Adjunct Spotlight

By Gayle Golden

So far, this blog has been a conversation from the faculty to the adjuncts. All well and good. 

But conversations are not one-sided. So when a group gathered for dinner at Ginger Hop at the midterm to talk about teaching strategies, I asked those who came to share some teaching strategies they've tried this fall. Here's what they said:

Back to pre-K? 

Gail Rosenblum gets her News Reporting and Writing students back to kindergarten-style fun with scissors and puzzles to figure out story structures. After discussing stories via textbook and online examples, she divides them into teams and then hands out envelopes containing printouts of fairly long news stories – all of the stories cut into separate paragraphs. 

She gives them an envelope, a glue stick, a sheet of paper and 40 minutes to figure out how to reassemble the story based on what they’ve learned about story structure.

“First, they groan. Then they get to work,” she says. “I LOVE watching them work together, negotiate, cheer when they put a quote together with the right source. When they're done, I give them the actual story, so they can see how they've done. They usually come very close. Sometimes, they hit 100 percent, which thrills them. Later on, when they're taking copious notes from a press conference or speech or interview, I tell them that their notebooks are much the same exercise. It's all about figuring out what goes where, what to leave out and what to keep.”

More than photos
Jeanne Schacht assigns a “10-day photo challenge" in her Media Design class. The concept is simple: Students take one picture each day with their phones, with each day assigned as a prescribed type of photo, such as a self-portrait or a portrait of another person or a landscape.  At the end, they assemble the photos into a slideshow for the class.

“These have been amazingly revealing to me and to the students,” she says. “Mostly they don't just shoot what would be obvious or easy. They are clearly spending a great deal of time thinking about this as a creative identity project. Every picture is well thought through, and the project is carefully put together. Somehow the students want me to understand who they are and how they see the world.” 

In the end, then, a simple assignment becomes a way of connecting. “I think we all understand each other much better,” she says.

Real world class

Jim Offerman has made two changes in his Advertising Strategy and Creative Development class. He now allows students to revise presentations for extra points, which he says empowers them to improve their work. But a big change has come from simulating the structure of an ad agency by assigning creative team roles based on the advertising job students would like to pursue after graduation. Once those roles are set, he makes sure the copywriter and art director handle the print, video and social concepts while the account planner focuses on strategy and the brief. 

“This simple suggestion, I believe, has resulted in more consistent, higher quality work, showing off the talents of each member—all of which shows that by understanding team structure and roles, a more evident symbiosis seems to be taking root,” he says.

Numbers anyone? 

In CJ Sinner’s Interactive and Data Journalism class, numbers are hardly trivial. To get students comfortable handling them, CJ will give students a small dataset that has a lot of obvious ways to produce a story – crime rates, for example, or a health disparities data. She divides them in teams of three or four and asks them to figure out the story very quickly and then write a nut graf about the finding. 

Once they do that, the groups present the paragraph to the class. The class then critiques it, focusing particularly on how numbers are expressed. Is it clear? Confusing? Just for fun, she asks the students to get out their calculators and figure out how the numbers might be written differently.

“For instance, instead of something increasing 98 percent in five years, we could say it nearly doubled in five years,” she says. “Same concept, less math for the reader, and the same general point. Usually they come up with pretty good ones and we have a good discussion about different approaches.”

A good ROI

Joan O’Fallon makes many gestures to connect with her students in Strategic Communication Case Studies class, not the least of which is driving nearly two hours from Wisconsin for the 8:15 a.m. class twice a week. She routinely brings in examples of press releases, internal communications, ethics polices and community relations programming to expose her students to the professional world. During discussions, she asks students to write down ideas on a white board. 

And at the midterm, she put them in the role of evaluators: “I reviewed the course overview and learning objectives in the syllabus to ask students if they were getting value and a positive ROI from the class,” she says. “Was I meeting their expectations and delivering good value for their time and money?  How many of us have attended a conference or webinar that doesn't live up to the course description? I don't want my class to be one of those!”

If you didn't make it to our fall adjunct dinner discussion, we hope to see you at the next gathering where more strategies can be shared and, I hope, be included in subsequent "Adjunct Spotlight" posts on this blog.

