Best Practices for Supporting the Success of First Generation College Students

Tuesday, October 21, 3:30pm-5:00pm, FPH Lounge

This year, one in seven of Hampshire’s entering class is a first generation college student. This percentage will continue to climb over the coming years. Students who are the first in their families to attend college have meaningful experiences, knowledge, and skills to contribute to Hampshire and to their own learning. However, first generation college students also have unique challenges navigating the college environment, particularly Hampshire’s learner-centered academic approach. Faculty attending this session will learn about challenges faced by many first generation college students and share advising strategies and teaching practices to support their academic success.

This Talking about Teaching session will be facilitated by:

Kristen Luschen, Dean of Multicultural Education & Inclusion/Assoc. Professor Education Studies

Vivianna Alvarez, First Gen Student Group, Signer/Division II student

Event sponsored by: The Hampshire College Center for Teaching and Learning

We are cancelling the Drop-in session in the CTL on Friday October 3rd. We hope you will come to the Kathleen Yancey discussion on reflection and portfolio-building in the Faculty/staff lounge in FPH instead.

The Social and Intellectual Practices Surrounding Electronic Portfolios: A Collaborative Discussion with Dr. Kathleen Yancey

Friday October 3, 2014 from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. FPH Lounge

When people think about electronic portfolios, they often think first of technology, but what’s interesting and promising about portfolios isn’t the technology, but rather the social practices supporting and surrounding them. What’s also promising, and at least as important, are the intellectual practices that are unique to ePortfolios. In this discussion, we’ll focus on both social and intellectual practices, and about how to design portfolios that bring this shared promise to life.

In addition to her Thursday October 2nd keynote and discussion at 3:30 in the WLH (described in another post) on Friday October 3rd at 1:30 p.m. in the Faculty/Staff Lounge, Kathleen Yancey will host a discussion on e-portfolios and their uses. You do NOT have to have gone to the Thursday talk to participate.

The Social and Intellectual Practices Surrounding Electronic Portfolios:

A Collaborative Discussion

When people think about electronic portfolios, they often think first of technology, but what’s interesting and promising about portfolios isn’t the technology, but rather the social practices supporting and surrounding them. What’s also promising, and at least as important, are the intellectual practices that are unique to ePortfolios. In this discussion, we’ll focus on both social and intellectual practices, and about how to design portfolios that bring this shared promise to life.

Please save the date for the following program this October

The CTL is excited to bring you:

Portfolios, Reflection, and The Unique Features of Electronic Portfolios

With Dr. Kathleen Yancey

Thursday October 2, 2014 from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. West Lecture Hall

For those of you who cannot make this date, there will be another opportunity to talk with Kathleen Yancey on Friday October 3rd at 1:30 in the FPH Lounge.

Portfolio building and reflection can support deep learning. At the same time, more than one faculty member has expressed disappointment in the ways that students have engaged with them. Currently, across the country, electronic portfolios are being touted as the next best thing in education. Certainly, they have promise as a sustainable option for supporting learning. Given this context, we’ll consider four unique features of e-Portfolios and ways that those features can engage students and support student learning. First, we’ll consider the artifacts that students collect, the reasons they collect them, and the activities we can build around them so that they are meaningful. Second, we’ll consider the e-Portfolio arrangement: what is the role of portfolio structure in supporting learning, especially learning located in connections across contexts (e.g., courses, experiences)? Third we’ll turn to reflection, defining it and outlining the various functions it can serve, in the process also considering the distinctive contribution that reflection on artifacts and experiences makes to learning. Fourth and not least, we’ll consider the larger context for the portfolio: who are the people who might participate in a portfolio—as peer reviewers, for example, and as external audiences–and how can that participation contribute to both deep learning and sustainability?

KATHLEEN BLAKE YANCEY is Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University. She has served in several national leadership roles, including as President of the National Council of Teachers of English; as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication; as President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators; and as President of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. She also co-founded and co-directs the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research, which has brought together over 60 institutions from around the world to document the learning represented in electronic portfolios. Yancey has authored or co-authored over 90 articles and book chapters and authored, edited, or co-edited twelve scholarly books—including Portfolios in the Writing Classroom; Reflection in the Writing Classroom; ePortfolios 2.0; and Contexts of Writing: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing—and is the winner of several awards, including the Florida State Graduate Mentor Award and the Donald Murray Writing Prize.