Patrick Sullivan
"Just in Time" Curriculum for the Basic Writing Classroom
Teaching Engish in the Two-Year College
Volume 4`: Number 2, December 2013: 118-134
Sullivan advocates for advancing high achieving basic students more rapidly through the composition sequence by allowing these students to earn credit for the next course in the sequence by completing a department approved accelaration assignment during the last four to six weeks of the semester.
Sullivan's piece gave me three sets of useful ideas: 1) a clear overview of the pedagogical and political parameters of the acceleration discussion, 2) a reminder about the importance of motivation in academic achievement, and 3) a detailed discussion of his "Lens and Artifact" writing assignment, a tool I hope to incorporate in my own courses.
Acceleration Overview
I like Sullivan's proposal very much, and I agree with his enthusiasm for how the debate over the success rates for students in our developmental courses challenges faculty and educational leaders in important and productive ways. I remain concerned, however, about draconian political responses that may result in excluding people from college without providing the kinds of alternative learning environments those students will need to progress toward economic security and personal happiness. That last phrase may make some people uncomfortable, but I am old school on this one. I believe a college education empowers people in ways that transcend simple economic opportunity.
I also like the resources Sullivan's piece introduces. I have created links to a few of them below:
Accelerated Learning Program
The California Acceleration Program
Hern, Katie. "Acceleration across California: Shorter Pathways in Developmental English and Math." Change May/June 2012. Online.
Connecticut Legislation Relate to Acceleration:
An Act Concerning College Readiness and Completion
An Act Concerning College Readines and Completion
Topics: Remediation, Placement, High School / College Allignment
Motivation
Sullivan's proposal also reminds me of the importance of motivation in student success in developmental courses (or any course for that matter!). He has written about this concept of motivation before ("A Lifelong Aversion to Writing: What If Writing Courses Emphasized Motivation?"). The potential to complete two courses in one semester has obvious motivational benefits for Sullivan's students, and I suspect this played a major role in the success of the students he tested his acceleration assignment upon. But on a larger level for me, the question of motivation is at the heart of a required transfer course like English 100 as well. How can I construct assignments that students want to complete--assignments they find engaging and beneficial. That is a question I constantly ask myself. Most recently, I have responded to that question by shifting the focus of my English 100 to ideas about work and the relationship between work and a college education. So far, I have seen significant progress in student engagement but I need better tools for direct and anonymous student feedback to help me continue to refine and evaluate these new assignments. How can I find out what students really think about my assignments via an anonymous tool that I can make sure they actually complete? Voluntary surveys do not give me the comphrehensive views I need have an authentic understanding of where my students are in terms of motivation and my class. So I will keep exploring and experimenting.
The Lens and Artifact Assignment
Sullivan's idea of having students apply one text to another--examine what one text says in terns of what another text says--strikes me as a superb tool for final assessment of the 100 level transfer writer. While I have not completely shifted one of my three key writing assignments to this lens and artifact model yet (students do apply course readings to their own experiences and their own experiences and beliefs to a full-length text) I use this approach frequently to structure classroom activities, blog posts, and the student's blog portfolios. I hope to eventually find a way to link one of my three core papers more effectively to the Lens and Artifact assignment model because I think such a model would be a good tool for our department to explore as a vehicle for SLO evaluation.