Next up: looking back
For our next and last Proactive Teaching post this fall, I'm asking faculty members to consider recent important news or issues in journalism or communications from the past months that could be incorporated into your wrap-up class discussions or as you plan for spring. So stay tuned. Resources will be forthcoming. 

And remember, Julie Golias has already emailed all of you about procedures for submitting final grades and other housekeeping details. If you have any questions about those matters, she's the one to ask. Those teaching in the spring should aim for the orientation/reorientation session scheduled for Jan. 9. 

As usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.

Grade Expectations

By Gayle Golden

It's the 10th week of classes -- a time students often ask more urgently about grades.

For some, bureaucracy may prompt the question. This week is the last chance to drop classes without without the extra step of petitioning the college.  While that discussion may bring angst and maybe tears, most instructors have given students enough feedback by this time to ensure a well-grounded decision.

If you haven't, please make sure you do.

The 10th week is also a chance for us to reflect on what the ABCs of grading really mean for student learning. After all, we're two thirds through our courses. Have we applied the right grading standards?  What do those letter grades really mean? Do they help or hinder a student's progress? Do we need to care about the grade-point spread in our classes? Most of all, as we labor through the weekends making our marks, how are we using the grading process to enhance student learning?

These are giant questions, and probably too existential for a blog post. For now, I'll do what I can to discuss grading strategies, with the help of some HSJMC instructors. But first let's start with some nitty gritty grading matters.

Your grading position
As we discussed early on, it was important for you to outline your grading policies in your syllabi. This generally should follow the university's grading policy, although the policy allows some degree of instructor leeway in some areas.

Your grading policy is a contract with students, which they'll take seriously, particularly at the end of the semester when the final grade appears on their transcript.  So it's important to abide by the rules you put down. Yet we're human. Sometimes assignments don't turn out exactly as planned. Students might need more tries mastering skills. The course assessments might not add up as you hoped. Your rubrics might require some tweaking. What to do?

If at this point you don't feel confident your syllabi reflects a clear justification for the grading you're doing,  you can always clarify your position through written notices tied to specific assignments. Just be careful not to swing too much from the standards you set at the start. If you think your grading standards have been too low, you can realign some expectations if you spend time explaining those revisions and how they apply to any remaining assignments.  You certainly can't go back and make changes to assignments already graded. Likewise, if you believe your standards have been too high, don't regrade anything, but it's always helpful to offer extra credit for motivated students to make up points.

When it comes to the actual act of grading, and tying it to student learning, the devil is in the details. Much depends on the assignment, the nature and size of the class and the style of the instructor. Just ask a few HSJMC professors, as I did.

The rubric rules
Assistant Professor Valerie Belair-Gagnon spends a lot of class time explaining the phases of a key multimedia assignment to the 162 students enrolled in her New Media and Culture class, 70 percent of whom are not HSJMC majors. (Teaching assistants help with that large class, of course.)

Valerie Belair-Gagnon

For the writing portion of that assignment, she offers a detailed rubric that outlines what is excellent, good, fair and poor work, with explanations under each category related to accuracy, development, audience, organization, spelling and grammar. She also spends time in class showing examples and how those would be graded. All that is just part of the step-by-step way she takes students through the all aspects of the assignment.

The approach is highly structured. And it's certainly tied to the grades students ultimately get, she says. But to her, the structure is about more than just grades: It's a valuable as a way of giving feedback to a large class. "I think of the steps for the creative project and case study as a coaching activity," she says. "In large classes, it is often difficult to give a lot of feedback. To have the assignment broken down in steps allow us to give feedback and take their project to the next level."

Grading is an opportunity
Other instructors have a less formal approach to rubrics and grading, but in the end the relationship between grading and learning is the same -- integral.

"Grading is seen as a chore, and it frequently is," says Assistant Professor Christopher Terry, who teaches Mass Communication Law, "but it is really an opportunity to expand the learning process. I would suggest that it can't be done easily with a Scantron sheet."

Chris Terry

Terry is a fiercely practical professor who believes students should be tested by applying the conceptual knowledge they've gained to hypothetical situations, even in practical skills classes. No multiple choice for him. He has designed tests for broadcast journalism courses that ask students to think themselves through a hypothetical microphone problem in the field. One of his recent law exams asked students to reflect on case law related to a hypothetical government-imposed restriction on hoodies at a protest event.  "I want students to think, to use/manipulate the course content, not just be able to barf back up the things I said in class without context or meaning," he says.

