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Support for Scholarship - SoTL Projects

SoTL Projects at KCC: Letter Writing to Teach Codependence

Gordon Young - Communications & Performing ArtsProject Description:
In this project, I explored the use of letter writing in the classroom to teach the concept of codependence. Students responded to a case study about a codependent relationship in a personal letter written to a case study character. Letter writing improved student's symptom descriptions, sensitivity for the topic, and communication skills. This work was supported by the KCTL (2007) winter workshop "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning."

Journal Article
Alley-Young, G. (2008). Dear Gerald...Using advice letter writing to teach the concept of codependence. Texas Speech Communication Journal, 33 (1), 78-81.

Project Description
This research explored how a real life story of gang life followed by a religious conversion published in Campus Life magazine titled "The Lure of Gang Life" is an effective text for teaching undergraduate small group communication students the small group communication theories of group attraction and interpersonal attraction. In the resulting article, I provide a worksheet to assist professors who wish to use this teaching-learning tool as well as a synthesis of the benefits and limitations of the activity based on several semesters of classroom experience. This work was supported by the KCTL (2007) winter workshop "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning."

Journal Article
Alley-Young, G. (2009). Using The Lure of Gang Life to teach interpersonal and group attraction. Communication Teacher, 23 (1), 48-51.