TENNESSEE WESLEYAN COLLEGE
TWC Orientation 101
The Freshman Experience
SYLLABUS
I. Freshman Orientation-1 semester hour
Class Time and Location:
II. Instructor: John Gaston
Office Hours:Posted
Phone Number:746-5275
Email:jgaston@twcnet.edu
Ill. Course Description
The Freshman Seminar is a one-credit academic course required of all first-year students in the fall semester. The primary purpose is to provide a foundation experience that cultivates the habits of scholarship, service, and leadership in addition to providing an orientation to the academic culture of the college.
IV. Goals and Objectives
understands and communicates;
· Develop communication skills—reading, listening and speaking;
· Establish the library as a major repository of knowledge;
· Explain and establish standards of academic integrity; and
· Foster an attitude of enthusiasm and a genuine intellectual curiosity toward learning,
V. Relationship to Major Program. Department. and Institutional Purpose
The institutional purpose revolves around providing a quality, liberal arts education, and to promote integrity and responsibility in a Christian environment where students can mature intellectually and socially, and acquire the confidence to serve after the college experience is complete. Further, the purpose of the College has, at its core, the assertion that graduates will have demonstrated competence in reading, writing, speaking, and computer literacy.
The stated mission of the College is:
In keeping with the spirit of the liberal arts, Tennessee Wesleyan College seeks within the framework of the Judeo-Christian tradition to provide for students the highest quality educational experience , to promote personal responsibility, integrity, and purpose, and to prepare students for a life of leadership and service in an ever changing global community.
This course fulfills an All College Requirement.
VI. Course Relationship to Content Area Knowledge and Skills from the Matrices
· Ability to relate language and literature, both contemporary and classic, to students’ lives.
· Understanding of the relationship between the fine arts and literature.
· Awareness of interdependence among fields of study.
· Awareness of diverse communication styles, abilities, and cultural differences.
· Awareness of various means of creative expression, both within a given culture and across a culture of languages.
· Understanding of how human ideals, values, and ethics can be examined and illuminated figuratively.
· Ability to open oneself to creative expressions, to understand their basic premises, and to understand how creators and critics make informed qualitative judgments about them; ability to form such judgments oneself.
VII. Class Resources and required readings will be provided by the individual instructor. Textbook: How to Get Good Grades in College is available in the TWC bookstore.
VIII. Topics and Units of Instruction:
· Team Building
· Managing Goals
· Memory Skills
· Test-Taking Skills
· Academic Resources
· History of TWC
· Getting to Know Your Major
· Technology
IX. Methods of Instruction and Modes of Learning:
The seminar begins with each student participating in sharing experiences. Students will be instructed on specific topics and will be given opportunities to converse on those topics, issues, and events of concern to the students. Readings, discussion, informal lecture by the instructor as well as required convocations, films, journaling, reaction papers and oral presentations will be required. Guest speakers will provide additional educational opportunities for participants.
X. Course Requirements and Means of Evaluation
1. Reflective Journaling—Students will be expected to chronicle their first semester at TWC, reflecting upon the challenges and opportunities that come with the first year of college. Format and requirements will be discussed by instructor.
2. Convocations—Students will be required to attend a specific number of convocation on the dates listed below. A reflective paper for each of these convocations will be required and submitted the week following the convocation.
3. Midterm Progress Report—Students will submit to the seminar instructor a midterm progress report that has been signed by instructors in each academic class. Progress report forms will be provided at the first seminar meeting.
4. Projects and other assignments given by the individual instructor
XI.
Upon admission to the college, students agree to abide by the Tennessee Wesleyan Honor System by signing the Honor Pledge, which reads:
“I pledge, on my honor, to conduct myself with the foremost level of academic integrity.”
Each examination, quiz, or other paper which is to be graded will carry the student’s written pledge and signature: "I hereby certify that I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this paper. “ The abbreviation "Pledged" followed by the student's signature holds the same meaning and may be acceptable on papers other than final examinations. Honor Code sheets for this course should be attached to every required assignment, without exception.
XII.
Weekly Schedule/ Fall 2008
WEEK ONE: August 28th Meet and Greet (Time and Location to be announced)
WEEK TWO: September 1-5 Team Building
WEEK THREE: September 8-12 MAPP Test Given
WEEK FOUR: September 15-19 Time Management and Budgets
WEEK FIVE: September 22-26 Memory & Test-Taking Skills
WEEK SIX: September 29-Oct.3 Academic Resources (Library)
WEEK SEVEN: October 9: 11:00 a.m. - Convocation: The History of TWC
WEEK EIGHT: October 13-17 Preparing Students for Advising
WEEK NINE: October 20-24 – No Class
WEEK TEN: October 27-31 Getting to Know Your Major
WEEK ELEVEN: November 3-7 No Class/ Advising Week
WEEK TWELVE: November 10-14 Technology at TWC
WEEK THIRTEEN: November 17-21 Ending Celebration!