Download First-Year Seminar: Kick It Up a Notch!

First Year Seminar…Kick It Up a Notch!
(Active Learning Strategies that Encourage Academic Discourse)
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Chloe Yowell – email: [email protected]
Class Website: critical.tamucc.edu/wiki/ChloeYowell/home
Background of First Year Seminar and Learning Communities at TAMUCC:
I.
When Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi became a four year university in 1994, it adopted a learning
community approach for its first year students. All freshmen, enrolled in 12 or more hours, are required to
take two semester of First Year Seminar as part of their Triad or Tetrad.
Structure of the Triads and Tetrads
Triad
All of the Triads and Tetrads include a First-Year Seminar and a FirstYear Writing class. These are small classes of 25 students or less. In
addition, Triads include a large lecture class (such as General
Psychology or U.S. Government and Politics), and Tetrads include two
large lecture classes. The classes within each Triad (or Tetrad) are
"linked," in the sense that students enroll in all three classes (or four
classes in a Tetrad) at once, as a "package deal."
For example, students might enroll in a Triad which includes:
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First-Year Seminar (UCCP 1101 or UCCP 1102)
English Composition (English 1301 or English 1302)
Human Societies (Sociology 1301)
Tetrad
A Tetrad which the University frequently offers consists of the
following courses:
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First-Year Seminar (UCCP 1101 or UCCP 1102)
English Composition (English 1301 or English 1302)
U.S. History to 1865 (History 1301)
U.S. Government and Politics (Political Science 2305)
First-Year Seminar
First-Year Seminar (FYS) instructors attend the large Triad or Tetrad lecture classes with their students, act
as teaching assistants/graders for those lecture classes, and help their students to:
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Explore the interconnections among the Triad/Tetrad courses;
Develop their critical thinking and significant learning;
Clarify their personal values, goals, and strengths;
And, develop their ability to learn through study, discussion, writing, cooperation, and
collaboration.
II.
Academic Discourse
What is it?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, academic discourse is: “familiarity with a subject,
conversancy, and mutual intercourse of language.”
Why consider it when teaching first year students?
We all participate in a variety of discourse communities: workplace, sports, crafts, church, etc. Each has
its own shared terms, values, ways of operating, etc. Knowledge of this discourse is necessary to
effectively participate within the specific community. The community of academia shares its own ways of
thinking, valuing, speaking, and writing. When students join the academic community, (i.e., enroll in
college), learning to speak, write, and think in the discourse of that community enables them to be more
effective participants. We want our students to be able to “join the conversation”.
I asked my colleagues to think of shared terms, values, and/or ideas that are common to academic discourse
that they believe students are not familiar with when entering the university setting. Here are just a few of
the long list I received: critical thinking, civic engagement, rhetoric, egocentrism, perspectives,
ideology, meta cognition, paradox, paradigm, bias, homogenous/heterogenous, marginalized, etc.
The First Year Seminar class exists to help students with success strategies for university life. Let’s “kick it
up a notch” and have them explore, grapple with, and integrate academic discourse into their education!
III.
Active Learning Strategies
“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to
teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they
are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make
what they learn part of themselves” (Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,
Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson).
Common Lesson Structure (adapted from Dr. Glenn Blalock, English professor, Baylor University):
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Students work alone first, writing, listing, responding to (a) specific prompt(s). (When
students have time to think/develop individual responses, they are able to participate
more fully in the group activity.)
Then they join a group to share/compile/do something further with their individual
responses, as a group.
Instructions for group activities (and for whole class activities) should help students
understand what they are supposed to do. If asked to "listen," offer more guidance: listen
for what reason, how, why? In other words, be conscious of what students will be doing
and consider how their 'doing' can be more intentionally "learning."
Groups share results of activity with whole class, which is opportunity for synthesis,
application, etc., with the teacher as participant.
Whole class activity is followed by an individual activity that invites students to reflect
(metacognition) and to connect their individual and group results with the whole class
results.
