Building Communities of Active Learners

Southwest Regional Learning Communities Conference
February

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COMBINED SESSION:
Integrating Critical Reading, Writing, and Cooperative Learning
FACILITATOR: Pam Davenport, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Maricopa Community Colleges

Piloting a Fully Integrated, Team-Taught Learning Community
Salt Lake Community College
David Hubert, Melodee Lambert, Jamie McBeth-Smith

We will present lessons learned from piloting a fully integrated, team-taught learning community entitled "Democracy & Citizenship: Civil Rights and Civil Responsibilities," which combined American Government, Personal Ethics, and English. Specifically, we will address issues of marketing, curricular integration, cooperative learning, service learning, and trouble-shooting for success. We will analyze what worked, diagnose the problems we encountered, write a prescription for an even better experience next time, and share our thoughts on the value of team-teaching and integrated learning. Responding to audience questions will be a priority.
    contact information:david.hubert@slcc.edu

NOTE: this session is combined with the following session

Rising to the Occasion: Getting Diverse, Minority Students Involved in Reading, Writing, and the U.S. Civil War
Cal State University-Los Angeles
Suzanne McEvoy, Becky Hopkins

California State University-Los Angeles's diverse, minority students typically have serious deficiencies, along with strong negative feelings, in three areas: reading, writing, and history. The presenters will discuss how they devised a way to coordinate these areas to create a co-operative learning environment to shift and/or alter this all-too-often rigid position. They discovered that given proper tools, students rose to the occasion and were themselves impressed with their growth during the quarter in writing skills and the ability to critically read an entire novel and substantial historical readings. Students were able to critically think and connect with the material, made literary connections between fiction and non-fiction, and learned that a major event in U.S. history had more to do with their lives than they initially thought. The developmental reading skills course tied to an English 101 course was designed to increase students' critical reading skills, personal pleasure in reading, basic writing skills, and background knowledge of the U.S. Civil War period. Students were enrolled in both courses. Students read the U.S. Civil War novel Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier. The presenters researched material from the Civil War period. Using small cooperative groups, the reading instructor will demonstrate how these students read and analyzed primary Civil War documents such as letters, diaries, and journals pertaining to many of the topics and issues presented in the fictional novel. The English instructor will demonstrate how she had students write four essays during the quarter. The writing process involved significant instructor feedback through conferencing. Daily quizzes were given on the material.
    contact information:smcevoy@cslanet.calstatela.edu