Learning Communities Dialogue Day: Creating and Assessing Integrated Assignments for Learning Communities

Sep 15, 2006
Rio Conference Center
8:15am - 4:00pm

featuring...
Emily Lardner & Gillies Malnarich
Co-Directors, Washington Center for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education

As part of their work at the Washington Center, Lardner and Malnarich direct the National Summer Institute in Learning Communities, which is designed to help campus teams develop strategic plans for starting and strengthening learning community programs as “intervention” efforts, aimed at improving student academic achievement. They have been chosen to facilitate this day because of their years of experience working with campuses across the country.

About the speakers…

Emily Lardner - (Co-director, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education) Emily has been at the Washington Center for nine years, working with faculty from a range of institutions on issues that relate to improving the quality of undergraduate education, with a particular focus on curriculum planning, designing integrated assignments, and diversity issues. She worked with a statewide group of multicultural directors and administrators to develop the widely used Framework for Diversity and Assessment Planning. Recent publications include “Approaching Diversity Through Learning Communities” in J. Levine Laufgraben, N. Shapiro, and Associates, Sustaining and Improving Learning Communities. She is the lead writer on the monograph, Diversity, Educational Equity, and Learning Communities. She teaches academic reading and writing in Evergreen’s The Evergreen State College) evening/weekend studies. Emily co-directs the National Summer Institute on Learning Communities.

Gillies Malnarich - (Co-Director, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education) Gillies has taught at universities, women’s centers, community schools, and a large urban community college in additional to The Evergreen State College. She has also worked with educators on policy and practices related to developmental education, abilities-based teaching and assessment, and institutional effectiveness. She is especially interested in the design of integrated curricula and assignments that encourage students to use what they know in the world; strategic student success efforts aimed at preparing all students to do intellectually rigorous college-level work. Gillies teaches in Evergreen’s Evening/Weekend Studies Program. She is the lead author of The Pedagogy of Possibilities: Developmental Education, College-Level Studies, and Learning Communities. Other recent publications include, “Learning Communities and Curricular Reform: ‘Academic Apprenticeships; for Development Students” in Responding to the Challenges of Developmental Education, Spring 2005. Gillies co-directs the National Summer Institute on Learning Communities.

Goals

To increase the effectiveness of Learning Communities by creating better quality integrated assignments and learning how to better assess these assignments.

Agenda

Morning: workshop on designing integrated assignments

8:15-8:55	Registration and continental breakfast
8:55-9:00	Introduction of presenters
9:00-9:45	Mini-seminar on learning-agency, sing the work of Carol Dweck on entity vs.incremental theories of intelligence; discuss implications for assignment design
9:45-10:00	Brainstorm common issues and concerns; find teaching partners
10:00-10:15	Identify critical learning outcomes
10:15-10:45	Design an integrated assignment
10:45-11:00	Post assignments/walk about
11:00-11:15	Individual reflections on characteristics of assignments represented in posters
11:15-11:30	Opportunity to revise posters in light of new insights
11:30-11:40	Revisions posted; walk about to review others’ work
11:40-12:00	Whole group discussion on product and process
12:00-1:00	Lunch Break

Afternoon: workshop on collaboratively assessing students’ work

1:00-1:30	Mini-seminar on selections from Veronica Boix-Mansilla’s work on assessing interdisciplinary learning
1:30-1:40	Introduction to the protocol for assessing interdisciplinary work
1:45-2:45	Practice using the protocol with actual student work
2:45-3:00	Break
3:00-3:45	Practice using protocol with another student sample
3:45-4:00	Whole group discussion of process and implications for campus work

Faculty Professional Growth

This Dialogue Day has been pre-approved for 5.5 clock hours Faculty Professional Growth non-academic advancement.