Teaching in the First-Year Seminar Program

Taught by faculty across the College, First-Year Seminars (FYS) are small, inquiry- and discussion-based seminars that introduce students to college reading and writing through exploration of broad questions in the liberal arts and sciences.  They are taken by first-year students in the fall semester, and sections are capped at 15-16 students.

FYS courses have their own set of learning outcomes.  Students who successfully complete their FYS should be able to:

• Demonstrate critical thinking strategies related to interpretation and evaluation of texts (verbal, visual, or performative) in the context of course materials.
• Identify and consider one’s assumptions, thereby building informed perspectives.
• Demonstrate information literacy by
  • Identifying and using information relevant to a specific purpose or goal.
  • Employing effective search strategies to locate useful information.
  • Accessing and use information ethically and legally.

FYSes are also writing-intensive, and teach students students how to

• Analyze different rhetorical situations.
• Identify and employ a range of strategies for discovering, developing, organizing, revising, and editing.
• Identify and apply the discourse conventions of a chosen academic discipline(s) or fields(s) (including conventions of genre, format, citation, structure, and vocabulary).

Faculty interested in developing an FYS should contact the Director to discuss their course ideas no later than February 1 of the year in which the course will be offered.

Samples of successful FYS course proposals and sample syllabi are available from the Director upon request.  Examples of FYS assignments are available through the Lafayette Assignment Repository   (under categories, search for “FYS”).

Once approved, an FYS must be offered at least twice (but offerings need not be in consecutive years).  Most faculty offer their courses more than twice.  And some go on to develop a second or third FYS.  A complete list of FYS course descriptions is available in the College’s online course  catalog.

Faculty developing FYSes are supported by a $3200 course development stipend and are expected to spend the equivalent of about 1 month between May and August working on their course.  As part of that work, they are expected to participate in a series of faculty-development workshops led by the College Writing Program (CWP).  Dates for those workshops are based on availability of faculty currently developing new courses, though generally speaking there is one in early spring, one in early August, and several during the fall to provide support while courses are being taught the first time.

Each FYS also comes with a course budget of $950, up to $300 of which can be spent on faculty development needs (e.g., books).  The rest supports the students in the course (e.g.,  course supplies, food, invited speakers, field-trips, etc.).

Bianca Falbo (English) currently serves as FYS Director.