First Year Seminar

1. First Year Seminar At Rhode Island College

2. Workshop Goals To come to a common understanding of what we, as RIC faculty, expect of FYS To share ideas about teaching first years and first year course development To develop assignment examples which would be appropriate for this course. To discuss resources on campus available to us as FYS instructors, and identify areas in which we would like to see further support

3. Changing the Game FYS Courses and Programs Rationale for FYS at RIC

4. What is it? A Variety of FYS Formats(Drawn from Research on FYS) • Extended Orientation Seminar (“College Survival”) • Focuses on time management, campus resources, learning strategies, etc. • Pre-Professional or Discipline-Linked Seminar • Designed to prepare students for a particular major or profession • Academic Seminar with a Single Topic • Theme-oriented, perhaps interdisciplinary, often includes academic skill component (critical thinking, research fluency, etc.) • Academic Seminar on Various Topics • Similar to above, but topic varies from section to section

5. Why FYS? Improves student outcomes and College GPAs Introduces students to academic expectations Creates greater sense of community and enhanced social engagement in that community Aids retention and graduation rates Improves image of College

6. Examples of Programs Middlebury College (Private Liberal Arts) Appalachian State (Larger State University) University of Southern Maine (Peer Institution) Rhode Island College (Tentative Website)

7. How does RIC’s program compare? • Many of our peer institutions are more likely to offer “Extended Orientation” classes rather than Academic Topic-based. • Seminar size (20 people) actually on the small size. Most capped at 25. • Unusual for Colleges of our size and peer group to be able to offer courses to entire entering first year class. (Even Brown only this year was able to approach offering enough sections for their entering students, and it still fell short.)

8. RIC First Years: Is there a Greater Need for FYS than at most institutions? CIRP Survey Results for “Ratings of Abilities” for 2010 RIC First Years Given our students’ personal ratings of abilities, what do we want our FYS to accomplish? Can we rank our FYS priorities?

9. RIC FYS Course Goals (tentative) • Actively introduce students to and engage in academic conversation • Guide students in constructing academic questions, identifying authoritative resources to help address them, and after discovering potential answers, communicate those conclusions effectively to others • Provide incoming students with academic role models • Establish standards of academic behavior and collegiate expectations • Teach skills and introduce Rhode Island College resources organically throughout the class as they become relevant • Provide support for the transition from high school to college • Encourage connections among the students, with faculty, with the College, and with the broader community

10. What kind of elements could we include to achieve these ends?

11. Preparing to Teach FYS

12. Fall 2012 Proposed Course Topics • Abbotson, Shock Therapy: Drama as Protest • Allen, On Being Human • Benziger, Competing Narratives and Contested History: 12/7/41 and 9/11/01 • Breene, The Power of Sound: Exploring Emotion in Music • Brophy-Baermann, Voting Democracy Off the Island: The Politics of Reality TV • Burgess, Wilson and Cardente-Vessella, Dance and the Fashion-ista • Castiglione, Free Will and Free Thinking • Christiansen, Hijacking History: The Past as Propaganda • Ciambrone, Men, Women and Bodies • Cvornyek, The Fix Is In: Sports Page Scandals • Danely, Monsters • Del Vecchio, Science and Pseudo Science • Dufour, “Takin’ It to the Streets:” The Sixties and the War for the Meaning of America • Duneer, Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Maritime Literature • Endress, “You Say You Want a Revolution?” Rhetoric, Culture, and Politics of the 1960s • Galvez, Video Games as Media • Gonsalves, Radiation and Society • Goodwin Gomez, The Gift of Gab: Language, Power, and Persuasion • Govenar, Symbiosis and You • Gullapalli, Aliens Save Atlantis! • Hall, Embodiments, Incarnations and Representations • Hughes, Explore Providence! • Jalalzai, Savage Desire • Linde, From Palestine to the Patriot Act: Human Rights in the 21st Century • Meyer, Natural Disasters: Inconvenient Truths • Miller, Manly Men: Masculinity in American History • Morenon, Food for Thought • Olmsted, A., War Talk • Reddy, “It’s Alive!” The Persistence of Frankenstein • Rudolph, Media, Society, Reality • Saucier, Popular Culture in the Black World • Schmeling, Democracy • Shonkwiler, American Survivalism • Smuts, Philosophy of Death • Taylor, “Whodunit” Theatre (Suspects and Sleuths): Creating, Writing, and Hosting Your Own Murder Mystery Theatre

13. CIRP Survey on 2010 First Years • Sharing experiences about teaching First Years: • What to expect? • What can be challenging? • Particular rewards to teaching First Years? • Examining URI Document assessing the “Grand Challenge Initiative” classes, which are similar to our FYS classes.

14. What would you like First Year Students to demonstrate before they become Second Years? • Skills? • Abilities? • Possible considerations: • Basics of writing? (Keeping in mind that a first year student will take FYS in one of his or her first year semesters, and First Year Writing in the other.) • Basics of oral communication? • College Resources? • Community opportunities? • Collegiate expectations and ethics? • Collaborative abilities?

15. Lunch!

16. Developing FYS Syllabi

17. Looking at Sample Syllabi • Each group has a specific syllabus to examine. • Discuss: • What do you like about the syllabus? • What are suggestions for improvement? • Identify major assignments and methods of assessment. • How might a course like this be tailored to fit our College? • Report back to larger group. • As a large group, brainstorm ideas for potential assignment types.

18. Considering General Education Outcomes Associated with FYS *Critical and Creative Thinking *Written Communication *Research Fluency Oral Communication Collaborative Work *General Education Outcomes which will be assessed in Fall 2012.

19. Designing Assignments to Fit our FYS Course Outcomes and Goals Consider the course outcomes and goals identified earlier in the workshop. Individually, and with your course in mind, construct a FYS assignment which organically teaches a skill and/or meets a course outcome through the exploration of content. Share your ideas with your smaller group, and with us all.

20. Moving Forward FYS Resources and Program Ideas

21. Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning Introducing FCTL people and roles. Identifying workshops of interest to FYS participants.

22. User Support Services • Discuss Role of Technology in FYS. • Workshops • Schedules Available • Individual Consultation • Training Documents: • Training Material - http://www.ric.edu/toolbox/Training/index.htm • Blackboard Support Material -  http://www.ric.edu/toolbox/bb9_faculty_support.htm • Blackboard Training Material - http://www.ric.edu/toolbox/BB9/information/whitepapers_videos.htm • Spring 2012 Newsletter: http://www.ric.edu/uss/newsletter.php 

23. Adams Library Discussion of Research Fluency Outcome and relationship with FYS, Adams Library Identifying ideas for role of Library in FYS Classes

24. First Year Seminar Coordinator • Provides for faculty members: • resources for pedagogical or administrative concerns • support for assessment • review of proposals before submission to COGE • “institutional memory” for course with many different instructors • Ideas for Role of FYS? • Suggested frequency and type of workshops for Spring/Fall 2012?

25. Future of FYS • Faculty ideas for elements of First Year Seminar experience? • Ideas being considered: • Student mentors • Paired writing tutors • First Year Seminar Conference • FYS Faculty as (in)formal advisors for first-year • Connection with planned “First Year Experience”