom,” which is another way of saying that students don’t do homework or seek to further explore issues outside of the classroom.  I definitely have seen this all the way through my upper-level classes and, while I have gotten better at creating engaging and challenging in-class experiences, I have been frustrated at the lack of commitment of my students to doing homework unless there is some concrete way to force them to do it (a writing assignment, a quiz, etc.).  So, I have incorporated lots of these techniques to make sure that, for instance, they do the reading.  But, wouldn’t it be nice if students just bought into the notion of a college education, without always being prodded along?  How can we structure our classes to encourage independence and motivation.  They old ways (give them a research paper with a broad and vague prompt) don’t work — or lend themselves so easily to cheating — but I’m not sure that we’ve found new ways.  I will say that I think the closest I came to this recently was two years ago when Karen Woods Weierman and I had an excellent experience with integrated learning across the FYS and English Composition classes in “The Food Fight Project.”

Jim Lang’s excellent talk about cheating was more broadly about how to create effective learning environments that lessen the temptation — or, in some cases, the ability — to cheat.  Some things he mentioned that help student learning:  the power of frequent retrieval (much of the research on this has been on the power of testing as a teaching tool, but, I think, that writing and seminar-type discussion are also ways to engage the brain and help retain information), the value of in-class practice (if there are important things that you think students should do, then have them do them in the classroom rather than outside of it), and the power of opening class with the question, “What do you remember from our last class?”  (the answer is likely to be humbling:  not much).

I loved Jim Lang’s point that “comparatively simple changes make a big difference.”

If anyone else found interesting connections to FYS teaching in the Summer Institute, please add them in the comments.