Audio Feedback on Writing Tasks: Students Maximizing Teacher Response
Phyllis Wachob, BC
Electronic communication means teachers can give feedback on written assignments instead of writing scribbles in the margins. Audio recordings as feedback for writing have been used for the last twenty years, but as technology has progressed, even easier ways of giving feedback have become available. The researcher’s project revealed that the instructor gave 25 times as many words in audio as in written feedback and gave significantly more positive comments than negative. Also revealing was the tendency to ask questions leading the students to clarify and expand their work.
Understanding Techniques for Student Motivation
Chris Dison, BC
As we all know, motivating students can be difficult. Discussing the psychology and practice of motivation can benefit teachers and students and help create a more significant classroom experience. This session will explore techniques for instructors to use in motivating students.
Success at Bakersfield College: Qualitative Success Measurements from the Writing Center and Supplemental Instruction
Kim Arbolante, BC; Eileen Pierce, BC
This presentation will serve the purpose of demonstrating the excellence of the Writing Center and Supplemental Instruction at Bakersfield College through qualitative measurements and inspirational anecdotes. We hope that it will inspire other institutions to consider their own success initiatives from a qualitative perspective and perhaps even motivate them to consider new endeavors modeled after BC’s services.
Feedback Fundamentals
Dale Drennan, CSUB
As teachers we strive to give the kind of feedback that will help our students move forward in their writing, reading, and critical thinking. But what does this feedback look like? How should we deliver it and when should we deliver it? I have some ideas about this and propose to share these with others in an informal presentation/discussion exchange format.
Implementing Summer Bridge for First-Generation Students
Kimberly Van Horne Bligh, BC
This presentation will inform faculty about the specific needs for incoming freshmen, specifically first generation college students. The presentation will cover bridge recruitment, curriculum and implementation processes as well as need to collaborate across multiple programs and disciplines.
The Grammar of Poetry and Other Pedagogical Amphibians
John Davies, BC
I have had tremendous success in my Gen Ed Expository Composition course with a brief lesson in poetry, focusing on how the rhythms and discursive intentionality in a poem mimic the rules of prose. A few students choose to do an extra credit poem, and the confidence gained from creating art often translates into increased success with more “prosaic” assignments. I would like to use this example to spark a general discussion about how tapping students’ hidden talents can unlock the skills required to generate certain learning outcomes (alongside the conventional methods for teaching those skills).
Distributing the Workload: Collaborating to make a common reader in composition and First-Year Experience courses
Emerson Case, CSUB; Brad Ruff, KHSD/CSUB
This presentation will show participants how a composition program and a first-year experience program can more readily work together to allow students to more effectively interact with and internalize a common reader text. Participants will be shown specific assignments and strategies from both composition and FYE classes in the areas of both critical reading and writing.
Engaging Students by Centering a Composition Class on the Power of Education and Books
Joelle Milholm, BC/CSUB
Many of our students don’t enjoy reading and writing for a wide variety of reasons and sometimes even despise all English related subjects. By using literacy as a theme for a composition class (whether it is for basic writers and readers or first-year English students), especially focusing on the impact literacy, books, and education have had on history, students will be presented with information that aims to make them appreciate books, reading, and writing more. John Wood’s nonfiction book Creating Room to Read serves as an empowering tool that sparks positive change in the world through examples like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan, as well as an examination of other non-profit organizations that are using education and literacy as agents for change in the fight against global poverty. In this presentation, I offer a breakdown of Creating Room to Read, suggest supplemental readings and videos to enhance the course, discuss writing assignments that aim to get students thinking critically and engaged in the topic, and demonstrate the benefits of implementing the theme of literacy in composition classes.
A Framework for the Future
Lewis Gillham, KHSD; Brad Ruff, KHSD/CSUB
The California State Board of Education adopted a new Framework for English Language Arts curriculum and instruction in 2014. The Framework is extensive and provides a detailed picture of what standards-based English classes will “look like” in the 21st century. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the five “themes” that organize the Framework and an integrated model for instruction that addresses them.
