33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students 9780813599519

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33 Simple Strategies for Faculty

33 Simple Strategies for Faculty A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students Lisa M. Nunn

Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Nunn, Lisa M., 1975– author. Title: 33 simple strategies for faculty : a week-by-week resource for teaching first-year and first-generation students / Lisa M. Nunn. Other titles: Thirty-three simple strategies for faculty Description: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2018004657 | ISBN 9780813599489 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813599472 (paperback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: College freshmen—United States. | First-generation college students—United States. | College orientation—United States. | Teacherstudent relationships—United States. | College teaching—United States. | BISAC: EDUCATION / Inclusive Education. | EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Social Science. | EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Arts & Humanities. | EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Science & Technology. Classification: LCC LB2343.32 .N86 2018 | DDC 378.1/98—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018004657 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright © 2019 by Lisa M. Nunn All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. www.rutgersuniversitypress.org Manufactured in the United States of America

For my sister, Monica, and my nephews, Nick and Trevor

Contents

Introduction1 WEEK 1 Introducing Yourself (Not Your

Professional Self)

39

WEEK 2 

Modeling a Study Guide

46

WEEK 3 

Finding Study Partners

52

WEEK 4 

Articulating Your Pedagogic Rationales

58

WEEK 5 

Improving Time Management

64

WEEK 6 

Sharing Stress-Management Ideas

68

WEEK 7 

Attending Office Hours

75

WEEK 8 

Collecting Midsemester Feedback

82

WEEK 9 

Interviewing Fellow Students

88

WEEK 10 

Finding Your Discipline

96

WEEK 11 

Discovering Life Purpose and Passion

101

WEEK 12 

Sharing Stories of College Woe

109

WEEK 13 

Laughing and Commiserating Together

114

WEEK 14 

Learning from Failures

121

WEEK 15 

Saying Farewell

127

Acknowledgments129 References131 Index141 vii

33 Simple Strategies for Faculty

Introduction This book is a tool kit for faculty who are interested in bolstering the academic success and overall well-being of their first-year and first-generation* students. The 33 strategies I offer come out of a larger research study I conducted on first-year students’ sense of belonging as they make the transition to college. The study compares students at a large, “most selective” research university that I call Public University and a medium-­ sized, religiously affiliated, “more selective” university that I call Private University.† Both are urban universities in California; neither has a reputation as a party school, and both struggle to attract and retain ethnoracially diverse student bodies. Across the two campuses, I followed 67 students‡ in the entering class of 2015 over their first two years at college, interviewing them one-on-one at the start of their first year, at * There is disagreement over how to define first-generation college students. I am using the broader of the two most common definitions, that neither parent holds a four-year degree, rather than the narrower definition that neither parent has ever attended college. † “Most selective” and “more selective” are the top-two categories of the five selectivity categories of U.S. News and World Report’s college ranking system. ‡ I followed a stratified random sample of incoming first-year students in the 2015 cohort (67 total, split between the two schools) over their first two years with three total interviews. The sample was stratified to include 50% first-­ generation students and 50% continuing-generation students, 1

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the end of their first year, and again at the end of their second year. During my first round of interviews, something wonderful happened. As I asked students questions about their courses, their favorite and least favorite professors, whether they attend office hours, and whether they are interested in building relationships with faculty, what I heard was story after story of things that students adored their professors for doing and things for which they resented their professors. I was delighted to be privy to so many classroom habits of the faculty members at these two schools. Before long, I had a growing list of do’s and don’ts that I planned to incorporate into my own teaching. My home university asked me to share these findings with faculty who teach special fall courses dedicated exclusively to incoming first-year students. And now I am sharing them with you. I hope you find them as useful as I have.

Sit Down with Your Syllabus From where we stand at the front of the room, excellent K–12 education can look like intellectual talent in our students. Some students just seem to already have the hang of the kind of thinking our discipline requires and can recognize the kinds of evidence that matter. These students make a good impression on us. Indeed, they seem smart. It’s important to remember that what looks like intellectual talent is likely the product of excellent academic preparation from high



Introduction 3

school and earlier (Calarco 2014b; Lewis-McCoy 2014; Nunn 2014). A great number of U.S. high schools do not adequately prepare students for the demands of college academics (Duncan and Murnane 2014; Ward, Siegel, and Davenport 2012; Yee 2016; Yun and Moreno 2006). At average and low-performing high schools— the kinds of schools where many first-­generation college students are likely to have attended—academic success is rooted in completing busywork assignments such as copying notes from the board and memorization without critical thinking. In interviews with me, many first-generation students told me that they earned strong grades in high school without ever having to read the textbook. These students were unchallenged by the low academic rigor of their high schools, and it makes the transition to college academics challenging because they are still building effective study habits as well as habits of critical thinking and application. Before the first college assignment is even given, they can already feel like they are behind their more affluent classmates who come from rigorous high schools and families with college-going histories. That is not to say that all first-generation students arrive at college underprepared, of course (Hand and Payne 2008; Reid and Moore 2008), but it is a pattern of which we can be mindful. Research shows that interventions with first-generation students can close the gap between their performance and that of their continuing-generation classmates (Harackiewicz et al. 2014; Stephens, Hamedani, and Destin 2014; Walton

4  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

STUDENT VOICES “If I was better at math, everything would be easier here because that’s probably the thing I use the most for every class, except a writing class, and even then I might use it. .  .  . Everyone I’ve talked to that’s good at math here has had at least one extremely good math teacher in the past. And having a good math foundation is incredible. It’s invaluable. But I never really had any good teachers growing up—or at all, for that matter. So I don’t know, it’s really a struggle.” Javier, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Latino—well, I’m American like everybody else here, but both my parents are from El Salvador. And keep in mind that Latino is very different from Chicano, because Latino is Latin America, anything in Central America, and Mexico is part of North America. A lot of people get that mixed up.”

and Cohen 2011). Clearly first-generation and continuing-generation students are equally intellectually talented. First-generation students also bring many strengths with them. They are eager to learn and highly motivated to succeed. They are impressively self-­reliant and independent. They take pride in their ability to attend to their families’ needs as well as their own. Some have already overcome adversity in their lives, and they bring the resulting confidence and resiliency with them too. As Jeff Davis phrases it, first-­ generation students “bring vitality and new ideas to the college environment” (2010, 54). Our goal should

Introduction 5



not be to make first-generation students become more like their continuing-generation counterparts, exactly. Rather, our goal should be to help transform the university—our own classrooms, if not beyond—to attend to the wider set of educational histories, adult responsibilities, and cultural sensibilities of our entire student body, rather than the narrower set of lived experiences that many of us imagine that a “typical college student” has had. This chapter suggests eight strategies that you can implement as you plan your syllabus before the STUDENT VOICES “I had never even had this, two exams on the same day. So I started—it was on a Wednesday—and I started studying, like, maybe that weekend. But it wasn’t really studying. I was teaching myself everything in that unit, and there’s just no way I could have got to know it. I would take notes, put them away, and just leave. I didn’t even look at them and try to study, and I hadn’t opened the book. The bio book I hadn’t even opened. My chem one I had been reading a little, but I had to teach myself everything I had learned in that unit for both classes in five days. . . . I failed both [starts to cry]. I failed both exams. I have never got such a low score, and it was so sad. I even considered just changing majors or dropping the class. So then, after that, I was like, ‘Okay, I really need to learn how to study.’” Sabrina, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

6  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

semester begins to benefit all first-year students, both first and continuing generation.

Strategy 1: Give a Mini-Midterm in Week 2 of the Semester First-year students genuinely do not know if their high school study habits are adequate for college until they get their first midterms back. Often, midterms come around week 5 or 6 of the semester, then the instructor takes a week or two (or more) to grade and return them. So the semester is roughly half over, week 7 or 8, by the time students get their first significant feedback on their performance. For some students, such as Kevin, quoted in the “Student Voices” box, not knowing where he stands is stressful and anxiety producing. Importantly, it also spurs frustration toward the professor. Helpful and productive relationships between faculty and students are built on trust and the student’s sense that the professor “cares,” both about the material the professor is teaching and also about students’ academic success and personal well-being (Brookfield 2015; Jehangir 2010). Offering a mini-midterm very early in the semester is a way to give students a clear sense of how well their high school study habits are serving them early enough to avoid devastating consequences on their GPA and on their emotional health. A mini-midterm also can help built trust if we tell our students explicitly that we are giving the mini-­ midterm for all of these reasons. The goal is not to needlessly pepper the semester with exams but to offer

Introduction 7



STUDENT VOICES “We’re halfway through the semester. I don’t know my grade. I don’t know what I should shoot for. I’m trying my best here. It’d be nice to have motivation, [as in] right now I have a B or a C; let’s go up. A definitive grade. An actual grade, an actual percent, an actual number, letter grade. Whatever. Whatever is possible, you know? I don’t have any of that, so I don’t know what to say. That’s another thing, I guess, that the school could improve on. Professors should—I know it’s a lot of work because there’s one of them and there are, what, 30 of us? But input the grades and give us a clear understanding instead of us having to go and ask for the grade. I know [the online system] is supposed to show our grades, but what’s the point of that whole little section if professors don’t actually put grades in? I feel like that’s terrible.” Kevin, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I am Vietnamese.”

students an opportunity to gauge how effective their note taking is and how well they are comprehending the material and to give them some insight into our own particular exam style and grading expectations. Week 2 is an excellent time for the mini-midterm for three reasons. First, there are only a few concepts that can be covered, so it is not overwhelming to study for. Second, the instructor has time to grade and return it while the semester is still young. Third, it alleviates some stress that first-year students feel about how few

8  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

exams and assignments are used in college to make up their final grade. Many are not used to having one single test count for, say, 20% of their overall grade, and it scares them. The stakes seem very high. I have started giving mini-midterms since I began this research and realized how helpful it would be in my introductory classes. Now, on my syllabus, the mini-midterm is worth 5%, and I explain to students that it helps them be prepared for the two larger midterms and final exam, which are worth 20%–25% of their grade each. It is a lower-stakes practice round. My students express gratitude for the mini-midterm—not just for the feedback on their performance but also for acknowledging and normalizing their fears and uncertainties around adjusting to the new demands of college academics. They appreciate feeling that their professors do not expect them to have college all figured out in the first few days and weeks.

Strategy 2: Offer a Study Guide and Build a Review Session into Your Syllabus First-year students who attended high-performing high schools have a reasonable chance of knowing how to create an effective study guide on their own. They might need little guidance. However, first-­generation students are much less likely to even know where to begin. Many simply have never been trained in the skill of sifting through large quantities of material and determining which are the most important concepts

Introduction 9



and the most relevant examples. This in no way implies that they are less competent thinkers, only that they have little practice at this particular skill. In my own teaching, I used to think that because I put all key concepts as headings on my lecture slides and systematically defined and addressed all the major themes, it was straightforward and obvious what students should focus on as they studied for my exams. I purposefully did not give them a study guide because I did not want them to expect me to do their thinking for them. I was rather adamant about it; I even resisted advice from a more experienced colleague who observed my teaching and encouraged me to give study guides and hold systematic exam review sessions. His critique was repeated in my promotion file, and yet I still refused to budge on it. STUDENT VOICES “The professors talk—it’s just so fast. .  .  . Today my teacher was teaching, and we’re getting towards the last three minutes of class and where she’s trying to get us through the study guide basically. So she’s writing, writing, writing. She’s like, ‘Got it? Next.’ Then she erased it. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. I did not get it.’ I usually ask questions, but at that point, she was just going so fast. I’m— just forget it. I’m just going to ask somebody else.” Teagan, continuing-generation student Private University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Black and Mexican.”

10  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

STUDENT VOICES “I’m still learning about my professors. .  .  . I’m totally okay with not doing well on my first exams. I honestly don’t know how the professor is or how they test us. Once I go through my first exam, I will be like, ‘Okay, now I know how my professor is going to test me,’ and I’ll have a plan. But for right now, I don’t even know. How do you even study in college? That’s a great question. No one tells you.” Brandon, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “African American for sure.”

Listening to first-generation students’ experiences in my research study, however, made me realize that I had been doing first-generation students a disservice. I had been expecting them to already know how to recognize what was important and what was not, not seeing that many of them had no practice whatsoever at doing this. It turns out that some continuing-­generation students like Teagan, quoted in the “Student Voices” box, also struggle to keep up with all the items professors think are important and obvious. By not offering a study guide, I was exacerbating the performance gap between the students in my class who attended excellent high schools and those who did not. I have now changed my ways. Build time into your syllabus to spend part of a class meeting doing review for each of the exams, includ-



Introduction 11

ing the mini-midterm. Use that time to teach students how to create an effective study guide for your particular class. The method I now use is that I ask them to look back through their notes and call out key terms that they think might be fair game for the exam. I write them on the board, and for each one, I ask for an example from our course materials. I let them know if a term they suggest is too narrow or not central enough to our course to bother including on their study guide. At the end, I hand out a study guide that I prepared in advance, and we compare what is on the board to what is on my study guide. I remind them that all of the terms and concepts are headings on my lecture slides. I warn them that we will only do this for the first two midterms, and after that, they should be able to do it on their own. You might prefer to use small group collaboration or some other method to guide students in how to create effective study guides. You might also prefer to give them your own study guide for each and every exam. I encourage you to do whatever makes the most sense for your course and your own teaching style. One thing that I find helpful is to build time into the syllabus for it.

Strategy 3: Explain Clearly and Multiple Times in the First Couple of Weeks What the Most Effective Ways to Study Are for Your Particular Class Do you recommend that students read in advance of class or listen to your lecture and then read afterward

12  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

once they have a sense of the larger themes and how the various homework assignments fit together? For my classes, I suggest reading in advance and then going back afterward and putting a star by the sections that I emphasized in lecture and discussion. For your exams, should students memorize key terms and definitions word for word from the author or from your lecture materials in order to be accurate? Or do you want them to articulate key concepts in their own words to show their mastery of it? Do your exams require them to show their work? To write in complete sentences? To recognize key concepts? To apply concepts to new cases they have not seen before? First-year students in general, and first-generation students especially, sincerely do not know what our expectations are. We can alleviate a lot of unnecessary stress by simply being explicit about how we are going to assess their learning and how they might best prepare for it. In my introductory classes, I also allow students a cheat sheet for exams. My midterms and final are in-class, blue-book exams with short essay questions. I allow students to bring with them a single sheet of paper (standard size: 8.5″ × 11″), and I allow them to write on only one side of it for their cheat sheet. They can write as small as they like, and I always joke that if they want to bring a magnifying glass in with them to read it, that’s fine. I explain that the usefulness of the cheat sheet lies more in the process of creating it than in having it on hand during the exam. They must handwrite the cheat sheet because I do not want

Introduction 13



STUDENT VOICES “For me, I didn’t know that I have to read from my book before I go to lecture. I didn’t know that. I thought it was just a book, you know. I don’t know. So I didn’t know that. And then the people here, they read before the lecture. And they read afterwards. . . . They know how to take notes. And for me, I take notes during my lecture. But that’s another thing. For my high school, when we would take notes, the teacher would take notes, and we would copy his notes. And here you’ve got to take your notes. For me, I try to keep up with the professor, what he’s saying, and listen. But I’m writing, and I’m like, ‘I don’t frigging understand this.’ I was like, ‘What did I write?’ So then I try to read my book that comes with the class. And then I’m like, ‘Wait, this is not—’ I had seen the examples, and sometimes they don’t—like, for math, sometimes they didn’t match; they weren’t the same. Then I was like, ‘Wait, this is confusing.’ Then for chem, I just didn’t understand some terms and stuff. So that was just really hard.” Ilana, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Mexican.”

them to simply copy and paste from my lecture slides, which I post online. I want them to engage the material by writing things out, and I also want them to think hard about what is important enough to include on the limited space of the cheat sheet. I have them turn in the cheat sheet with their blue books so I can check that the handwriting on the cheat sheet matches

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the handwriting in the blue book, and I give back the cheat sheets with the graded blue books. As they are working on the exam, I come around and check that each student has written on only one side of the page and that the pages are not typed or photocopied. My students say that they appreciate the cheat sheet because it relieves anxiety for them if they don’t have to memorize information. Some tell me after the first exam that I was right, that the process of making the cheat sheet was all they needed to be prepared; they didn’t need to look at it during the exam. Others use theirs constantly as they write. My approach to exams is to ask students to compare and contrast examples or apply a theory or concept to a case we haven’t discussed before, so they need at their fingertips an arsenal of definitions of key concepts as well as examples of details from course texts to put together a strong answer. I explain that because I allow a cheat sheet, I am more demanding in my grading. It is not enough to give definitions from my slides word for word because it does not show me that they understand the concept; it only shows me that they know how to copy from my slides onto their cheat sheet and then from the cheat sheet into the blue book. A strong answer explains concepts in students’ own words as well as crafts an original argument to answer the question. I clarify that I write questions that have many possible valid answers. It is not about getting it “right”; I am looking for how students leverage evidence from our course materials to justify their claim. Because I



Introduction 15

allow a cheat sheet, I expect it to be straightforward for them to articulate definitions and identify examples. So in order to get a high B or an A, the answer must be sophisticated in some way and show mastery of the concepts. We practice together a bit in class what a strong answer might sound like, and I photocopy A exams so that others can come to my office hours after the exam and see what a great answer looks like to help them prepare for the next one.

