Supporting First-Generation College Students (Mar. 24 & Apr. 28, 2023)

CATL is excited to partner with Lisa Lamson, Assistant Teaching Professor in Humanities and 2022-23 EDI Consultant, to offer two workshops this spring on supporting the success of first-generation college students.

Transparency in Syllabus Design for First-Gen Student Success (Mar. 24, 1 – 2 p.m.)

The first of the two workshops, Transparency in Syllabus Design for First Gen Student Success, will be held in person on Friday, Mar. 24 from 1 – 2 p.m. in the Alumni Room (University Union 103). This workshop addresses the whys and hows of syllabi – how can faculty best utilize the first-day foundational document throughout the semester to best support first-generation students as they navigate college? Despite best efforts, there seems to be a disconnect between how faculty see class syllabi and how students engage with the syllabi. This workshop intends to act as a bridge to help faculty articulate how their syllabi and learning outcomes shape the learning experiences throughout the semester and how it connects to their “genre knowledge” to help students see the value in a syllabus. In doing so, this workshop seeks to help faculty support first-generation students’ sense of belonging in the classroom and in the university by making clear the activities in the classroom’s connection to the university’s learning outcomes and beyond.

Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum for First-Generation Student Success (Apr. 28, 1 – 2 p.m.)

The the second workshop, Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum for First-Generation Student Success, will be held in person on Friday, Apr. 28 from 1 – 2 p.m. in MAC 107. “How do you know what you know?” – “Hidden Curriculum,” or the unspoken expectations of college in and outside of the classroom, often acts as a barrier to first-generation student success. While much of the academic scholarship on the “hidden curriculum” focuses on student experiences, this workshop intends to bring the conversation explicitly into the classroom – how can we uncover the information we, as faculty, just know and translate that for our students? How can we teach something we have learned through doing? This workshop proposes an opportunity for faculty to articulate the hidden “just knows” for their classroom to improve student achievement and, ultimately, success. Working through an assignment of their choosing, faculty will identify hidden expectations in their assessments and rubrics, and develop ways to make clear how the expectations of the assignment align with the course outcomes and beyond.

Small Teaching: Ways to Make Quick, Impactful Changes on Student Learning

While the spring semester is now partially completed, it is still critical to engage in reflective practices as a constant component of teaching students. While analyzing how your courses have gone throughout the first couple of months and looking to make improvements throughout the remainder of the semester, you may notice small changes you can make to adapt your curricular delivery, assignments, or assessments for the betterment of student learning and engagement. In February, we posted on The Cowbell a blog post that centered around the TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) Framework. In this blog post, we will take the tenants or ideas of the TILT framework a step further, and focus on ‘small teaching’ – ways to incorporate a one-time modification or intervention that can be done in a period of no more than 5-15 minutes. 

James Lang wrote about small teaching in 2016 with his book entitled Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. The book has since published a second edition. In it, he contends that for anything to be designated as an impactful technique regarding small teaching, it first must be accessible. This accessibility includes the ability for the technique to be translated for every content delivery mechanism, from small group instruction to large lectures. Secondly, it requires minimal prep and grading. This ensures that it is a small and incremental change, rather than a complete overhaul. Lastly, it must be foundationally rooted in the learning sciences.  

One adaptive instruction technique that embraces the small teaching criteria is to frame your curriculum with predictive questioning for analysis and background knowledge. This effectively challenges the students to go beyond their current level of understanding and ability to critically analyze and predict. If the prediction is incorrect, students can begin to analyze why they thought that way, where they may have thought differently, and develop a deeper understanding of what the correct response would be and why.  

Much like in the world of academia, the same patterned learning can be found in real-world examples. If you have ever taken leftovers from a meal and predicted incorrectly at what size container to utilize, or you have stepped out on an ice-covered driveway only to realize a better pair of shoes may provide more grip, you have engaged in predictive living. Our lives are in a constant predict-detect-correct cycle of learning. There are several ways predictive learning can be utilized in the classroom in small ways. You can activate prior knowledge through pre-quizzes or writing prompts, utilize polls or informal class predictions, or as a closing discussion about predicting upcoming lab experiments and results. These can be followed up with short discussions at the beginning of a future class. 

