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Teaching a Developmental English course with a Learning Lab component assumes collaboration between classroom faculty and Learning Lab faculty. English Department faculty should design syllabi to include information regarding the Learning Lab hour(s) required of students in those sections. Instructors are expected to confer early and regularly with Lab faculty to assure continuity for students.

The Learning Lab, B1-28, provides individual tutoring in English as well as Learning Lab classes. Most sections of English 097 and 098 have attached to them a Learning Lab class. In most cases, all students in a given English class attend the same Learning Lab class at a set time. Usually, English 097 students are assigned two hours a week of Learning Lab; English 098 students are assigned one hour a week of Learning Lab. These classes are conducted by two Learning Lab reading and writing specialists. The reason for two instructors is so that students can get individual attention and have specific questions answered. The Lab instructors support what the English instructor does in class. Attendance in Learning Lab classes is required, but students are not given separate grades by the Learning Lab instructor.

 

There are many possible ways that the Learning Lab faculty can support the work of the English instructor, including:

· clarifying essay assignments;

· helping students understand how to structure paragraphs and essays;

· helping students brainstorm topics and outline essays;

· reviewing specific grammar rules;

· giving students editing exercises to review grammar rules;

· helping students to comprehend difficult passages;

· teaching students basic computer literacy and word-processing.

It is expected that English Department faculty meet with Lab instructors to determine the kinds of help that students should – and should not – receive from the Lab. For example, some English instructors do not want Learning Lab instructors to correct a student's grammar mistakes before a student essay is turned in. Other English instructors do not mind if Learning Lab instructors correct a student's paper so long as the correcting is done in the service of teaching the student about the error that he or she has made. For this reason and many others it is important that the English instructor meet with the Lab instructor.

Collaboration with the Learning Lab

 

The following is the current English Department statement about Learning Lab collaboration: