First-Year Odyssey
Seminar Workshops
Intellectual Dialogue:
Writing in FYOS
Paul Quick, PhD
Coordinator of Faculty and TA
Development
Questions via the web?
Submit
via webform:
ctl.uga.edu/fyos/stream
via Twitter:
@ugactl (use tag #FYOS)
Goals for this FYOS workshop
•Consider FYOS Goal 2 and writing
•Consider Goal 2 through conceptual change theory
•Consider a variety of writing assignments
FYOS Goal 2
 Give first-year students an opportunity for
meaningful dialogue with a faculty member
to encourage positive, sustained studentfaculty interactions.

Inclusion of one or more written exercises that:
 document dialogue between student and
faculty
 guide students in thinking and rethinking
academic issues related to FYOS topic
FYOS Goal 2: Conceptual Change Theory
Students frequently hold views
different from or alternative to
those to which they will be exposed
in their courses.
Example: Aristotelian v. Newtonian
thinking in Intro. Physics class
Ken Bain’s What the Best College
Teachers Do (2004)
FYOS Goal 2: Conceptual Change Theory
 Troublesome Knowledge
 Threshold Concepts
 Ray Land’s Threshold
Concepts & Transformational
Learning (2010)
FYOS Goal 2: Conceptual Change Model
Think about your own discipline and your FYOS
 What concepts do students find difficult?
 How will you determine their preconceptions?
 How will you challenge those preconceptions?
 How will you know if you have successfully changed
their mental models?
FYOS Goal 2: Conceptual Change & Writing
 Recursive Writing Process
 Prewriting,
drafting, rewriting
 Forward, backward, forward with feedback
 Multi-stage writing assignment
 Criteria and standards
Rubrics
Judith and Calvin Kalman, “Writing to Learn” (1998)
Peter Elbow,Writing without Teachers (1973)
FYOS Goal 2: Conceptual Change & Writing
Examples of Writing Assignments for FYOS Suggested
by Department of English Faculty
 Sequenced Low/Mid-stakes Writing Assignment
 Example: Listening journals--series of specific prompts
 Three-Panel Argument Poster And Oral
Presentation
www.ctl.uga.edu/fyos
FYOS Goal 2: Conceptual Change & Writing
 Critical Article Report

Library/Galileo search for related scholarly article

Summary and reflection paper (1-2 pages)

Oral presentation (3-5 minutes)
 Visual
presentation (max. 3 slides)
 Discussion question
www.ctl.uga.edu/fyos
FYOS Goal 2: Other Writing Assignments
 Journals
 Minute papers
 eLC discussions
 Blogs
 Written work of between the faculty and student in
the preparation of:
a poster presentation
 an oral presentation
 a mathematical proof
 other projects.
