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With approximately 75% of incoming California community college students under-prepared for college-level English, and under 15% of those entering at the under-prepared level ever going on to complete a transfer-level course, the instruction of writing is a matter for everyone (Legislative Analyst’s Office, 2007, p.8 ) This is why we’re here.
The California Community College system provides instruction to approximately 25% of the community college population in the U.S. • Nearly 2.6 million students The CCC system has 112 college campuses and 71 off-campus centers
80 % of firefighters, law enforcement personnel, and emergency medical technicians in California receive their training at the state’s community colleges
Here is a definition of basic skills proposed in Basic Skills as a Foundation for Success in California Community Colleges: “Basic Skills are those foundation skills in reading, writing, mathematics, and English as a Second Language, as well as learning skills and study skills, which are necessary for students to succeed in college-level work”(Center for Student Success, 2007).
Basic Skills writing and reading courses • parts of speech, grammar, sentence/paragraph structure • 2nd grade to 9th grade writing and reading levels
70-85% of all California community college students assess into some sort of basic skills class when they first enter our institutions. Only 27.3% of them actually enroll in basic skill level classes. ~ Basic Skills Initiative Here are the facts from the Chancellor’s Office’s Report on Basic Skills:
Approximately 1,925,000 students out of 2,500,00 assess into Basic Skills. • Of these, approximately 526,000 actually take a Basic Skills class. The percentages in numbers:
Approximately 1.4 million students who assess into Basic Skills classes never take any Basic Skills classes…
Where are the rest of the students that assessed into a basic skills course? They are sitting in your classroom, wrestling with the material that you teach and struggling mightily to succeed.
These may be the students who: • turn in poorly written assignments • misuse vocabulary or course terms • completely misunderstand writing tasks • apparently do not complete reading assignments or do not understand them. If a Basic Skills need is the issue, what can you do about it?
Help students create a “learner identity” for themselves. • Integrate metacognition (learning about learning) into assignments. • Integrate pre-writing and pre-reading steps into assignments. • Create manageable “chunks” of learning that include discrete steps for both “pre-learning” and “post-learning.” Here’s the big picture:
Students with a learner identity: • understand how to be learners • are able to plan and complete reading and writing tasks Without a “learner identity” they may get bogged down by a writing task, turn in assignments late, or not turn them in at all. What’s a “learner identity”?
reflecting on the learning process • “self-evaluation” of writing/reading processes • verbal or written reflection on reading annotations or notes. What is Metacognition?
periodic assessments of progress on longer written assignments • reflections on learning after group work or presentations • written summary of errors and a plan for finding and fixing them next time • analysis of work on quizzes, tests, and exams Simple ways to integrate metacognition into any assignment:
Why are you interested in the topic you chose? • What ideas did you reject and why? • How did you plan your work on the assignment? • How did you deal with outside distractions? • Did you spend enough time on this assignment? If not, how much time should you have spent? • What will you do differently for the next written assignment? Possible questions for student Self-Evaluation of written assignment:
Emphasize planning. • Require periodic “reports” on their progress. • Create structured activities for identifying, and correcting errors before due dates. • Require reflection and self-analysis both before and after an assignment is submitted. • Your grading job will be greatly eased! Structure Written Assignments
Approximately1.82 to 2.08 million students in the California Community College System may have basic skills needs. ~ Basic Skills Initiative
