Life of the Mind

Information for Discussion Facilitators:

For video clips of the sessions, visit http://vimeo.com/fys100
LOM video clips

The training is listed in three parts.

  • Part One includes the Welcome and a profile of the First-year students from Dr. Ruth Darling

  • Part Two is “The Scientist’s Perspective” from Dr. Cynthia Peterson

Download the FYS_100_Grading_Rubric(the “rubric”) here.

The Life of the Mind program at UT is the common reading for first year students and is part of First Year Studies 100: the  Volunteer Connection, a new course for all entering students.  Although FYS 100 is an online course, students will attend the author’s lecture, a discussion section on the LOM book as well as events throughout the fall.

This year, students are reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  Discussion leaders are volunteers who agreed to:

  • Reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
  • Attending a discussion leader orientation in early August to discuss the book with colleagues and get ideas for leading an engaging discussion.
  • Reviewing up to thirty creative projects submitted by the students (please use LOM rubric to give students brief feedback–these are given to the students)
  • Leading a one-hour discussion with a small group of first year students at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, August 15, and ensuring that attendance is taken. Leaders also will be invited to attend Skloot’s presentation at 9:00 a.m. on the same day.
  • Completing a brief survey about your experience.

This year’s discussion leader’s session is presented through a collaboration of the FYS program under the leadership of Assistant Provost Ruth Darling and the Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center, represented by associate director Taimi Olsen.  The session (offered twice, on August 8th and 9th, both from 1-4 pm at the Baker Center) will include some exciting changes–and information and resources are listed below.

The session starts with an introduction and then a presentation by UT professor Cynthia Peterson, Professor and Department Head in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology.  Her research focuses on areas of Protein folding and stability; macromolecular interactions; coagulation and fibrinolysis.  A vibrant speaker, she will headline the session with a talk about the science behind the story of Henrietta Lacks:

As part of the presentation, Dr. Peterson will bring copies of a review of Masters Article in research and her own references handout.

Participants will then have an opportunity to engage in book discusson at their tables (visit this link for sample reader reactions) and talk with Dr. Peterson and the other facilitators.    After this small group discussion, participants will be able to contrast “group work” with several other pedagogies, with discussion on how to facilitate student personal reflection through several methods, how to best facilitate a whole group discussion, and how to run a quick, formal debate.

Facilitators might use this year’s suggested themes to organize their discussion sessions; students will be guided to use themes in their creative responses.  The UTK LOM faculty guide 2011 is designed to help as well.  For those who would like more information on conducting group work (for peer-to-peer learning) and whole class discussion, these “how to” sheets are a starting point and we will review these at the facilitator’s session.  For ideas about questions to ask students, see the Reader’s Guide for the book.  You may also be interested in a short essay by a college student on the book, published in the online journal Diversity and Democracy (AACU).

One participant referred us to the fact that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reviewing the Common Rule.  For more information, see this article in Inside Higher Ed.

Also, at our session, we will review your instructions for leading a discussion session  and also review methods for doing a quick review of student creative work and will show you how to make use of the rubric.  For more information on rubrics, visit the Authentic Assessment Toolbox.

Pedagogy Presentation: