This week, Dustin chats with Sarah about her efforts to utilize pod mapping as a way to elevate the curricular approach at her institution. Sarah details the ways to and the importance of building sustainable coalitions at an institution to make sure there is consistent, collective efforts to aid in achieving learning outcomes for students.
Building Better Buy-In for your Residential Curriculum
If youโre anything like me, youโre a big fan of residential curriculum. You love writing facilitation guides, assessing intentional interactions, and learning about creative strategies to engage with your students. But if you are like me, you might also feel like the only person who feels so strongly about curriculum at your institution. To many... Continue Reading →
Key Objectives For Residential Curriculum and Curricular Approach Facilitation Guides
A key component of building out your student life curriculum is the creation of facilitation guides. Facilitation guides (sometimes referred to as lesson plans) are detailed plans that provide all of the information necessary so that anyone with the appropriate level of training and skills could execute the planned strategy. Beyond just the execution of... Continue Reading →
A Rubric for Evaluating your Residential Curriculum Facilitation Guides
One of the essential elements of a curricular approach is to have a regular review process in place. Peer review is one of the best ways of building buy-in for your curriculum and improving its effectiveness. Divisions and departments will approach the peer-review process differently. Some may choose to set aside a "review day" a... Continue Reading →
A Formal Rationale for a Residential Curriculum or Curricular Approach
Occasionally divisions and departments may be called upon to provide a more formal rationale for why they pursue (or why they wish to pursue) the development of a residential curriculum or curricular approach. I developed the following to provide a succinct overview of the curricular approach, its history, the work and research that supports it,... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: Organizational and Group Culture Shift
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: Residential Curriculum and Curricular Approaches
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: Prioritizing Connection in Intentional Conversations & Interactions
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: Engaging Students by Integrating Fair Process into Assessment
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
An (Over?) Simplified Explanation of The Curricular Approach/Residential Curriculum Process
As a facilitator of residential curriculum and curricular approach workshops, one of the challenges I have is how to explain the process in a way that makes sense to attendees. One of the reasons this is challenging, is that curricular approaches introduce a number of new terms and use those terms in very specific ways.... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: The Role of Fair Process in Curriculum Development
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: From “Floor Meeting” to “Community Gathering,” Using Circles
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Restorative Practices in ResLife: A Restorative Model for Residential Education and Learning
This post is one in a series about integrating Restorative Practices into a model for residential learning.ย Start with the introduction as a primer and explore posts on other strategies you can utilize with a restorative lens.| Introduction | Roommate Agreements | Floor Meetings & Circles | Curriculum Development | Residential Curriculum | Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Curricular Approach Q&A: How do upperclass students fit into a curriculum?
A curricular approach is sequenced and scaffolded to follow a student's learning journey through the institution over time. Just as you need to take a 101 course before moving on to a more advanced 201 or 301 course, a co-curriculum follows this same progression. Many institutions that begin developing a curriculum focus on their first... Continue Reading →
5 โDoโsโ and โDonโtsโ for Student Staff Training Around Intentional Conversations
Though Intentional Conversations are meant to be casual conversations between student staff and their residents, these chats still require some degree of training and preparation. While professional staff members work to create a lesson plan or Intentional Conversation guide that models the goals and desires of their residential curriculum, significant thought should also be put... Continue Reading →
Curricular Approach Q&A: Whatโs the Difference Between a Facilitation Guide and Lesson Plan?
The short answer is: none. Facilitation guides and lesson plans are two terms used for the same thing. They are the detailed guides that an educator can use to implement a specific strategy. So, for example, if I were going a study skills workshop, the lesson plan or facilitation guide would list the specific outcomes... Continue Reading →
3 ResLife Pro Quick Tips for Intentional Conversation Assessment
For Pro Staff For Student Staff Roompact's "Quick Tips" series highlights ideas and suggestions you can put into your practice as either a professional staff or student staff member working in residence life and education. Click to read more from the series. Many departments utilize intentional conversations as an educational strategy. Intentional conversations are, as... Continue Reading →
3 ResLife Pro Quick Tips for Gaining RA Buy-In for a Residential Curriculum
For Pro Staff For Student Staff Roompact's "Quick Tips" series highlights ideas and suggestions you can put into your practice as either a professional staff or student staff member working in residence life and education. Click to read more from the series. Transitioning to a curricular approach represents a cultural shift. A department can have... Continue Reading →



