Each block starting this academic year, the Colket Center for Academic Excellence in collaboration with the Crown Faculty Center, has introduced a new TiP. In Block 2, the Theory into Practice (TiPs) covered high-impact writing assignments. This resource provides research that pertains to writing intensive courses that engage students.

Recommendations for putting this research into practice encourage faculty to pilot different approaches with students. A bibliography offered background for further study. And, all of this useful information was packaged in a well-designed single two-sided page document.

Traci Freeman, director of the Colket Learning Center, says the summaries serve several purposes.

"This is a program for faculty to interact with these materials whenever they find time. The other thing that seems important is that it's not just about CC. We hope these resources will draw an external audience to our website and highlight the kind of robust support that enables that kind of innovation," says Freeman.

Freeman says there is no shortage of material or Colket staff expertise in developing TiPs.

This year alone, the following topics have been or will be explored:
Block 3: Contextualizing Content for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Block 4: Learning from Experience
Block 5: Moving from a Novice to an Expert
Block 6: Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding Assignments
Block 7: Spacing and Massing

The Colket Center for Academic Excellence is housed on the second floor of Charles L. Tutt Library. The center includes the Quantitative Reasoning Center, the Writing Center, the ESL specialist, the thesis writing specialist, and the Sophomore Jump Program. More than 63 percent of the student body used services offered at the Colket Center in the last year. The Colket Center was established by gifts from the Colket family.

Learn more: www.coloradocollege.edu/ theoryintopractice