Another minor change that can impact your students is the practice of information retrieval. Dr. Pooja K. Agarwal has done extensive research around memory and retrieval practice, and in a recent publication of Educational Psychology Review, she concluded that “retrieval practice improved learning for a variety of education levels, content areas, experimental designs, retrieval practice timing, final test delays, retrieval and final test formats, and the timing of feedback” (p. 1427). This sort of retrieval practice lends itself to long-term learning, rather than short-term success. 

There are a few ways you can effectively implement retrieval practice in short amounts of time. For example, implementing small quizzes at the end of each Canvas module can help lead to a greater depth of understanding. This could be utilized for several modalities, such as asynchronous online teaching, for a version of conditional release to move on through other modules. You could implement a short writing analysis of the current day’s lesson and information presented, or, to achieve a similar result, conduct an ‘exit ticket’ question as students wrap up class for the day.  

These are just some of the ways to utilize small, incremental changes that provide deeper learning and student understanding to be enhanced. It is important to keep in mind that any sort of small teaching modification should continue to be aligned to course expectations and learning outcomes as students will be more successful when it is done with consistency in a holistic sense to maximize its impact.

If you would like to learn more about how to use the tenets of small teaching within your own course design, feel free to contact the CATL office by email (CATL@uwgb.edu) or schedule a consultation with us. If you are interested in reading more about small teaching and the science of learning, CATL has copies of Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning available for checkout as well. 

Call for Teaching Enhancement Grant Proposals (Due Friday, April 7, 2023)

Teaching Enhancement Grant: Open to faculty and instructional academic staff seeking to enhance their teaching skills or develop innovative teaching strategies. Applications due Friday, April 7.

The Instructional Development Council (IDC) is accepting applications for Teaching Enhancement Grants (TEG), through support from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. The Teaching Enhancement Grant program is designed to support professional development activities that will enhance a faculty member’s teaching skills or result in the development of innovative teaching strategies.

Faculty and instructional academic staff whose primary responsibility is teaching for the current academic year are strongly encouraged to apply! Applications are due Friday, April 7, 2023. Click the button below for full details. If you have any questions about the application or TEG, please email the Instructional Development Council at idc@uwgb.edu.

Addressing Racial Battle Fatigue at UW-Green Bay (Feb. 28, Mar. 28, & Apr. 25, 2023)

CATL is thrilled to sponsor a three-part series on Racial Battle Fatigue that will be led by Dr. Crystal Lepscier (Little Shell/Menominee/Stockbridge-Munsee), who currently serves UWGB as the First Nations Student Success Coordinator. The goal of the series is to center on the exploration of the idea of Racial Battle Fatigue and consider its impact on our holistic wellness in order to address the impacts of this phenomenon. This opportunity is open to faculty and staff who are engaged in race work and those from racially underrepresented groups who are interested in addressing the physical and psychological toll they have faced in this work. This is first and foremost a space to find balance and nourishment in our holistic wellness as educators and practitioners. While not intended to be a space equipped with a professional counselor, services and resources would be accessible and shared with any and all participants in this project.

All sessions will be from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in person in the Center for First Nations Education – Conference Room (Wood Hall 473). If you are interested in attending one or more of these sessions, please register by clicking the button below. The descriptions, dates, and times for all three sessions in the series are further down.

Register

What is Racial Battle Fatigue?

Tuesday, February 28, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

This session will focus on community building and creation of a space of wellness. Drawing from readings, we will learn about Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) and Fasching-Varner’s (2015) definition, discuss impacts on health and wellness, and express our initial thoughts and reactions about the phenomenon. We will discuss connections to the idea of emotional labor in our work as well as discuss related subjects such as microaggressions and minority tax. It will be important to allow for an outward projection and comprehension of internalized fatigue, externalized fatigue, sole voice, and intergenerational responsibility and how one might carry this ‘emotional labor’ in their daily interactions.

