five human hands of varying hues from dark to light-skinned Research tells us that faculty can make a big difference in creating learning environments that foster inclusive excellence. In this series, presented by the SSU Instructional Design Team and the Office of Inclusive Excellence, Salem State faculty share practices they've used to bolster belonging and engagement and support student success in their classes.

All Roundtables will take place via Zoom; registration below (last-minute registration is fine!) Series topics are drawn from the document Engaging Design for Equitable Teaching.

Roundtable Resources

Belonging (Oct '21) James Noonan (Education), Keja Valens (English), and Jon Tiplady (Criminal Justice) on how they create a sense of community and belonging in their courses.

Assessment (Nov '21) - Tess Killpack (Biology) and Claire McCarthy (English) on how they infuse practices of scaffolding, meaning and student choice into their assessments.

Welcoming (Jan '22) - Monica Leisey (Social Work), Tess Killpack (Biology) and Vanessa Ruget (Political Science) will speak about how they build community and welcome students into their classes, starting on day one.

Editable copy of Tess Killpack's Day One Student Info Sheet (Google Form; you'll be prompted to log in and make a copy)
Tess Killpack's presentation on Day One Info sheets and publication on using info sheets
Vanessa Ruget's slides on student engagement via community-building activities

Assessment II (Feb '22) Monica Leisey (Social Work) and Julie Kiernan (Theater and Speech Communication) on how they create scaffolding and meaning in their assessments.

Julie Kiernan's slides on scaffolding and assessing a major course project

Course Activities (March '22) Melanie Gonzalez (Education) and Michele Davila Goncalves (World Languages and Cultures) on how they build scaffolding and meaning into their course activities.

Melanie Gonzalez's slides on adding Universal Design for Learning to her graduate education course

Building Meaning through Civic Engagement - A meaningful curriculum connects to students’ lives, goals, and communities. Come listen to faculty from the SSU Occupational Therapy Program and employees from LEO, a local non-profit, talk about how they connected the community and the classroom in a critically engaged learning partnership. Sponsored by SSU's Office of Civic Engagement and Center for Teaching Innovation.

More Resources

Series Intro with Keja Valens:

Questions? Email Abby Machson-Carter