Building a Solid Base: Using interdisciplinary Multiple Literacies to Foster Student Success

Type of Presentation

Individual paper/presentation

Type of Presentation

Workshop (1 hour and 15 minutes)

Target Audience

Higher Education

Location

Room 1005

Relevance

N/A

Abstract

The unique knowledge, aptitudes, and practices students need to learn in a specific field and sub-field form that student’s discipline-specific literacy, but students also exhibit varied understanding and application of general literacies, also called readiness skills. Students need these skills, which develop based on past experiences, to meet outcomes and complete assignments. Students may excel in or need remediation in readiness skills such as organization, time management, learning strategies, technology competencies, reading comprehension and analysis, information literacy, writing and synthesis, logic and problem-solving, and computation. Students with gaps in general literacy may struggle to complete specific actions since they may have mastered content and knowledge, but cannot express what they know. Gaps in general literacies foster unsatisfactory perceptions of learning and lower confidence, which negatively affect student success.

Participants in this workshop will:

  • · Review and discuss current literature that define general literacies and connect these skills to student perceptions, confidence, and success; (5 minutes)
  • · Engage in an interactive activity that demonstrates how students can have mastered discipline specific skills but have gaps in general literacies (10 minutes)
  • · Develop techniques to train content area faculty to teach readiness
  • · Perform a guided audit to map which general literacies students need to perform tasks or meet outcomes connected to a specific course or assignment; (10 minutes)
  • · Work in small groups to design pre-instruction diagnostic activities that measure what general literacies students have attained or need to learn; (15 minutes)
  • · Collectively develop and share methods and tools for teaching general literacies in content area courses (15 minutes)
  • · Design assessments for measuring post-instruction progress towards mastering general literacies (10 minutes)
  • · Discuss workshop takeaways and future activities, topics, or research about general literacies (5 minutes)

Presentation Description

Despite research on their value, many courses do not address the interdisciplinary multiple literacies students need to succeed. This workshops shares well-vetted techniques to train faculty to teach and assess interdisciplinary multiple literacies to maximize student success. Participants will practice creating diagnostic activities, developing teaching methods, and designing assessments for measuring mastery of interdisciplinary multiple literacies.

Keywords

literacies, readiness, success

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

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Sep 15th, 1:15 PM Sep 15th, 2:30 PM

Building a Solid Base: Using interdisciplinary Multiple Literacies to Foster Student Success

Room 1005

The unique knowledge, aptitudes, and practices students need to learn in a specific field and sub-field form that student’s discipline-specific literacy, but students also exhibit varied understanding and application of general literacies, also called readiness skills. Students need these skills, which develop based on past experiences, to meet outcomes and complete assignments. Students may excel in or need remediation in readiness skills such as organization, time management, learning strategies, technology competencies, reading comprehension and analysis, information literacy, writing and synthesis, logic and problem-solving, and computation. Students with gaps in general literacy may struggle to complete specific actions since they may have mastered content and knowledge, but cannot express what they know. Gaps in general literacies foster unsatisfactory perceptions of learning and lower confidence, which negatively affect student success.

Participants in this workshop will:

  • · Review and discuss current literature that define general literacies and connect these skills to student perceptions, confidence, and success; (5 minutes)
  • · Engage in an interactive activity that demonstrates how students can have mastered discipline specific skills but have gaps in general literacies (10 minutes)
  • · Develop techniques to train content area faculty to teach readiness
  • · Perform a guided audit to map which general literacies students need to perform tasks or meet outcomes connected to a specific course or assignment; (10 minutes)
  • · Work in small groups to design pre-instruction diagnostic activities that measure what general literacies students have attained or need to learn; (15 minutes)
  • · Collectively develop and share methods and tools for teaching general literacies in content area courses (15 minutes)
  • · Design assessments for measuring post-instruction progress towards mastering general literacies (10 minutes)
  • · Discuss workshop takeaways and future activities, topics, or research about general literacies (5 minutes)