Content literacy in higher education

William Loftus, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Phi Theta Kappa Advisor
Big Sandy Community and Technical College
Prestonsburg, Kentucky

The outcome of this experience has renewed many facets of my professional practice, and has reminded me of the need to stay flexible and creative, especially with the waves of new millennial students that I am meeting and trying to lead to knowledge, and application of that knowledge in their world.  The CTL frameworks of content literacy have also changed some of my basic teaching and learning orientations, and for that I am grateful.  So, again, thank you CTL for a wonderful journey.

Donna Elkins, PhD.
Associate Professor of Communication
Jefferson Community and Technical College
Louisville, Kentucky

“CTL’s Content Literacy training added a spark to material that had become dry and mundane to me, giving me a new perspective, new strategies and a renewed enthusiasm for teaching.”

The greatest benefit of participating in the Content Literacy training provided by CTL was having a chance to talk with colleagues from across disciplines about teaching.  More valuable even than learning specific strategies for improving classroom instruction was the opportunity to talk about teaching – the challenges, the opportunities, the outcomes, the students we care so much about.  It was refreshing to know that there are others in a variety of disciplines who experience teaching in the same way.
 
In addition to that benefit were the specific strategies that we learned about through discussion and practice.  Having a chance to actually practice the techniques and time to reflect on how I might use them in my classrooms was also valuable.  To date, I have tried several of the specific strategies in my Intro to Interpersonal Communication class and plan to expand them into American Government and Basic Public Speaking when I teach those classes next semester.  Specific strategies such as the Anticipation Guide, Café Conversation and the Double Entry Journal have encouraged student participation and discussion which is so important in a communication course.
 
The one-on-one assistance I received from the CTL coach was also valuable.  I had time to discuss with her how to practice some of these same strategies in the on-line version of the course I teach.  It is always a challenge to teach interactively on-line and so important for the basic goal of the interpersonal communication course.  The practical advice and ideas I received from the coach have helped me to make changes in the course to foster more interaction.
 
I have been teaching the same courses for over ten years at the college level.  CTL’s Content Literacy training added a spark to material that had become dry and mundane to me, giving me a new perspective, new strategies and a renewed enthusiasm for teaching.

Rachel Sexton
Cosmetology Instructor
Hazard Community and Technical College
Hazard, Kentucky

 “This is a great approach to ‘leaving no student behind’ therefore giving the students an incentive to stay in school.”

The content literacy project that was offered to Hazard Community and Technical College has been by far the most educational and beneficial professional development program that I have ever been involved in.  It has changed my entire outlook on “the learning atmosphere” in the classroom. I have learned to develop better strategies and working materials that actually support student learning. 

The most important factor to me as an instructor is that my students develop the ability to learn, retain and communicate information that has been transferred to them in class.  The content literacy program has trained me to implement diverse learning strategies during class that strengthen the students’ ability to learn.  These strategies provoke the student’s to think on a higher level than they are used to.

I have found evaluation of student work to be much easier by using these strategies.  They allow me to quickly detect the level of understanding for each student in the subject matter that I am teaching.  Once I have determined who has full understanding of the content and who needs extra attention, I can then strategize my approach to getting the students caught up that are struggling the most with the content.  This is a great approach to “leaving no student behind” therefore giving the students an incentive to stay in school. 

A great challenge that I have in my 1.75 hour lecture class is keeping the attention of each student and knowing that they are retaining what is being taught. By implementing the content literacy strategies during lecture time, not only breaks up the class with extra activities which stirs the students, but also adds excitement to the classroom.  Many of the strategies allow the students to be very creative at the same time displaying what they have comprehended from the lecture time.

CLT has impressed me with its experienced trainers and the knowledge that they bring to faculty.  It would be my desire to see CTL take the Content Literacy Model into every possible higher education institution.  I believe it would change the mentality of every teacher just as it has mine.

Hamid Attarzadeh
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Jefferson Community and Technical College
Louisville, Kentucky

 “By incorporating the new Content Literacy teaching strategies, now my students come to class on time, prepared with their double entry journals filled with their reading assignments, questions and facts.”

For many years I taught calculus courses at the University of Louisville. My students came to class at least 20 minutes early, prepared for class having done most of their homework assignment, ready to ask questions and to be challenged. Then I received notice that I had to move to the Jefferson Community and Technical College downtown campus and teach a Developmental Mathematics courses with students not prepared for college.

The start time for my course was 7:45 AM.  Students would arrive as late as 8:30.  As I began my mini-lecture it was typical to see students with no pen or pencil and no textbook or notebook.  Their attention would quickly be drawn elsewhere and about 10 minutes from the end of class, they would prepare to leave.  They asked no questions and were not at all familiar with problems they were to have reviewed as homework.

I quickly discovered that I was confronting a group of students that are not ready for college, under-prepared, not goal-oriented, not responsible, disinterested, with no fear of failing. For the past several years I have been looking for ways to engage my students in the classroom; ways to encourage them and make them responsible for their education. I had just limited success in my search.

Then recently, I became involved in the Content Literacy project through CTL.  The project provided me with a set of new tools and strategies to:

• Encourage my students to read and analyze the reading material
• Come to class prepared and be ready to engage in the classrooms activity
• Be ready to ask questions and be asked questions by the teacher and by other students in the group
• Engage to create a learning community in the first week of school and schedule time to work with other group members outside of the class period in the math lab or the computer lab.
• To become a goal-oriented person and become a better student and to explore what the future might hold.
• To be eager to attend other school related workshops and utilize school available resources.

By incorporating the new Content Literacy teaching strategies, now my students come to class on time, prepared with their double entry journals filled with their reading assignments, questions and facts. They come ready to engage in classroom activities. 

I have seen an increase in my students’ sense of personal responsibility and worth and accountability to the group.  Students who come to class unprepared are now challenged by their peers.  This kind of conversation usually helps unfocused students begin to do good work at the beginning of the semester and helps them to be successful at the end.

So, I am pleased to say without hesitation, I found the new techniques and strategies in CTL’s Content Literacy project a help in raising our students’ success rate in the developmental mathematics courses at JCTC.