Graphic Organizers in the Classroom

Contributed by Lisa Crizer, Instructor of English, and written about her English & Sociology Learning Community, "'Til Divorce Do Us Part."

One of the things we struggle with in our learning community is something I think every instructor struggles with during a given semester—ensuring that the students are reading the assigned material.

After a few lackluster discussions, Shiela and I decided to try some techniques to encourage students to be a bit more prepared for class and participate more in discussions. One of the activities we incorporated into class was the use of a graphic organizer to help students keep track of what they read and better respond to the material.

The activity asked the students to:

• Identify the claim—“What is the key argument being made by the author?”
• List some of the data—“What facts does the author present to support his or her claim?”
• Interpret the argument—“What is your overall understanding of the author’s argument and what do you think of the piece as a whole?”

We were very pleased with the outcome of this activity. Students were able to formulate their thoughts before class and this was evident in much livelier class discussions. An interesting and unanticipated outcome was that the responses that students gave were pretty varied. Not everyone brought up the same key arguments, and not everyone presented the same data. The variety of responses really added to the class discussion. Overall, this activity was a success and we plan to use it again in our future Learning Community class.

Type "graphic organizers" into Google Images for more results like this one!

Type "graphic organizers" into Google Images for more results like this one!

Type "graphic organizers" into Google Images for more results like this one!

Type "graphic organizers" into Google Images for more results like this one!

 How do you ensure that your students are doing the required reading?

Let us know in the Comments section below!

Using Your Brain: Notes from NISOD

Julie Freelove, Jim Falco, and I were able to attend NISOD's 35th Annual International Conference on Teaching & Leadership Excellence (and Juletta Patrick was able to present at the conference! check out her blurb on page 38 of the conference program PDF).

The three of us scoured through thirty-one pages of breakout session listings to find some really terrific sessions, and today's post will give you a few tidbits from two of them.

On Monday, May 27, the first full day of the conference, I attended two back-to-back workshops led by Dr. Janet Zadina, an educational neuroscientist and adjunct associate professor at Tulane University's School of Medicine. I hadn't planned on attending Zadina's second session ("The Multiple Pathways Model: Using Brain Research to Orchestrate Teaching and Learning"), but during her first session ("Tapping Into the Brain's Reward Pathway to Energize Instruction") I quickly recognized that she was a presenter with great content and great style; so I decided to attend her second workshop.

Dr. Zadina and a brain (not her own)

One thing Zadina talked about that hit home was student success in the classroom. There are many reasons students don't succeed in any particular class, but one of the things that we, as instructors, can address specifically is a student's lack of prior knowledge.

Zadina gave tips for addressing this:

• Give students some background information (a YouTube video clip, a newspaper or magazine article that's slightly below reading level) on course content before they start a new reading or project; this will help them to create a meaningful context for the material and will help them dip their toes into water that may be very cold and very unfamiliar
• Use visuals whenever you can (we use emoticons and emojis in text messages and casual e-mails to signal meaning [especially sarcasm], so why not use images and pictures with students to help communicate the meaning behind the words and concepts?)

Cookies & photos by Bee In Our Bonnet--maybe a perfect project for a pastries class...?

During the second workshop, which focused on the brain's frontal lobe (a good frontal lobe = a good life!), Zadina gave some great tips for helping students learn those all important "executive" (higher level) brain functions:

• Teach students the process of doing the tasks by modeling them ahead of time during class
• Show students how to take good notes (on days one or two of the semester, show them your own notes from a seminar or workshop, and spend a minute talking about your own process)
• Show students how to study for tests and quizzes (use small groups or in-class study sessions to model good studying)
• Start with short-term, concrete projects before moving on to long-term higher-learning function projects
• Require meta-cognition (before an assignment or quiz/exam, ask students to answer questions like How much time do I plan to spend preparing for this assignment/quiz? and What techniques will I use to complete this assignment/study for this quiz? After assignments, students can answer questions like Am I satisfied with my final product? and What will I do differently to prepare for the next assignment/quiz?)

There was so much more great information, but hopefully this will get you started thinking about how to be more aware of students' brains and how we can use our own amazing brains when preparing for class.

Look forward to more notes from NISOD, coming soon!

Dr. Dow’s Spring Break

Contributed by Beverly Dow, Instructor of Biology

At the end of March, I went to Costa Rica with my husband and two other couples. A trip to the tropical rainforest is a required item on the bucket list of any plant ecologist, and I figured I’d better get down there while there was rainforest left to see.

