by Tom Ott
Beginning this Fall, 40 selected students will be enrolled in two experimental CAP B-level sections linking English 098/099 with a college credited History course where collaboration extends beyond the usual conversations between faculty to include a jointly designed syllabus with the majority of the course reading focused on the History content.
Cindy Giddle (English) is teamed with Beth Healey (History 103) and Susan Tobia (Learning Lab) while Paul McGarvey (English) is teamed with Henry Swezey (History 122) and Mary Ann Yannuzzi (Learning Lab) to provide students in CAP B-level (testing at a 9 for writing and 21-25 on the DTLS reading placement instrument) with what amounts to a ten hour History focused experience without sacrificing time spent on Reading/Writing instruction. Thus, students at B-level are able to roster a college credited course that fulfills a curriculum requirement in their selected program of study with the kind of academic support that permits, in this case, the History courses to be taught with no diminishment of academic rigor.
Key to this endeavor are the agreements established between the classroom teachers and the coordinated support offered by the Learning Lab instructors. Below is the Agreement Sheet which serves as the blueprint for this program:
AGREEMENT SHEET FOR GATEWAY PROJECT LINKED COURSES
Purpose:To provide a 3 credit college course for select B-level students such that the content of the credited course becomes the responsibility of all faculty involved.
Timeline:Planning: A team of faculty will be identified one semester prior to offering the link.
Eligible Students:(1) Strongly motivated students moving from A to B-level with written recommendation from instructor. (2) B-Level students with a 9-10 in the writing and 21-24 in the reading placement.
1.That faculty from the English Department, college credited discipline-based course and the Learning Lab instructor be identified one semester prior to teaching the link to design a collaborative experience and that a syllabus be provided to the Director of Developmental Education at the end of the planning semester.
2. Should contract constraints or other problems arise such that the faculty identified to teach in this project would be unable to work together on the designed experience, we would not run the courses.
3. That the English Dept. faculty who will be responsible for both the 098 & 099 understand that his/her courses must be keyed to the college credited course and that he/she will be expected to design the majority of assignments relative to the content of that teacher's syllabus. Thus, while not at the college level with regards to reading and writing skills, the student will experience what is essentially a 10 hour course (including Learning Lab) integrating reading and writing activities with the content of the credited course.
4. That the faculty member teaching the college credited course recognize the collegial nature of the relationship with the English Department faculty member and, course objectives notwithstanding, negotiate agreements regarding materials and assignments.
5. That evaluation instruments be designed prior to offering these
courses and that a monitoring system be in place from the beginning of the semester.
The Gateway program is the first of a number of initiatives designed to provide appropriately identified Developmental Education students with college credited experiences at minimum academic risk while maintaining academic rigor. While the term Learning Communities has become common enough to be somewhat shopworn, the concept of faculty agreeing to work together in the service of strengthening student experiences through coordinated activity remains compelling, and the Office of Developmental Education is committed to the idea that through intentionally designed program-based initiatives, we may provide DE students with connections to their college programs more quickly than in the past and without diminishing the academic rigor necessary to maintain excellence.
At present, there are plans to expand the Gateway program with Early Childhood Education 151 and Social Science 101 for Spring '98. The Office of Developmental Education welcomes ideas and suggestions for improving services to students through new course configurations and programmatic designs, and invites faculty from any discipline interested in these types of academic connections to call Tom Ott at 8530. The Office is always open.
E-mailto Tom Ott