FYI Seminars

Overview of WorkshopSegment 1: Choosing a Topic/Organizing the

Course Segment 2: Seminar Format/ReadingsLUNCHSegment 3: Service Learning/Civic

EngagementSegment 4: Writing Assignments &

AssessmentsReview of the Day

Choosing a Topic/Organizing the Course

FYI Seminar Planning WorksheetStep 1: Questions and Controversies

What are the major questions and controversies in your discipline/topic?

Question/Controversy 1

Question/Controversy 2

Question/Controversy 3

Question/Controversy 4

FYI Seminar Planning Worksheet

1. Origins of Controversy

2. Paradigm Shifts

3. Important Contributors

4. Current Status

Step 2: History of Questions/Controversies

What is the history of those questions and controversies?

FYI Seminar Planning Worksheet

1. What first interested you in your

own studies?

2. Broader implications for knowledge of

world?

3. Philosophical/ethical implications?

4. Contribution to human/social

progress?

Step 3: “Big Questions”

Who cares? Why are these questions/controversies important and worth study?

Relevance to students?Beloit Mindset List (

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/)

Richard Light, Making the Most of College:Students value classes that make them

“a slightly different person” (p. 47)

Tim Clydesdale, The First Year Out

Popular Seminar Topics at TCNJ1. This is Your Life on Music2. Mortality, Mind, and the Meaning of Life3. Popular Culture, Power, and Identity4. Advertising & Society: The Good, the Bad, & the

Ugly5. Multicultural New York6. Friends Forever: Examining Online Socializing7. Making Sense of Life, For Life8. The Beatles and Their World9. The Cultural Phenomenon of Harry Potter10. Being Me, Knowing You: The Foundations for

Human Encounter

Unpopular Seminar Topics at TCNJ1. Protecting New Jersey's Pinelands2. Africa and the West: From Monologue to Dialogue 3. Our Town and Other Works by Thornton Wilder4. The Geology and Tectonics of Africa5. Strong Democracy and Student Leadership6. The Worlds of Moby-Dick7. Harlem Renaissance:  Black Paris8. The Evolution of African American Gospel Music9. Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in the

Anglophone Caribbean10. Concert Dance of the 20th Century in America

FYI Seminar Planning Worksheet

1. Fun facts to know & tell

2. Topical relevance to pop culture

3. Personal stories4. The unexpected and

mysterious

Step 4: Relevance to Students

How might my seminar’s questions/controversies intersect students’ lives?

Putting Everything TogetherWhich items or boxes from Steps 1-4 seem

to go together?Try to link up at least one item or box

from each sheet (especially Steps 2-4) into one “unit” for a prospective FYI Seminar.

Try to come up with at least three or four “units” in this way.

How might these “units” accomplish the course objectives of the FYI Seminars?

FYI Seminar Course ObjectivesInvestigate a specific topic or question in-depth.Consider the connections within and between various

fields of study.Discuss and explore how diverse viewpoints can aid and

enhance research and understanding.Recognize the need to explore underlying assumptions

in both people and text.Demonstrate strengthened inquiry, research and

information literacy skills.Reflect upon the importance of civic responsibility.Discuss and practice integrity within personal and

educational contexts.Develop skills in oral discussion and written

communication.Learn to utilize University resources.

Seminar Format/Readings

Seminar Format: What We Just DidSmall, well-defined tasks that built toward a

specific, planned outcome, relevant to the participants’ needs and interests.

Small, in-class writing exercises to prime participants for discussion.

Paired discussion and group work.Reporting out.Large-group fact-gathering, brainstorming,

and discussion.Even a little lecturing.

Seminar Format: Questions to ConsiderIn a free-wheeling discussion, how will students

know what to write down in their notes?Which is better – debate or consensus-building?How can I tell if class is going well (or badly)?What happens when the discussion gets

sidetracked?Should I call on people or only on volunteers (and

what if the same two people are always the only volunteers)?

Should I grade participation?What are reasonable expectations for how much

one class meeting can cover?

Seminar Format: Goals to Strive ForLecture less.Teach students to think like a . . . (sociologist,

physicist, artist, journalist, teacher).Encourage students to take responsibility for

their own education and to take an active part in it.

Help students to retain what they learn in class.Allow students to experiment with ideas and

deepen their understanding of material.Give students the opportunity to learn by

teaching their peers.

FYI Seminar Planning Worksheet

1. Texts that provide essential background

2. Milestones in history of

questions/controversies

3. Provocative, troubling, polemical, cutting-edge

texts

4. Texts with which I vehemently disagree

Step 5: Readings

What should the students read?

Reasonable Expectations:Student Responsibility for ReadingExpect and encourage maturity/commitment….But remember what high school is like (meeting

every day, busy work, etc.) and help students to be responsible without your looking like a police officer.Easy, low-stress, not-gotcha quizzesResponse papers (short, informal responses to

readings submitted at the beginning of class – once a week, on assigned days, or student’s choice)

Collected in-class writingOpening or closing statements (one-minute précis of

thoughts about the reading from each student, going around the room at the beginning or end of class)

Reasonable Expectationsfor Student ReadingQuantity of reading to be assigned

For each text, time yourself and multiply by two to get student reading speed for that text.

