From Common Reading to a Common Experience
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From Common Reading to a Common Experience Fostering a Campus-wide Conversation Twister Marquiss, MFA Common Reading Program Director Nancy Wilson, Ph.D. Director of Lower-Division Studies in English Edward Santos Garza Graduate Student, Rhetoric and Composition
Transcript of From Common Reading to a Common Experience
From Common Reading to a Common Experience Fostering a Campus-wide Conversation
Twister Marquiss, MFA Common Reading Program Director
Nancy Wilson, Ph.D. Director of Lower-Division Studies in English
Edward Santos Garza Graduate Student, Rhetoric and Composition
Quick Facts Texas State University
Location San Marcos, Texas
Mascot Bobcats
Fall 2015 Enrollment (Total) 38,006 (4th in Texas)
Fall 2015 Freshman Class 5,727 (+7% over 2014)
Fall 2015 Enrollment in US 1100 5,214
Gender 57% Female | 43% Male
Ethnicity 49% Minorities
33% Hispanic (HSI)
10% African American
COMMON EXPERIENCE at Texas State University
Affiliated Programs
» Common Reading Program
» University Seminar (US 1100)
» First-Year English (ENG 1310 and 1320)
» Annual Majors Fair
» LBJ Distinguished Lecture Series
» Philosophy Dialogue Series
» Diversity Film Series
» Business Leadership Week
» Mass Communcation Week
COMMON READING PROGRAMREAD | DISCUSS | ENGAGE
2015-2016 Theme and Book
Common Experience Theme
Bridged through Stories
Shared Heritage of the United States and Mexico, an Homage to Dr. Tomás Rivera
COMMON READING BOOK
...y no se lo tragó la tierra
...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him
by Tomás Rivera
New Edition. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2015145 pp. Total | 71 pp. in Spanish | 71 pp. in English
COMMON EXPERIENCESummer and Fall Programs for 2015
» Common Reading Program distributed ~ 6,500 books
» University Seminar enrolled 5,214 students
» First-Year English used Common Reading Book together with diagnostic essay prompt
» LBJ Distinguished Lecture Series featuring film director Robert Rodriguez
» 20th Anniversary Celebration of Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award
» 50th Anniversary Commemoration of LBJ’s Signing of the Higher Education Act
» 98 Common Experience events in Fall 2015
COMMON READING — beyond the freshman seminar —
English 1310 College Writing I
English 1310
“I didn't use the novel in any formal way, but it came up once or twice in discussions about language / identity / bilingualism, and a few of them compared an essay in Reading Culture to it. I think it's handy to be able to refer to a text that they all have in common (they had all read it, I suppose because they had been told to).”
—Dorothy Lawrenson
Previous Common Reading Books used in English 1310 and 1320 Courses
2015-2016 2014-2015 2006-2007 2005-2006 2004-2005
English 1310 Student Responses 1
English 1310 Student Responses 2
English 1310 Student Responses 3.1
English 1310 Student Responses 3.2
Read the Book*
Discussed Theme
Attended an Event
0 0.225 0.45 0.675 0.9
85.98%
73.63%
84.97%
Percent of Student Respondents
Common Reading, Fall 2015 US 1100 End-of-Course Evaluation Results
* no data available regarding number of students who finished the book
Twister Marquiss, M.F.A. Common Reading Program [email protected] | 512.245.3579
Nancy Wilson, Ph.D. Director of Lower Division Studies in [email protected] | 512.245.5273
Edward Santos Garza Graduate Student in Rhetoric and Composition
[email protected] | 512.245.2163
» txstate.edu/commonexperience » txstate.edu/bobcatbook
» @bobcatbook and #bobcatbook
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