Fran Kennedy
Instructional Designer
​Minnesota State
Jeff Stephenson
English Instructor & MNADE Membership Chair
Michelle Cochran
Reading Instructor
Rochester Community & Technical College
Session Description: It isn’t uncommon for students who struggle to write to turn to AI to help generate written content to submit for credit. Unfortunately, while AI may be good at synthesizing information and helping users understand particular topics, its ability to compose essays and content for college-level classes tends to be canned and unoriginal. My talk will explore the importance of scaffolding assignments so that students don’t feel helpless when it comes to completing college-level assignments. In addition to scaffolding, it will touch on the value of AI and the necessity of applying critical thought and human intervention when using it. AI does serve a valuable purpose, but its users must first develop critical thinking skills in order to maximize its potential.

Fran Kennedy has been working in higher education for 10+ years. She currently serves as instructional designer at the Minnesota State system office, where she plays a pivotal role in enhancing teaching and learning through the development of high-quality open educational resources. In addition to this role, she teaches developmental and college writing courses at a few Minnesota State community colleges in the Twin Cities. She recently earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Minnesota State University Moorhead where she explored the lived experiences of temporary part-time English faculty teaching at Minnesota State community colleges. Fran brings a thoughtful, research-informed approach to her work, designing effective, inclusive, and engaging learning experiences. Outside of work, Fran enjoys yoga, saunas and cold plunges, and live music. She resides in Northeast Minneapolis with her partner, his Greater Swiss Mountain dog, and her African Grey Parrot.
Session Description: Currently, English instructors are faced with the growing use of Generative AI in the classroom. While many see it as a breach of academic integrity (which it is), it is also a lost opportunity for students to express their viewpoints using their own authentic voices, which is a professional skill and disposition. My talk aims to discuss the abuse of AI as a breach of real-world professional expectations rather than just in terms of the less tangible academic code. So, in this talk, I suggest a shift in narrative about AI usage from exclusively faculty-centered academic code conversations to a narrative that focuses on employability, creativity, and authenticity as well as academic mores. This talk will provide a quick overview on how to highlight authenticity of voice in both personal and academic writing to control the use of AI in the classroom. 

Over the past 20 years, Jeff Stephenson has worked as a composition instructor, an interim dean, a student advisor, a grant editor, and a real estate broker. Recently, he worked as a content engineer working for Google, editing and creating both prompts and outputs for their Gemini and Notebook LM platforms. He recently completed a semester as a composition instructor at Anoka Ramsey and Century College and is the membership chair for MNADE (Minnesota Association for Developmental Education). 
Session Description: According to the NAEP (The Nation’s Report Card), 2024 reading scores for 12th graders across the United States, 65% of students who graduate from high school read below proficient. Scores continue to trend in the wrong direction with the gap between students who are underserved and their middle-upper class peers persisting. While AI is a powerful tool, a level of literacy is required to benefit from this tool. I will talk about the many facets of inequity in academic opportunity related to low literacy.

Michelle Cochran is an educator with over 30 years experience teaching arts and literacy in a variety of settings with people from diverse backgrounds. She holds BA’s in Art and Art Education, an M. Ed in Teaching and Learning, MA in Literacy Education with a focus on adult literacy, and a certificate in Adult ESL. She has taught reading at Rochester Community and Technical College since 2009. In 2018, RCTC implemented a skills-based reading methodology that serves native English speakers working side-by-side with non-native English speakers. Data collected since 2018 show significant gains for all students, with non-native English speakers having larger gains than their native-English speaking peers. Michelle's special interests include research on literacy education with a focus on adult English learners; drawing, painting and growing native plants, and hiking the bluffs along the Mississippi River.  Five grown children keep her life interesting and joyful.
​Saturday Plenary

Reflective Writing, Neurodivergency, and Metacognitive
​ Transfer
Jaclyn Fiscus-Cannaday
Assistant Professor of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
​"Reflecting Upon Reflection: How to Center Students' Experiences, Definitions, and Applications of Reflection in the Writing Classroom"
​
Session Description: As writing instructors, we often use reflection in the writing classroom to support our own teaching agendas (whether that be transfer, metacognition, or explaining writing process) without asking students how they define and practice reflection in their daily lives. Though our reflective activities might be well-designed, they can sometimes fall flat because they feel performative or inauthentic for students whose experiences (and consequent definitions and practices of reflection) fall outside what we name as "reflection" in our classroom spaces. Drawing on findings from my book, Reflection-in-Motion: Reimagining Reflection in the Writing Classroom, this talk will offer insight into how students from six different classrooms at three different MSIs across the country name, identify, and practice reflection—and then conclude with practical applications of how we might center students' experiences with reflection in our own classrooms to support their already ongoing reflective practices.  
 
Jaclyn Fiscus-Cannaday is an Assistant Professor of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) where she teaches composition, professional and technical writing, editing, critical writing pedagogies, and writing studies research methods. She specializes in critical composition theories and pedagogies—including feminist, accessible, antiracist, queer, and linguistically informed strategies for teaching writing. Her research explores how teaching writing works, how people think teaching writing should work, and how we might learn from classrooms, communities, and writing programs that support and welcome all writers. Her book, Reflection-in-Motion: Reimagining Reflection in the Writing Classroom, explores how reflective practice is embedded in daily course happenings at three Minority Serving Institutions.
Ryan Eichberger
Assistant Professor of Writing and Digital Studies
​at St. Olaf College
​"What Neurodivergent Learners Teach Us About Digital-Visual Syllabus Design: Two Years On"
​
Session Description: Despite how essential the syllabus is, it remains understudied in our field. Also understudied: the experiences of neurodivergent students, several of whom are likely to be members of every class we teach. This talk describes results of a study examining neurodivergent student perceptions of syllabi at two U.S. colleges/universities. The talk offers best practices for digital-visual syllabus design that addresses neurodivergent needs (and those of all students). The talk includes time for reflection about instructors’ own digital-visual practices. 
 
Ryan Eichberger received his Ph.D in Writing Studies from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He is an assistant professor of Writing and Digital Studies at St. Olaf College. His research is motivated partly by his own Autistic/ADHD status; he also has expertise in usability studies and the rhetoric of science and environment.
Liberty Kohn
Professor of English and Writing Center Director
​at Winona State University
​“Transfer, Metacognition, and ‘Writing Moves’ as Reflection for Your Major Assignments.”
​
Session Description: We all hope that our students will re-purpose their most recently practiced skills and writing moves in upcoming assignments in our classroom and other classrooms. This talk will apply research and concepts from transfer studies and metacognition to explain a reflective assignment that allows students to not only reflect on, but analyze their improved skills in each paper in a way that best predicts future usage of those skills. The talk will close by asking participants to catalogue the writing skills that would best suit this form of assignment.
 
Liberty Kohn has been Professor of English at Winona State since 2009. He directs the Writing Center and other writing programming on campus. His research and pedagogical interests are transfer, genre theory, professional writing, and public writing, particularly mis/disinformation. His scholarship has been published in a number of journals and collections, including WPA: Journal of Writing Program Administration, Journal of Working Class Studies, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Composition Forum, and more.