Before his law exam, Terry tells students the legal tests they need to apply. The grading, then, is based on his judgment of how well they do that. Simple enough. But the grade is never the end of discussion. The real learning takes place in the post-exam feedback.  "They understand the expectations ahead of time," he says. "But during the post-exam discussion, we go through the legal tests step by step as part of a larger discussion about the concepts in class."

Grading is an invitation
Associate Professor Kenneth O. Doyle, who teaches undergraduates Advertising in Society, says grades are never the point when he hands back tests or papers.

Ken Doyle

"I never, ever just give a grade," Doyle says. Instead, he'll make a point of speaking to the class in a general way about why some papers or tests may have gotten higher or lower scores. "It's almost always critical thinking, making distinctions and elaborating," he says.

Doyle sees the grading process as a way for students to gauge their progress and prepare for to change their learning strategies. At the midterm, he reminds students there's still time to move up -- or down, for that matter. "I invite them all, especially the students who got scores lower than they'd like, to come in and talk to me or email (because some are shy)." He also says he's a firm believer in rewarding students for their achievement, or lack thereof, regardless of how their peers performed.  "I never 'grade on the curve,'" he says. "I tell students if they do great, they all get A. If they do lousy, they get a lousy grade. I rarely get complaints."

On passing and failing
Many adjunct instructors are often confused about whether it's "bad to give too many As" even if students are doing exemplary work. The fact is HSJMC students go through a secondary admissions process at the university, so they tend to have high grade achievement, especially as advance through their courses. It's not unusual to find some classes with many high-performing students.  Likewise, though, you should not see your job as giving out good grades to students who fail to meet the course standards or don't do the work. Your job is not to pass them. Your job is to be sure they have an opportunity to learn the material and to be accountable for demonstrating that.

Some instructors run into students who ask for higher grades toward the end of the term because of scholarship requirements or other pressures. While those are real for the student, it's important you stay true to your grading policy. Certainly don't extend extra credit options to one student unless you extend those options to all. And keep in mind the university's Student Development Outcomes include being responsible and accountable for their actions.  It's often hard to watch students struggle through the consequences of decisions they made earlier in the semester, especially if that means they can't pass the class or get a grade they want; but it's not usually in their best interest to let those consequences slide.

Incompletes...not so fast

Rebecca Rassier

As you move toward the final part of the semester, you might have a student who requests an Incomplete grade. Under current policy, that means the student would have up to a year to complete the course work, although you can set the deadline whenever you want via a contract you create with the student. (And regardless of the deadline, you should always create a contract for Incompletes.)

While it's tempting to offer and "I" for a student who is facing difficulty, it's best to consult the university's policy and do so only when circumstances are truly beyond the student's control -- such as a serious medical condition. If you are thinking about offering an "I," it's best to talk with the Rebecca Rassier, the associate director of student services, before you make any promises. She can route you to the right person to give you the best counsel.

If you have a thought about grading, post it below. And as usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.

Staying vigilant to plagiarism and fabrication

By Gayle Golden

It's not news to you that plagiarism or fabrication can ruin the career of any journalist or strategic communications professional.

It's also not news to our students.

By the time they get to your class, students have been well informed about the risks of such academic misconduct. They're warned in the entry-level Jour 1001 and in Jour 3004, where all majors must pass a Moodle tutorial on avoiding plagiarism and fabrication. Every syllabus in every class includes boilerplate language reminding students that HSJMC has its own policy on these offenses, which "are considered extremely serious breaches of academic conduct AND professional practice in the media industries."

Blah, blah, blah. Yep. That's what I said. Such warnings can easily become droning background noise that stressed students might simply ignore. So whether we sound a piercing siren or honk a loud horn at least once a semester, we need to make plagiarism education a continuing part of every course.

Jane Kirtley

"Even though your students may tell you they 'get' plagiarism, and know it is a bad thing, they are often very fuzzy about what it means in their own work and in your particular course," Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law Jane Kirtley, who helped shape HSJMC's policy, says. "That is why it is worthwhile, both at the beginning and throughout the semester, to explain what YOU mean by plagiarism and what forms of attribution are required in your course."