Expect students to work two hours outside of class for every hour in.

Quality of reading on students’ partsBe happy about whatever level of

comprehension the students achieve.Model good reading strategies in class for each

type of reading before expecting students to read those types with sophistication.

FYI Seminar Planning Worksheet

1. Texts that provide essential background

2. Milestones in history of

questions/controversies

3. Provocative, troubling, polemical, cutting-edge

texts

4. Texts with which I vehemently disagree

Step 6: Teaching Reading Strategies

How do you read? Where do you start? How do you proceed?

Writing Assignments & Assessments

Writing Assignment GimmicksWriting for audiences other than the professor

Make-believe audiences (e.g., composing a position paper for the Obama transition team)

“Real” audiences (e.g., drawing up a feasibility study for an ice cream shop on campus to be submitted for real to the College President’s office)

Internet audiences (e.g., keeping a blog, open to anyone and everyone on the web)

Peer audiences (e.g., submitting papers not only to professor but to classmates OR “publishing” papers in a collection of class essays)

A Good Writing Assignment...Gives a brief and clear description of exactly what

students are supposed to do and how their work will be evaluated.

Asks students to do something very specific while also allowing them to follow their own interests and ideas.

Builds on what students have been doing in class but goes further in some way.

Provides ample opportunity for students to practice and show off specific skills and concepts that they have learned.

Promises to be interesting for the professor to read.

Doesn’t stand alone as the only communication about the paper.

Informal Write-to-Learn AssignmentsIn-class writingResponse papersBlogsThreaded discussion boardsPostersSearch-and-destroy research

assignments

Sample Grading RubricA = Outstanding An "A" paper has a strong, clear, interesting, narrow, and specific thesis and an introduction that provides an interesting, helpful preview of

the content, logic, and organization of the paper. An "A" paper provides relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion. An "A" paper has a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together logically in a thoughtful,

sophisticated, and memorable manner with ample transitions to aid the reader. An "A" paper has unified, coherent, and well-developed paragraphs without exception. An "A" paper has almost no errors of grammar, punctuation, word choice, or usage. The writer consistently uses sentences that are clear,

concise, effective, and varied in terms of length and structure. An "A" paper synthesizes the information and arguments from multiple, reliable sources into its own argument, summarizing its sources fairly

and assessing them critically. B = Good A "B" paper has a strong, clear, interesting, narrow, and specific thesis, but the introduction is not a wholly adequate preface to the content,

logic, and organization of the paper. A "B" paper provides relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for most assertions. A "B" paper has a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together logically with transitions for the

reader at significant points in the paper. A "B" paper has unified, coherent, and well-developed paragraphs for the most part. A "B" paper has some errors of grammar, punctuation, word choice, or usage. The writing is always clear, although it is not always concise,

effective, and varied. A "B" paper uses multiple, reliable sources, but uses them merely to provide specific evidence for its own argument. C = Adequate A "C" paper has a clear thesis, but the thesis is vague, broad, uninteresting, or not wholly relevant to the assignment. A "C" paper provides evidence and reasons for most assertions, but the evidence and reasons are frequently not the most relevant or the most

logically persuasive or the most thoroughly developed. A "C" paper has a clear and consistent overall organization, but the organizational principle is vague, uninteresting, or inadequate.

Transitions tend to be weak, uninspired, or vague. A "C" paper has significant problems with the unity, coherence, or development of some of its paragraphs. A "C" paper has a number of errors of grammar, punctuation, word choice, and usage, but the writing remains comprehensible at all times.

The sentences are sometimes short and choppy or long and wordy. A "C" paper uses evidence from a source of questionable reliability uncritically or relies too heavily on a single source at key moments in its

argument. D = Deficient A "D" paper has a thesis, but the thesis is unclear and vague. A "D" paper rarely provides real evidence or real reasons for its assertions. The paper is made up mostly of unsubstantiated opinion. A "D" paper does not have one clear organizational principle or does not follow through on its initial organizational principle consistently. A "D" paper has frequent problems with the unity, coherence, or development of its paragraphs. A "D" paper has many errors of grammar, punctuation, word choice, and usage, and the writing is sometimes incomprehensible with little

variation in terms of sentence length and structure. A "D" paper relies heavily on unreliable sources or seriously misrepresents its sources.

“A” writing:

“B” writing:

“C” writing:

“D” writing:

“A” writing:

“B” writing:

“C” writing:

“D” writing:

“A” writing:

“B” writing:

“C” writing:

“D” writing:

“A” writing:

“B” writing:

“C” writing:

“D” writing:

FYI Seminar Planning Worksheet

1. 2.

3. 4.

Final Step of the Day: Criteria for Evaluating Writing

What matters most in student writing? What makes good and bad writing?

What obstacles or questions remain?

ResourcesKen Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do

(Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004), ISBN 0674013255

Tim Clydesdale, The First Year Out (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2007), ISBN 0226110660

James M. Lang, On Course (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008), ISBN 0674028067

Richard J. Light, Making the Most of College (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004), ISBN 067401359X