GE-Dialogue – Getting Personal: Creating a Unique Classroom Experience for Students in Large Lecture General Education Courses

8 Nov 2011 (Tuesday)
12:30 pm – 2:15 pm
(light lunch from 12:30-12:45pm)

Venue: WLB 109

Abstract

 

Studies have shown that the more educators are able to personalize the learning experience for students, making it relevant to their daily lives outside the university, the more likely it is that the course outcomes will be achieved. Personalization also fosters a greater engagement on the part of the student in terms of preparation and study. After the seminar, faculty will be able to:

• Utilize simple strategies to solicit, retain and later incorporate information about students during course lectures and activities.
• Explain the connection between student engagement and achieving course outcomes.
• Develop a plan to use student information to create a exciting, positive learning experience.

 

Speaker Biography

 

 

Dr. Melissa A. Fitch
Visiting Fulbright Scholar
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Associate Professor
Spanish and Portuguese
University of Arizona in Tucson

 

Dr. Melissa A. Fitch (Ph.D. 1995 ASU), received the UA General Education Teaching Award in 2004. In 2008, she received the University of Arizona’s Five Star Teaching Award, the institution’s highest teaching honor. Since 2002 she has been editor-in-chief of the academic journal Studies in Latin American Popular Culture (University of Texas Press). Professor Fitch is past president of the Arizona Languages Association and the statewide Languages Articulation Task Force. She directed the UA Study Abroad program in Fortaleza, Brazil in 2001 and the UA programs in Alcala de Henares, Spain in 2004 and in Segovia, Spain in 2007. She has traveled to 27 countries. These include Peru, where she studied Quechua in Cuzco in 1998; Turkey, where she studied Turkish in Istanbul in 2004 and 2005, China, where she studied Mandarin in Shanghai in 2007 and 2008 and Paris, France, where she studied French while on sabbatical in 2010. In 2011 she was named a Fulbright scholar to the Chinese University of Hong Kong for 2011-12.