Teaching, Learning & Assessment

2ND ANNUAL INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE SYMPOSIUM

"Inclusive teaching strategies" refer to any number of teaching approaches that address the needs of students with a variety of backgrounds, learning styles, and abilities. These strategies contribute to an overall inclusive learning environment, in which students feel equally valued.

Five minute lightning talks by CSUMB faculty on strategies for creating inclusive classrooms that honor and build on students' assets

Lightning talks spark engaging discussions!

On April 14, 2015, faculty participants at the 2nd Annual Exclusive Excellence Symposium heard and discussed exciting ideas for incorporating a variety of different "Inclusive teaching strategies" into the classroom. The event, co-sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence and Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, is the second in a annual serious of events designed help ALL CSUMB students achieve academic excellence.

Ten CSUMB faculty members shared their inclusive teaching strategies in 5-minute "lightning talks." The lightning talks sparked engaging discussions focused on making classroom environments and academic achievement more inclusive.

See below for descriptions of the inclusive teaching strategies and, when provided, handouts. Please feel free to contact the speakers for more information about their strategies and how faculty may adopt them for their own classes.

Jill Hosmer Jolley - One-minute Speeches: Increasing Confidence, Voice and Awareness

Every student presents at least once every two weeks. Speech averages 45 seconds. Students choose from a list of topics related to class content. Order is random. Low stakes. Ungraded. Applause after each presentation. Quickly, students become confident speakers. Class hears multiple perspectives and personal connections on course content.

Daniel Fernandez - Yay - Lots of Low-stakes Real-time Feedback!

This strategy involves a brief reflection following each class period where students state: one thing they learned in the class, anything they have a question about, and any concerns they want to raise. Implementation is simple, yet it has made an enormous positive impact on my teaching

Jennifer Fletcher - Discovering Students' Assets

A classroom environment that begins by focusing on students’ assets, rather than deficits, creates a culture of both trust and high standards. This presentation features strategies for discovering the rich cultural, linguistic, and personal knowledge and experiences students bring to our classrooms, including activities like the “Group Resume” and “Six-Word Stories.”

Rebecca Bales - "Let's Make a Treaty!": Understanding Treaty Making Between Native American Nations and the United States Government

I use this in-class exercise to demonstrate the difficulty and complexity of the Treaty System of the nineteenth century. Students read a background of the treaty system in a textbook and a specific treaty that includes several different Native nations (usually the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851). I break the class into the different groups/stakeholders represented in the treaty and they must negotiate the terms.

Rebecca Kersnar - Learner Negotiated Interaction: Establishing Conversation Practices

I use a learner training process at the beginning of the semester to establish -- with student input -- our approach for inclusive, engaging, and thoughtful interaction in the course.

Linda M Glenn - Teaching with Case Studies: Improving Problem-solving Skills Through Story-telling.

Storytelling is one of the oldest form of teaching. It bonded the early human communities, giving children the answers to some of the biggest questions, life. Stories help define us, shape us, engage us, and hone our problem-solving skills. Not every culture is literate, but every culture tells stories.

Julie Altman - Cultural Humility Strategies to Facilitate Discussion

In this lighting talk, I will share several high-impact practices based on a cultural humility framework for social work (Faller & Ortega, 2009) that I have used in my teaching. Research suggests that adopting the learner stance as an inclusive facilitation technique is more likely to yield favorable learning outcomes in a diverse classroom.

Antonio Gallardo - Teaching for Transformation

My account of how a former teacher changed my life.

George Station - Mindset is Taught, Grit is What's Brought

Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” text is employed in CSUMB’s Summer Bridge program with incoming EOP students. As a frequent instructor of EOP cohorts, I carry the Mindset concept into the Academic Year with individual and group activities that return students to the text in the fuller context of their academic courses.

Netta Avineri - Integrating Students’ Languages & Culturally-Shaped Learning Preferences into Our Teaching

This focuses on strategies integrating students with diverse language backgrounds and culturally-shaped learning preferences into interdisciplinary courses, creating spaces where numerous voices and silence can be heard (http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2015/02/26/silent-meditation/). Strategies include using diverse written genres, digital technologies, visual representations, language-focused activities, online activities, resources, and formats that encourage full participation (http://imaginingamerica.org/research/full-participation/).

Co-sponsored by the office of inclusive excellence and center for teaching, learning and assessment