Congratulations to Dr. Katy Lichon, the 2021 Ursula K. Williams Fellow, who successfully completed the requirements of the fellowship. Katy serves as the Director for the English as a New Language (ENL) Program, the Director of the Catholic School Advantage (CSA), and is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Educational Initiatives. In addition, she serves as a faculty fellow for Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child, Center for Literacy Education, and Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures. Katy is an educational linguist who focuses on the education of K-12 multilingual learners in Catholic schools and teacher education through the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE). We were very grateful and delighted to welcome and support Katy throughout the fellowship.
The focus for Katy's action research project was how to incorporate video feedback ("veedback") with students. During her time as a fellow, Katy conducted a course redesign to incorporate video feedback on assignments, developed job aids for students, and officially established the creative use of TORSH for all faculty in the graduate-level 18-credit hour English as New Language (ENL) program in order to examine the use of discourse by English learners in the classroom. TORSH is video-based classroom observation tool that facilitates observation feedback.
As part of the fellowship requirements, Katy worked closely with Alex J. Ambrose, Director of Learning Research for Notre Dame Learning/Kaneb Center to develop research questions, design her methodology, and explore analysis techniques for her data. In addition, she attended multiple workshops to expand her understanding of the use of video feedback in the classroom. Finally, she met with several faculty members in the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC), including Lisa Oglesbee (English for Academic Purposes faculty), Dr. Hana Kang (Second Language Acquisition faculty), and Dr. Alessia Blad-Miller (Director, CSLC) to explore language learning and new methods for incorporating technology into her andragogical practices. Finally, Katy developed an electronic portfolio to highlight her accomplishments and research.
Katy successfully presented her findings to a panel of her peers in May. She will also present her research and recommendations at the Midwest Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference which will be held in April of 2022.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the workshops and the action research," Katy said. "More importantly, I appreciated the opportunity to think deeply about my instructional practices, to try a few new things, and to ultimately be a stronger educator of teachers of emergent bilinguals."
The Ursula K. Williams Fellowship is a one-semester fellowship for Teaching Professors and Professors of the Practice in the College of Arts and Letters that focuses on the application of technology, instructional design, and second language acquisition study to pedagogical practices.