Faculty Resources

The Literacy Center is one avenue on campus you can utilize to help students become active readers in your classes.  Some of the ways the Literacy Center can help include the following:

Reading Diagnostic: students can take the Nelson Denny reading test and get a detailed report of their reading and vocabulary levels.  Instructors who refer students to the diagnostic also receive copies of the results.

Directed Learning Activities (DLA): faculty can refer students to complete one or several reading, vocabulary, and study skills DLA’s.  A DLA is an instructor-created activity which focuses on a specific skill (i.e. understanding vocabulary, text annotation, SQ3R, …).  Upon completion of the activity, students must review their work with a tutor and receive a confirmation signature and stamp.  The Directed Learning Activities page contains links to the activities available in the Literacy Center.

Referral System: any LAHC faculty member can complete the student referral form and have the student bring it to the Literacy Center.  The Literacy Center instructor or tutor will provide the student with the appropriate activity.  Click on the link below to print out a referral form. referral sheet

Academic Resources in the Classroom

The following handouts and websites contain textbook comprehension and vocabulary strategies faculty can incorporate in the classroom.

Academic Skills Video Links: Time Management and Textbook Reading

VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire: You can use this learning styles questionnaire to assist your students to recognize their strengths as a learner and how maximize those skills for success.

http://www.wested.org/cs/ra/print/docs/ra/home.htm (Reading Apprenticeship draws on teachers’ untapped expertise as discipline–based readers and on students’ untapped strengths as learners.  Its instructional routines and approaches are based on a framework that describes classroom life in terms of four interacting dimensions that support reading development: social, personal, cognitive, and knowledge-building.)

http://www.studygs.net  (An educational website with study guides in learning and studying, time management, writing and vocabulary, test-taking, reading, research, and math)

Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review: SQ3R  (A widely used textbook reading strategy)

List Group Label  (A a comprehension and/or vocabulary strategy to activate prior knowledge, refer back to text, and/or summarize)