Growing confusion
Today's media climate has only exacerbated that fuzzy understanding. In the swift pace of online exchange, attributions can easily converge. Sharing has become the norm. International students may get particularly confused when attribution is done differently in their culture of origin, Kirtley says.

What's more, students are stressed and anxious about performance. Cutting corners can be tempting. Because Google pervades students' personal life, an unchecked cut-and-paste mentality can creep into assignments.

"Although it is never an excuse or justification, remember that many students are overcommitted and stressed and will be tempted to cut corners to finish an assignment on deadline," Kirtley says. That makes it all the more important for instructors to reinforce proper citation forcefully, and police transgressions frequently.

While every faculty member understands the importance of academic integrity, professional adjuncts are in a unique position to help students understand just how devastating plagiarism or fabrication can be for a career.  This is one lesson you are primed to teach.  But dealing with it in the classroom itself requires some concerted thought. Her are some tips, drawn from Kirtley and other resources, to help you:

Define the terms
HSJMC's policy on plagiarism and fabrication is followed by an appendix with useful information on what these violations mean for journalism or strategic communications. It's also important to consider how this can be applied to your course. Take some time to review those definitions and apply them to what you're teaching.

It might be clear to everyone that students should not copy text and paste it into an assignment without quotation marks or attribution. But had they considered images or designs? To what extent does previously reported information deserve credit? What about phrases or data or original concepts? All these can constitute plagiarism if uncredited and represented as the student's own work. And when it comes to fabrication, do students understand that inventing any person, fact, image, anecdote or other detail is a deception when the audience expects it is true? These days, fabrication has taken on a whole new level of discussion -- a critical one for our students to consider not just once but as their understanding develops through our curriculum.

To help students with your course,  you can distribute printed copies of the policy and appendix in your class. Ask them to consider how the definitions apply to your assignments. Encourage questions they might have about any unclear issues. Provide examples to help them understand.

Know HSJMC's policy or violations
It's important you understand the policy governing such instances. As an instructor, you have lots of judgment about a situation, but when it comes down to it, a blatant case of plagiarism does call for certain actions.

Our policy is in keeping with the Student Conduct Code adopted by the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents, which lists plagiarism and fabrication as instances of scholastic dishonesty offenses subject to appropriate disciplinary action. Because we regard these as serious breaches within journalism and communications professions, HSJMC takes a strong position. That means any documented and proven case will face two outcomes:

• The student will receive an F either on the assignment or the course, depending on the instructor's discretion;
• The instructor will file a report to the university's Office for Community Standards, where it will be processed further in ways that are appropriate to the student's case.

The student will have options beyond our actions. Those may include appeal or, for a first-time offense, a restorative justice approach that the Office for Community Standards has recently developed.

Use case studies to raise consciousness 
The Office for Community Standards has several case studies available for class discussions about academic misconduct. While some might not fit with your class, one or two might. If you find a good one there, or from another source, allow students to discuss it. Such sessions nurture insight as well as understanding of the rules. You can also ask guest speakers to talk about the professional impact of such transgressions. A few dire warnings from prospective employers can do wonders.

Use the HSJMC tutorial 
If your students can't remember taking the HSJMC tutorial on avoiding plagiarism and fabrication, tell them not to worry. The link should be in their syllabus. If they've lost it, here it is! This refresher course is available any time. If they're still confused, they can also take several other courses, including a $30 option offered by the Poynter Institute's News University, which Kirtley helped developed.

Reduce the likelihood
You can make it harder for students to commit these transgressions by changing up your writing assignments or by developing assignments that are unique to your course. If you are assigning term papers, you can use a plagiarism check service such as Turnitin through Moodle, which will scan the paper to see if its passages were drawn from other sources. The service will also be available through Canvas.

Be approachable
Create a non-judgmental attitude toward any questions students might have about citation or plagiarism before the assignment is due. If students think they will be safe and rewarded for asking you about an attribution or a citation, they'll likely ask -- which is what you want. As Kirtley says: "Make clear that you are always available to help them determine whether they have adequately credited a source and that you would rather that they turn in an assignment late, or not at all, rather than plagiarize it."