Strategy 4: Give Pedagogic Rationales for Everything You Do; Write Them in Your Syllabus Frustration and resentment build when students do not understand why in the world an instructor requires something that is unfamiliar to them. One student in my study complained about a math professor who docked points from her test score because she used an incomplete sentence to explain her process. The student thought that because it was math, not English class, complete sentences would not matter. Other students I talked to felt baffled by instructors who ban laptops for taking notes in class or who require homework to be submitted online and then shut down the submission portal like clockwork at the exact minute the homework is due without warning. Undoubtedly, these rules make perfect sense to the instructors themselves; however, first-year students— rightly or wrongly—feel confused, even sometimes deceived. It generates negative feelings toward the

16  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

STUDENT VOICES “Professors ask for something once, and then they are not going to remind you or really nag you about it. They are just going to tell you, ‘This is when it’s due.’ Then that’s it: that’s the last you hear of it. .  .  . I have mixed emotions just because I’m a forgetful person. So I kind of like the constant reminder just because I forget things so often. But I know it’s something I have to get used to. So I write everything down and keep a calendar and a little planner.” Kenadee, continuing-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m technically African American because that’s how people label it, but I’m actually Caribbean.”

instructor. It also makes some students doubt whether they belong in college at all. A simple way to mediate this dynamic is to be explicit with our students about why we require the things that we do, why we dock points when we do, and what our goals are for each of our particular rules and assignments. Some first-year students I interviewed wish that their professors would “baby” them a little bit more with reminders about upcoming due dates and forgiveness for late submissions or for misunderstanding the instructions. Other first-year students came to college expecting that they would be treated as adults who are responsible for their own work. Those students are offended when professors treat them “like children”



Introduction 17

by policing their attendance or banning cellphones or laptops because they might distract themselves. We cannot meet all the various expectations our first-year students have for us, nor should we attempt to. What we can do, however, is to explain clearly to them why each of our policies and requirements makes sense to us and how it meets our goals for student learning and for the classroom environment. For example, students earn attendance and participation points in my introductory classes. Some students find it annoying, unnecessary, and burdensome. I recognize that. I explain that I want to reward them for doing what they are supposed to be doing anyway: showing up and being prepared. It counts for 10% of their grade. They must sign in every class to earn attendance points, and they must contribute to class discussion twice a week (for classes that meet three times a week). To earn a participation point, they must make a comment or pose a question that demonstrates they have read the assigned homework. If they prefer not to speak up during class, they are allowed to submit a comment to our class’s online discussion board, so long as it is posted before class begins (to show they were prepared in advance). I explain that part of my rationale for requiring attendance and participation is because my teaching is rooted in a discussion-based, interactive approach. If they have not read the homework, it just does not work. But it’s more than that. I tell them that I know how easy it is to fall behind in a class, and my system is intended to help hold them

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STUDENT VOICES “He had a practice exam. But I went in and took the test, and it was really different from what—well, not completely different, but some of the questions, it was like this was not discussed anywhere. And this is not even in the book. Where did this come from? That was my problem with it. Where did it come from? . . . I actually went through all the problems I missed and tried to redo them and find out how to do them. Because it wasn’t really anywhere. That was the weird part.” Tan, first-generation student Public University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Vietnamese.”

accountable for keeping up on the homework every single week. It is just not possible to properly catch up on several weeks of texts and concepts just before an exam. I want to help them avoid that if I can. In end-of-semester evaluations, I always get a few grumbles about my attendance policy, but many more students say they appreciate being “forced” to keep up. It is helpful to share your pedagogic rationales over and over again with students throughout the semester: when you review the syllabus, when you discuss upcoming assignments, and at any other moment that it feels relevant. It is also good practice to articulate them directly on your syllabus. I started adding explanations in the same section of my syllabus where I list



Introduction 19

out how many percentage points each assignment and exam is worth. You might also include some rationales on your syllabus in a list of “course expectations.”

Strategy 5: Schedule an Office Hour Immediately before or after Your First-Year Class First-year students told me that they use the minutes before and after class as a kind of testing ground for building up the courage to come to our office hours. If we seem too busy or too rushed, they are unlikely to feel brave enough to interrupt us, and they may never get their questions asked or have a chance to build a relationship with us. Scheduling an office hour immediately after class allows students who approach you at the end of class to really have your attention. You will have the time to linger and talk without having to rush off to your next commitment. You can even invite them to walk over to your office with you to continue the conversation. If the time slot following the class is already booked in your schedule, hold an office hour immediately before class instead and consider holding it someplace very near the classroom, maybe at a coffee cart or tables where students can easily approach you if they arrive a few minutes early. Keep in mind that students have mixed experiences in other professors’ office hours. Making an effort to build trust right off the bat when they come into your office can go a long way. They appreciate it when we

20  33 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR FACULT Y

STUDENT VOICES “I went in [my math professor’s] office hours, and he wasted an hour and a half of my time, which was really irritating for me. . . . He gave me a 10 out of 50 on a homework assignment. I went in just to know what did I do wrong? How can I improve it? I asked him, ‘What does a 50 out of 50 answer look like?’ He basically told me there are other students in the class, so we could figure out with each other. .  .  . He just kept giving us these really vague answers. He’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s kind of something you have to figure out for yourself, but you’ll have a quiz on it on Wednesday.’ I don’t know the correct way to do it, what it looks like. It was really frustrating.” Serena, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “African American. Also my grandpa was Chinese, and my grandmother was Native American and Black.”

make them feel that we respect their time, respect their questions, and respect their efforts to learn and succeed in our courses (Umbach and Wawrzynski 2005). In that vein, try to develop habits of personally inviting students to your office hours so you can learn a bit about them and their circumstances. (See Strategy 10 in Chapter 1 for a list of useful questions to ask.) First-generation students typically experience greater financial stress and family obligations than continuing-generation students do, which can cause them to miss class and let assignments slip (Stebleton and Soria

Introduction 21



2012). From our perspective in the front of the room, it is easy to misinterpret such behavior as laziness or as a sign that they are perhaps partying too much, especially when someone is falling asleep in class. In interviews with me, many first-generation students shared that they were navigating very deep waters in their personal lives while trying to keep afloat, which is not uncommon for first-generation students (Davis 2010; Jehangir 2010). Two students at Public University had a parent who was being deported during their first term in college. Multiple students at Private University had their financial-aid packages pulled out from under them in the first weeks of their first semester and were scrambling to work long hours at off-­campus jobs or were trying to solicit help from extended family members—a task that came with a great deal of shame and stress. Mai, a student at Public University, was under pressure from her family to come home on weekends and to take night-school classes to get a technical certificate that would help her contribute to her family’s automotive business. All of these circumstances STUDENT VOICES “I feel like if I went to his office hours, he would look at me like, ‘Are you dumb?’ or ‘Are you serious?’” Isabella, first-generation student Public University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “Mexican or Latina.”

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STUDENT VOICES “I feel like—so I’m a [second-]generation American, and college also is a validation for my parents’ hard work and sacrifices. That’s what it also serves for me. It shows them it wasn’t a waste; it went somewhere. In my neighborhood, the majority of people didn’t even know about this school, and many less of them even have gone to college. I still feel guilty about it, just because it’s, like, I’m here, and I’m actually doing well, and they’re just at home going about their lives.” Ramon, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Latino or Hispanic”

seriously impeded these first-generation students’ ability to focus on their academics in their first semester of college. Many first-generation students face yet an additional layer of stress around their academic performance. While all the first-year students I talked to expressed a desire to do well in college so they could live up to their parents’ expectations, this concern was weightier for first-generation students. More affluent students from continuing-generation college families often worried about “wasting” their parents’ money if they did poorly in school. This was a serious concern for them and rightfully so. By contrast, first-­generation students worried about losing their scholarships and other financial aid if their GPA dropped too low. The

Introduction 23



possibility of failing out of school felt very real for them. Even in cases where it was clear to me that their grades were not so low that they were in danger of losing their financial support, the students themselves were convinced that their grades might be teetering on the edge. These worries were especially salient for first-­ generation students whose parents are immigrants. A common theme I found in my interviews with that group was that they feel enormous pressure to do well in college to prove that their parents’ life sacrifices were not in vain. In scholarship on immigrant communities, this is referred to as the “immigrant bargain” STUDENT VOICES “I came here [from China] when I was 10. . . . When I was born to until I was five years old, my parents were with me. . . . But then they left for U.S. when I was five. .  .  . I lived with some random guardian, but my aunt—I would go to my aunt every weekend. It was difficult without my parents. . . . When I came to the U.S., I really forced myself: ‘Oh, you shouldn’t just play around anymore’ and ‘Look how hard they [my parents] are working.’ I just realized I really need to work hard.” Ling, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m an Asian. I mean, it’s not like I need to hide myself, like, ‘Oh, I’m so ashamed to be Asian.’ I’m me, and I’m just Asian. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

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(Louie 2012; Smith 2006). Many students in my study whose parents are immigrants said that their parents faced hardship and toil immigrating to the United States, and one explicit reason they did it was to provide an education for their children. Now it is on their shoulders to make good on their parents’ sacrifices. They express a great deal of pride in this duty, eager to accomplish their educational goals as a way to honor their parents. They are highly motivated to succeed but also stressed out by how high stakes it feels. Another emotional burden that some first-­ generation students carry with them is guilt over being at college while so many friends and neighbors from their home communities do not have that opportunity (Davis 2010; Somers, Woodhouse, and Cofer 2004). They feel proud of themselves, but at the same time, they feel guilty for it, like Ramon at Private University, who is quoted in the “Student Voices” box. This can make it more difficult to build a sense of belonging on campus, which we know has an impact on both well-being and academic persistence (DeRosa and Dolby 2014; Freeman, Anderman, and Jensen 2007; Kuh et al. 2010; Tinto 1993; Walton and Cohen 2011).

Strategy 6: Start Practicing New Habits of Speech As you are crafting your syllabus and scheduling your office hours, it is also a good time to start rehearsing in your mind some new habits of speech—or solidifying your already-excellent repertoire of encouraging

Introduction 25



phrases. First-generation students told me in interviews that they are grateful to professors who acknowledge that college academics are challenging. When we say things in class such as “This stuff is hard” and “Hang in there, you will get this,” they feel validated. On the other hand, they feel overwhelmed and alone when we say things such as “I know most of this is review for you.” It makes them doubt whether they belong in college in the first place and whether they have what it takes to succeed (Mickael et al. 2015). Of course, whether or not they are already familiar with our course concepts is not an indicator of their intellectual talents; it is only an indicator of how well their STUDENT VOICES “My math professor, he gets it, . . . and it’s nice to know that he understands that it is hard to understand the concepts. Because I feel it’s so discouraging when I do something and I feel it’s so hard, and then everyone around me is like, ‘Yeah, it’s so easy. It’s okay. There’s worse things to come.’ That’s what I hate. I get really depressed. I see something so hard, and then it’s nice to know that the professors are like, ‘You know what? It’s a difficult subject.’ It’s just nice to know, to have that reaffirmation that it is hard.” Mai, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I always identify as Asian American, and that’s it.”

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K–12 educations prepared them for college. Yet our students experience it as a personal failure when they feel unprepared and inadequate. It is not only first-generation students who struggle to adjust to the demands of college academics. Some continuing-generation students feel similarly. Teagan at Private University tells me, “I don’t really like how anybody teaches here. .  .  . They assume things. They assume you know all this stuff already. . . . They don’t take it step-by-step. It’s kind of like they are trying to speed through it. It makes it hard.” Yet, at the same time, other continuing-generation students who received excellent K–12 educations are unruffled by the pace of college academics. These seem to be the students whom many of us faculty members have in mind when we make comments such as “I know that many of you already know this.” Carter, a continuing-­ generation student at Public University, sums up the privileged perspective when he tells me, “I think the professors here naturally are better at explaining material in a concise manner. They’re not distracted by other students who don’t understand it. They don’t need to cater to anyone. So it’s easier to learn that way for me.” When we assume that students already have some mastery of our field’s introductory-level material under their belt, we are assuming that all of our students are like Carter, who attended an elite private school growing up. Another helpful thing we can do is to dispel the myth that introductory-level courses are supposed to be easy. On the contrary, they can

Introduction 27



STUDENT VOICES “In that class, we had to write a seven-page essay. . . . I felt really good about it. And he said to everyone—we were all asking, ‘What did you think about our essays?’ And we’re all excited because we all felt we did really well. And he was like, ‘Let’s just say they didn’t impress me.’ And I was like, okay, that’s kind of shitty.” Hazel, continuing-generation student Private University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “White.”

be challenging because they are introductory. Like learning a new musical instrument or a new sport, the learning curve can be steep. Other ways we can help our first-year students make the transition to college academics more smoothly include talking about using resources in positive ways, rather than as things students should use as a last resort if they are unable to get the material on their own. We can encourage classmates to form study groups with each other (see Strategy 12 in Chapter 3). We can announce the locations and hours of tutoring centers relevant to our courses (see Strategy 15 in Chapter 4), and we can encourage students to come to office hours as a way to enjoy the class material more, in addition to helping them keep on top of their work. Many first-generation students I talked to say that they always try to do it on their own first before reaching out for resources (Calarco 2014a; Yee 2016). They are

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incredibly self-reliant, which is a wonderful characteristic in many ways. The problem comes if they do not develop habits of reaching out for support. Some rely on Google or YouTube, and others attempt to simply “study harder” even though their study habits may not have been effective so far. We can make resources such as tutoring and study groups seem normal if we talk about them as routine parts of successful students’ habits in front of our classes, rather than letting students believe the common perception that tutoring and the like are courses of action that failing students ought to take.

