-The Synergy Program-

In the second year of the CLAAS project, April Heaney (English) was hired as the Director of the Synergy Program, a learning community for first-year students who are conditionally admitted to the university. The program currently involves nearly 150 students. In the fall semester, all are required to enroll in designated sections of the following general education courses, which are linked through readings, assignments, and some team teaching:

· College Composition and Rhetoric (ENGL1010)

· American and Wyoming Government (POLS 1000)

· Critical Reflection in Intellectual Communities (UWYO 1450)

Students continue with the learning community in the spring semester by enrolling in designated sections of a fourth general education course, Public Speaking (COJO 1010), in which students have the opportunity to continue the social relationships and intellectual work they started in the fall semester.

As Synergy Director, April coordinates 12 faculty members from English, Political Science, Philosophy, Communication and Journalism, and International Studies. Using the CLAAS model as a guiding principle, these faculty are identifying literacies by which they will collaboratively evaluate two major assignments shared between Synergy courses. Their goals are to investigate how individual teachers approached these assignments, how teachers shared assignments between classes, how students and teachers reacted to the projects, and how the assignments might be improved.

-The Synergy Program-

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