Course: First Year Studies
Faculty: Laurel Kennedy, Dean
Librarian: Various
The First-Year Program seeks support through the Mellon Foundation Grant for Integrating Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Curriculum. We seek, in particular, support to conduct a four-day summer workshop for instructors of First-Year Seminars for the purpose of course design and the development of assignments to meet the objectives of the First-Year Program. Information literacy figures prominently among those curricular objectives
The overarching scholastic goals of the First-Year Program are "to develop or refine critical academic skills and the habits of mind necessary for success in college." These skills and habits include
While there is widespread agreement with these ambitions, what we find in practice is that faculty attend to these goals with varying degrees of attention. Many faculty express uncertainty over the expectations for FYS courses, or over how best to address programmatic objectives in the context of their particular course. With specific regard to information literacy, the absence of shared principles-in-practice leads to learning inefficiencies for students: since not all FYS classes participate in instruction sessions at the library, the librarians conducting the sessions must teach to the lowest common denominator when students may have varying degrees of proficiency. Training around these principles would permit librarians to anticipate and teach to the actual proficiency level that students are likely to possess, as well as to work developmentally over the course of a semester and even the First Year as they build their information literacy skills. For students, faculty, and librarians, this means enhanced opportunities for meaningful teaching and learning.
To accomplish this, we seek funding for a summer workshop to focus on course development and syllabus and assignment design for First-Year seminars. The objectives of the workshop are:
The workshop will be conducted over a four-day period from May 19-22, 2003 and can involve a minimum of six and a maximum of 18 faculty. Faculty will be paid a stipend of $500 for their participation in the workshop. All faculty who are scheduled to teach an FYS course during the 2003-2004 academic year are eligible to participate. Faculty will be asked to provide a course description and at least a skeletal syllabus by May 1, 2003. They must also agree to submit a copy of the syllabus they have developed by August 30, 2003, to integrate library class sessions into their course and to continue throughout the semester the working relationship they establish with a librarian during the workshop.
The workshop is structured as follows:
Monday, May 19
Morning: (Laurel Kennedy; invited "seasoned" FYS
faculty)
Part I: What do we know about the academic preparation of
Denison students? What skills do they feel they have or lack?
What do seasoned FYS instructors report?
Part II: What are the goals of the FYS seminar? What
expectations do we have for entering students? What peculiar
challenges do FYS instructors face in these courses?
Afternoon:
Workshop session: 2-4 faculty and a librarian will
collaborate in a workshop environment, focusing first on
identifying learning objectives of their specific courses,
and reviewing the course structure and the progression of
student assignments and projects. Faculty will then select
one course assignment and delineate its specific learning
objectives with regard to the topic of the course and with
regard to the development of cognitive, expressive, and
information-literacy skills which comprise learning goals of
the course.
Tuesday, May 20
Morning: (Faculty and Librarian Faciliators)
Part I: How can we help students to identify compelling
paper/speech topics or to frame fresh research questions that
are reasonable in scope? How do we teach the processes of
collecting, evaluating, and compiling appropriate evidence to
build sound arguments?
Part II: What "best practices" can we identify from
Denison's campus and elsewhere with regard to effective
teaching for FY students?
Afternoon:
Workshop session: Team members work independently and
one-on-one with their librarian to refine the goals of
Assignment One, to lay the groundwork for collaborations with
library staff, and to finalize the written instructions that
will be provided to students.
Wednesday, May 21
Morning: (English Department, Writing Center
faculty)
How do we help students to become better writers? What
progression of skills development works best? What resources
do seasoned faculty find most useful in working with
students? What methods of evaluating student work are most
effective for student development? How can faculty be
efficient in grading writing?
Afternoon:
Workshop session on Assignment Two. Faculty will consider
where their second assignment fits within the progression of
skills development, what the specific objectives of this
assignment are with regard to course content, information
literacy development, and the improvement of writing skills.
They will work one-on-one with their librarian to identify
opportunities for and parameters of collaboration, and
finalize the preparation of the assignment.
Thursday, May 22
Morning: (Communication Department faculty)
How is effective oral communication similar to or different
from effective written communication? How are assignments for
oral presentations different from writing assignments? How
does oral communication improve? What constitutes effective
feedback for oral presentations? Librarians will also provide
resources for assisting students in preparing oral
presentations.
Afternoon:
Workshop session on Assignment Three. Continued collaboration
between faculty and librarian
Review of the structure of the syllabus
Debriefing