1. Reading for Biology: The Beginnings of Disciplinary Literacy at FIU
Vicenta Shepard
&
Christina Taylor

2. What is a “Gateway Course?” Courses that have either High enrollment
Organization dedicated to collaborate with post-secondary schools to improve student learning, persistence, and completion
One of the latest initiatives dedicated to constructing models to improve “Gateway Courses”
What is a “Gateway Course?”
Courses that have either
High enrollment
High failure rate measured by ‘D,’ ‘F,’ ‘W,’ ‘I’

3. Gateway Courses at FIU 17 “Critical Courses”
BSC1010 General Biology I:
Lecture Hall and Flipped Classroom
CHM1045 General Chemistry:
PSY2012 Introduction to Psychology:
Lecture Hall
MAC1140 Pre-Calculus Algebra
Lecture Hall and Emporium

4. CfAS Reading Enhancement Program, AKA “TLC”
Small-group workshops dedicated to teaching students study skills relative to a particular course
Program is 5 weeks long, 1 hour each week
Students learn and practice specific reading strategies most appropriate for the course
Professor grants extra-credit incentive for successfully participating in TLC

5. What is Disciplinary Literacy?
Relatively new to both K-12 and higher education
Shanahan & Shanahan, Simpson, Nist, et al
Necessary for college-level reading
Disciplinary Literacy
Content Area Literacy
Intermediate Literacy

6. What is Project CRISS?

7. Giving CRISS a College Edge
Graphic Organizers
Two Column Notes
Question Answer Relationships – QAR

8. Graphic Organizers
Graphic Organizers are pictorial ways of organizing information, which help students organize ideas and content material.
Encouraging college-level students to “draw-out” information is tricky – we start with the “why” and once they practice the strategy they are more willing to use and reuse graphic organizers.
Why we love them
Why they work

9. Graphic Organizers

10. Graphic Organizer Applications

13. Two Column Notes Systematic way to take notes.
Students are able to utilize their notes as study guides.
Summary sections have the students take an active role in their learning.

16. Question-Answer-Relationships QAR
This strategies helps students identify sources of information for writing and answering questions.
Question types have been simplified into two broad categories – In the Book and In My Head.
In the Book questions are text-explicit questions, while In My Head are text-implicit questions.

18. Let’s Practice QAR Together!

19. Some Possible QAR Questions

20. How Effective has TLC been?
General Biology I
(BSC1010)
Fall 2013:
1221 students enrolled
395 TLC, 826 no TLC
Out of 395, 88% passed
Out of 826, 65% passed

21. How Effective has TLC been?
General Biology I
(BSC1010)
Spring 2014:
812 students enrolled
245 TLC, 567no TLC
Out of 245, 85% passed
Out of 567, 55% passed

22. How Effective has TLC been?
General Biology II
(BSC1011)
Fall 2013:
603 students enrolled
213 TLC, 390 no TLC
Out of 213, 81% passed
Out of 390, 63% passed

23. How Effective has TLC been?
General Biology II
(BSC1011)
Spring 2014:
688 students enrolled
301 TLC, 387 no TLC
Out of 301, 89% passed
Out of 387, 74% passed

24. How does TLC help the new BOG metrics?
Positively influences Year 1- Year 2 retention
Positively influences FTIC six-year graduation rate
Improvement in critical courses
More students stay in STEM fields once they understand how to think and study for these areas

25. What is the future of TLC?
Expansion to BSC1010-L, BSC1011-L
Curriculum building, Summer 2015
Collaboration with CHM1045 & CHM1046
Discussions about thinking for chemistry
Reading for chemistry
Biology professors’ discussion of requiring TLC, especially in flipped classroom sections

26. QUESTIONS? Vicenta M. Shepard, Reading & Learning Coordinator
(305)
Christina Taylor
Reading & Learning Graduate Assistant
(305)