the writing connection: bridging the gap between high school and college
DESCRIPTION
Passaic County Community College’s “Connections” program to work with area high school teachers across disciplines to create varied opportunities in writing-to-learn rather than the traditional learning-to-write approach that might apply only to the English classroom.TRANSCRIPT
The Writing Connection: Bridging the Gap between High School and College
Passa ic County Communi ty Co l lege ’s “Connect ions” program to work w i th area h igh schoo l teachers across d isc ip l ines to c reate var ied oppor tun i t ies in wr i t ing- to- learn ra ther than the t rad i t iona l learn ing- to-wr i te approach tha t might app ly on ly to the Eng l ish c lassroom.
The Writing Connection: Bridging the Gap between High School and College
Two Year Col lege Engl ish Associat ionWashington, DC - November 2010
• Who – about us• Why – the rat ionale• What – the act iv i t ies• How – lessons learned
– Continuing the connections
Who
About Us
• Ken Ronkowitz – Director of the Writ ing Ini t iat ive (Tit le V Grant)
• Alexandra Del la Fera – Professor of Engl ish
• Elizabeth Nesius – Coordinator of the Writ ing Center
About PCCC
• Main Campus - Paterson, NJ – with 3 satellite campuses
• Total enro l lment 10,000+– Past Year - 9% increase; 36% online growth
• Enrol lment – 64.4% Basic Skills– 20.0% ESL– 15.6% College Level
About PCCC
• Top 5 Degree Programs– A.A. Humanities 16.5%– A.A.S. Nurse Education 13.9%– A.S. Business / Accounting 7.6%– A.A. Criminal Justice 6.8%– A.S. Human Services 6.5%
• Graduat ion Requirements inc lude– One or two writing intensive courses– College Writing Exam
Why
About the Writing Initiative• 5 Year, Dept of Ed. Ti t le V Grant to
improve wr i t ing– Build college-level writing center– Design 20 writing intensive GenEd courses across
disciplines (40 course sections)– Incorporate writing, critical thinking & information
literacy– ePortfolios
• Year 3: Connecting with county high schools and Year 4: area four-year colleges
Sending county high schools
4-year colleges where PCCC students often matriculate
Connecting to other writing programs and writing centers, especially at community colleges
The Connections
Dual enrollment program
What
Activities: Big Ideas
• Teachers as Writers• Process• Writ ing to Learn• Learning to Write• Reflect ion
N C T E B e l i e f s a b o u t t h e Te a c h i n g o f Wr i t i n g w w w. n c t e . o r g
Teachers as Writers
• Bluebook wr i t ing exerc ise on feedback exper iences in our own l ives
• Quotat ions• Blogs and Wik is
Process
• Pre-Seminar Quest ions
• Visual Prompts• Best lessons• Lessons in
Progress• Grammar
Interact ive Si tes
Writing to Learn
• Blogs• Instant Messaging• Facebook• Website Creation
Learning to Write
• Email exercise– audience, purpose,
point of view
• Rubrics• Holist ic Grading
Session
Reflections
• Portfol io work• Reflect ing on the teacher as wri ter• Reflect ing on how we teach writ ing
HowLessons Learned
Limitations in the High Schools
• Limi ted technology– In many places,
technology unavailable due to budget or unavailable to students at home
– Restrictions on websites that can be accessed within schools
• But…– Faculty were still
interested in incorporating more technology into their classes
– They were creative in coming up with solutions or end-runs around technology problems
Limitations in the High Schools
• Unable to access thei r campuses dur ing summer– Invitations sent to
school emails may not have been received.
– For the second institute: Faculty were unable to test links on campus to gauge access capabilities.
• But…– Many responded to
mailed invitations.– The links are still
provided to them (on the LibGuide) for use when they get back to school.
– Some faculty had tried similar things and were able to guess at access capabilities
Challenges / Solutions
1. Most respondents were Eng l ish and soc ia l s tud ies teachers
2. Ask ing teachers to do pre- ins t i tu te ac t iv i t ies was unsuccessfu l
3. Coming up wi th sess ion top ics – managing t ime
1. Second Ins t i tu te : ta rge ted non-human i t ies depar tments
2. Poss ib ly con tac t facu l t y ear l ie r in the schoo l year
3. Used survey resu l t s f rom the f i r s t Ins t i tu te to in fo rm p lans fo r second
Challenges / Solutions
4. Thei r shared mater ia ls were l imi ted– In some cases, only
hard copies were available
– Some brought no copies and instead described the materials
4. Have facul ty send mater ia ls wi th thei r appl icat ion
• Request d ig i ta l copies in advance so that copies could be made for a l l
Challenges / Solutions
5. Tended to form “c l iques” when mul t ip le people came f rom the same school
6. Some personal i t ies dominated
5. Tr ied to choose facul ty f rom a var iety of schools
• Arranged seat ing to encourage col laborat ion wi th new people
6. Used “c lassroom management” techniques
• Most popular topics1. Teachers as writers
2. Using prompts (visual, audio…)
3. Critical thinking activities
4. Portfolios and reflection in the classroom
5. Sharing college level writing and materials
• Topics suggested for future sessions– Technology for writing (blogs, portfolios, podcasts…)
– Sample materials and lesson plans, especially for writing assignments
Survey Results
Additional Benefits Noted
• Learning about the approaches to wri t ing at other schools
• Sharing ideas and lessons and gett ing feedback on them
• Hearing about the problems other schools face (and that they’re not so different)
Continuing the Connections…
• Possibi l i ty of going into high schools to offer professional development workshops
• Writ ing at 4-Year Colleges• Other community col lege wri t ing
ini t iat ives – you?
Presentation and Resourceshttp://pccc.libguides.com/connection
http://pcccwriting.blogspot.com
Contact: wri t [email protected]