We spent 5 days at an ecotourist resort called La Paloma Lodge on Drake Bay (Pacific Ocean). There were no cars on our side of the Rio Aguitas. We toured the Corcovado rainforest, snorkeled off Caño Island, boated through a mangrove swamp, and did a night hike with the Bug Lady. I took 692 pictures of leaves, flowers, fruits, tree, monkeys, sloths, hermit crabs, birds, lizards, spiders, insects, and on and on!

The rarest thing we saw was an ocelot on the night hike. I will certainly be able to spruce up my ecology lectures for next fall!

To see some of the pictures and read about my trip, check out the March posts on my blog, Fiacre's Spade.  You can also read about our garden, cooking experiments, laying hens, and new adventure in raising meat chickens.


Have you taken a trip this summer that you're planning on working into your class? Let us know! And if you write your own personal blog, e-mail us the link so we can add it to the Faculty Blogs list (on the left-hand column here). We'd love to know what you're up to!

Our ICCTA Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Member is...

Our ICCTA Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Member is...

...Lindsay Carson!

Lindsay standing in a location far, far away from MCC

In addition to being the hardest working instructor of Spanish at MCC (or anywhere), Lindsay is the Chair of International Studies, and has built up the College's acclaimed study abroad program into a huge success.

Lindsay and MCC students in front of Volcán Poás in Costa Rica

She is the International Consortium for International Studies and Programs (ICISP) representative, and she has just finished terms as the Chair of CAPC's Curriculum Development & Review (CD&R) and as Secretary for the MCC Faculty Association.

Please congratulate Lindsay when you see her!

Give Them a Hand!

We'd like to offer a huge and hearty congratulations to our four new faculty members who have just earned tenure. They worked tirelessly for three years and truly deserve this achievement.

From L: Tony Miksa (VP of Academic & Student Affairs); Ellen Zimmerman (Counseling & First Year Experience); Kelly Fallon (Biology); Laureen Martin (Nursing); Bill Brogan (Criminal Justice); Vicky Smith (President)

Good luck for the next leg of your journey at MCC!

April Showers Bring May Workshops

Just as the weather starts to warm up (fine-ally!), we're hoping that you stay inside for a bit and take one of the Canvas workshops we have lined up for May--during Finals Week and Intersession.

Check them out:

Click image to enlarge

If you see something you're interested in taking, log in and sign up using the PD auto-registration.

Hope to see you in A210!

Beyond Campus: Teaching at Sherman Hospital

Last semester I was lucky enough to observe one of our nursing faculty members, Mary CaDavid, on the clinical portion of her Nursing 230 course.

The clinical took place at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, a sparkling new ship-like facility just off the highway at Randall Road. Mary had six students working on the Saturday morning that I visited, although I was only there for a few hours and only got to meet and observe three students.

Each of Mary's students was assigned three patients. At the beginning of the morning, I sat down with Mary and one of her students, Toni, to touch base about one of Toni's patients. The two went through each element of the patient's chart with care, checking and double-checking symptoms, medical history, medication, and diagnosis.

They also did preventative problem solving, with Mary asking Toni questions like, "What is the worst possible thing that could happen to your patient today?" Toni answered that this particular patient could suffer a seizure, so Mary walked Toni through making sure that the room inventory included things like pads on the bed rails, a tongue blade, and oxygen.

I asked Mary about this question, which I found so simple but so obviously important, as well as another prompt for her students about their nursing diagnosis. This is what she had to say:

They need to relate this question to the reason for hospitalization. Often the reason the patients were hospitalized is no longer the thing keeping them in the hospital. For instance, a patient came in with a hip issue, but now has pneumonia. From this stance, the students must think of "worst case scenario."  I then want to know their nursing diagnosis and nursing priorities. I don't want to hear things like "give them the antibiotic for the pneumonia"--that is a physician order. I want to know how they will intervene, such as increasing fluids, mobilizing the patient, or by incentive spirometry.

Sherman Hospital in Elgin--one of the MCC Nursing clinical sites

During this one-on-one meeting, I was impressed by both women: with Toni, for her methodical questioning, her ability to listen to everything Mary was explaining, and her careful follow up questions; and with Mary, for her patience and calm presence, her on-the-spot scenarios and questions leading her student to think critically and answer comprehensively, and her obvious mastery of the subject matter.

At the end of the day I was honored to observe one of our talented faculty members in action, and I vowed to be even more aware of the practical applications of my content area (English composition). I want my students to consider how they can act and how they can be responsible. Hopefully this will give them a more valuable, relevant, and personal learning experience.

If you're interested in being observed in your non-traditional classroom or your traditional classroom, let me know!

Faculty On Display!