Strategy 7: Add Images (or Bios) of Scholars to Your Lecture Slides Like many universities, the two campuses in my study have student bodies with disproportionately low numbers of African American and Latino students. Greater ethnoracial diversity is a goal that both institutions find difficult to reach. Many first-generation students are also students of color, and they tend to be hyperaware of how few of their fellow students, faculty, and staff share their same skin tone or cultural background. This can make underrepresented students feel out of place. Students of color often experience this as a burden they carry in their interactions with classmates and professors (Fischer 2007; Strayhorn 2012). This dynamic is exacerbated when students hear their classmates use language such as “colored

Introduction 29



STUDENT VOICES “It’s discouraging, honestly, to see there aren’t many people like yourself, Hispanics. And I come from South Central Los Angeles, so I’m used to seeing African Americans as well, and I don’t see a single African American when I’m walking to class, like ever. I once saw one, and I was just like, ‘Wow, it took me an entire term to see one African American.’ That’s sad.” Marisol, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

people” (or worse) perhaps without realizing the derogatory connotations. Give yourself permission to gently correct students publicly when they use outdated or offensive language. This helps your classroom be a space that validates the presence of ethnoracial minority students. Another way to mitigate those feelings of doubt and uncertainty is to highlight the ethnoracial diversity in your discipline. I have had success with simply adding images to my lecture slides of each scholar on whom I teach. Often I don’t spend more than a moment on the slide itself; I simply name the scholar out loud and say something along the lines of, “And here he is” or “The chapter we read for today comes from her first book.” The goal is for students to come to see female scholars and scholars of color as a normal, routine aspect of academic life.

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STUDENT VOICES “Even after reading the article, there were some students that were like, ‘Yeah, I think that people just need to not complain because there’s been so much advancement for African Americans.’ While that’s true, I think that it’s unrealistic too. . . . One girl in the class, I don’t know if maybe she felt like it was an attack on her, so she kept trying to turn it around. . . . .She was like, ‘I was scared to put that I was white on my college application because I knew that I wasn’t going to get any scholarships or anything.’ It was just really uncomfortable. . . . I have to be able to have those conversations, but then it’s irritating when—I don’t want people to necessarily take on my point of view, but I have to just be able to not react in the way that I want to react because then I’m falling into stereotypes that they already have of the angry Black person. Or even sometimes I’m scared to speak up in classes because I don’t want to be seen as complaining.” Serena, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “African American. Also my grandpa was Chinese, and my grandmother was Native American and Black.”

If it happens that almost everyone that you teach on and whose theories and contributions inform your course are white males—which is part and parcel to some of our disciplines due to historical forces beyond our control—consider adding a three-minute segment to each of your units in which you show images of contemporary scholars and give brief summaries of the current work in your discipline. That way you can



Introduction 31

choose to highlight the diversity of the scholars themselves as well as the exciting new work that is being done. If you do not use lecture slides, you might simply pull up webpages that include images of the scholars whose work you are presenting. While this does not resolve the distress that underrepresented ethnoracial minority students experience when they are one of the few Brown or Black bodies in our classrooms (Quaye and Harper 2015), it can go a long way toward demonstrating that there is a well-established place for people of color in the academic world.

Strategy 8: Build a Few 10- to 15-Minute Get-to-Know-You Activities into Your Syllabus Friendships are the cornerstone of college success for first-year students (Chambliss and Takacs 2014; McCabe 2016). If students have not been able to find friends, they are unable to perform well in much of anything else. As faculty members, it is not our responsibility to provide students with friendships, of course. Nonetheless, there are a few simple and easy things we can do to help facilitate our students getting acquainted with one another in ways that are relevant to our course material. First-generation students are particularly vulnerable to feeling like they do not fit in on campus, both academically and socially. In Chapters 3, 9, and 13, I offer concrete suggestions for brief, in-class activities that can help students find study partners and simply get to know each other. Take those

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STUDENT VOICES “I don’t know, it’s just really hard first semester because nobody knew anyone. And so during orientation weekend—and I would say the first week of school—it was kind of like trying to find a group for themselves. And so, by the second month of school, there is already kind of these established friendships or groups or whatever. So then it kind of feels like, ‘Can I still—can I join you guys?’ You know what I mean? And so it’s just always a little weird.” Lily, continuing-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I’m white.”

activities into consideration as you plan your syllabus and what material you intend to cover those weeks. Both continuing-generation and first-generation students told me in interviews at the end of their first year that they wished there had been a way to expand their friendship circles after the first couple of months. They explained that everyone is in a mad rush to find friends in the first few hours and days on campus, and that works out fine because everyone needs people to eat with in the dining halls and people to hang out and explore campus with. However, apparently there is a moment sometime in late October or early November when many first-year students are ready to expand their social lives but feel that everyone else is already locked into friendship groups that seem impossible to “break into.” Also, they worry that there would be



Introduction 33

hurt feelings among their own friends if they suddenly started spending time with new people. So, even though they want to get to know a wider range of people, they feel stuck. To my surprise, none of the students I talked to seemed aware that others were feeling the same way right at about that same time. This finding from my research is an invitation to intervene with a small academic assignment that just might do the trick of opening the door to new friendships for some first-year students in our classes. Of course, you might think up other equally useful assignments, but I suggest a brief interview task. I have my students fill in a four-­question interview template (see Strategy 24 in Chapter 9) with any concept or issue that we have covered in the course so far, and I give them a few minutes to interview someone in the room whom they do not already know well. They are further required to interview at least one other person (although I encourage them to aim for five other people) and then write up a brief, oneto two-page report on their findings from the interviews. On my syllabus, it is worth 2% of their grade; they have to follow social science interview-method standards and write up their findings in a particular format I give them. I also explicitly tell them that this is a moment in the semester when first-year students often wish they could meet a few new people and that this assignment is designed to give them an excuse to invite a person they have their eye on as a potential friend to have coffee together or go to dinner at the

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STUDENT VOICES “The friends that I was hanging out with my first term, I was hanging out with them mostly just because I felt like I had to, you know? . . . You start to realize you don’t like them, and they’re not really the best people for you. But you don’t really have something to switch to.” David, continuing-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Black and Caribbean. My family is Jamaican. Two out of three of my sisters were born in Jamaica, all my parents were born in Jamaica, all my cousins were born in Jamaica.”

dining hall to complete the interview. In their reports, there are always a handful of students who articulate whom they chose to interview and acknowledge that they chose people whom they had been hoping to get to know better. I count that as success.

Strategies 9 through 33: Week by Week The following 15 chapters are a week-by-week guide for your teaching. Some of the strategies can be implemented during office hours or in hallway interactions with students. Others are designed for classroom time. I give a brief rationale each week alongside more quotes from first-year students to provide a window into how they see things from where they sit. I also give you some “things to keep in mind this week,” and



Introduction 35

sometimes I offer a second strategy there: usually it is an idea for outside of class time, something to carry with you in your interactions with students in office hours, via email and around the halls of campus. My goal is to provide you with enough concrete material for you to be able to easily implement the strategies with minimal preparation on your part. All that is required is your willingness to devote 5 to 15 minutes a week to student success and well-being. Perhaps not every week will the suggested strategy make sense for your class or for your teaching style. I can live with that. I simply hope that reading the weekly suggestions will inspire you to think about ways that our assignments, our encouragement, and our demeanor with students matters to their sense of self and to their academic success, particularly first-year and first-­ generation students.

Setting Boundaries Mentoring students is important work, but there are pitfalls. In this book, I encourage you to carve out time each week to address needs and concerns of firstyear and first-generation students. Importantly, I also encourage you to carve out time each week to tend to your own needs and concerns. A key element of selfcare is the willingness to set boundaries. I am a firm believer that caring about my students’ well-being does not require me to overextend my emotions, my in-box, or my work-life balance. At my home institution, we

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are required to hold five office hours a week. That is plenty of time for students to have my attention. When they ask to meet with me at the last minute, I respond with a list of my office hours and add in a friendly tone that I’d love to see them. At the same time, I am not a complete ogre. I will accommodate a student who has a busy life or some kind of emergency and open my door for an appointment outside of my official office hours. But I do it rarely. I also limit what I am willing to discuss over email. My students would happily get private one-on-one tutoring from me via lengthy emails in which I help them untangle their misunderstandings of key concepts the night before our midterm. They also like to send me rough drafts of their essays, asking for comments on how to improve it to get an A. I have learned that the only response that benefits both of us is for me to set a clear boundary. I write something friendly, like “It sounds like you have been thinking a lot about this. That’s great.” And then I invite them to office hours to discuss. After many semesters of practice, the phrase “I’m afraid it’s a little too late in the game for me to be able to help you with that” now rolls off my tongue and my keyboard quite easily. I am convinced that my students are better off when I set firm boundaries. It teaches them what appropriate expectations are and also gives them a model for what it looks like to genuinely care about someone while not taking that other person’s problems on as your own. I remind myself that not all of us grow up with adults in our lives who



Introduction 37

model healthy relationships, something that was certainly true for me as a young person. Beyond assignments, we can care about our students as whole people without becoming their confidant or their emotional safe haven. Some faculty enjoy being connected to students on social media. I choose not to. I might invite students on a hike with me or host a meal at my home, but only as scheduled events with groups of students. At the same time, I am committed to being a supportive resource for students who are in crisis. To me, that means listening with compassion when they share their personal troubles and then pulling up a second chair next to my computer so they can sit with me as I look up the counseling center’s phone number and walk-in hours so they can write it down. Sometimes I hand them the receiver to my office phone and dial the wellness center’s extension for them. I cannot be their counselor myself. I am neither qualified for nor interested in the job. Of course, I learned to set these boundaries the hard way after experiencing the fatigue of letting some of my students’ needs overtake my own in my first few years of teaching. In many ways, the 33 strategies in this book are the antidote to that kind of emotional burnout. I want first-generation and first-year students to hear the message loud and clear that they belong here with us and that we are invested in them. Doing that work in the public space of the classroom and campus corridors is something I find energizing. It is a welcome

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alternative to showing them that I care through private interactions that I find depleting. My intention in this book is to offer ways that we can show our students that they matter. Setting boundaries in no way undercuts that dynamic—quite the opposite, in fact: boundaries make it possible to carry on our good work.

WEEK 1

Introducing Yourself (Not Your Professional Self)

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 9: Introduce Yourself in Class Give details about you as a person rather than about your professional self. Consider doing one or all three of the following: 1 Share a favorite moment from this summer. (In-

clude who was with you. Find a way to talk about your family members or other important people in your life.)

2 Share a recent accomplishment you are proud of

(not a professional accomplishment, a personal one). Maybe it is something small such as finally cooking an omelet without burning it or something bigger such as running a half marathon. 39

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3 Share a challenge on your horizon. Maybe it is

puppy training for your new dog, learning how to be a fan at your child’s sporting events rather than the coach, or trying a new diet.

As you introduce yourself, be explicit about what you want your students to call you. Many first-year students do not know what the appropriate forms of address are. I usually say something along the lines of “My name is Lisa Nunn. Students here at USD call their faculty ‘Dr.,’ so you should call me Dr. Nunn. You can also call me ‘professor’ if you like that better. If you become a sociology major, you will see that in our STUDENT VOICES “She’s so happy, and she shares so much about her life, which I feel like a lot of professors don’t do. A lot of them, I have no idea if they’re married, if they have kids. But my psychology professor, she’s so open about everything. . . . I feel like when they’re willing to share with us part of their lives, they tell us they care about us as well. . . . There are just so many that—I don’t know. Do they just come and teach and leave? With her, when she shares stuff about her life, I feel like she enjoys being around us so she doesn’t mind talking about her personal life.” Sabrina, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

Introducing Yourself (Not Your Professional Self) 41



department, students often drop the ‘Dr.’ for professors they really like. It’s an affectionate nickname, a lot like the way teammates on sports teams often refer to each other by their last name only. So, once we get to know each other a little bit better, you are also welcome to refer to me as ‘Nunn.’ However, you should not call me or any of your professors ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ I know you are probably used to that from all your previous years of schooling, so it can be a tricky habit to break. Here at USD, the faculty are called ‘Dr.’” Consider a brief activity in which students introduce themselves too, following your model. One-byone introductions to the whole class will take longer. I prefer pairs or small groups instead. Write one or all three of these suggested topics on the board: 1 Favorite moment from the summer 2 Something you are looking forward to about college 3 A challenge on the horizon (college or not college

related)

R AT I O N A L E

First-year students want to feel like they know us. It helps build trust. Trust allows them to feel safe reaching out to us down the line when they need help. It also gives them some comfort immediately as they settle into campus life. It helps their sense of belonging because it eases the disconcerting feelings of being new, unknown, and lonely on campus.

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STUDENT VOICES “I don’t go out that often. I would like to. It would be very nice. . . . Every single time I eat, I’m usually by myself. . . . I get back from class and do the rugby workout, and everyone else has already eaten. So usually I say, ‘Well, I’ll just bring homework with me to eat so I can do homework and study so I don’t feel totally depressed.’” Alejandro, continuing-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Hispanic and American Indian because I’m 100% Mexican. My dad tracked down our ancestry to a tribe in Guadalajara, which is where my dad’s family is from, and a certain family in Spain.”

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 10: Meet Students in Small Groups You might meet students in office hour or over coffee. Intentionally invite individuals or pass around a sign-up sheet. During the visit, do the following: 1 Ask questions about them that both are friendly and

will help you get a sense of what their transition-­tocollege stressors might be: Where is your hometown? What do you miss about home? [homesickness] Do you have any siblings already in college? [first-­ generation needs]



Introducing Yourself (Not Your Professional Self) 43

What does your family think about you coming here? [family support] Have you already found enough people to eat with, or are you still collecting new friends? [loneliness; social belonging] What are your first impressions of your roommate? [roommate strife] Who is your favorite professor/class so far? [academic belonging] What is your most challenging class so far? [academic struggles] STUDENT VOICES “I do really want to have a relationship with my college professors. I’m looking to talk to my chemistry professor. . . . I really do want to just go to her office hours: ‘Hey can we just talk, like not about chemistry? I just want to know more about you.’ I just want to have that experience with her. So, hopefully . . . I am a little bit intimidated to go to my professors’ office hours. I know they’re really nice professors, but it’s always intimidating to reach out.” Alma, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Chicana and Latina. Chicana because I was born here, but my family comes from Mexico, but I’m also from here, so it’s the best of both worlds. And Latina too because I am from a Latin American country in the sense of my family and my ancestors, I’m proud to say.”

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STUDENT VOICES “I love when professors incorporate their own lives into the material they are teaching. . . . I think it makes students more willing to engage into what’s going on.” Dalisay, first-generation student Public University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “Filipino. Asian American. I also define myself as an American.”

Have any student clubs or organizations caught your eye? [being involved vs. being overextended] 2 Tell a story about yourself from your undergradu-

ate college days (not from graduate school):

A favorite activity or organization or team that you were part of A favorite class that you took An instance when you failed or struggled or suffered in college: a terrible roommate or a failed midterm or a poor decision that had unpleasant consequences (share these stories in class regularly too)

Further Resources “First-Generation College Students: A Study of Appalachian Student Success,” by Christie Hand and Emily



Introducing Yourself (Not Your Professional Self) 45

Miller Payne, in Journal of Developmental Education 32 (1) (2008): 4–15. “Resource or Obstacle? Classed Reports of Student-­Faculty Relations,” by Megan Thiele, in Sociological Quarterly 57 (2) (2015): 333–355. The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom, 3rd edition, by Stephen D. Brookfield (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015). See chapter 4 for an explicit discussion of the benefits of sharing personal stories with students and chapter 17 on the benefits of learning about your students’ individual circumstances. What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). See chapter 6 for an explicit discussion of the benefits of sharing personal stories with students and chapter 7 on the benefits of learning about your students’ individual circumstances.

