Fall 2024 Instructor Information:
COR 101 Instructors should possess the following Characteristics and Preferred Qualifications to be an effective first-year experience course instructor. Please read the Program Expectations sheet for a detailed explanation of instructor and program requirements.
The deadline to submit the Request for Approval of Extra Service (Form 11) is Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.
Please reach out to Advisement and Transition with any contract or extra service questions (607-753-4726).
When developing your COR class, focus on the five foundational themes and learning goals and objectives that are critical for first-year seminars.
Textbooks:
Undergraduate College Catalog - Students should be encouraged to review the catalog and identify important rules and regulations and learn more about their own major, General Education, and the variety of majors offered.
Purpose and Practice: Making the Most of Your First Year at SUNY Cortland - The COR 101 reader explores college culture and serves as an important first step in helping students think critically about themselves and their academic life. Students access the reader through Blackboard/eLearning.
Student Planner - During the first week of class, student facilitators will distribute a copy of the planner to each student. In addition to the calendar, several pages are devoted to advising and registration, campus and residential hall policies, Cortland history and mission statement, etc.
Resources:
Sample Syllabi - Contact the Coordinator of COR 101 for sample course outlines and/or use our syllabus template.
Lesson Plan Template - For COR 101 student facilitators - use this if you are unsure what steps you should take when first creating your planned lessons for COR 101.
Advisement and Transition staff and veteran COR Instructors: Call 607-753-4726 for assistance.
Instructor Grants - COR 101 Instructor Grants provide an opportunity for instructors to involve their class in activities to help integrate the students into the campus and within their respective departments. Grants can be used to subsidize tickets to events such as theater and/or musical events, cover the cost of transportation to field trips, fund guest speakers, etc. Applications should be completed within the first 2 weeks of the Fall semester. See the Coordinator of COR 101 for further details.
Guide to Student Success - Incoming students and parents at Orientation receives the guide (an A-Z list of all campus resources).
Speakers Bureau - Listing of campus and community experts on various first-year transitional topics.
Areas of Interest - Plan your class agendas by using this list to ask your students what topics they are interested in discussing.
College Student Inventory (CSI) - Description of inventory terms, sample reports and assignments.
Websites:
Active Learning Techniques Additional Active Learning Techniques/Class Ideas
College Student Inventory (CSI) Self-assessment tool designed for first-year students to self-reflect on their personal, social, and academic adjustment to college.
National Resource Center for First-Year Experience and Students in Transition
Dr. Marsha Fralick's website offers some free and easy to use tips and practical ideas for your first year course. Dr. Fralick's Tips for Engaging Students in Learning Alternatives to Lecture lists 23 different and easy to incorporate activities.
If you need assistance creating a rubric, consider the RubiStar website.
Additional Resources:
Encourage your students to utilize resources in the SUNY Cortland College Student Success Kit. Adapted from 101 Things to Do Before You Graduate by Patricia Hudak and Jullien Gordon, have your students complete the 4 Year Academic Plan, Goals Sheets, Fall and Spring Weekly Time Sheets, GPA Calculation or the Monthly Budget. The kit is especially helpful for students in their first year at Cortland but the resources can also help students in a sophomore slump.
Instructors or student facilitators interested in reading an article/research titled, "Predicting and Curbing Classroom Incivility in Higher Education" by Nordstrom, Bartles, and Bucy, please see Advisement and Transition. Copies are available in the COR library.
Instructors or student facilitators interested in infusing globalization topics in their syllabus, please contact Advisement and Transition. Information presented by Dr. William Skipper and Dr. Sharon Steadman at the SUNY Global Workforce workshop will be available for review.
Dr. Tom Carskadon offers Twenty Years' Worth of Things That Work: Methods and Materials That Can Be Employed In Almost Any First-Year seminar.
Writing Assignment Resources:
Sharing Teaching Methods and Assignments for Using Writing in Courses (Complied by Jen Drake, The Learning Center and Mary Kennedy, English - SUNY Cortland)
Teaching with Writing: A Guide for Faculty and Graduate Students (Kerry Walk - from Crafting Assignments)
A Brief Guide to Designing Essay Assignments (Gordon Harvey - Harvard College Writing Program)
If you are facilitating a section of Pre-Major (undecided) students, consider strategies from: Conversations, Clarification and Collages: Innovative Workshops for Undecided Students. All materials (with the exception of the Pack Your Values exercise) created by staff of the Advising First Center for Exploratory Students, Florida State University.
Instructor and Student Facilitator Professional Development Materials:
Fostering an Inclusive Community:
Fran Peavey - Strategic Questioning
Paul Gorski - Deficit Ideology Scornful Gaze
Paul Gorski - The Myth of the Culture of Poverty
Coat of Arms Activity
Coat of Arms - Crest
Instructor and Student Facilitator Recruitment Information:
SUNY Cortland employees interested in participating with the COR program should possess the following Characteristics and Preferred Qualifications to be an effective first-year experience course instructor. If you are interested in teaching a section of COR 101, read the Program Expectations sheet for a detailed explanation of instructor and program requirements and complete the COR 101 instructor application. Reach out to Advisement and Transition with any instructor application questions (ext. 4726).