Active Learning Strategies/Activities
Current events are a great way to get “material” to implement the following strategies. Students need/want
to know what’s going on in the world around them. Other articles, over subjects that you find interesting
and/or are passionate about, can be material used for these strategies/activities. Your options are limitless!
Also, video clips have been extremely successful tools to generate interest and spark discussion. I’ve found
clips from all the major news websites as well as those from youtube.com. For example, I wanted to
discuss various perspectives on the immigration debate. I simply went to youtube and typed in
“immigration debate” and found numerous short clips depicting a variety of perspectives. I showed these
in class to enhance our discussion---worked unbelievably well!
During these lessons, I refer to terms such as critical thinking (analyzing others’ views), civic engagement
(knowing the world around us is the first step!), rhetoric, ideology, egocentrism, etc. to encourage
familiarity with academic discourse.
Find Illustrative Quotes
Bring in copies of an article (or any text) you would like your students to discuss. Students spend the first
10 minutes or so reading through an article or portion of a chapter assigned as pre-reading. Have them
highlight/underline quotes that they especially agree with, disagree with, find interesting, or find
particularly difficult to understand. Whether you discuss in groups or whole class, students now have
something to contribute. They can discuss/question/affirm the points they’ve underlined.
Recalling a Memorable Experience
Starting a discussion by getting students to talk about a memorable experience in their lives that somehow
connects to the topic is a great way to get your students engaged. Because most students think they are
experts on their own experience, starting out with personal stories is often much less intimidating for them
than launching straight into a discussion of the strength and weaknesses of a theory. This has worked well
for me with various discussions [the middle east situation (we remembered our 9/11 experiences), media’s
influence on society, hurricane Katrina and racism, First Amendment freedoms, etc.)]. It also works well
when discussing study skills (exam prep, time management, note taking, etc.).
Hatful of Quotes
Prior to discussing a text (article/book excerpt/news clip), type out sentences or passages from the text onto
separate slips of paper. For class, put these into a “hat” (or envelope) and ask students to draw one of the
slips out of the hat. Students are given a few minutes to think about their quote and then asked to read it
out and comment on it. If you use the same 4 or 5 quotes, students who go later will have heard their
quote read out and commented on by those who spoke earlier and they can affirm, build on, or contradict a
comment a peer has already made on that quote.
Structured Buzz Groups
Prepare a few questions about the reading ahead of class. Put students in groups of 4 or 5 to answer the
questions. Although they don’t have to cover all the questions, have them try to finish as many as they can
and to record their answers in writing. The groups’ answers are either submitted at the end of class or
reported to the reconvened large group to spur on further discussion.
Problem-Posing Strategy
Submit to students a problem, framed as an open-ended question, to which they must propose and justify an
answer. Again, consider current event problems, study strategy problems, etc. (For critical thinking
purposes, emphasize differences in view points.) A great way to do this is to have students write down their
“solutions” independently, then break them into groups and have them “round robin” share one solution at a
time. They can then discuss the group’s solutions, come up with their top 3 or 5 and share their group’s
solutions with the rest of the class.
Meeting of the Minds Panel
Set up a panel discussion in which students are assigned to role-play different figures that bring alternative
points of view to the discussion topic. This works well with advance preparation. Spending a class period
(or two) in which students formulate their points of view on the topic (using resources they, or you, bring to
class) really enhances the activity.
Jigsaw
Divide the material to be learned into several parts (5 or 6 max). Assign students to “home team” groups
(the number of groups equaling the parts of material to be learned—5 parts = 5 groups). Each member of
the “home team” will be assigned one of the parts to be learned. Then, break your class into “expert
groups” – all members assigned to “part A” get together, “part B” gets together, etc. In their “expert
groups” they gather with the other students assigned the same material. Within these groups, they read,
discuss, and thoroughly learn their material. After this, have students return to their “home team” and
“teach” the part they learned to their group.