WEEK 2

Modeling a Study Guide

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 11: Model in Class What a Good Study Guide Looks Like and How to Create One Consider spending 10 minutes at the end of each week having the class collectively come up with key concepts to build a study guide collaboratively. Instead, you might focus on study guides this week only as they prepare for the mini-midterm. Hand one out, and walk students through tactics for creating effective ones for your class and your discipline. (See the Introduction for more on study guides.) R AT I O N A L E

Some students already know how to create study guides; they learned this skill in high school. This means that offering students a study guide for your exams (or helping them learn to make one of their own) mediates the 46

Modeling a Study Guide 47



STUDENT VOICES “In high school, I never studied for anything, which is a huge change. . . . The teachers gave out study guides, which were basically the tests. I would just do the study guides, and then the tests would just be that almost.” Ethan, first-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “When I am filling out those forms, I would put white, Caucasian.”

advantage for students who attended excellent high schools. Otherwise they are likely to outperform their classmates whose high schools neglected this important skill. For the most part, it is not lazy or unmotivated first-year students who have poor study skills. It is students whose high schools promoted learning habits that do not align with college academics. We faculty can help students figure out how to study effectively much faster and with much less stress than when first-year students figure it out on their own.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week During the first couple of weeks on campus, firstyear students are at their greatest vulnerability to sexual assault (Fisher, Daigle, and Cullen 2009). Many are also exploring the freedom of living away from home for the first time in potentially unhealthy ways

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STUDENT VOICES “I didn’t study. I didn’t take AP courses really. I took the accelerated or honors courses. As long as you paid attention in class— I’ve always paid attention in class. I don’t use my phone; I just pay attention in class. I focus in class. I would get straight A’s like nothing. . . . That gave me a 4.5 in high school, and I didn’t have to open a book. I’m not sure if my high school was easy or what.” Carlos, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic, and my father is Persian, so I am kind of a combination of both.”

including binge drinking and drug use (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 2015). Bear this in mind as you interact with your students, and allow yourself to feel confident to make comments both inside and outside of class that encourage them to prioritize self-care and well-being. Keep the contact information for your campus’s student wellness center, counseling center, and sexual assault office handy; even consider projecting it or writing it on the board before class. In my Introduction to Sociology course, which is my class for first-year students, I teach texts on college life during week 2 for just this reason. My syllabus includes scholarly texts on hook-up culture and college drinking to broach these issues. I address the importance of consensual sexual activity and the

Modeling a Study Guide 49



pitfalls of alcohol abuse along with a discussion of the empowerment that many college students feel when they participate in hook-ups and binge drinking. I attempt to help them disentangle the social norms and gendered power dynamics surrounding these aspects of college life. In the past, I always saved these topics for the end of the semester because I wanted to wait until we had built some trust as a group before diving into such territory. But I have come to realize that they need these discussions very early in their first semester to help them frame their own experiences. In teaching your discipline, it might be more challenging to incorporate texts or assignments connected to such issues, but I encourage you to keep these aspects of first-year students’ transition to college in mind and be creative in how you might address them. STUDENT VOICES “I came in, and I didn’t really know how to study. It’s not really something I did in high school because I didn’t have to. So last semester, I feel like I did not know what I was doing. .  .  . This semester, I’m getting the hang of it a little more. . . . I didn’t even open my chemistry book, and now I read the entire chapter even though it takes me so many hours.” Sabrina, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

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Further Resources Campus Sexual Assault Fact Sheet, by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015, www.nsvrc.org/ sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media​ -packet_campus-sexual-assault.pdf. Campus Sexual Violence Resource List, created by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2016, www​ .nsvrc.org/saam/campus-resource-list. College AIM (Alcohol Intervention Matrix), a set of resources and tools to help schools address harmful and underage drinking, created by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (under the National Institute of Health), www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/ CollegeAIM/. College Drinking Fact Sheet, by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (under the National Institute of Health), 2015, https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/ publications/collegefactsheet/Collegefactsheet.pdf. College Success: A Concise, Practical Guide, 6th edition, by David L. Strickland and Carol J. Strickland (Redding, CA: BVT, 2015). See chapters 3, 4, and 6 for explicit advice on how to study effectively. College Teaching: Practical Insights from the Science of Teaching and Learning, by Donelson R. Forsyth (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2015). The First-Generation Student Experience: Implications for Campus Practice, and Strategies for Improving Persistence and Success, by Jeff Davis (Sterling, VA: Stylus,



Modeling a Study Guide 51

2010). See chapter 2 for an explicit discussion of precollege preparation. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Teaching and Learning, by James M. Lang (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2016). What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). See chapter 4 for an explicit discussion of guiding students’ understandings of faculty expectations and chapter 7 on the value of early feedback on students’ work, such as a mini-midterm.

WEEK 3

Finding Study Partners

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 12: Help Students Find Study Partners among Their Classmates Ask students to write down (on a name tag or sticky note that you give them) their favorite places to study and the subjects they like to have study partners for. Ask them to walk around the room, mixing and mingling, and connect with classmates who have similar habits to their own. Task them to put in their phone the numbers of at least three classmates whom they can text to study with in the near future. Encourage them to reach out to classmates whom they don’t know well. This is a chance to get to know someone new—who knows, they just might meet their new best friend today. I like to remind them that it is okay if they try studying together once or twice and it doesn’t click. They should still try it. No hard feelings. 52

Finding Study Partners 53



STUDENT VOICES “I’m kind of a quiet person, I suppose. I wait for things to happen to me; I don’t really engage people too much. So that’s one big reason that I haven’t made too many friends. .  .  . I love my psychology professor. She’s wonderful. On the first day of class, she was going over the syllabus. On the back of the syllabus, she said, ‘Hey, everyone, turn to the person next to you, get their name, email, number. After that, step 2, find someone with your major and get their name, email.’ So when I see everyone else is comfortable talking like that, I have no trouble finding someone with my major. ‘After that, step 3, walk here if you’re an afternoon studier, here if you study in the morning, here if you study late at night.’” Carlos, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic, and my father is Persian, so I am kind of a combination of both.”

R AT I O N A L E

Learning how to study effectively is a challenge for many first-year students. Using each other to get ideas for study strategies can be fruitful. Also, first-year students say that they expect their classes to be places where they get to know their classmates and build friendships. Yet most students lament that it is harder than they imagined to meet people and to find study partners in their classes. Many do not know how to strike up the right conversation on their own and simply never do even though they would like to.

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STUDENT VOICES “Meeting people is definitely hard. There are definitely clubs and stuff and ways to get involved, and I am in a club. But I feel like, you know, you go to class, and then you learn, and then everyone just kind of leaves. And everyone’s kind of doing their own thing.” Lily, continuing-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I’m white.”

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 13: Choose Three to Four Students This Week to Approach before or after Class Just say hello, check in on them, or learn a bit more about them. Be ready with a couple of quick stories or details about your own life to share too. Here are a few questions to help you get started: 1 What’s your favorite class so far? (I add that my fa-

vorite class my first year in college was a writing class and that all the fiction we read was focused on gender. It was fascinating. I had never thought about gender in those ways before. It made me decide to be an English major.)

2 Have you found a favorite place to eat on campus yet?

(I add that my college cafeteria was awful. I remember having entire meals where I ate potato salad and

Finding Study Partners 55



cornbread because nothing else looked appetizing. The new dining hall on our campus is pretty fancy compared to the daily buffet I had in college. 3 How is your family coping with your being away at

college? Are they texting you all the time? Keep in mind that not everyone has harmonious relationships with their parents. Try to use the word “family” or just call it “home.” (I add that I went to college before there were cellphones, so I would have to be in my dorm room on the landline to call home. I had a really awful roommate, and I never wanted to talk on the phone in front of her; so I really didn’t call home all that often. It must be so easy now to just text if you feel like it.) STUDENT VOICES

“The first couple of weeks, I read and took notes on my own, but after taking the first two tests, I realized that most of the test questions come directly from her lecture. So what I’ve been doing is reading the book beforehand and highlighting in the book things that seem important. . . . My friend actually told me about the highlighting thing. She gave me a highlighter, and I started doing it. . . . My other friend, she makes quizlets, and I use those to study off of.” Ethan, first-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “When I am filling out those forms, I would put white, Caucasian.”

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STUDENT VOICES “Just like, you know, talk to us casually. These are big words, and these are all weird historical terms. . . . You can’t raise your hand and ask them, ‘Oh, can you explain that again one more time?’ or ‘Where did this come from?’ . . . They know more about their subject than on how to teach the subject, I guess. I noticed that. They are knowledgeable but not very relatable.” Eric, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Chinese. Asian. Cantonese, specifically.”

4 Are you the first child in your house to go to college?

(I add that my older sister was already at UC Santa Barbara when I left for college. I visited her a couple of times while I was still in high school. She had these gigantic classes in an auditorium with 600 people. I remember when I went to college myself, I was so glad that I had chosen a small school with small classes instead, even though, really, I had chosen it by accident.)

5 Do you feel like you are starting to get the hang of

college? What are some of the things that are challenging to adjust to? (I add that my first year in college, I had a crazy roommate. That was tough. Her friends would come over when I wasn’t home and go through my drawers. It also took me an entire year to figure out that if I started doing my homework

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while sitting on my bed, I would fall asleep every single time. I’m not sure why it took me so long to put it together that I should study at my desk or the library—someplace, anyplace, besides my bed.)

Further Resources Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011). See chapter 4 for a thorough discussion of the pitfalls of study groups becoming social activities rather than academic ones. College Success: A Concise, Practical Guide, 6th edition, by David L. Strickland and Carol J. Strickland (Redding, CA: BVT, 2015). See chapters 3, 4, and 6 for explicit advice on how to study effectively. The First-Generation Student Experience: Implications for Campus Practice, and Strategies for Improving Persistence and Success, by Jeff Davis (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2010). See chapter 2 for an explicit discussion of the value of encouraging student study groups. “Learning How to Learn,” by Barbara Oakley, TEDx Talk, 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=O96fE1E-rf8. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014).

WEEK 4

Articulating Your Pedagogic Rationales

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 14: Remind Students What the Pedagogic Rationales Are for Your Syllabus Requirements and Grading Criteria Take a few minutes in class to explain (again) why you give points for attendance, do not allow retakes on tests, or perhaps require rewrites on essays. Remind them why you grade the way you do, for example, docking points for not showing the work on a math problem, docking points for incomplete sentences, being picky about grammar and punctuation, requiring wordfor-word definitions versus explanations in their own words. Explain the wisdom behind your general rules too, for example, not having open-book tests, allowing laptops, or in-class versus take-home exams. 58

Articulating Your Pedagogic Rationales 59



STUDENT VOICES “I think that professors have this thing where it’s like they play this Guess What’s in the Professor’s Head game. That’s the issue that I had with the professors I didn’t like last semester. The first time we had to write a paper, she was just like, ‘Write it.’ And I got a 70 on it, and everybody got a 70 on it. We have no idea how you want it. She’s like, ‘This isn’t how I wanted it.’ You didn’t tell us. You didn’t tell us anything. Just never told us anything. . . . It was just guess what’s in the teacher’s head. Maybe you’ll like this, maybe you won’t.” Nicole, continuing-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “My mom is Native American and Black, and my dad is German. He’s Jewish, but he’s just white. I say I’m Black and white, and I’ll throw in Native American because it sounds cool. Yeah, I’m half Black, half white.”

“I got a 7 out of 10 on one of the credit / no credit assignments that I thought I did fine on. The teacher told me it wasn’t long enough—but it could only fit on one paper. It was really confusing. I don’t know. I thought 10 out of 10 would be credit because most of the people got 10 out of 10. I guess my header was too big for the paper. I don’t know, because I did MLA format.” Ethan, first-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “When I am filling out those forms, I would put white, Caucasian.”

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R AT I O N A L E

First-year students vary widely with regard to what they expect college academics to be like. Some find college easier than high school because they have so much more free time to get their work done or because they do not have to waste their energy on busywork. Meanwhile, others find it much harder than high school and are overwhelmed by the amount of work, the fast pace, and the entirely new grading criteria. Some want faculty to “baby” them, that is, to send reminders about due dates, forgive them when they forget to read instructions carefully, and allow them to retake tests and other second chances. Others are offended when faculty “treat them like children” by policing their behavior through policies such as mandatory attendance or not allowing laptops or cellphones in class. They expected to be treated with adult respect and responsibility in college. We should STUDENT VOICES “In high school, there was a lot of busywork like worksheets. . . . I think here it’s mainly keeping up with the readings and making sure you’re checking the syllabus. That was a major shock for me at first.” Tomás, first-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I am really proud to be Colombian. I love everything about our culture.”

Articulating Your Pedagogic Rationales 61



STUDENT VOICES “In high school, my teachers would be like, ‘You know what, Ilana? You turn in your work’—and I do! ‘Obviously when I sit next to you, you show me your work. I see you do it. I see that you understand it. Then you show me your exam, and it doesn’t reflect what you know. I’ll still give you points.’ And I would get the points. Here, it’s not like that. It’s not like that at all here. . . . It’s a shock. I’m working with it, but it’s still like, ‘Snap! That’s not how you roll here.’ No.” Ilana, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Mexican.”

not attempt to meet all our students’ expectations, of course. However, it means that first-year students are often confused and frustrated by our academic expectations, policies, and grading styles. We can mitigate some of the hard feelings and resentment that gets built by simply explaining why we do what we do. (See the Introduction for a longer discussion.)

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Focus on the words and phrases you use in class. Encourage students whose high schools did not give them good practice for college-level academics. Use phrases like “I know this stuff is hard” and “I know some of you are seeing this for the first time,” rather

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than phrases such as “I know this is review for most of you.” See Strategy 6 in the Introduction. Continually remind students of the tutoring centers and resources available on campus: give the locations and hours of the ones relevant to your class, and talk about tutoring as something that successful students utilize on a regular basis rather than something to do as a last resort. Show the websites of tutoring and resource centers briefly at the start or end of class (it can be showing on the projector as you prepare for class to start or as you collect your things at the end). Include resources such as your campus’s women’s center, diversity/multicultural center, LGBTQ center, and the like, as they are places where students can find community and mentor-like relationships with more advanced students who have insider experience on how to succeed on your campus. It is also helpful to add your violence prevention and wellness/counseling centers to the list of campus resources that you routinely talk about. See Chapters 2, 5, and 6. You might also consider inviting a representative from any of those centers to come and talk to your class.

Further Resources “Closing the Social Class Achievement Gap for First-­ Generation Students in Undergraduate Biology,” by Judith M. Harackiewicz, Elizabeth A. Canning, Yoi Tibbetts, Cynthia J. Giffen, Seth S. Blair, Douglas I. Rouse,



Articulating Your Pedagogic Rationales 63

and Janet S. Hyde, in Journal of Educational Psychology 106 (2) (2014): 375–389. “‘Is That Paper Really Due Today?’: Differences in First-­ Generation and Traditional College Students’ Understandings of Faculty Expectations,” by Peter J. Collier and David L. Morgan, in Higher Education 55 (4) (2008): 425–446. “(No) Harm in Asking: Class, Acquired Cultural Capital, and Academic Engagement at an Elite University,” by Anthony Abraham Jack, in Sociology of Education 89 (1) (2016): 1–19. The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom, 3rd edition, by Stephen D. Brookfield (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015). See chapter 4 for an explicit discussion of the usefulness of clarifying our pedagogic rationales. Taking College Teaching Seriously: Pedagogy Matters! Fostering Student Success through Faculty-Centered Practice Improvement, by Gail O. Mellow, Diana D. Woolis, Marissa Klages-Bombich, and Susan Restler (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2015). “The Unwritten Rules of Engagement: Social Class Differences in Undergraduates’ Academic Strategies,” by April Yee, in Journal of Higher Education 87 (6) (2016): 831–858.