The Quiet Classroom
Andrew Baker, BC
As an educator, what impressions do you form about overly quiet students? Are they less intelligent? Disengaged? Or is it possible that they are simply introverts who need more time to think, read, and relate? Tapping into the insights of the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, this presentation will present best practices for understanding and teaching students who are introverts.
Help! I Need Somebody: An Investigation into the Efficacy of Mandatory Tutoring for Basic Writers
Jeff Eagan, CSUB; Kim Collins, CSUB; Jessica Wojtysiak, CSUB
Mandatory tutoring components are increasingly being included within basic composition courses offered in the CSU system, but this requirement has not yet been adopted at CSU Bakersfield. Mandatory tutoring requirements are primarily justified by research focused upon the benefits of help-seeking behaviors adopted voluntarily by students engaged in self-assessment and intervention selection. This mixed methodology case study attempts to analyze the efficacy of a mandatory tutoring component employed in three sections of English 99 taught at CSU Bakersfield during the fall of 2014. While final quantitative results are not yet available, this presentation will discuss the qualitative feedback gathered via survey at the end of the quarter.
Bridging the Gap from Sponge to Active Learning
David Layne, TC; Adam Bledsoe, TC
Knowledge gains in psychology and metacognition are suggesting educators rethink old strategies and create new ones to help students abandon passive listening and embrace new skills and strategies for deep learning and scholarship.
The Grading Contract: Bridging the Divide between Student and Teacher
Tyler Richmond, BC
Scholars such as Elbow (2009) and Inoue (2012) have offered the Grading Contract as one solution for overcoming the various problems that assigning value to student writing brings with it. From the disconnect between process-pedagogies and point-based grading systems to the tension that grading creates between student and teacher, a Grading Contract based in labor and the processes of writing, rather than the products, allows students and teachers alike to focus on learning rather than calculating grades. This presentation will center around the use of a Grading Contract in an English B50 course during the Fall 2014 semester, offering student writing and reflection as evidence of the potential of Grading Contracts to bridge the traditional teacher/student divide.
Entering the Conversation: What We Say about They Say, I Say
Ann Marie Wagstaff, PC; Elizabeth Buchanan, PC; Jon Stern, PC; Nicole Celaya, PC; Lea Maryanow, PC
We will introduce the book They Say/I Say, offer comments and suggestions about using the book in the classroom and, in particular, using templates as a writing tool.
Read It Again…Just Kidding…Kind of
Katie McNamara, North High School
Close reading is critical to gaining a greater depth of knowledge. Get students to go back and dig deeper in the text with meaningful activities that challenge and expand their thinking.
Research Papers: Curricular Expectations and Best Practices
Tamara Lynde, BC/PC/TC/CSUB; Jessica Grimes, TC; Rebecca Hewett, CSUB; Gloria Dumler, BC; Kaitlin Hulsy, PC
I will be reaching out to colleagues from different schools to form a panel that will explore the different curricular standards from the different schools for research papers and the useful practices each has developed over time. This will lead into a workshop for useful ideas and techniques for teaching the research paper.
CALL Computer Aided Language Learning
Laura Harris, CSUB IELC
Discover how CALL (Computer Aided Language Learning) can utilize technology in your classroom to teach content while providing the interactivity your students crave in today’s digital age. Learn how technology can be used to help you meet the goals of content learning, communication, critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and production. CALL addresses literacy development using technology in all disciplines. Handouts with useful resources provided.
Building Teamwork through Literacy
Kamala Carlson, TC; Danielle Kerr, TC
Research indicates that contextualized learning underpins student motivation and engagement; therefore, this session will focus on intentional assignments that are integral to developing the metacognitive strategies necessary for most collegiate courses while also creating a culture of teamwork and a continuum of learning by demonstrating ways to co-construct with other faculty, collaborate with the community, faculty, and students, and contextualize student learning through strategic tasks, which culminates in an event like a Community Symposium.
A Continuing Discussion: Transitions from High School to College
This open discussion session will focus on ways to help students transition from high school to college.