Constructive Controversy
Have students work in groups of four. Within each group, have them split into pairs. Assign pairs
opposing sides of a controversial issue. Each pair reads about their “stand” on the issue and then shares
with the group. (This is to inform---not debate). After some discussion, have each pair switch sides and
then argue the opposing side---debate may now occur.
Reaction Papers
After either a reading or discussion, have your students respond in writing. You can then have students
read/share ideas from their papers, or you can collect them and anonymously share quotes during the next
class period to spark further discussion.
The Power of Two/Snowballing
Have students answer a question or solve a problem individually. Then have them pair up and compare
their responses. Have them create new responses or improve their original responses. Then have 2 pairs
join together to make a group of 4 and repeat. Then have 2 groups of 4 join together to make groups of 8.
Then reconvene as a whole class.
Rotating Small Groups Stations
Set up “stations” around the room with newsprint, a poster board, or chalkboard space. Break your class
into the same number of stations you’ve set up. Each station should have a prompt on some issue that
encourages students to write down their ideas using whatever medium you have provided. After about 5-10
minutes, have students rotate to the next station, read the prompt, read the “conversation” that has already
started, and contribute further (write down) to the conversation. The last stop will have students at the
station they originated from (so that they can see what their classmates had to say on their initial issue).
Circle of Voices
Place your students in either mini-circles of 4-5 or have the whole class get in a large circle. Ask a thought
provoking question and allow up to 3 minutes of individual silent time so that students can organize their
thoughts---encourage them to jot down an idea or two. Then a student in the circle starts and can say
whatever they want (uninterrupted) on the topic for up to 3 minutes. Students take turns speaking by going
around the circle. After everyone has had a chance to speak, the discussion opens out into a more freeflowing format. Ground rule: participants are only allowed to talk about others’ ideas, not simply
expanding on his/her initial idea---unless someone directly asks him/her.
Fishbowls
A small number of students (willing participants) are selected to sit in “hot seats” in the center of class,
where they respond to critical thinking questions about the subject matter that have been passed out either
several days in advance, or, at the minimum, given at the start of class with a few minutes to reflect on.
The rest of the class, seated around the students in the fishbowl, critiques the “performance” of the fishbowl
students after the session. Repeat with more questions as time allows.
IV.
Sample Lesson Plan – Modeling Strategies
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V.
Ask students: “Consider your high school education. What kinds of experiences did you
have? Were you adequately prepared for college as a result of it?” Allow time to
share/discuss (Recalling a Memorable Experience)
Pass out article to students. Instruct them to highlight or underline any statement that
they especially agree with, disagree with, find interesting, or find particularly difficult to
understand (Find Illustrative Quotes). Have them read only the sections that are boxed.
Break students into groups of 4-5. Hand each group a piece of paper with the following
questions: (Structured Buzz Groups)
i. Based on the reading, how do diverse high school experiences affect your
students’ learning?
ii. The reading states, “What they (students) systematically fail to recognize is the
value of learning.” Do you agree/disagree with this statement?
iii. What is the difference between the “value of school” and the “value of
learning?”
iv. As an instructor, what do you perceive as some of your greatest challenges?
Groups should jot down ideas, answers, comments on the paper.
After each group has time to discuss the questions, have them choose a spokesperson to
share two main points of their discussion with the rest of the class.
In “round robin” fashion, have each group share their first main point with the whole
class, allowing time for discussion on each point raised. If time allows, repeat with the
second point.
Groups should turn in any brainstorming papers generated from the activity at the end of
the class period.
Conclusion/Debriefing
Sources:
Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2001.
Brookfield and Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2005.
Copley, Catherine, “Academic Discourse” Empire State College – State University of New York.
http://www.esc.edu/esconline/across_esc/writerscomplex.nsf/3cc42a422514347a8525671d0049f3
95/95c341865985e34885256a2b005954b5?OpenDocument#Academic%20Discourse
McGlynn, Angela Provitera. Successful Beginnings for College Teaching. Madison:
Atwood Publishing, 2001.