Creative Methods to Address Racial Battle Fatigue

Tuesday, March 28, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The second session focuses on addressing the phenomenon of Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF). We will briefly review the definition of RBF as a refresher. Participants will discuss anything they carried forward from the previous session, reflecting on RBF and potential impacts on awareness. We will then explore creative methods to help express RBF. A journal exercise will be introduced, along with writing prompts from spiral writing method by Lynda Barry. Tapping into our own stories is an important part of confronting RBF.

Collective Reflective Space

Tuesday, April 25, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The third session will draw upon an Indigenous form for creation, connection, healing and expansion of our teachings. We will utilize a talking circle format to help consider our experiences, stories, and reflections on our journey to address Racial Battle Fatigue in ourselves. We will also use an arts-based project as another form of Indigenous expression for wellness and healing.

Transparency and Student Success: Time-Saving Small Changes

At the recent Instructional Development Institute (IDI) 2023 Conference, our community came together to discuss the topic of student success. One common theme discussed was how instructors and staff can help students succeed in college. An answer that came up repeatedly within various sessions was to adjust our course design methods. While making changes to a course can seem a daunting task, supporting student success does not have to involve doing a large-scale course overhaul. Instead, making small, sustainable changes to a course or even to individual activities and assessments can help increase the chances of student success within the classroom. These small changes are also an easier and more realistic lift for instructors, and some of them can even be time saving overall. In this blog post, we will explore some examples of how including the transparency in learning and teaching (TiLT) framework and proper scaffolding can help reduce confusion and barriers between instructors and students when engaging with learning materials. 

One of the easiest ways to include the TiLT framework within your course is to include detailed instructions for activities and assessments. Provide clearly written and detailed instructions to students on why an assignment is being given, what tasks students must do to complete the assignment or assessment, and what criteria will be used to grade their work. Assignment and assessment descriptions can be broken down into three clearly defined categories. ‘Purpose,’ ‘Task,’ and ‘Criteria for Completion’ or similarly named categories can help guide students through activities. At the end of the day, using the TiLT framework to make the “why” and “how” of your assignments and assessments more transparent to your students can also save time for you by reducing the number of emails or messages you receive from students asking for clarification. 

Another way to easily incorporate TiLT is the inclusion of scaffolding using low-stakes assignments and assessments. Smaller scale, low-stakes assessments or assignments can scaffold towards a final summative assessment. By breaking the process up into smaller, more manageable chunks, students can more easily track deadlines, which can reduce procrastination. Making these assignments and assessments worth only a few points can also provide incentive to complete them, and act as a buffer towards the final grade. Lastly, scaffolded assignments can also cut down on plagiarism cases, as you will be able to see the student’s work as they progress towards the final deliverable for your course. 

Using Canvas Rubrics to identify and explain assignment and assessment grading criteria and to show students what is required to complete an assessment is a third way to include TiLT within your course. This option can be used for both formative and summative assessments. You can also align rubric criteria to match with the expected outcomes of your course. Choosing to align course outcomes directly with course activities and rubrics also shows transparency in how different course elements will met expected course outcomes. The inclusion of detailed rubrics that match the expected outcomes for module assignments, discussions, or other assessments can help guide students through formative assessments. Rubrics can also show transparency in assessment purpose, goals, and completion in line with the TiLT framework, and are integrated with the Canvas Speedgrader to make grading assignments and assessments based on the rubric faster. 

If you would like to learn more about how to use the TiLT framework to make small, sustainable changes within your own course design, feel free to contact the CATL office through email (CATL@uwgb.edu) or schedule a consultation with us. Interested instructors may also want to sign up for our professional training opportunity LITE 201: Trail Guides when it is offered in the summer. This course will walk you through creating modules, assignments, and assessments using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TiLT) for your own courses.