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Focus on Community College Success
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315 pages, Unbound
First published February 1, 2009
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August 2, 2015
This is the new textbook for Freshman Seminar class. I have used Dave Ellis' The Master Student for the past 7 years. Although I admit that I am still partial to that text, there are some redeeming qualities in Staley's textbook.
First Staley starts each of her chapters with Challenge Cases - case studies of typical community college students. This is different from Ellis' approach in that he uses success stories of famous people to illustrate those that have overcome and made it to the other side. I see the advantage of both these approaches. I plan to capitalize on how much more relatable the characters in Staley's case studies are this semester. As part of their final portfolio, students will be asked to construct their own case study using the book's exemplars as a starting point.
Second she has outlined in-class activities for each of her chapters. If in a creative rut teachers can pick and choose what activities they want to conduct in class. There are also PowerPoints that include highlight some of these activities as well as have audio chapter summaries and video reels on main topics.
Each of the chapters are organized to incorporate the four basic learning styles: Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. Students are also asked to access their intrinsic motivation at the end of each chapter by questions targeted at their Curiosity, Control, Career Outlook and Challenge.
Although textbook choice is only one of many changes this semester for Freshman Seminar, I think that if professors capitalize on the strengths of this book and make modifications to suit their teaching style that it's doable.
First Staley starts each of her chapters with Challenge Cases - case studies of typical community college students. This is different from Ellis' approach in that he uses success stories of famous people to illustrate those that have overcome and made it to the other side. I see the advantage of both these approaches. I plan to capitalize on how much more relatable the characters in Staley's case studies are this semester. As part of their final portfolio, students will be asked to construct their own case study using the book's exemplars as a starting point.
Second she has outlined in-class activities for each of her chapters. If in a creative rut teachers can pick and choose what activities they want to conduct in class. There are also PowerPoints that include highlight some of these activities as well as have audio chapter summaries and video reels on main topics.
Each of the chapters are organized to incorporate the four basic learning styles: Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. Students are also asked to access their intrinsic motivation at the end of each chapter by questions targeted at their Curiosity, Control, Career Outlook and Challenge.
Although textbook choice is only one of many changes this semester for Freshman Seminar, I think that if professors capitalize on the strengths of this book and make modifications to suit their teaching style that it's doable.
Displaying 1 of 1 review