Faculty-Staff Learning Community
Theme: First-Year Student Engagement
2005-2006Projects
Life Callings and the Liberal Arts
Charlene Kalinoski, Professor of Spanish
Student Associate: Marina Salama and Audrey Easter
Writing Across the Curriculum: Music into Words
Gordon Marsh, Associate Professor of Music
Student Associate: Greg Ayers
Global Village
Julia Pollack., English as a Second Language Instructor / International Student Advisor
International Programs Office
Student Associates: Amanda Corson, Ashley Lucas, Angelina Kight
Developing Critical Thinking Skills with First-Year Honors Students
Leonard Pysh, Associate Professor of Biology
Student Associates: Erin Brady and Rebecca Winship
Storytelling as a Means to Student and Community Wellness
Colleen Sasso, Area Coordinator, Residence Life Management
Emerging Leaders Program for First-Year Students
Michael Steele, Area Coordinator, Residence Life Management
Student Associate: Abby Rowe
Upperclass Student Tutors in GST 101 and 102
Dana-Linn Whiteside, Assistant Professor of English
Student Associates: Yvette Hodgson and John Sutton
Creative Thinking and Creative Problem-Solving
Edward Whitson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Student Associate: Joshua Showalter
Project Descriptions
Life Callings and the Liberal Arts
Charlene Kalinoski, Professor of Spanish
Student Associate: Marina Salama and Audrey Easter
Project Description: The intent of thisFSLC is to deepen our group's understanding and appreciation of the liberal arts, and tofoster a deeper awareness of their personal callings. Our activities will mix thesublime with the practical. We will examine the liberal arts and what traditional Christian wisdomsays aboutvocation. We will also consider topics such as time management, learning styles, and good jobs for liberal arts students. The members of this FSLC will take the Strong Interest Survey, and meet with members of the campus community, alums, and others to find out how they discerned their life callings and turned them into satisfying careers.
Writing Across the Curriculum: Music into Words
Gordon Marsh, Associate Professor of Music
Student Associate: Greg Ayers
Project Description: I have joined five RC colleagues from disciplines other than English (biology, chemistry, history, math, philosophy, and religion) in a pilot program to teach freshman writing in RC’s GST 101 course, Critical Reading and Writing. The theme for my section is “Music into Words.” Writing across the curriculum at RC is relatively uncharted territory, despite its well-established practice in many colleges and universities. Indeed, it’s with an eye to the college’s projected implementation of a first-year semina that I decided to take advantage of the FSLC program to gain feedback and assistance in my foray into a general education music course for first-year students. From my student associate (a junior music major), I anticipate feedback in how to address the first-year general student’s encounter with writing about music; from FSLC’s assessment component, I plan to make informed revisions in the course for fall 2006, with an eye to developing a freshman seminar in 2007 or soon after.
Global Village
Julia Pollack., English as a Second Language Instructor / International Student Advisor
International Programs Office
Student Associates: Amanda Corson, Ashley Lucas, Angelina Kight
Project Description: Ms. Pollock designed a residential learning opportunity in which international students at Roanoke College lived together with Americans in the Global Village, housed in Tabor Hall. Living together gave the international students support during stressful times of cultural adjustment and helped solidify them as a group. Their intercultural influence on the campus was visible through various programming opportunities hosted by Global Village: events both for the community – foreign films and discussion- and in house – dinners, open house, going ice skating).
Developing Critical Thinking Skills with First-Year Honors Students
Leonard Pysh, Associate Professor of Biology
Student Associates: Erin Brady and Rebecca Winship
Project Description:One of the College’s Goals for Liberal Learning states that: “Traditionally, the liberal arts are the skills of freedom. A liberal education at RoanokeCollege aims to produce resourceful citizens by developing these skills and habits of mind, [which include]... the ability to think critically.” Although critical thinking is theoretically inherently required by all college coursework, the faculty seems to spend little time intentionally enabling our students to develop this skill. My FSLC project is aimed at challenging my freshman Honors advisees to develop their critical thinking skills by working through Gerald M. Nosich’s book “Learning to Think Things Through” (2nd Edition, Pearson Education, Inc., (c) 2005). We will be meeting on a nearly weekly basis throughout the year to discuss this book and various short reflective writing assignments. One of the intended outcomes from this experience is to develop resources that can be embedded in existing courses to strengthen students’ development of this critical skill while improving their understanding of course material.
