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Over the past five years, Learning Grants have been an important part of the success and innovation within the classrooms of the Maricopa Community Colleges. Learning Grants have supported innovative projects designed to improve, advance, and enrich student learning. Since 1999:
- 329 grant applications have been submitted
- 204 projects have been funded
- $920,000 has been awarded to all ten colleges to improve student learning
- Approximately 410 faculty, administrators, and staff have been impacted by funded grants.
Learning Grants In Action
For this academic year, forty learning grant projects will be completed. The projects represent a wide variety of academic disciplines. A sampling of projects to be completed this academic year is provided below:
- Bilingual Basic Patient Assessment Video
- Mauro Valente da Fonte (Primary Applicant), GateWay Community College
- This video project will assist students and faculty in the allied health disciplines within the health science division and nursing program to learn basic Spanish vocabulary and sentence construction in order to perform a general patient assessment upon the patient's admission to a hospital or clinic.
- The ESL Information Literacy Infusion Program
- Mark Floor (Primary Applicant), Glendale Community College
- This project will be a joint effort between the English As A Second Language (ESL) department and the Library Media Center, who together will develop modules for infusing an information literacy component into the curriculum of ESL classes. These modules will then be implemented by the ESL faculty and evaluated through testing of the ESL students.
- Embracing Diversity Through Dance
- Sonia Valle (Primary Applicant), Paradise Valley Community College
- Embracing Diversity Through Dance is a project that will involve Paradise Valley dance faculty and students, dance artists from the community, and high schools and elementary schools within the surrounding area. Its goal is to highlight diversity and the importance of ethnic dance by providing a series of dance workshops/lecture demonstrations and a final dance performance.
- Latin American Film Festival
- Trino Sandoval (Primary Applicant), Phoenix College
- Latin American Film Festival consists of four films, short films, and film discussions. The guest directors, producers or actors will visit classes at Phoenix College or other campuses and conduct class discussions related to their field. The festival will be open to students, faculty, staff, and the community to broaden their awareness, appreciation, and understanding of Latin American film, culture and issues.
- Training Developmental English Students to Coach Literacy
- Gene Fazio (Primary Applicant), Mesa Community College
- This project is to have developmental English students tutor writing independently of a teacher and in the process transform their writing abilities. The methodology focuses on coaching literacy instead of teaching literacy. The aim is to expand the number of tutors for literacy programs and create opportunities for developmental students to "learn twice when they teach."
For a listing of all Learning Grants to be completed this year, and a listing of Learning Grants completed since 2000, visit the Learning Grants Gallery at http://www.dist.maricopa.edu/learngrant/gallery.
Writing Right @ Chandler-Gilbert Community College
In 2003-2004, the Chandler-Gilbert Community College Writing Center received funding to support three initiatives: the development of writing workshops to address major writing issues for students across the college, the development of tutor training sessions to address issues in writing instruction and tutoring, and the development of a Writing Center Newsletter for students, faculty, and administrators at Chandler-Gilbert.
Veronica Pantoja, English faculty at Chandler-Gilbert and also the faculty liaison to the Writing Center, worked with Eva Falletta, Learning Center Director, and Shannon Dougherty, Writing Center Coordinator, in the administration of the grant this past year. She explained that this grant had a significant impact on student learning. First, funding from the Learning Grant enabled them to develop four workshops: When the End Isn't: Tips for Revising and Proofing your Own Paper, Strategies for Integrating Research, Anatomy of an 'A Paper,' and Unlocking the Secrets of Citing Research. Each workshop was developed to reflect the assignments typically scheduled in that time of the semester in an effort to appeal to both students and faculty. Their workshops were a success as attendance averaged nearly over 30 students per workshop. Also, the success of these workshops can be seen in the student evaluation responses. One student indicated that the "strategies for revising will really help me make my papers the best they can be." Another student indicated, "Everything was helpful. It was nice to see how much the teachers are open and willing to bear with us!" Overall, the workshops were viewed as both a success for students and a success for faculty.
As the workshops that were offered for students directly enhanced learning, so did the tutor trainings that were provided. In her final report submitted for this Learning Grant, Veronica explained that the tutor training supported by the grant project "enhanced student learning by allowing tutors a space in which to discuss strategies for effective tutoring in various situations. Additionally, although many of the tutors already teach their own courses at CGCC or other campuses, tutor training gave tutors the opportunity to talk about the differences between teaching and tutoring and the various ways they approach writing issues." The Writing Center held three training session throughout the year, one of which included a guest speaker from ASU East, Barry Maid, who is also a respected scholar in the field of writing center theory.
Finally, the Learning Grant supported the creation of four newsletters, one published in the fall and three that were published in the spring. The newsletters were intended to publicize the Writing Center as well as provide useful writing tips for students. In the spring, the Writing Center held a "Name the Newsletter" contest and based on student input, the newsletter is now named Writing Right @ CGCC.
Veronica indicated that the success of the Learning Grants project can be directly linked to the utilization of the Writing Center this first semester. Six weeks into the fall semester, 976 unique students visited the Writing Center for support. This is a 20% increase from the same time last year.
The future of the Writing Center is bright. The college has agreed to institutionalize the publishing of the newsletter, which will continue to be distributed to faculty and students. Four workshops are planned for this year, and discussions are underway regarding a week of mini-workshops. Overall, the Writing Center is flourishing at Chandler-Gilbert due to its committed faculty, dedicated students, and through the support of the Learning Grants program. As Veronica summed up, "The goal of the Writing Center is to prepare better writers, not better papers, and I believe we're achieving that goal."
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