WEEK 5

Improving Time Management

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 16: Have Students Fill Out a Time Log over Two to Three Days and Evaluate It You can do it together with them in class or in oneon-one meetings or show them how to evaluate it themselves. Help them understand what good time management looks like. Share your own time-­ management struggles and the strategies you use to keep them in check. Resources for the time log, a healthy example, and strategies for how to prioritize tasks and commitments are available through my home institution, the University of San Diego: http:// sites.sandiego​.edu/youareusd/time-management/. R AT I O N A L E

Time management is a nearly universal struggle for first-year students (and the rest of us). By this point 64

Improving Time Management 65



STUDENT VOICES “I’m struggling with deadlines. I don’t know why, I feel like I have less of a—I don’t know what to call it—urgency, I guess, to finish early and not to have to worry about it later. . . . I have free time the night before, but I’m not doing it, and I don’t know why. . . . I don’t know, I don’t feel like I fully—I understand college to the basic level, but I wouldn’t say that I’m fully versed in it. And I balance my whole life now. I’m definitely still working on that.” Dannisha, continuing-generation student Public University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “African American because my parents are both from Nigeria, and I grew up with an African—I don’t know what to call it—background, all their ideals.”

“College is a triangle. So it goes sleep, study, and social. So the thing is with the triangle, you can only pick two, and one has to not be there. So you don’t sleep and you have a great social life and you study, or you don’t study and you sleep and have a social life. So I guess the best person has the triangle figured out so they can get all three things. But with me, I have a rectangle because I work.” Brandon, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “African American for sure.”

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in the semester, they have built some routines for how they spend their time, so it is a good moment to evaluate how well they are balancing all their commitments.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 17: When a Student Asks, “How Are You?” Never Answer with “Fine” Try to share one small (or large) detail from your day or week instead. Try to draw on your personal life rather than you professional life. Here are some examples. How are you? 1 I’m fantastic. I’m going away for the weekend with a

couple of friends, and I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t seen them in almost a year. STUDENT VOICES

“Time management is still—next semester I plan on doing a way better job, because there’s still times where I totally shouldn’t have gone out that night, stuff like that. .  .  . Sometimes I just make bad decisions. . . . Next year that’s something I’m definitely going to have to change if I want to reach the expectations I expect myself to reach.” Lucas, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “White Irish kid.”

Improving Time Management 67



2 I’m great. I got some good news yesterday about my

neighbor. We were all so worried about her.

3 I’m great. I’m reading a really interesting book right

now. It’s called ________.

4 I’m having a rough afternoon. My dog is sick, and the

vet isn’t sure what’s wrong.

5 I’m okay, but I’m having one of those mornings when

nothing seems to go right. I almost locked my keys in my car, and I spilled coffee all over my books.

Further Resources College Success: A Concise, Practical Guide, 6th edition, by David L. Strickland and Carol J. Strickland (Redding, CA: BVT, 2015). See chapter 2 for explicit advice on time management. Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success, by Janice M. McCabe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016). See chapter 2, “Balance,” for a discussion of ways students navigate the energy they spend on their academics versus social lives. “61 Tools for Time Management,” by MindTools, www​ .mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_HTE.htm. Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 4th edition, by Linda B. Nilson (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2016).

WEEK 6

Sharing Stress-Management Ideas

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 18: Share Stress-Management Ideas Spend a few minutes in class acknowledging how stressful it is to be a college student. Point students in the direction of the campus student wellness center, and show them the list of the resources and services it offers. Remind students that sleeping seven to eight hours a night is the key to emotional sanity and good brain functioning for learning and studying. Remind them how important balanced nutrition is for emotional sanity and having energy throughout the day. Remind them how beneficial just a few minutes of exercise per day are for physical health and emotional sanity. Yes, you are talking a lot about emotional sanity because first-year students have more than their fair share of emotional highs and lows. 68

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STUDENT VOICES “I keep an average count of how many hours of sleep I get. I’m doing better. I’m getting like five to six. I used to only get three to four at the beginning of college. .  .  . I didn’t know how to time manage and all that because it was brand new to me. So I didn’t eat. So I lost 15 pounds. . . . I gained it all back. I’m doing better with eating and sleeping. . . . [It took me] a month and a half to figure it out. So it was really rough. So I’ve had to go through a lot trying to manage everything. . . . And I’m really stressed out.” Alejandro, continuing-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Hispanic and American Indian because I’m 100% Mexican. My dad tracked down our ancestry to a tribe in Guadalajara, which is where my dad’s family is from, and a certain family in Spain.”

Share what you do in your own life to manage stress, and invite your students to do that same thing and report back to you on whether it worked for them. Even better, take the opportunity to try a new stress-management strategy yourself, and invite students to try it with you. Here are some possibilities: 1 Practice guided meditation with Headspace (free

trial app), www.headspace.com.

2 Practice better nutrition with HealthWatch360 (free

app), www.gbhealthwatch.com/healthwatch360-app.

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3 Be reminded to do the things that make you feel good

with Balanced (free app), http://balancedapp.com.

4 Practice exercise more regularly with MapMyWalk

(free app), www.mapmywalk.com.

5 Cut down on caffeine. 6 Reward yourself for one small accomplishment each

day.

7 Park off campus and walk to class twice a week to

increase your exercise.

R AT I O N A L E

Learning how to manage stress is not just a good life skill to have; it is an essential element of academic survival for first-year students. When students are overly stressed, they make poor decisions that can STUDENT VOICES “I’ve talked to my parents about it because they knew that I didn’t work as hard as I could have in high school. So just kind of telling them, ‘This is way different. I’m studying all the time.’ It’s pretty crazy. My weeks are super hectic, completely full of class, eating, studying, sleeping, more studying, not getting as much sleep as I should because of studying. So they’re just like, “Yeah, we always told you college was going to be hard.” Zach, continuing-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I would say I’m pretty much just white.”



Sharing Stress-Management Ideas  71

STUDENT VOICES “It was just a rough semester all around and just like drama with my mom, who is bipolar. So it was a really hard semester. . . . The classes I take for medical school, some of them were just a little bit too difficult. .  .  . I feel a lot of pressure because I’m the first one in my family to go to college, and I’m used to getting really good grades. So seeing D’s and failing grades was a lot for me, especially because when I realized I wasn’t doing well, I started going to office hours for one of my classes, or most of them, but specifically this one. And I would spend 30-plus hours studying and going to office hours and still not do well in my exam.” Serena, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “African American. Also my grandpa was Chinese, and my grandmother was Native American and Black.”

have disastrous consequences on their academics as well as their health. Many students cope with stress in unhealthy ways, including avoidance, alcohol, and drug use (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 2015). It is common for us to feel like it is not our place as faculty to discuss students’ behavior outside our classrooms, but ignoring these ubiquitos and harmful aspects of college life does our students a disservice. I am not advocating for you to put your nose into your students’ personal buisness or monitor their behavior but to simply let them hear that we care about them as whole people. I often close my lecture

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STUDENT VOICES “One of my roommates is okay, and the other one is just rude. . . . We don’t say anything to each other, and we don’t acknowledge each other’s presence. And then she keeps side-eyeing me. Sometimes I see her from my peripheral vision staring at me, and I’m like, ‘You’re kind of psycho.’ I’m very confused. . . . I almost moved out so many times. . . . I’m not good at confrontation. I don’t want to get the RA involved. . . . First term, I avoided going home a lot, so I wasn’t even really there. . . . I would get anxiety getting into my room, like, ‘Oh fuck, is she going to be there?’ I didn’t like that, but then, well, I paid for rent here too.” Dannisha, continuing-generation student Public University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “African American because my parents are both from Nigeria, and I grew up with an African—I don’t know what to call it—background, all their ideals.”

on Fridays by calling out, “Have a wonderful weekend. Get some sleep and (in a teasingly stern voice) lay off the booze!”

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 19: As You Encounter Students in the Hallways and Office Hours, Check In with Them about Their Roommates Try a straightforward but neutral question such as, “How’s your roommate situation going?” Roommate strife is very common, and many first-year students



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feel helpless, unable to recognize when reaching out to their resident advisor (RA) for help might be appropriate (assuming they live in dormitories).

Further Resources College Drinking Fact Sheet, by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (under the National Institute of Health), 2015, https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/ publications/collegefactsheet/Collegefactsheet.pdf. “The Development of Psychological Well-Being among First-Year College Students,” by Nicholas A. Bowman, in Journal of College Student Development 51 (2) (2010): 180–200. First Generation College Students: Understanding and Improving the Experience from Recruitment to Commencement, by Lee Ward, Michael J. Siegel, and Zebulun Davenport (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012). See chapters 1 and 2 for an explanation of the additional stressors faced by typical first-generation students. “Maslow’s Human Needs,” TED Radio Hour podcast, original air date April 17, 2015, www.npr.org/programs/ted​ -radio-hour/399796647/maslows-human-needs. This collection of TED talks (summarized alongside interviews with the TED speakers) discusses the importance of sleep as a fundamental human survival need rather than the luxury we often treat it as. Before we can satisfy belonging needs or self-actualization, we need adequate sleep. “Self-Efficacy, Stress, and Academic Success in College,” by

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Anna Zajacova, Scott M. Lynch, and Thomas J. Espenshade, in Research in Higher Education 46 (6) (2005): 677–706. “64 Tools for Stress Management,” by MindTools, www​ .mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TCS.htm. More resources are available from my home institution, the University of San Diego: http://sites.sandiego.edu/youareusd/dealing-with-stress/ http://sites.sandiego.edu/youareusd/sleep/

WEEK 7

Attending Office Hours

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 20: Encourage Students to Go to All Their Professors’ and Teaching Assistants’ Office Hours Explain what to expect in your office hour: Do you have students wait in line outside your door for oneon-one time, or do you invite everyone in together and have students listen in on each other’s questions? Do you welcome unstructured visits, or do you prefer that students are prepared with questions and comments? Are you someone who never feels comfortable closing the door? Do your office hours lend toward study sessions with a whiteboard, or are they more often conversations about the bigger picture? Let them know that every professor is different. Copy and hand out the list of office-hour conversation starters below, and encourage students to go even if they do not have a question about the material for the course. 75

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STUDENT VOICES “Office hours, I don’t know what to talk about. . . . A lot of upperyear kids will say, ‘Go to office hours, start building a rapport with your TAs and your professors,’ but if you don’t have anything academically you need to talk about, how do you? .  .  . It becomes a concern that you’re wasting their time, even though they set aside time for office hours. .  .  . My Computer Science professor, she has to hold her office hour in a conference room because there’s so many people there. So when you’re not there to talk about something academic, how are you supposed to talk to them at all?” Mason, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic/Latino and white. . . . I don’t necessarily have a set ethnic identity, because my ethnic background has never defined me, but that might just be because I look white.”

Let them know that they can also email their professors with questions or comments but that some faculty prefer students to come by office hours instead of having lengthy email exchanges. So they shouldn’t be put off if faculty respond to their emails with a request that they come in person. Take this opportunity to teach a bit about professional etiquette. Remind students that when they email their professors, they should address the person as “Dr.” or “Professor,” and they should take



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a moment to say hello and be friendly at the start of the email rather that just diving straight into the question or issue at hand. We all know how easily a hasty email can rub someone the wrong way, and some first-year students have not had a chance to develop professional email habits yet. Many first-year students do not know how long they should expect to wait to hear back from a professor either. They wonder when it is appropriate to email again or simply give up on an answer. I typically say something along the lines of, “You should feel free to email me if you need me. I can’t promise that I will respond right away, but I usually get back to students within a day or two. I rarely email over the weekend, though. Other professors are different. Some are not very responsive via email, so if a few days go by without a reply, you might resend your email or just go pop into his or her office hour. Don’t be put off by not getting a response. It happens.” Personally invite your students to your office hour. If it feels comfortable to you, consider suggesting that they sit in (or near) your office hour and do their homework there so that you are on hand to clarify any questions that come up. Office Hour Conversation Starters

Just Saying Hello: What kind of research do you do? What do you like to do for fun?

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What was your major in college? Did you always know you wanted to be a [sociologist]? Or, How did you know that [physics] was for you? That photo on your desk, is it your family? What was your graduate school experience like? Related to the Course: What are your recommendations for how to be successful in your class? In class the other day, you talked about ________. Can you tell me more about that? I am really enjoying your class. The homework on ________ was fascinating. I can’t stop thinking about it. Will we be learning more concepts like that one? The other day I was telling my friends about ________ from our class, and I summed it up as ________. Was I accurate? R AT I O N A L E

Many first-year students know that it is useful to build relationships with professors so that they can get letters of recommendation down the line. They do not realize that it is not the only reason to go. Just getting to know professors a little is worthwhile in and of itself. Research shows that first-generation students who have personal relationships with faculty are more academically successful. Also, at this point in the semester, they have likely gotten a few midterms back,

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STUDENT VOICES “I was scared to go to office hours because they are so smart and so intelligent, and I didn’t want them to think I’m dumb. I don’t want to sound dumb. .  .  . Towards the midterm, I went to the math instructor, and then I actually liked going. .  .  . He’s so funny. He actually likes what he is doing. And I’m learning right there. . . . I went all the time that I needed help after that because I felt comfortable.” Marisol, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

so this is a good time for them to start getting more comfortable stopping by office hours.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 21: Don’t Seem Busy Many first-year students say they would like to talk to their professors but are intimidated by office hours. They would prefer to approach us before or after class, yet often they don’t approach us because we seem so busy (see Strategy 5 in the Introduction). Sometimes when they do come over to say hello and chat for a moment, we often say things that reinforce how overwhelmed and busy we seem, which makes them feel hesitant to bother us again in the future. This can also happen when they drop by office hours. They feel like

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STUDENT VOICES “My advisor is having a hard time. She’s really stressed out. And when I was supposed to meet with her to plan for classes, I just saw how stressed out she was, and it wasn’t helpful. So now I feel like I can’t go to her. Yeah. I would go to all the other ones except that they’re so busy.” Sabrina, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

they are taking us away from our important work. This week, make a concerted effort to linger before and after class in an unhurried way. In conversations with students, avoid talking about how busy you are. Try to adopt these as routine habits. Open that space for students to feel uninhibited to approach you.

Further Resources The First-Generation Student Experience: Implications for Campus Practice, and Strategies for Improving Persistence and Success, by Jeff Davis (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2010). For an explicit discussion of how personal relationships with faculty benefit first-generation students, see chapter 3. Higher Education and First-Generation Students: Cultivating Community, Voice, and Place for the New Majority,



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by Rashné Rustom Jehangir (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Mentoring At-Risk Students through the Hidden Curriculum of Higher Education, by Buffy Smith (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013). “‘Office Hours Are Kind of Weird’: Reclaiming a Resource to Foster Student-Faculty Interaction,” by Margaret Smith, Yujie Chen, Rachel Berndtson, Kristen Burson, and Whitney Griffin, in Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching 12 (2017): 14–27. “Resource or Obstacle? Classed Reports of Student-Faculty Relations,” by Megan Thiele, in Sociological Quarterly 57 (2) (2015): 333–355. What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). See chapter 6 for an explicit discussion of effective ways to interact with students in office hours, in class, and around the halls.

