FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS
Masterclass Course Held over 4 sessions:
SEPTEMBER 6-27, 2024
Help get Underprepared Students Ready for the Rigors of College Learning
Each year, a number of students who desire to go to college leave their K-12 experience underprepared for the rigors of four year universities.
Many opt to go to community college to close their learning gaps before transferring. At the same time, community colleges have moved away from offering remedial classes in core subjects. Even fewer community colleges offer student training in learn-to-learn strategies beyond basic study skills necessary to be successful.
While feeling confident in their subject knowledge and pedagogy, in surveys, college instructors say they struggle with several elements of instructional design and execution when it comes to having a variety of academic skill levels in one class. Those issues include, but are not limited to:
- Not being able to create a sense of community across different types of students.
- Not being able to help some students grasp key concepts.
- Not being able to present material in an engaging way that helps all students learn the content effectively.
- Not knowing how to teach to improve information processing as opposed to presenting content through lecturing, group work or projects.
Our task is to create learning environments where all students can access the content and make sense of it without instructors resorting to over-scaffolding or spoon feeding. For this course, our essential question will be: How can community college instructors create a culture of learning that gets underprepared students ready for college learning while not compromising course pacing and rigor for those who come college-ready?
We will focus on double loop learning: Building your skills so you can grow students’ ability to become powerful learners who can navigate the rigors of college academics.
Register for the Masterclass Course
Registration Closes Sept. 5
Course Includes 4 Sessions:
$995/per person
September 6, 2024
September 13, 2024
September 20, 2024
September 27, 2024
11am–12:30pm PST / 12pm–1:30pm MST
1pm–2:30pm CST / 2pm–3:30pm EST
About the Masterclass Sessions
In this masterclass, we will explore how to use culturally responsive pedagogies to create a culture of learning that helps underprepared college students develop the skills and dispositions to accelerate their learning.
We will look at creating an inclusive learning environment centered around the alliance phase of learning partnerships that prepares them for the emotional and cognitive aspects of deeper learning. We will deconstruct the role feedback plays in building learning power.
We will also examine the pitfalls to be avoided related to feedback, such as “the failure to warn” and the impact it can have on student progress. We will review Susie Wise’s nine elements of belonging through a culturally responsive lens (Designing for Belonging, 2021). In the process, we will review a variety of culturally responsive instructional tools grounded in the science of learning that can help facilitate greater content comprehension, the ultimate goal.
Each Session is
90 Minutes
You Have Opportunities to Get Coached
We Keep Conversations Going Between Meetings
Participants will examine their own syllabus as a roadmap for underprepared students and instructional design practices through the Ready for Rigor™ frame and the eight pillars of the science of learning and development.
Each participant will be encouraged to craft an inquiry question that can guide them through the next semester. We will identify one or two small but high leverage changes you can implement for impact. Collectively, we will have the opportunity to interrogate a set of instructional design principles and tools that can support all learners, especially those who come with the desire but not the skill.
September 6, 2024
Supporting the Underprepared College Student
Most professors are hired for their expert content knowledge. Yet, more and more students are coming to community college underprepared for the rigors of college level work. How do we create communities of practice within our classrooms that invite students to level up their learning? We first need to create a psychologically and intellectually safe environment. We do that through a sense of belonging centered around being in a community of learners.
In this session, we will explore the “responsive” part of culturally responsive teaching as it relates to instructional decision-making that can support the underprepared college student in any college course.
Our driving question in this session is: How do college faculty improve students’ learning while still staying on track in meeting the learning objectives for their course?
In this opening session, instructors will learn:
- Two misconceptions about culturally responsive pedagogy as it relates to college readiness.
- The four pillars of the Ready for Rigor frame as a way to operationalize culturally responsive instruction so all learners are supported.
- Five ways to create a community of learners as a container for rigorous learning for all students, but especially for underprepared students.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2024
Using Culturally Responsive Instructional Practices to Coach Student Skill Development
Academic skills and level of background knowledge can vary widely with incoming college students. We have an obligation to continue to nurture each students’ learn-how-to-learn skills as an equity imperative, in addition to teaching our content.
In this session, we will get a better understanding of how to coach students into and through their zone of proximal development without slowing the class pace or reducing the rigor level of the course.
We will explore how to integrate the science of learning and culturally responsive pedagogy into a set of cognitive tools instructors can use to coach students to improve their information processing skills.
We will also deconstruct the role feedback plays on student learning progress, and the associated pitfalls to be avoided, such as “the failure to warn.”
Our driving question in this session is: How do we have underprepared students internalize cognitive tools to accelerate their uptake of new content?
In this session, instructors will learn:
- The basic coaching moves that can be easily integrated into the syllabus and course instruction.
- The set of cultural learning tools aligned with the science of learning to help students better grasp concepts.
- How to use the power of habit formation and behavior design to get students to level up while enjoying productive struggle.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2024
Using Principles of Thematic Design to Make Content More Culturally Relevant
Making content culturally relevant isn’t just about inclusivity and student motivation. More than simply including diverse authors or perspectives, culturally relevant content aids schema formation. Making content relevant aids in making learning sticky.
In this session, we will look at how to make the content more culturally relevant in order to increase comprehension and deepen understanding of the content. Getting students to level up their learning requires that they know how to manipulate their moves. We will also cover the basics of a dialogic instructional conversation to coach students in this area.
Our driving questions: What do we do once we get underprepared learners into their individual zone of proximal development? How do we help them get better at connecting the “new to the known”?
In this session, instructors will learn:
- How to use thinking routines and thinking dispositions to help students “chew” on the content for better comprehension.
- How to construct a cultural empathy map to collect data about students’ collective schema.
- Why feedback loops are critical and how to construct a system for formative assessment and “formative action”.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2024
Build Systems for Continuous Improvement
Building student capacity through culturally responsive teaching isn’t about “edutainment “ for motivation or one-off strategies to increase engagement. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a system of instructional support and relevant content that facilitates deeper learning. In our final session, we will examine what a system of continuous improvement might look like in relationship to the structures, routines, and instruction in your classroom.
In this session, we will continue to braid key themes and practices from the previous sessions together so that you can construct an action plan for the first six to eight weeks of school.
In this final session, instructors will learn:
- How change happens so we set realistic expectations of ourselves.
- How to enroll your students into the process as co-designers.
- To construct an action plan for closing your own “knowing-doing” gap.
Register for the Masterclass Course
Registration Closes Sept. 5
Course Includes 4 Sessions:
$995/per person
September 6, 2024
September 13, 2024
September 20, 2024
September 27, 2024
11am–12:30pm PST / 12pm–1:30pm MST
1pm–2:30pm CST / 2pm–3:30pm EST
Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I pay with a purchase order?
Can I sign up for just one session?
If I can’t make a session, do I get to watch the replay?
What’s your refund policy?
Can I sign up even if I haven’t read Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain?
Register for the Masterclass Course
Registration Closes Sept. 5
Course Includes 4 Sessions:
$995/per person
September 6, 2024
September 13, 2024
September 20, 2024
September 27, 2024
11am–12:30pm PST / 12pm–1:30pm MST
1pm–2:30pm CST / 2pm–3:30pm EST
© 2024 Transformative Learning Solutions, LLC