Trust your gut. 
If you suspect a student, don't discount your inkling. It's likely something is amiss. You might encounter a struggling student who suddenly turns in a flawless paper. Maybe you'll see a noticeable disconnect between the assignment instructions and the type of writing submitted. Tip-offs might also include different fonts in a paper, indicating cut-and-pasted material. You should investigate whatever draws your suspicion.

If you do suspect something, it's important to do the following:

• Note the nature of the problem. Document as much as you can about its wording or the missing sources. Sometimes a Google search of phrases will reveal the original source. Most of all, don't ignore it or think it's not important. Following through is an important step to educating the student and standing up for our values.
• Consult with others who can guide you through the process, including me or Rebecca Rassier in the student services office or to Chris Ison, the director of undergraduate studies. We will not only help you think through it but also accompany you if you do confront the student with your evidence, which you should not do alone. We are there to support you.
• Contact this student after you gather your evidence. Be sure you speak honestly and respectfully. Be clear about your concerns. Allow the student to explain the sourcing. Likewise, be sure you explain your documentation. Quite often, especially if you have done your due diligence, students will admit to the plagiarism. If the student denies it, listen. But if it's clearly documented, you will still need to report the case. 
• Decide on the consequence. Be kind but firm in following our policy. Remember: Our policy is clear. The instructor has some discretion on whether the F is for the assignment or the course, but it will be one or the other. 
• Remember why the policy exists. If the student is upset,  even if you choose an F just for the assignment, remember it's better for the student to learn zero tolerance now than to think it's OK to carry this into his or her professional life with no consequence. It's also important to remember that enforcing the policy is about HSJMC's reputation. A student who carries this habit into the workplace is not a good ambassador for our standards.
• File a report to the Office for Community Standards. You can find the guidelines for filing a report on its website along with other guidance for dealing with academic misconduct.

Consider the deeper issue
Keep in mind that while these transgressions are inexcusable, they are usually signs of deeper concerns. Students plagiarize or fabricate not just because they are stressed but often when they are fearful of failing or overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy.

It helps to let students know (and this is best done collectively to a class) that you understand these transgressions are unfortunate symptoms of other issues. You can say while you will not tolerate breaches of academic misconduct, and will follow HSJMC's policy, you remain most concerned about why they would choose to sabotage their success.

If you have a thought about plagiarism or other academic misconduct issues, post it below. And as usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.

Let's discuss discussions

By Gayle Golden 

Class discussions are great, aren't they?
Except....on those days when students aren't always in sync with your lesson plan. Maybe your well-crafted questions just hang in the air, met with silence and wide-eyed stares. Or maybe your classroom conversations are dominated by one or two eager speakers who always raise their hands, crowding out the introverts who have points to make but who just can't seem to get into the conversation.

How do you manage those moments?

To help with this question, I decided to hold a mini discussion, via interview and email, among three HSJMC faculty who have been hosting classroom conversations for years. Everyone has some ideas for getting discussions going. Here are a few:

Scott Libin

Ask questions early and often
Scott Libin, a senior fellow who teaches courses in broadcast journalism as well as ethics and, most lately, the large-enrollment Jour 1001 class, says he never waits more than a few minutes into a class to get students talking. He begins asking question soon -- even on behalf of guest speakers. The goal is to help students hear that discussion is a normal part of the classroom experience. "The more voices they hear, the more permission they have to speak themselves," he says.



Get students to lead discussion
Associate Professor Giovanna Dell'Orto, who teaches courses in history of journalism and media communication, thinks it's useful to put students in the role of teacher when it comes to developing questions for discussion.

Giovanna Dell'Orto

In her classes, she will randomly assign students to groups of three to five and ask them to select a recent news story that reminds them of what they're discussing in class that week. The students will need to come up with a set of questions to lead the discussions.

That peer-to-peer interaction empowers students to consider what they want and need to learn from the material. In turn, the students who are receiving the questions do so more receptively.  "It seems to work really well, and even the most heated conversations are quite diverse and respectful," Dell'Orto says.


Empower students
Associate Professor Chris Ison, HSJMC Director of Undergraduate Studies who teaches several professional journalism courses as well as ethics, says he thinks it's important students learn their opinions are as valid as anyone else's, including those of professionals.