WEEK 8

Collecting Midsemester Feedback

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 22: Collect Midsemester Feedback from Your Students with KQS Cards Hand out index cards (or paper). Write three words on the board: “Keep,” “Quit,” “Start.” Ask students to write on the cards one thing they want you to keep doing, one thing they want you to quit doing, and one thing they want you to start doing. They should not write their names on the cards. A completed card looks something like this: Keep posting lecture slides online. Quit assigning so many pages of reading. Start group projects.

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STUDENT VOICES “The professors are good people, but they also are used to teaching in their way. So when I come in and ask questions, say, if they could post something online, and they’re like, ‘Nope. I’m telling you now. Just write it down.’ . . . So that’s really hard, just learning how to do things their way, trying to change my way of doing things. That’s kind of hard.” Hazel, continuing-generation student Private University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “White.”

R AT I O N A L E

Allowing students to let us know what we are doing that is helpful to them and what we are doing that is frustrating to them helps build trust and reduce friction between us. This is the time in the semester when they are recovering from their first midterms. It is extremely common for students to fail one or more of their midterms in their first semester. It is an emotionally devastating and highly stressful challenge for them to figure out what they are doing wrong. This makes it a good time for us to show that their professors are also open to feedback on our work too and willing to make positive changes. The KQS cards keep the feedback brief and to the point because the cards are too small to write much. This gives you an opportunity to identify some of the things that frustrate them so you can remind them what your pedagogic rationale is for

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STUDENT VOICES “I expected a lot more—almost like seminars, a lot more talking between your peers. But it’s really just like I’m in a classroom, professor lectures, and then we just take notes, and then we should study this. And that’s not great because you’re just kind of reading, memorizing, using it for the test, and you never remember it again, which I don’t like, which I don’t like at all. . . . If anything, I would expect—I guess it’s too much like high school, where you have teamwork and where you work with others and do group projects. I haven’t had any group projects yet. . . . I actually like working in those situations and working hands-on with people.” Eric, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Chinese. Asian. Cantonese, specifically.

it and maybe offer some tips on how to manage it better. At least they can know why you think it is important to do, even if you are not going to change it. One key thing to keep in mind is that you must be willing to make some changes to the way you run your course if they are reasonable requests and a large enough percentage of students ask for them.



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Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 23: Select Five Students to Reach Out to This Week during Your Office Hours A brief email to say hello and check in is enough. Or perhaps say something more specific, such as, “I notice that you are in class every day, taking notes and asking good questions, but your midterm grade was not as strong as I expected it to be. Let’s make an appointment for office hours so we can talk about where we are going wrong. I want you to succeed in this class.” STUDENT VOICES “The professor was kind of a—I don’t want to say a dick—but he really didn’t have an interest in what we were asking. Because me and my friend would always be like, ‘Excuse me, I don’t really understand this problem. What am I doing wrong?’ He’s like, ‘Well, first of all, I can tell you that this is wrong. So think about that.’ And he’ll just walk away, and we’ll be like, ‘Wait, what?’ And then another student will ask, and he’ll explain it thoroughly. And we’re just like, ‘Wait, what?’ Yeah, that kind of sucked.” Javier, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Latino—well, I’m American like everybody else here, but both my parents are from El Salvador. And keep in mind that Latino is very different from Chicano, because Latino is Latin America, anything in Central America, and Mexico is part of North America. A lot of people get that mixed up.”

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STUDENT VOICES “I love psychology. She does really great lectures. .  .  . She did a thing where it was halfway through the term, she said, ‘Guys, when you do the evaluations, you say what you like in the course, and it doesn’t help you. It helps the next group. So I want to give you guys the option of telling me now what you like, what you don’t like.’ . . . Quizzes [used to be] based on the readings. You had to read that material before class. Now she said, ‘People don’t like that. So we can do the lecture first, and you can read afterward. You can tell what wasn’t covered in lecture.’ And then the quiz is based off the material from lecture and from what wasn’t covered. I feel that’s really fair. Now I’m getting 100% on the quizzes.” Carlos, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic, and my father is Persian, so I am kind of a combination of both.”

Further Resources How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, by Susan A. Ambrose, Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsh C. Lovett, and Marie K. Norman (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010). “Improving Student Engagement: Ten Proposals for Action,” by Nick Zepke and Linda Leach, in Active Learning in Higher Education 11 (3) (2010): 167–177. The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom, 3rd edition, by Stephen D.



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Brookfield (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015). See chapter 18 for an explicit discussion of the usefulness of collecting midsemester feedback from students and chapter 4 for a discussion of authenticity in our teaching. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Teaching and Learning, by James M. Lang (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2016). Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning, by José Antonio Bowen (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012).

WEEK 9

Interviewing Fellow Students

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 24: Have Students Interview a Fellow Student over Lunch or Dinner on Campus (See In-Class Alternative Below) Create interview questions—or simply tweak the examples below—related to your course topics or questions related to adjusting to college. Require students to interview someone whom they do not already know well. You can limit it to within your class or within their dorm or housing complex or open it to anyone with whom they are minimally acquainted. Acknowledge that this assignment is purposeful because most first-year students say that at this point in the semester, they wish that it were easier to expand their friendship circles. This interview is a chance to get to know someone new, and they just might discover that they would like to hang out with this person or study together in the near future. If you are 88

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STUDENT VOICES “I wish I definitely had more [friends] because I talk to different people. . . . But it’s just like, ‘Hey. Bye. How was your day?’ something like that. It’s not like I can sit down and talk to them about my life. . . . So it’s mostly my roommates, which that’s why I wish I would move on to other people—not that I feel like they’re awful or anything, but I feel like it’s always good to meet new people because you learn a lot from them.” Marisol, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

requiring it on your syllabus, as I do, consider assigning a short reflection of your students’ reactions to the interview answers or perhaps a reflection of the experience of initiating a dinner interview with a near stranger instead. In my Introduction to Sociology class, I have students interview one or two classmates during class time and then require at least one interview (but ideally five interviews) with a fellow student who is not in our class. The short paper assignment is a summary and brief analysis of the patterns they found among the multiple respondents’ answers. On my syllabus, it is worth 2% of their total course grade. Consider encouraging students to choose an interview partner that they think might be different from them in some key way, perhaps gender, race, religion, sexuality, or some other identity such as “politically

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STUDENT VOICES “I feel like all the friends, all the good friends I made, were like made within the first couple of weeks or month and not really making other great ones after that. . . . I think people just sort of settle into their little friend groups, and then, I don’t know, they kind of stick with them.” Jeff, first-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I just say white, but I’m also an eighth Lebanese. I try to include that.”

conservative” or “video gamer.” The goal here would be to cultivate friendships that bridge differences rather than gravitating toward sameness. Here are some possible interview questions on the discipline in general (math example): Tell me about ways you use math in your everyday life. Describe your favorite math teacher (from any year of your education history). Why do you think it is that so many people have math anxiety? What jobs and professions come to mind when you think of math? Are you interested in any of them? Why or why not?



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Here are some possible interview questions on course content (social justice example—you can simply replace social justice with any key concept; I let my students choose from a list of five or six phrases from our course): When you hear the phrase “social justice,” what comes to mind? Describe a time when you witnessed social justice. What do see as the best ways to address social justice in the United States today? What do you think universities like ours should be doing in regard to social justice? Alternatively (or in addition) consider having your students do a three-minute Ask Big Questions exchange in class with a partner whom they don’t already know well. Adapt the questions to fit your course topics (http://askbigquestions.org/). Here’s an example: 1 minute. Student A (only) answers the question “How has technology made your life better?” 1 minute. Student B (only) answers the question “How has technology made your life worse?” 1 minute. Both students have open discussion responding to previous answers.

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STUDENT VOICES “Even when I try talking to people, I don’t know, I’m just—I hate saying it, but I’m a little awkward. And it’s just like I only stick to those few friends. So I wish I could talk to more people.” Sabrina, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m Mexican.”

R AT I O N A L E

First-year students lament that they feel stuck with the group of friends that they made in the first few days and weeks of college. Right about now in the semester, they are wishing they could branch out and make more new friends, but they don’t quite know how to go about it. Simply letting them know that just about everyone else is feeling the same way is helpful, and providing them this task to exchange ideas with someone might be exactly the opportunity they need. I recommend that the interview be required to happen over lunch or dinner because having someone to eat meals with is one of the worrisome aspects of college life for many students. We know from research that friendships are the foundation that allow students to feel secure and confident to engage in all other aspects of college life, including academics. Students who don’t have solid friendships are simply unable to function well. It is

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worth our time to acknowledge this dynamic and to ease our first-year students’ paths to new relationships in this small way.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 25: As You Are Grading, Write One Short, Friendly Note in the Margin of Students’ Essays / Problem Sets / Exams The note can be related to students’ coursework, for example, “Hang in there; you’ll get this stuff ” or “Keep up the good work!” or “Congrats on finishing your first college midterms.” It can also just be friendly, for example, “I enjoy having you in class” or “Have a great weekend.” STUDENT VOICES “Early on, I was in lots of clubs, but I wasn’t making meaningful connections with other people. I felt secluded. Now I am feeling more connected. .  .  . I started to do well socially when I started doing things that mattered to me like going to my TA’s office hours, just sitting around with other people in my class talking about interesting things.” Regina, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Mexican.”

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Further Resources Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success, by Janice M. McCabe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016). “Dialogue and Exchange,” TED Radio Hour podcast, original air date October, 27, 2017, www.npr.org/programs/ ted-radio-hour/558307433. This collection of TED talks (summarized alongside interviews with the TED speakers) shows how we can engage in civil discourse with others who hold ideological positions different from ours. The segment with Megan Phelps-Roper is particularly insightful as she uses the example of how debating her faith over Twitter changed the course of her life. Her TED talk is titled “If You’re Raised to Hate, Can You Reverse It?” You might use this as encouragement for students to interview someone who is very different from themselves. How College Works, by Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014). See chapter 2 for an explicit discussion of the importance of finding friends. “Sense of Belonging in College Freshmen at the Classroom and Campus Levels,” by Tierra M. Freeman, Lynley H. Anderman, and Jane M. Jensen, in Journal of Experimental Education 75 (3) (2007): 203–220. “Settling In to Campus Life: Differences by Race/Ethnicity in College Involvement and Outcomes,” by Mary J. Fischer, in Journal of Higher Education 78 (2) (2007): 125–161.



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Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Diverse Populations, edited by Shaun R. Harper and Stephen John Quaye (New York: Routledge, 2009). See chapter 13, “Creating a Pipeline to Engage Low-Income, First-­ Generation College Students,” by Jarrett T. Gupton, Cristina Castelo-Rodriguez, David Angel Martinez, and Imelda Quintanar.

WEEK 10

Finding Your Discipline

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 26: Rehearse and Share a Two- to Three-Minute Description about How You Discovered Your Passion for Your Field Don’t worry if some students in the room have already heard your story. R AT I O N A L E

Registration is around the corner. First-year students worry about how they will know what major is right for them. Even students who have already settled on a major experience stress over it; they are constantly looking for confirmation that it is the right path. Hearing about your journey of finding your way to your field is helpful as they choose classes for next semester. Many students (and many of the rest of us) are under the impression that selecting a major determines a person’s career, but it turns out that three quarters of 96

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STUDENT VOICES “When you hear about the really, really cutthroat competition for these majors, it feels like the best isn’t good enough. If you didn’t get 100%, you might as well have gotten a zero. . . . I got a 71 in my first computer science midterm, and I was like, ‘Oh dear.’ And it was heart-wrenching because I love the major. But if I’m not good at it, what am I supposed to be doing?” Mason, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic/Latino and white. . . . I don’t necessarily have a set ethnic identity, because my ethnic background has never defined me, but that might just be because I look white.”

all college graduates end up working in career that is not related to their major (Burnett and Evans 2016). That is true for me. As an undergraduate, I double majored in English literature and theater. I found my way to sociology after two years in the Peace Corps, where I discovered that the things that fascinated me most were dynamics of social life as it is lived every day. I love literature and theater, and my undergraduate training served me well as I learned the skills of social science analysis. I tell my students that it took me a while to realize that I have the heart and mind of a sociologist—I had never taken as single sociology class in college—and I am not at all sorry that I took the long, winding path I took to get here. I love my work.

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STUDENT VOICES “It was difficult too because coming in—for sure, I was going to be premed, and .  .  . I wasn’t doing as well in my classes as I was hoping that I’d do. And it just made me feel like I’m not—I don’t know—very intelligent, and I was pretty hard on myself about that. . . . I feel like I’m a little bit more refreshed now, so this semester, things will be better. . . . I was a little bit worried about it, but I don’t know. I really like my neuroscience classes, and I’m interested in those. It’s just the premed classes.” Serena, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “African American. Also my grandpa was Chinese, and my grandmother was Native American and Black.”

“I took a one unit freshmen seminar on teaching math in case I want to become a math teacher. Me and my buddy, we both took it. . . . I felt that was really interesting, because I’m not sure what I want to do with math, if I want to become a teacher. I’m interested in stocks; I could become a stockbroker, because I like probability. Math—my normal grade could be a C. That’s just a stab in the back, because I love math. Now I’m starting to hate it.” Carlos, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic, and my father is Persian, so I am kind of a combination of both.”

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Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 27: As You Encounter Students in the Hallways or in Office Hours, Ask Them about Whether Their Experiences This Semester Are Helping Them Identify What They Would Like to Study Are students’ current classes confirming their interest in the major that they already have in mind or calling it into question? STUDENT VOICES “I’m taking ethics, Personal Ethics at Work, now, and I’m really interested. I have a professor who is really a good speaker, and it made me consider changing my major. Yeah, because I wanted to be in the science department, to be a graduate doctor, but now I’m thinking I might try to look into business. I’m going to night school right now too because I’m trying to become an auto technician for my dad’s shop so I can work part-time there. . . . It made me think about how I can utilize what I’m learning right now and incorporate it somehow into a business or something would help me, like management. . . . I’m still exploring. I’m kind of unsure. At the least, I know I’m going to have to change my major, but I don’t know what’s right for me as of now.” Mai, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I always identify as Asian American, and that’s it.”

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Further Resources “Are Faculty Role Models? Evidence from Major Choice in an Undergraduate Institution,” by Kevin N. Rask and Elizabeth M. Bailey, in Research in Economic Education 33 (2) (2002): 99–124. “College Major Choice: An Analysis of Person-­Environment Fit,” by Stephen R. Porter and Paul D. Umbach, in Research in Higher Education 47 (4) (2006): 429–449. College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, by Andrew Delbanco (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012). See chapter 1 for a discussion of the importance of helping students figure out what is worth wanting in life and in education. The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life, by William Damon (New York: Free Press, 2008). See chapter 5 for an explicit discussion of the importance of having adult mentors who introduce young people to goals and pursuits that inspire them. “Why Students Choose STEM Majors: Motivation, High School Learning, and Postsecondary Context of Support,” by Xueli Wang, in American Educational Researcher 50 (5) (2013): 1081–1121.

WEEK 11

Discovering Life Purpose and Passion

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 28: Have Your Students Answer 15 Questions to Discover Their Life Purpose Each question takes 15–30 seconds. I read the questions aloud, one by one in class, and have students write responses as quickly as they can. You might omit some to limit the time or print them and have students answer as many as they can in, say, six minutes. This activity comes from Tina Su’s website on happiness and motivation, Think Simple Now (http:// thinksimplenow​.com). Instructions: Write the first thing that pops into your head. Do not give yourself time to mull it over. Write without editing. Be honest. Nobody will read it. It’s 101

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STUDENT VOICES “College is for people to learn about themselves and what they want to do with their life and just to grow as a person . . . and also to develop friendships and finding yourself and who you want to be, what you want to do with your life.” Madison, continuing-generation student Private University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “White.”

important to write out your answers rather than just thinking about them. 15 Questions to Discover Your Life Purpose 1 What makes you smile? (Activities, people, events,

hobbies, projects, etc.)