Storytelling as a Means to Student and Community Wellness
Colleen Sasso, Area Coordinator, Residence Life Management
Project Description:In my first year at Roanoke College, I was amazed at the amount of student wellness concerns facing our first year students. The first year (especially the first six weeks) is often a vulnerable, transitory time for these students. In transition, first year students struggle with unresolved issues from their life prior to college and are faced with a whole new set of challenges. In the Roanoke College student I have seen past/transitional issues left “unreflected upon” lead to a variety of wellness concerns. The story-telling project is an attempt to get closer to the why of student wellness/student behavioral issues. Essentially, we will meet on a regular basis to reflect upon this new collegiate experience and share the experiences of our current transition and some of the history which brought us here. We will also be inviting members of the community to share their stories with us and will create a service project based on story-telling as a means to student wellness. Through narrative, students can begin to reveal a better sense of place, purpose, identity, values and we as administrators and faculty can better meet the needs of this more challenging generation. A “healthier” student is also a more engaged student, one who is more willing to come with confidence to the classroom, to influence positively their peers, to become involved in the campus community and the larger area, and to participate in service to others. We all benefit from a proactive approach to individual student wellness and we must create campus spaces that are open for dialogue, resource-sharing, and support. This project would be a small step toward that.
Emerging Leaders Program for First-Year Students
Michael Steele, Area Coordinator, Residence Life Management
Student Associate: Abby Rowe
Project Description: The Emerging Leaders’ Program will target students who have been involved with student leadership through their high schools and will be chosen to take part in the program through an application process. The program coordinator will work with admissions to help identify these students. The program will be opened to 25- 35 first year freshmen, and will make a special effort to attract students of color and international backgrounds. However, the program is not to be limited to theses populations. The mission of the program is to educate and empower first year students to take on leadership roles at Roanoke College. The program is designed to offer students the opportunity to explore and encourage their leadership potential and abilities through education of leadership theories and practices, as well as personal leadership exploration – ones own potential.
Upperclass Student Tutors in GST 101 and 102
Dana-Linn Whiteside, Assistant Professor of English
Student Associates: Yvette Hodgson and John Sutton
Project Description:In anticipation of Roanoke College’s plan to institute new and innovative programs for the Freshman Year Experience, my FSLC project involves including upper level students who are experienced in writing and education as a central feature of General Studies critical reading and writing courses. This project also anticipates the College’s institution of a campus WritingCenter, a vital part of our greater effort to offer students possibilities for integrative learning. The FSLC program provides me with the opportunity to incorporate a method of writing instruction into a GST 101 course that has long proven successful and with which I have worked before as a student myself. The model I follow requires two student assistants to work as assistant instructors who attend class once per week (out of three meetings) and also (along with me) lead workshops for the students in smaller groups one time a week. The two student assistants I have selected for this project already work as writing tutors for the College’s Academic Services Tutoring Center, where students from our GST 101 class also meet with them individually. Both student assistants are English majors, one a junior working on a Communications concentration, the other a senior who is also completing an Education minor. We divide the class into three smaller groups containing six freshmen each. I rotate the students every second or third week so that they will work with each other and each of the three workshop leaders. I expect our FSLC project to result in more positive responses to and engagement with the process of writing on the part of the freshmen students. Because the tutors also served as Maroon Corps leaders (and I as a Faculty Mentor) during New Student Orientation, we have already worked with members of the class in co-curricular and service settings before the semester began. Our project thus provides a possible model for the kind of integrative involvement between students and professors that RoanokeCollege hopes to introduce into the Freshman Year Experience.
Creative Thinking and Creative Problem-Solving
Edward Whitson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Student Associate: Joshua Showalter
Project Description: This Faculty/Staff Learning Community focuses on teaching creative thinking and creative problem-solving skills and approaches in order to promote what Robert Sternberg calls “creative intelligence” (an essential component of successful individuals, along with “analytical intelligence” and “practical intelligence”). 10 CCLS advisees, one Teaching Associate (a senior Psychology major), and the instructor will form a Learning Community led by me. The advisees are also all enrolled in my Psychology Special Topics course, in which they (a) learn AND PRACTICE various kinds of skills, through exercises and through application to real-life content both in class and in another course, (b) attend some creative events, and (c) decide on, design, and present some creative project. The students themselves will evaluate all exercises, readings, events, and approaches, becoming in effect partners in helping to develop a curriculum for creative thinking and problem solving which is effective and appropriate for first-year college students. I anticipate that participation in this Faculty-Staff Learning Community will (a) interest, excite, and inspire student participants in further creative efforts, (b) promote a degree of involvement that represents a value-added supplement to their regular more analytically-oriented academic program, (c) lead to their applying the knowledge and skills of creativity in other courses throughout their college career as well as in other areas of life, and (d) lead to a curriculum that can serve as the basis for a freshman seminar or for co-curricular experiences.