Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Curriculum Changes in First Year Composition Classes: An Opportunity

for Faculty Partnerships

METRO Outreach and Advocacy SIG MeetingThursday May 26, 2016METRO Training Center

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Library Workshops for First Year Composition Courses

•Targeted to First Year College Composition Courses•45 minutes•Lesson Plan• How to find books• How to find articles• Access databases from home• Understand plagiarism• Library Web Site as “virtual” space

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Library Workshops for First Year Composition Courses

•Workshop also used to promote library services and resources•Held During CLUB Hours•Students self register:• Attend workshop w/o teacher• Register via Google forms• Select a workshop via Google Calendar•Assessment built in (quiz on Google forms)•Students receive certificate of attendance at the end

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Spring 2016: oh oh, a curriculum change!

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

First Year Composition Classes will only focus on writing, not research

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Sever Ties?

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Burn Bridges?

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

……or Develop New Partnership?

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Pilot “Conceptual” Workshops

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

….we discussed…

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Workshop Focusing on Concepts,

not Library Research ?

….more discussions…

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

•Some librarians in the department were uncomfortable teaching a new workshop that omitted “research”

•Some felt it could be a way to “part ways” with the English department

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Collaborated on Pilot Lesson Plan

•Collaborated with the English Department•Develop new lesson plan• Thesis Question & Statement• How information is affected by bias, audience,

author, context, politics, and genre• Evaluation of sources• Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Anxiety Happens….(avoid discussing library research?)

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

After the Classes Librarians visited 3 out of 4 classes

No discussion of assignment

Students were very engaged

Classroom faculty appreciated the conversation

It was challenging to keep the conversation going

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

The Future of Our Workshops?If library research is removed from First Year Composition Classes, then college catalogue description must change.

The “change” in curriculum must be approved by The College’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Mark Aaron Polger | First Year Experience Librarian | College of Staten Island, CUNY | MarkAaron.Polger@csi.cuny.edu

Conclusion/Lessons Learned

•Library services keep changing and improving

•Collaborating is always positive

•Whether the curriculum change gets approved or not, we tried something new.