2 What were your favorite things to do in the past?

What about now?

3 What activities make you lose track of time? 4 What makes you feel great about yourself? 5 Who inspires you most? (Someone you know or do

not know. Family, friends, authors, artists, leaders, etc.) Which qualities inspire you in each person?

6 What are you naturally good at? (Skills, abilities, gifts) 7 What do people typically ask you for help in? 8 If you had to teach something, what would you

teach?

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9 What would you regret not fully doing, being, or

having in your life?

10 You are now 90 years old, sitting on a rocking chair

outside your porch; you can feel the spring breeze gently brushing against your face. You are blissful and happy and are pleased with the wonderful life you’ve been blessed with. Looking back at your life and all that you’ve achieved and acquired, all the relationships you’ve developed, what matters to you most? List them out.

11 What are your deepest values? 12 What were some challenges, difficulties, and hard-

ships you’ve overcome or are in the process of overcoming? How did you do it?

13 What causes do you strongly believe in? Connect

with?

14 If you could get a message across to a large group of

people, who would those people be? What would your message be?

15 Given your talents, passions, and values, how could

you use these resources to serve, to help, to contribute? (To people, beings, causes, organizations, environment, planet, etc.)

Encourage students to go home and write a personal mission statement based on their answers. Consider sharing in small groups during the next class meeting or posting to a course message board. I teach

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in a program designed specifically for first-year students, so I get to meet them for a couple of hours as part of the orientation days before the semester begins. I have them answer these questions during that initial meeting and write a personal mission statement, and I ask them to seal these in an envelope and write their name on the front so I can collect them. I write one myself and show it to them as a model for how to phrase the mission statement. During week 11, I have them do the exercise again, and afterward, I hand back their sealed envelopes so that they can compare what they wrote on that first day to what they wrote today. It’s fun for them to see whether three months of college have changed them. It’s fun for me too; my own personal mission statement changes a bit from year to year. These instructions are adapted from Tina Su at Think Simple Now. A personal mission consists of three parts: ■ What do I want to do? ■ Who will benefit? ■ What is the result? What value will I create?

Steps to Creating Your Personal Mission Statement 1 List out action words you connect with.

Examples: accomplish, educate, empower, encourage, give, guide, help, improve, inspire, integrate, master, motivate, nurture, organize, produce, promote, satisfy, share, spread, teach, travel, understand, write, etc.

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2 Based on your answers to the 15 questions, list every-

thing and everyone that you believe might benefit.

Examples: people, creatures, organizations, causes, groups, environment, etc. 3 Identify your end goal. How will the “who” from

your above answer benefit from what you “do”?

4 Combine steps 1–3 into a sentence or two or three

sentences.

R AT I O N A L E

One of the main reasons that first-year students give when asked why they go to college is to learn to be independent and discover who they are as adults. They look forward to the journey of self-discovery, but at the same time, they are very worried about how to STUDENT VOICES “I need to work on that. Right now my purpose is just trying to find a passion or trying to find a connection with anything. .  .  . Grades don’t really define who you are. They kind of define how your work ethics are. But at the end of the day, when I’m on my deathbed, I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh my god, my GPA was only 2.889.’ What the fuck? I’m not going to worry about that!” Mai, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I always identify as Asian American, and that’s it.”

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STUDENT VOICES “I think people go to college to get a job, but really I think more is to figure out what you’re interested in. Getting a job, I think, should be a product of discovering what you’re interested in. . . . There are lots of opportunities here: . . . studying abroad or just in general dipping your toes in everything, . . . moving away from home, . . . learning how to live on your own, learning how to be responsible for yourself.” Justine, continuing-generation student Private University Ethnoracial identity: “Japanese American.”

find their place and how to figure out what they are passionate about. This activity is an excellent self-­ reflection opportunity that can provide a roadmap for students’ future self-exploration endeavors. Research shows that lower-income students more often hold utilitarian views of college, meaning that they see it as a necessary tool to acquire a degree that will enable them to have a good job (Mullen 2010). I know in my own classes, such students often feel frustrated by our university’s general education requirements because they do not see the usefulness of taking courses that do not pertain to their future career goals. Their understanding of college as a time to learn to be independent and discover who they are is less connected to the learning they do in classes and more connected to living on their own and being responsi-



Discovering Life Purpose and Passion 107

ble for themselves. This activity can serve as a starting point for thinking about how they might make use of the university’s course offerings, student organizations, and community engagement opportunities in ways that will help them build their sense of purpose.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Consider answering the 15 questions yourself and writing a personal mission statement in advance so that you can share what you wrote in casual conversations with students or perhaps as a model, as I do. Encourage them to check out student organizations and clubs that resonate with their personal mission statements. We know that joining campus groups helps first-year students build a sense of belonging on campus, which has benefits both academically and socially (Tinto 1993). STUDENT VOICES “I think college is about exploration and not just academically. . . . College is more than that. . . . Like, expanding academically, you kind of push yourself to meet more people, learn how to network, and then also just pursue your other interests.” Benjamin, continuing-generation student Public University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “Asian. Sometimes I say Chinese.”

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Further Resources Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, by Michael S. Roth (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014). Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (New York: Knopf, 2016). The Myth of the Age of Entitlement: Millennials, Austerity, and Hope, by James Cairns (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017). See chapter 4 for a discussion of millennials’ expectations for their college degrees. The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life, by William Damon (New York: Free Press, 2008). The Purposeful Graduate: Why Colleges Must Talk to Students about Vocation, by Tim Clydesdale (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015).

WEEK 12

Sharing Stories of College Woe

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 29: Share a Story in Class of Some College Woe That You Experienced as an Undergraduate Student Bad roommate, bad grade, bad decision—share with your students how you handled it and what you learned from it. R AT I O N A L E

Right now, first-year students are going through some of the toughest things they will ever face in college. Many don’t have the experience to know how to handle their academic and social challenges well, and it is an enormous relief to them to know that someone they respect faced similar kinds of failures and frustrations along the road. 109

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STUDENT VOICES “My chemistry professor—honestly, her backstories. One time she mentioned how she got a really bad score her first midterm, and she realized, ‘You know what, I need to study!’ She gave us that pep talk. It was motivating—okay, yeah, if she can do it, I can do it too. So she’s a really good teacher in that sense. . . . She puts herself in the student’s position, and she challenges us. But at the same time, she’s helping us, allowing us to learn.” Alma, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Chicana and Latina. Chicana because I was born here, but my family comes from Mexico, but I’m also from here, so it’s the best of both worlds. And Latina too because I am from a Latin American country in the sense of my family and my ancestors, I’m proud to say.”

“Had my hearing on Friday to determine if I get suspended: alcohol violations. So that was pretty unfortunate. Three prior. I was just put on probation, and then the following week, I got taken to detox. So that’s tough. . . . It just sucks to go through the whole process and have the stress of ‘Am I going to be suspended today or not?’ . . . Delinquent. Degenerate.” Lucas, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “White Irish kid.”



Sharing Stories of College Woe  111

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Consider taking a few extra minutes in class to help students understand that they are not alone if they are facing challenges right now. You might pass out sticky notes and ask students to each anonymously write something they are struggling with. Post them on a wall, and let students walk through and read everyone else’s sticky notes. It can provide a great sense of relief to see what others are facing. To minimize the use of class time, you could pass out index cards or sticky notes, collect them, and scan or type them up so you STUDENT VOICES “I’m taking the same class I took last year in high school because I didn’t test into a higher math. I took it lightly because I thought, ‘Oh, I already know the material because I took it last year.’ Well, I just went through the motions, and I did really poorly on the exam. Now I have to drop the class because I fell too far behind. . . . That’s my biggest disappointment in a class, and it’s entirely my fault. That was my awakening. I was really worried about it. But I talked to my advisor, and he told me I can make it up. . . . He told me he went through a similar experience when he was a freshman in college. I think it helped that he was able to relate to me on that level. That made me feel comfortable.” Tomás, first-generation student Private University Middle class Ethnoracial identity: “I am really proud to be Colombian. I love everything about our culture.”

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STUDENT VOICES “[If I could change something about my first term] I think I would probably be less romantically involved. . . . It was a long-distance relationship. . . . I don’t know, it just got really complicated. . . . It got extremely stressful, and then it ended badly. . . . Plus on top of all this, other stress I had with college and everything. . . . I’m getting better. It was hard at first. . . . It was the Saturday before finals week. I just sat there staring at my computer for hours, and I was like, ‘I have not read a single sentence on this page.’” Javier, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Latino—well, I’m American like everybody else here, but both my parents are from El Salvador. And keep in mind that Latino is very different from Chicano, because Latino is Latin America, anything in Central America, and Mexico is part of North America. A lot of people get that mixed up.”

can share the complete list of challenges with your students via email or an online post to your course page. If you can’t spare any more class time this week, then when you encounter students in the halls or office hours, be ready to share your story of woe again, maybe adding a few extra details.

Further Resources “Breaking Down Barriers: Academic Obstacles of First-­ Generation Students at Research Universities,” by Mi-



Sharing Stories of College Woe  113

chael J. Stebleton and Krista M. Soria, in Learning Assistance Review 17 (2) (2012): 7–19. Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success, by John C. Maxwell (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research, by Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005). How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, by Julie Lythcott-­ Haims (New York: St. Martin’s, 2015). See chapters 1, 6, and 18 for a discussion of child-rearing practices that have left today’s college students ill equipped to handle struggle and failure. The Invisibility Factor: Administrators and Faculty Reach Out to First-Generation College Students, edited by Teresa Heinz Housel and Vickie L. Harvey (Boca Raton, FL: BrownWalker, 2009). See chapter 5, “Humble and Hopeful: Welcoming First-Generation Poor and Working Class Students to College,” by Kenneth Oldfield, for a helpful list of lessons in college knowledge for first-generation students. The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom, 3rd edition, by Stephen D. Brookfield (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015). See chapter 15 for a discussion of teaching strategies to help students build self-confidence in their academics and take responsibility for their own learning.

WEEK 13

Laughing and Commiserating Together

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 30: Do a Fun Activity Do something that allows students to laugh a little or commiserate with each other about course content. Here are three possibilities: 1 Experience Sketch. Students have two minutes to

draw a picture that depicts their experience with your course so far—or their experience with a particular course topic or with their least (or most) favorite class this semester. Share in small groups.

2 Haiku. Have students write a haiku on a course

concept. Encourage good-natured humor. Haiku poems have three lines, of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables.

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Laughing and Commiserating Together 115



STUDENT VOICES “My professor is amazing. Every other Friday, we would do a fun activity: hang out with the class, do Q&A about ourselves. . . . She was just really, really good with helping everyone feel comfortable and welcomed here.” Madison, continuing-generation student Private University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “White.”

3 Scavenger Hunt. Have students circulate around the

room collecting names of classmates who fit in certain categories. You can craft the categories around course content or around getting to know each other. Pass out handouts of the categories, or write them on the board. Course-Related Examples: Someone who has seen ________ (a volcano or Spain or the inside of a voting booth) with her or his own eyes Someone who had never heard the term ________ (hegemony or homeostasis or algorithm) before taking this class Someone who intends to never take another class in this subject again if she or he can help it Someone who has witnessed ________ (gender discrimination or religious conversion or a chemical explosion)

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Get-to-Know-You Examples: Someone who is an only child Someone who still has contact with a favorite high school teacher Someone who has a grandparent who was born outside the United States Someone who took an airplane to travel to Thanksgiving dinner R AT I O N A L E

Many first-year students are feeling overwhelmed at this point in the semester. A fun activity can break up the usual rhythm of your class and possibly open up some casual dialogue about the things students are individually struggling with. You can use the activity as a way to gauge how well they are coping with their academic challenges to see what resources you might direct them toward or just to give them a chance to let off a little steam. Levity and play are known to have myriad benefits on our emotional and physical health. A few minutes of fun also allows us to bond a little. I like to do the haiku in my introductory classes, but instead of a course concept, I instruct them to write about how they are feeling right now: to vent, get things off their chest, and commiserate with each other a little. They are allowed to complain about our class if they want to. They don’t have to show me their haiku. However, they do have to read it to their classmates



Laughing and Commiserating Together 117

STUDENT VOICES “Although I love learning everything here, I feel like I can’t really breathe. What I feel is that I could succeed here. I feel like I can do it if I just focus on school. But with me as a person, I can’t do that. I’ve talked to a lot of people, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, college is the time where you have to be selfish. You’ve got to focus on yourself and find out what you like.’ But with me, I can’t do that. I have to balance it out. I have to be there for my family, to work, to help them out at their business. . . . I feel like I’m already out of balance with my family. . . . So it’s like, I can’t be selfish.” Mai, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I always identify as Asian American, and that’s it.”

in small groups because it’s helpful to know that they are not alone. My students love it. The room erupts with smiles and laughter as they share their haiku. It is energizing for all of us. Here are a few that my students shared with me. Please know that they had big, giddy grins on their faces as they read them to me: School is very hard Stressed, overworked, exhausted I need more coffee by Nicole Garcia

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History isn’t read I might as well go to bed College’s fun, they said by Kara Welch I am so tired Professors live to torture I will die here now by Skylar Johnson STUDENT VOICES “It’s very easy for you to get swamped with work and panicking because you have deadlines here, there, everywhere. And then you get nothing done because you just start freaking out and you can’t think properly and everything. . . . If socializing is someone’s way of really relieving stress, I don’t criticize them for that. Maybe if someone likes to watch a lot of YouTube videos to relieve stress, I’m fine with that. . . . The more stress that builds up, it eventually does lead to mentally breaking down. And when that happens, if it happens at a really bad time—say, right before midterms—that is not going to end well.” Patrick, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I’m an Asian American. I still hold close ties to my Asian culture, because that’s what I grew up with. But I’ve deviated from it. That’s why I feel like I’m an Asian American.”



Laughing and Commiserating Together 119

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Strategy 31: Reach Out to Five Students This Week You might do it via email during office hours or in person just before or after class. Perhaps comment on something you learned about them in the activity in class. Or share a fun YouTube video, podcast, or your favorite TED talk. Or just say hello. Remind students where the wellness center is and that they should be getting seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Ask about their exercise and nutrition habits.

Further Resources Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject, by Mel Silberman (New York: Pearson, 1996). See chapters 1–4 for more in-class activities that allow for levity and creativity. “Faculty Do Matter: The Role of College Faculty in Student Learning and Engagement,” by Paul D. Umbach and Matthew R. Wawrzynski, in Research in Higher Education 46 (2) (2005): 153–184. “First-Generation Students’ Academic Engagement and Retention,” by Krista M. Soria and Michael J. Stebleton, in Teaching in Higher Education 17 (6) (2012): 673–685. “Press Play,” TED Radio Hour podcast, original air date March 27, 2015, www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/​ 390249044. This collection of TED talks (summarized alongside interviews with the TED speakers) discusses

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the ways that amusement and play can make us smarter, healthier, more empathetic, and happier. Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, by Elizabeth F. Barkley (San Francisco: JosseyBass, 2009).

