Embedded Files
Creating Change
Creating Change
According to Linton (2011), equity work requires:
A personal connection to equity work,
Institutional commitment to progress toward systemic change, and
Implementing equity based daily professional practices.
Personal Commitment
Personal Commitment
Reducing systemic inequity centers around a personal commitment to building equity, which layers with community involvement, implementing college equity work, continuing to learn and reflect on equity, and implementing equitable classroom practices.
Lifelong Learning
Lifelong Learning
Saddleback offers courses to support instruction:
OEC Course Level 1 (2018)
OEC Course Level 2 (2020)
Humanitizing course (2020)
OEC Authentic Assessment for STEM (Spring 2022, Fall 2022)
Introduction to Equity (2022; 2023)
Recognizing Barriers
Recognizing Barriers
The achievement gap means that traditionally marginalized students experience challenges and barriers that reduce their completion and success rates. Not only are they missing stepping stones, but, often, their ladders to success are broken.
Who Are Our Students?
Who Are Our Students?
A significant number of California community college students are a part of traditionally marginalized groups, and, therefore, we need to focus on how to improve their chances of completion and success.
Based on University of Sydney Anthology, 2019 (adapted from Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener (1991) Workforce America! Managing Employee Diversity as A Vital Resource, Business One Irwin), presented by Fisher, Maghzi, and Dorner at CCTE Fall 2022.
There cannot be a one size fix, since diversity is multidimensional, and students are intersectional.
Driving Theories
Driving Theories
This means that a balance is needed between universal design and differentiation so that my focus included both how to support all students and how to support each student (Fisher & Maghzi, 2019).
Educational Experience
Educational Experience
Garrison et al.’s (1999) identified three layered educational presences:
Teaching Presence
Social Presence
Cognitive Presence
Which can have complicated nuances.
Success Factors
Success Factors
Directed: Students have a goal & know how to achieve it
Focused: Students stay on track
Nurtured: Students feel somebody wants and helps them to succeed
Engaged: Students actively participate in class & extracurricular activities
Connected: Students feel like part of the college community
Valued: Students’ skills, talents, abilities and experiences are recognized and appreciated (RP Group, 2014a)
Fill the Gaps
Fill the Gaps
Student Success Gaps
Student Success Gaps
Connection
Focus & Organization
Connection to Supports
Skill Gaps
Pandemic Impacts
Collaborative Teams
Collaborative Teams
To fill these gaps, I started with building permanent collaborative teams–a group of “best friends for the course” who maintain a communication thread, collaborate on activities, and act as go-to groups for discussions and talking about research.
Connected students are more successful (Bishop & Berryman, 2006).
Education should include social relationships (Dewey, 1916, Ch 6, summary).
Students who take ownership of their learning are more successful (Apple & Beane, 1996; Brodhagan, 1996).
Reducing Obstacles
Reducing Obstacles
In unit one, we always talk about what active engagement means for the course. Then, we look that the barriers that get in the way of success and offer connections to tools and supports. This includes the embedded tutor, campus resources, library tours, LRC and library workshops, and meeting the reference librarians.
Addressing procrastination patterns (Urban, 2013)
Improving time management (Bailey, 2006)
Connections to student support (Saddleback College, 2023)
Scaffolding
Scaffolding
Next, using Wiggins & Tighe’s backward design, I restructured my course to scaffold the learning skills, adding templates that aligned with guided instruction gradually leading to the freedom to independently choose their paper structure as well as the desired level of support.
Adding Templates
Adding Templates
A side benefit using Google Drive for the templates was that the embedded history allows me to proctor student writing both synchronously and asynchronously, which has helped since the invention of ChatGPT.
Creating Paths to Success
Creating Paths to Success
With the pandemic, I also started seeing more students whose learning was derailed. I learned about humanizing my syllabus in the authentic assessment course, and added ways to empower students who fell behind to catch up.
Benefit forward
Maintains a standard
Willing to compromise
Empower the student toward success (Pakula & Major, 2020)
I also organized my curriculum with breathing space for students to make mistakes or deal with “life happening” and still catch up to finish the course successfully.
Changing the Writing Process
Changing the Writing Process
Finally, I changed my approach to the writing process so that, instead of spending hours marking up drafts in TurnItIn that I then had to coerce students to look at, I started using peer review to talk to small groups of students about their writing patterns and converted grading hours into office appointments to talk with students individually. (See Beginning with Results for more information)
The magic was that 95% of my students finally began seeing that it was in their best interest to revise--which is what good writers do.
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