Student Success — New Life at Grayson (TX)
Some of the best work in the profession is being done at smaller colleges. Grayson County College (Denison, TX) exemplifies this in their good work in developmental mathematics.
This year, Grayson is running pilot sections of both New Life courses — MLCS and Transitions — as part of their plan to completely replace the traditional developmental math courses next year. Like most of us, the Grayson math department is primarily adjunct faculty; three of the full-time faculty — Stanley Henderson, Shawn Eagleton, and Sherre Mercer — have been willing to share some of their ideas and tools with us.
Here are some comments from Sherre Mercer:
We are using a “recipe for success” in our new courses. The document was developed by Stanley Henderson, one of the professors in the department, and is based partially based on his first day of class activities over the years. Students are asked to grade themselves on their recipe for success and encouraged throughout the semester to make improvements in their study/life habits with regard to the four areas on the recipe.
The recipe for success is this document RECIPE FOR SUCCESS SPRING 2012 Grayson County College
Also, Sherre goes on to say:
The students are required to write verbal explanations frequently. As part of the focus on conceptual understanding, my class was required to complete writing assignments before and after each exam. These documents were developed by Terra Diehl, one of the presenters at NADE last year. The students are asked to complete the pretest page before the exam. They complete the post-test page after the graded exam is returned.
One of our new classes is also piloting the use of Nolting’s Study Skills Workbook from Cengage Learning. The class meets every Friday in our math lab area and they focus on study skills. We have had workshops in the Math Hub (lab) on reducing math anxiety, fractions, factoring, and proper calculator usage. All have been well-attended except the calculator ( that was the only workshop which did not meet the full hour to be counted for a lab credit. Every student in the new classes is required to complete 15 worksheets and 15 lab assignments during the semester.
The math department at Grayson is doing a very good job, and showing generosity in sharing both the ideas they use and some of the tools that have helped students succeed. Thanks, Grayson County College!!
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Professional Development, Student Success & Support | Jack Rotman | 
February 22, 2012 3:32 pm
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Jack Rotman
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