WEEK 14

Learning from Failures

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 32: Share a CV of Failures in Class If you feel up to it, write a CV of Failures of your own. If not, here is a good one: www.princeton.edu/~joha/ Johannes_Haushofer_CV_of_Failures.pdf. I am also including mine here. You are welcome to share it (with the caveat that it is woefully incomplete: I could add to the lists in every category). I decided to include my high school and undergraduate years too since those experiences are a little more relevant to my students’ lives than my professional failures are. After you show your students one, ask them to spend five minutes writing their own. Share in pairs or as a whole class, pushing students to articulate how they grew from each event. 121

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STUDENT VOICES “Last semester I really messed up bad. As of right now, I’m on academic probation. . . . It was really hectic for me. I’m not going to use that as my excuse or anything, but it was hectic for me. My GPA fell below 2.0. . . . I have to resubmit my final paper because I didn’t put citations. She knew that I didn’t mean to plagiarize. . . . I did put in the bibliography. I just didn’t realize we had to put these in-text citations. . . . In high school, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I always did bibliographies. I put my references on bottom. I thought that was always enough. . . . It’s kind of like learning the hard way.” Kevin, first-generation student Private University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “I am Vietnamese.”

“My lowest moment was when I got my chem midterm back. I got an F on it, so that—so that really did hurt me a little bit—actually a lot, what am I saying?” Alma, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Chicana and Latina. Chicana because I was born here, but my family comes from Mexico, but I’m also from here, so it’s the best of both worlds. And Latina too because I am from a Latin American country in the sense of my family and my ancestors, I’m proud to say.”

Learning from Failures 123



R AT I O N A L E

Experiencing failure is extremely common during the first semester. Failed assignments, exams, and entire courses are common in students’ academic lives, as are failed friendships, failed athletic tryouts, failed auditions, and other failed endeavors in their personal lives. I learned from my research interviews that many students begin their first days at college already feeling like they have failed because they were not accepted into their first choice school. They carry these failures STUDENT VOICES “I failed the class I put all my time into, and I could have saved the entire thing. I think 10 days of all-nighters before, close to all-nighters, . . . studying nonstop. I redid the entire course, every homework assignment. . . . [I had] no discipline at the beginning, but the final was weighted high enough that I could actually pull off an A. . . . I think it was the mental exhaustion or something. It just didn’t work out. .  .  . Sometimes I’m the type of person that almost hides from difficulty. . . . I just push it off for a while and fall into my emergency mode, which has worked in the past. . . . Sometimes that’s when some of my best work comes out. It’s a very, very dangerous gamble, and it paid off terribly. But back in high school, it worked out, better than probably it should have.” Easton, continuing-generation student Public University Upper middle class Ethnoracial identity: “White. I don’t see myself as fully—maybe you say American. My dad is fully Swedish. I call myself western European.”

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STUDENT VOICES “You know what, honestly? The thing that is so frustrating is that it’s not that I don’t want to learn. Because I would love to learn math. I would love to understand chem. I want to love math.” Ilana, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Mexican.”

around with them, and it takes a steep emotional toll. Learning to see failure in a healthy light—as an opportunity for growth or as evidence that they have the courage to try new and difficult things—is very helpful at this moment in their lives. Failure in the first year happens to continuing-generation students who come from affluent backgrounds and excellent K–12 educational histories as well as to first-generation students and students whose high schools underprepared them for college academics. They are discovering that their study habits that served them so well up to this point are simply inadequate.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week Remind students where the tutoring centers are on campus and what kinds of questions and conversations are useful in the last few office-hour opportunities they have as they prepare for final projects and final exams.

Learning from Failures 125



C V OF FAILURES

Lisa M. Nunn Colleges That Rejected My Application Stanford University University of California, San Diego Sports Teams I Quit Midseason Junior Varsity Basketball Varsity Softball Choirs That Rejected My Solo Auditions Carlsbad High School Choir Sound Express (high school) Whittier College Choir Employers That Never Promoted Me MacDonald Pharmacy (high school) Coco’s Bakery (college) Red Lobster (college) Marie Callender’s (college) International Center for American English (after college)

Pomona College, Sociology Department Case-Western Reserve University, Sociology Department Gettysburg College, Sociology Department Pacific Lutheran University, Sociology Department Franklin & Marshall College, Sociology Department Connecticut College, Sociology Department Tulane University, Sociology Department

Grants I Did Not Win National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant Social Science Research Council Grant Spencer Foundation Small Research Grant Spencer Foundation Small Research Grant (yes, twice)

Assignments I Bombed College Board Achievement Test in Physics (high school) Philosophy essay (college) Sociology Theory essay (graduate school) Publications That Rejected My Manuscripts Marie Callender’s menu test (no wonder they never promoted me) American Sociological Review Social Psychology Quarterly People Who Broke My Heart Teaching Sociology G.J., J.P. (high school) Symbolic Interaction B.S., V.J. (college) University of California Press S.F. (after college) University of Chicago Press Employers That Rejected My Application Harvard University Press Grand Deli Jossey-Bass Trader Joe’s

Fall down seven times, get up eight. —Japanese proverb

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Further Resources Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success, by John C. Maxwell (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007). 50 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me about College: Straight Talk for First-Generation Students from First-Generation Graduates, by Angel D. Flores (Serolf Press, 2014). “First-Generation Undergraduate Students and the Impacts of the First Year of College: Additional Evidence,” by Ryan D. Padgett, Megan P. Johnson, and Ernest T. Pascarella, in Journal of College Student Development 53 (2) (2012): 243–266. “Is That Paper Really Due Today? Differences in First-­ Generation and Traditional College Students’ Understandings of Faculty Expectations,” by Peter J. Collier and David L. Morgan, in Higher Education 55 (4) (2008): 425–446.

WEEK 15

Saying Farewell

How to Spend Your 5 to 15 Minutes Devoted to Student Success Strategy 33: Spend a Few Minutes Articulating What You Have Enjoyed about the Class This Semester and How You Envision Your Relationship with Students Moving Forward Remember that your first-year students are still experiencing some aspects of college for the very first time, even though they have been in the game for a couple of months now. They have never taken college finals before or seen a professor wrap up a course. Pause for a moment and congratulate them on finishing their first semester. Clarify how they should contact you if they so desire in the future. End with parting words on what you appreciated about them: their enthusiasm, their curiosity, their never-say-die spirit, or whatever it may have been that stood out to you this semester. 127

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R AT I O N A L E

First-year students often hold the misconception that they are only allowed to attend the office hours of faculty with whom they currently have a class. They are still getting the hang of building relationships with professors, so it is helpful to make it clear to them that relationships are ongoing.

Things to Keep in Mind This Week If you hold different office hours during finals week, announce them, and consider following up with a reminder email too. It is easy for students to lose track of information in the throes of finals. Offer a study guide for your final exam, or lead them through the process of creating one on their own. See the Introduction discussion and Strategy 11 in Chapter 2. STUDENT VOICES “It was the final lecture yesterday. I wanted to walk up to the teacher, and just say, ‘Thank you.’ He was conversing with the other TAs, and as soon as he saw me—he was in the middle of a sentence—he excused himself and came to me. I thought that was really nice. ‘It was fun being your teacher,’ that kind of thing. So I was like, ‘Okay, that was really cool. I’m going to miss this guy.’” Carlos, first-generation student Public University Low income Ethnoracial identity: “Hispanic, and my father is Persian, so I am kind of a combination of both.”

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I am indebted to the 67 students who generously agreed to interview with me during their first term in college. Their willingness to share the joys and frustrations they experienced in their classes is the reason this book exists. I thank them for trusting me with details of their lives. For the analysis, I am indebted to my team of talented undergraduate research assistants: Kaylin Bourdon, Paola Carrasco, Kayla Williams, Dalia Martin Del Campo, Jennifer Baltadano, and Cassandra Huinquez. Their insights and contributions were invaluable. From my colleagues at the University of San Diego I received enthusiastic encouragement for this work. Namely, Jonathan Bowman, Merrick Marino, Neena Din, Mike Williams, and Drew Talley were each instrumental in inspiring me to turn these ideas into a resource to share with others. I thank the University of San Diego for four separate grants that supported the work. Lastly, I simply could not have accomplished this book without my sister, Monica, and my nephews, Nick and Trevor, who shared their happy, loving home with me. Thank you.

129

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Index

activities: experience sketch, 114; get-to-know-you activities, 31–34; haiku, 114, 116–118; scavenger hunt, 115–116; student voices on doing, 115 boundaries, setting, 35–38 cheat sheets, 12–15 college academics: continuing-­ generation students’ struggles with, 26; first-generation students’ struggles with, 26; helping first-year students adjust to, 27 college life: hook-up culture and drinking, 48–49; student voices on finding balance in, 117 college preparation: assuming students are well prepared, 26; first-generation students and lack of, 3–4; high schools and, 3; inadequate or lack of preparation, 3–4, 26; intellectual talent and, 2–3, 25 college woes: sharing with students your own, 109; student voices on, 110, 111, 112 continuing-generation students: first-generation students and, 4, 5; struggles with college academics by, 26

Davis, Jeff, 4 disciplines: asking students if they are identifying their major, 99; finding one’s, 96–99; highlighting ethnoracial diversity in, 29; rehearsing and sharing how you found your field, 96–97. See also majors email, discussions with students via, 36, 76, 77 ethnoracial diversity: difficulty of achieving, 28; highlighting your discipline’s, 29; lecture slides and, 29–31 etiquette, professional, 40–41, 76–77 exams: cheat sheets for, 12–15; mini-midterm, 5–8; student voices on first exam, 10; student voices on note taking and, 55; student voices on practice exam, 18; writing friendly note on exams, 93 experience sketch, 114 failure, learning from: sharing CV of Failures in class, 121–125; student voices on, 122, 123, 124 first-generation students: continuing-­generation students and, 4, 5; encouraging, 141

142  Index

first-generation students (cont’d ) 25; financial stress and family obligations, 20–24; from immigrant families, 23–25; interventions with, 3; lack of college preparation, 3–4; learning to study by, 5; overview, 1; strengths of, 4–5; struggles with college academics, 26; students of color as, 28–29; study guides and, 8–10. See also specific topics first-year students: being new, unknown, and lonely, 41–42; early feedback as beneficial to, 6–7; establishing friendships by, 31–34, 90, 92–93; helping with adjustment to college academics, 27; reminders for, 15–16; sexual assault and, 47, 48. See also continuing-­ generation students; first-­generation students; specific topics friendships: establishing, 31–34, 90, 92–93; student voices on, 32, 34, 89, 90, 92 haiku, 114, 116–118 high schools, college preparation by, 3 immigrants: families of first-­ generation students, 23–25; student voices on their immigrant families, 23 interviewing fellow students, 88–93 introducing yourself, 39–41; meeting students in small groups, 42–44

laughing and commiserating together: doing a fun activity, 114–118; reaching out to five students, 119 lecture slides: adding images or bios of scholars to, 28–31; ethno­racial diversity and, 29–31 life purpose, discovering, 101–107 majors: students finding their, 96–99; student voices on their, 97, 98, 99. See also disciplines mentoring, setting boundaries, 35–38 midsemester feedback, with KQS cards, 82–84 mini-midterm, 5–8 notes: cheat sheets, 12–15; student voices on taking, 5, 13, 55; writing friendly notes on essays, problem sets, exams, 93 office hours, 36; attending, 79–80; conversation starters, 77–78; course-related questions, 78; encouraging attendance during, 75–79; with faculty after class is over, 128; scheduling, 19–24; selecting students to reach out to during, 85; student voices on, 20, 21, 76, 79, 80, 93 passion: discovering, 101–107; student voices on finding their, 105, 106, 107 pedagogic rationales, articulating, 58, 60–61 personal mission statements, 103–105



research study, on first-year students’ sense of belonging entering college, 1–2 resources: reminding students about resource centers, 62; talking positively about using, 27–28 roommates: checking in with students about their, 72–73; student voices on, 72 saying farewell, 127–128 scavenger hunt, 115–116 sexual assault, 47, 48 sleep: importance of enough, 68; student voices on, 65, 69 speech, practicing new habits, 24–28 stories of college woe, sharing, 109 strategies, 1; add images or bios of scholars to lecture slides, 28–31; ask students if they are identifying their major, 99; choose students to approach, 54–57; collect midsemester feedback with KQS cards, 82–84; doing a fun activity, 114–118; don’t seem busy, 79–80; encourage students to go to office hours, 75–79; explain effective study methods, 11–15; fill out time log and evaluate it, 64, 66; get-to-know-you activities, 31–34; have students answer 15 questions to discover their life purpose, 101–107; have students interview fellow students, 88–93; help students find study partners among

Index 143

classmates, 52–53; introduce yourself in class, 39–41; meet students in small groups, 42–44; mini-midterm, 6–8; model and create good study guide, 46–47; offer study guide and review session, 8–11; practice new speech habits, 24–28; reach out to five students, 119; reflect about semester and future relationships with students, 127–128; rehearse and share how you found your field, 96–97; remind about pedagogic rationales for syllabus requirements and grading criteria, 58, 60–61; schedule office hours, 19–24; select five students to reach out to during office hours, 85; share a CV of Failures in class, 121–125; share stress-management ideas, 68–72; share your own story of college woe, 109; when asked “how are you?” never answer “fine,” 66–67; write friendly note on essays, problem sets, exams, 93; write pedagogic rationales in syllabus, 15–19 strategies, syllabus planning, 5 strategies, week-by-week guide, 34–35, 37–38 stress: financial stress of first-­ generation students, 20–24; sharing stress-­management ideas, 68–73; student voices on, 69, 70, 71, 117, 118 students: attendance and participation points, 17–18. See also first-year students; specific topics

144  Index

students of color: as first-­ generation students, 28–29; highlighting ethnoracial diversity and, 29; voices of, 30 student voices, 4, 7, 16; on aloneness and depression, 42; on balance in college life, 117; on college woes, 110, 111, 112; on deadlines, 65; on discouraging teachers, 27; on doing fun activities with professor, 115; on doing things their professor’s way, 83; on failure, 122, 123, 124; on feedback to professors, 86; on finding study partners, 53, 54; on finding their passion, 105, 106, 107; on first exam, 10; on first-generation experiences, 22; on friendships, 32, 34, 89, 90, 92; on group projects, 84; on guessing what professors want, 59; on note taking and exams, 55; on office hours, 20, 21, 76, 79, 80, 93; on paying attention in class, 48; on practice exam, 18; on professor at end of semester, 128; on professors sharing personal life, 40, 44, 110; on purpose of college, 102; on receiving encouragement, 25; on relationships with professors, 43; on roommates, 72; on sleep, 65, 69; on socializing, 65; on stress, 69, 70, 71, 117, 118; of students of color, 30; on study guides, 9, 47; on studying, 49,

65, 70; on taking notes, 5, 13, 55; on their immigrant families, 23; on their majors, 97, 98, 99; on time management, 66; on unrelatable and unhelpful professors, 56, 85 study guides: first-generation students and, 8–10; modeling and creating, 46–47; offering, 8–11; student voices on, 9, 47 studying: explaining effective study methods, 11–15; learning to study by first-generation students, 5; student voices on, 49, 65, 70 study partners: choosing students to approach, 54–57; finding among classmates, 52–54; student voices on finding, 53, 54 Su, Tina, 101, 104 syllabus planning strategies, 5 tests. See exams time management: improving, 64, 66–67; student voices on, 66; time logs, 64, 66 tool kit, for success of first-year and first-generation students, 1–2. See also strategies; specific topics tutoring centers, reminding students about, 62 wellness center, 68 words and phrases, focusing on, 61–62

About the Author

Lisa M. Nunn is an associate professor of sociology at University of San Diego. She is the author of Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture. Her current work studies academic and social belonging in the transition to college for first-generation college students.