Chris Ison

So when his students are discussing news judgment, he makes a point of saying he sometimes disagrees with how local newspapers prioritize news on the front pages. That gives students permission to disagree with those decisions. "And if I agree with them, that empowers them even more," he says.

 When students realize the pros aren't perfect, they become less shy about giving their point of view. "It works even better if I can find times when they can convince me I'm wrong."



Take advantage of extroverts (sometimes)
Discussions are sometimes overrun by extroverts who are eager to respond to every question and often make it hard for others to speak. In his large class of 200, Libin has found a way to use those extroverts to drive the discussion for everyone. Instead of worrying about calling on others, he sometimes drills even more into the extroverts' points and has discovered that strategy quickly sparks a lively discussion in the class. "From there," he says, "the challenge becomes managing the conversation."

Participating in discussions isn't comfortable for every student. Some students simply don't talk much in class, but that doesn't mean they're checked out. "Sometimes students who say the least are listening the most," Libin says. For those students -- and you will learn who they are -- it's important not to call on them just to force their engagement, although if you see them eager to make a point it's good to notice that expression and to encourage them to speak up.


Ask open-ended and self-reflective questions
The questions Libin asks are usually simple and often personally directed. They might ask the student to reflect on how a point in the lecture resonates with students' own experience. That's an open-ended way of engaging students with material, giving permission for everyone to dive in no matter the experience level. Other helpful questions are those that begin with "how" or "why," which honestly seek an answer from the student that you would not expect.

Ison adds that he gets a better result if he asks a question not as a "test" but rather because he's genuinely puzzled. "I can ask them to tell me if a photo on the front page is good or bad, which puts them on the spot, thinking there's a right answer, or I can say: 'I'm not sure how I feel about publishing this photo. At first I thought it was too graphic, but then I wondered if I'm just getting soft in my old age. Set me right, would you?'"


Other tips (my own discussion bust here)
Because I'm hosting this discussion, I can give myself few last words (although all the above tips are pretty invaluable and stand on their own, frankly). I would just add a few extras:

• When class involves a reading, develop a way for students to ask questions about it before class, such as through a Drive document. That will help you see what's on students' minds and help frame the discussion.
• Don't be afraid of silences. When you ask a question, students need time to think. If the question isn't clear, sometimes students will ask for clarification. That's fine. Give it to them. But don't think the silence means you have failed to engage them entirely. They may just need time to think. 
• When someone has raised a point that seems unusual, let students react to it. Don't dismiss it or respond to it yourself immediately. You might be surprised at what comes from the discussion.
• Be human. Discussions are conversations. They are about exchanging ideas, communicating, understanding, affirming and discovering. Sometimes those attributes are more important than the actual substance of what gets discussed.

What are you doing to stimulate discussions in your course? If you have a good idea, post it below. And as usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.

Diversity matters no matter what you teach

By Gayle Golden

Diversity matters. Whatever you are teaching, whether it’s account planning or media design or advanced reporting, you need to incorporate voices and perspectives from underrepresented groups that include race, gender, disability or ethnicity.

For one thing, research shows that exposure to diversity makes us and our students smarter and more productive. A 2014 article in Scientific American, republished in January of this year, reports that being around a diversity of people stimulates more creativity and hard work; it also encourages us to consider more alternatives before we make decisions. That article is just one of several useful links shared by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation in a resource page called Beyond Tolerance, which offers advice on handling sensitive discussions, promoting tolerance in the classroom and embedding diverse material in courses. 

Doing all this requires concerted effort, says Sid Bedingfield, HSJMC assistant professor and chair of the school’s Diversity Committee whose scholarship has focused on the civil rights struggle in South Carolina. Bedingfield’s best advice for instructors eager to incorporate diversity into courses? Focus on what he calls the “three Cs” of diversity": content, climate and common sense.

Embed content throughout

It’s important not to call out diversity as a token gesture with one or two assignments designed solely about difference. Students will sniff out the tactic and tune out pretty quickly, he says. Instead, throughout the semester, purposefully select a range of diverse authors or subjects and include those in regular course material.

Put it everywhere -- in photographs, articles, in the nature of what companies are trying to market or in case studies about communication breakdowns or historical examples about press coverage. 

