Foundations
All-college seminars
The First-Year Seminar cannot be double-counted with other requirements. First-Year Writing Seminar and Second-Year Seminar can also count toward an elective in a major/minor and/or as meeting an Explorations requirement.
First-Year Seminar: How do we know what we know?
(Block 1 and Student Success Component in Blocks 1-3)
All students with less than 7 credits will enroll in a First-Year Seminar. Credits granted to students from examinations cannot be counted towards the total credits needed to exempt a student from a First-Year Seminar.
This First-Year Seminar (FYS), which has a common syllabus across sections, encourages creative and critical thinking about works from a variety of disciplines and provides students with a shared foundation for their educational experience at Cornell College. This course will focus on cultivating opportunities for growth with the support to achieve this growth.
The student success component extends our focus on students’ transition to college, emphasizing personal well-being, social connectedness, and academic preparedness across 3 blocks.
- Students will encounter works from a variety of academic disciplines and will practice critical reading and thinking skills. (Knowledge, Inquiry)
- Students will be introduced to key terms and concepts central to the essential abilities of writing, intercultural literacy, and quantitative reasoning, and to disciplinary/interdisciplinary explorations. (Knowledge)
- Students will distinguish between opinion, reasoned judgment, and evidence to evaluate arguments and ideas. (Inquiry, Reasoning)
- Students will be introduced to the importance of academic honesty and integrity. (Ethical Behavior, Inquiry)
- Students will practice writing and revision to develop and communicate ideas. (Communication)
- Students will practice oral communication by effectively preparing for and engaging in civil academic discussions. (Communication, Citizenship)
- Students will become familiar with and use the academic, career, and co-curricular support services available on campus, including the Center for Teaching and Learning. (Vocation, Well Being)
- Students will develop strategies for effective time management. (Well Being)
- Students will be introduced to key terms and concepts central to civil discourse and intercultural literacy. (Communication, Intercultural Literacy)
Student Success component
Block 1 focuses on time management with an emphasis on helping students manage their academic responsibilities, campus involvement, and personal well-being. Block 2 emphasizes civil discourse and intercultural literacy. Block 3 focuses on academic planning and future opportunities.
First-Year Writing Seminar—1 credit
The first-year writing seminars are topically based courses, with some common elements, taken in a student’s first year, and focused on the further development of academic writing skills. Through informal and formal writing, students will focus on the process of writing, explore writing techniques and strategies, reflect on their work, and use the revision process to develop and communicate ideas more effectively. Students are only allowed to earn credit for one first-year writing seminar.
- Students will experience guided practice in critical reading. (Inquiry, Reasoning)
- Students will understand writing as a process that involves multiple stages. (Communication)
- Students will write appropriately for a given audience, purpose, and context. (Communication, Intercultural Literacy)
- Students will gain practice in developing and sustaining an argument with evidence. (Inquiry, Reasoning, Communication)
- Students will evaluate, cite, and document sources appropriately. (Inquiry, Reasoning, Ethical Behavior)
- Students will learn to incorporate feedback and revision. (Communication)
Faculty should:
- Assign formal and/or informal writing so that students are writing regularly throughout the course. Informal writing assignments (e.g., journals, blog posts, reading responses) are low-stakes, often non-graded assignments, that assist students in exploring and understanding course material. Formal writing assignments are high-stakes assignments that students use to develop their own arguments or ideas about course material.
- Longer assignments should be staged, allowing for faculty feedback throughout the process.
- Devote class time to the writing process (which includes prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing). Writing instruction should focus on discussing assignments and rubrics, writing techniques and strategies, approaches to particular types of papers or writing problems, and students’ work-in-progress. Assign writing so that students are writing regularly throughout the course.
- Provide timely feedback, both in writing and in person, through individual or small-group writing conferences.
- Require students to employ feedback in a subsequent draft, paper, or assignment and to reflect on their work, process, and goals.
- Intentionally discuss metacognition in class and provide students with tools for effective reflection that will help them with transfer in future classes.
- Utilize a common vocabulary in class.
Common elements
- Common writing instructional text
- Required: "They Say, I Say" (Graff & Birkenstein).
- Required: The Transition to College Writing (Hjortshoj) Purchased for both FYS and FYW).
- Common assignments—Throughout the block, students should:
- Write in at least 2 or 3 different genres (Examples: essays, podcasts, posters, storyboards, lab reports, etc.).
- Write for at least 2 or 3 different audiences.
- Write at least two major (4+ pages) evidence-based argument papers.
- Revise their major writing assignments.
- Write regular reading responses (low-stakes).
- Reflect on their writing process and progress throughout the block.
Second-Year Seminar: Citizenship in Practice (Block 1)
All students with less than 14 credits will enroll in a second-year seminar. Credits granted to students from examinations cannot be counted towards the total credits needed to exempt a student from a Second Year Seminar.
Second-year seminars are topically based courses that encourage citizenship in practice by focusing on informed and creative problem-solving of real-world issues through disciplinary or multidisciplinary approaches. These courses may include community engagement and/or hands-on experiences such as field trips, service learning, simulations, performances, installations, exhibits, or lab work. SYS courses do not have prerequisites.
- Students will acquire knowledge of a contemporary or historical issue, or set of issues, facing communities, regions, nations, or the world. (Knowledge, Citizenship)
- Students will understand the context of the issues or questions that could include time, geography, culture, impact on communities, etc. (Knowledge)
- Students will use creative and critical thinking skills to identify, propose, and evaluate strategies for addressing issues/questions. (Inquiry, Reasoning)
- Students will develop skills for collaboration with and within diverse groups of individuals including the cognitive skill of perspective-taking.. (Communication, Intercultural literacy, Citizenship)
- Students will develop research and information literacy skills. (Inquiry, Reasoning)
- Students will demonstrate communication skills through the oral presentation of their findings. (Communication)
The SYS creates an experience in the second year that builds on the first year and provides a basis for advanced disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning. It introduces students to issues beyond the college classroom and encourages them to think about their role as a citizens in addressing problems. This course is also intended to reinforce sophomores’ connection to their cohort and to strengthen retention.