Less than a month ago, we put a call-out to faculty on behalf of the Department of Career Services. They were planning a panel discussion for students who were wondering, "What can I do with a major in (fill in the blank here)" and needed faculty participation.

And boy, did you all step up to the plate!

Our students will now have a variety of terrific faculty members (although every MCC faculty member is terrific, so I didn't really need to add that) to query about the ins and outs of particular majors and career paths.

So please promote the event to your students, and if you have time, please come down yourselves!

Look at the great line-up!

Thanks for all your hard work, faculty!

Spring Into April With Professional Development!

The April Professional Development Calendar is chock full of good workshops. Hopefully you'll find something you like! Check out the monthly schedule and then register through the Professional Development auto-registration system.

Click on image to zoom in

And remember: if you spot a workshop you'd love to take but can't because of your schedule, let us know what times are best for you and we'll try to work it out!

Getting to Know our Returning Adult Students

On February 20, a few of us were able to participate in a webinar, hosted by the Chicago Area Faculty Development Network (CAFDN), entitled "The Returning Adult Student."

The CAFDN moderators (Tony Labriola from Governor State and Mike Sukowski from Chicago State) were joined by four adult students: Lisa, a student at Chicago State; Robin, an NIU doctoral candidate who is also currently working at Gov. State; and Matthew, a U.S. veteran student at Harper College, studying nursing and working in the Harper tutoring center.

The focus of the webinar panel discussion was What Our Students Want, and we'd like to give you a run-down of some of the excellent questions and answers from the session.

Question: What makes a model instructor?
Answers:

• A model instructor is personal, cares about learning, is motivated and inspired (Robin). 
• A model instructor pushes students to learn and helps them to understand, works one-on-one, and breaks down complex material (Lisa).
• A model instructor writes her own PowerPoints (not the textbook's), answers personal questions, and tailors material--either the whole class or as individual students (Matthew).

Question: Do you think instructors should be role models of teachers for those students also interested in teaching?
Answers:

• Yes, they should exhibit behaviors and attitudes that students would want to cultivate. Unfortunately, sometimes it's the behavior that students see that they don't want to emulate (Matthew).
• Yes, I've used teachers as models and was aware of how they taught. I took techniques learned from modeling to take into my own class (Robin).
• A model instructor is one we learn from and we want to be like. Instructors should be versatile in instruction. I ask questions and watch teaching style and how instructors help others in the class; I watch how they're helping students learn (Lisa).

Question: How do you feel faculty incorporate technology into the learning plan (or do they)?
Answers:

• Technology is used across the board, but it's not always used well if it's forced on an instructor; it must be embraced by the instructor. If used well, it can be hugely beneficial, but forcing it could harm student outcomes. (Side note: My girlfriend teaches 3rd grade and all the teachers at her school have tablets--our instructors should have them, too [Matthew])!
• I'd like even more technology (but I have a background in tech.)--things like Google features or blogs to develop material. I always enjoy the activity workshops focused on technology (Robin).
• A lab connected to class where we can work hand-in-hand with the textbook is helpful. I don't have a tech. background, but anytime technology helped illustrate concepts from book was useful (Lisa).

Question: Are things changing in the classroom (i.e. changing from lecture)?
Answers:

• Lecture is important and it's not going away, but the interaction and discussion is important (Matthew).
• I prefer group activities, or small groups before large group discussion. Outside classroom projects are helpful so I can learn from my peers (Robin).

Question: What do you not like?
Answers:

• We don't like it when instructors lose patience. Don't let students identify that you've lost patience. Some students are at different levels, so work with all of them to the best of your ability. Don't show everyone a shortcut until they all understand the long way. Don't dump students on the tutoring center--you still need to have a professional relationship with those students for the rest of the semester (Lisa).
• You're responsible for your material. If you know there's a bad example, then get a better one. Don't be as confused as the students. Instructors can be heroes if they have a way to explain complex material in a way that makes people understand. Know your material and be responsible for it (Matthew).
• If you don't have the answer, admit it and get back to your students after you've checked. Be prepared with evaluation terms, such as rubrics, ahead of time, not the day before the assignment is due (Robin).

Question: How demanding should instructors be?
Answers:

• The most compelling pressures are those put on you by yourself, not someone else. I will invest more time and more creativity in assignments if I find the assignments themselves creative and challenging (Robin).
• Be demanding, especially in the lecture environment. Hold students accountable; they'll keep that knowledge available. You have the degrees we want, and that's why we're here, so be demanding of us (Matthew).

Stay tuned to the Professional Development calendar for information about all upcoming webinars and face-to-face workshops--we hope to see you down in A210!