“Everyone uses examples in their classes, of ad campaigns or journalism stories or series. The question is: Are you mixing it up?” Bedingfield says. ““The more you can show diverse examples that are about the work – not about the difference – the more students are going to get it.”

Create the climate

Quite often in our classes, students in underrepresented groups are just that – underrepresented. Students of color, including international students, account for less than 20 percent of HSJMC enrollment. That’s why you’ll find maybe only one or two students of color in most of the major courses.  Students who face gender non-conformity and disability are also outnumbered.

Instructors need to be sensitive to this, and again, overtly pointing out the issue is not the way to go, Bedingfield says. Time and patience is often the best strategy as you watch students adjust to the stresses of being "the other" in a sea of the majority. Staying sensitive to that will often reveal what those minority students need. Bedingfield offers these suggestions for creating a welcoming classroom climate:

• Notice student behaviors that might suggest a cultural tie-in, such as quietness, and find gentle ways to check in with the student to monitor progress. In other words, don’t assume behavior equals non-engagement.
• Stay sensitive to current events – especially in our curriculum – and to the impact discussions about those events have on various groups, such as those involving Muslim or transgender students. When discussion develops, set ground rules for respect and encourage students to express views calmly.
• Educate yourself about implicit bias, which is the notion all of us have biases we don’t always realize but that govern our views. Some people have disputed the notion of implicit bias, but Bedingfield contends that even thinking about your own implicit biases is the best way to mitigate them. If you want to explore that idea, you can check your own potential biases with Project Implicit's tests, or merely read about the non-profit's efforts to spread awareness about implicit bias. The Beyond Tolerance resource page also has an excellent link to an article on avoiding psychological or cognitive bias. 
• Other suggestions for the classroom from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, included in the Beyond Tolerance page, are:
• find low-risk ways to create leadership roles for minority students in small groups, which empowers those students and brings their voice into the class;
• meet one-on-one with minority students about learning goals to talk through any unstated anxieties they might have;
• connect course material whenever possible to students' experiences through discussion and lecture, which shows you are making an effort to reach beyond what appears normative for the class. 

Trust common sense

Bedingfield contends people often get anxious about accommodating diversity without realizing the solution begins with the effort itself. In other words, by taking the first steps of thinking it through, incorporating content and considering the climate, the rest is often a matter of common sense interactions with the students. 

“If you really care about every person feeling welcome and thinking they can do their best work in your class, then just make sure you think about how they can do that," he says. "It’s likely to happen.”

For more opportunities to incorporate diversity thinking into the classroom, the university’s Office of Equity and Diversity offers an equity and diversity certificate for those who want to delve more deeply into training about this issue. The program is free. 

What are you doing to create diversity in your course? If you have a good idea, post it below. And as usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.

Disability Accommodation Letters: Compassionate and Clear Responses

By Gayle Golden
                                                   

Now is a good time to review practices for responding to – and understanding the nature of – disability accommodation letters, which students have probably given you already.

These letters are becoming more common for several reasons, chiefly the increase in students with so-called hidden disabilities, such as mental health conditions. In those cases, students may qualify for reasonable accommodations in classrooms on matters such as time allowed for tests, deadlines or even attendance.

Why these letters?

A request for accommodation when no disability is apparent does not mean a student is lazy or lacks resilience. Students have often faced a long and difficult road before they receive a disability accommodation letter for mental health reasons. To receive one, a student must present documentation to the Disability Resource Center counselors, and it usually means the student has been treated for any number of diagnoses, including anxiety disorders such as panic attacks, clinical depression, eating disorders, bipolar disorder or other serious mental illnesses. Some disabilities may involve high-functioning students who are on the autistic spectrum or who have learning disabilities. In short, reasonable accommodations in the classroom are tools that help students with such disabilities succeed in college when they could not do so otherwise.

Why so many now? 

Mental health disorders account for most of the recent increase in disability accommodation letters. An estimated 30 percent of undergraduate students on the Twin Cities campus have been diagnosed with a mental health condition at some point in their lives, and another 25 percent probably have undiagnosed conditions, mostly anxiety and depression. If this seems higher than you remember from your college days, it is. Mental health conditions are more prevalent among our students today because treatments have improved and stigma has abated. During the past 15 years, more students with mental health illnesses have headed to college to seek a better future. In the past, many of these intelligent students simply didn't go to college. If they tried, they often flunked classes or eventually disappeared altogether if their illnesses flared up. 

How can we adjust?

As instructors, then, we are on the front lines of a significant change. This requires some adjustment on our part, admittedly not all of it easy. It’s important to note we are not mental health providers. Our role is not to provide therapy or to help these students with their disorders. Yet we can respond to them in a thoughtful and compassionate way, setting appropriate boundaries and encouraging their successes. Dealing with accommodation letters is one part of that response. Although taking time with those letters may feel a little inconvenient, a thoughtful approach can make a big difference for a student who needs these tools to move forward with purposeful life.

Here is some guidance on how to respond to these letters taken from the recently released report from the Joint Task Force on Student Mental Health:

• Acknowledge the letter. Students often feel worried about how instructors will perceive them when they send a letter. Dispel those worries. Email the student to say you’ve gotten the letter and that you’d like to discuss accommodations. If you have a large class with teaching assistants, be sure you convey that one of those TAs will be contacting the student. Be encouraging and straightforward. That’s all the student needs.

• Arrange a meeting. An accommodation letter will never spell out what you should do for the student. It will merely describe general accommodations a student might request. It’s up to the instructor and the student to discuss specifics for every class and situation. It’s critical to have that conversation. Generalizing about accommodations rarely produces any insight.

• Agree on reasonable accommodations for that class. This is the most important step – and the most misunderstood. Bottom line: Accommodation requests do not require total capitulation to the student’s needs. Quite the opposite. The accommodations are tools for students to use to help their success, but they exist in a world where not everything is possible. Other tips for this discussion:
• It’s important instructors be clear, as well as kind, about what they can and cannot provide for reasonable accommodations. As you begin that conversation, then, the accent should be on reasonable. The conversation should focus on mutual respect and a drive toward solutions. 
• Understand that not all students are experts at accommodation letters. They may not always know what they need, so they may ask for the moon and the stars. Others know exactly what to ask for. In the end, it’s important for you as the instructor help them settle on what’s reasonable. (It's important, too, that instructors work with the student's DRC Access Consultant listed on the letter if there are concerns or questions about any accommodation. The university is committed to an interactive process that includes the student, the instructor and the consultant.) 
• Encourage students to take responsibility for the accommodation. If a letter asks for deadline flexibility, for example, you can say that you will permit extended deadlines -- but only if the student contacts you in advance and sets a new deadline. Otherwise, you can say, it’s hard for you to offer blanket deadline-busting. If the letter notes attendance accommodations, you can say it’s very difficult to do well in the class if the student cannot attend most classes. Then you can discuss ways the student can make up material if he or she must miss a class. You can also discuss ways the student can alert you if attendance is a problem. These encourage student responsibility for the accommodations sought, which incidentally help students prepare for the world beyond college.
• Finally, explain why some disciplines -- journalism, for example -- need to impose deadlines for students. This will help them understand the importance of deadlines in skills classes, and it will help them assess their plans for their career. Most of these students have spent a lot of time considering how they will fare in jobs. Believe it or not, your course is not the first time they've encountered concerns about whether they can succeed in the professional world. Be kind and caring as you help them gain insight about their growth as they use these accommodations.

• Convey support and confidence in the student. It’s important you start off believing the student can succeed in the class. The student will be more motivated to do well and more forthcoming with concerns, which will feed success.

• Communicate any concerns through the semester. You’ll likely notice if a student begins to drop off as the stresses of the semester build. Communicate with the student in a timely fashion. It might take just a short email or a query after class. It’s not always guaranteed to help, but it can’t hurt. And it will help build the record you need to ultimately cast a wider net of support.

• Follow up with university support. If the student disappears altogether, which happens, be sure you reach out via emails copied to the student’s Disability Resource Center counselor, who will also reach out to the student. 

The reality is that students sometimes need several attempts to succeed. The lessons they learn from setbacks are often the ones they carry to ultimate success. What they’ll remember, though, is how you made them feel through those lessons. So do your best to offer compassion and support even as you set the boundaries they need. 

If you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.