Discipline Review Reading

1. Discipline ReviewReading Reading (ENG 080-085) Department: Foundation Studies Discipline Team Leaders: Amy Leighton Gamel & Ted Miller Discipline Team Members: Martha Petry, Deborah Coons, Kathy Gates, Dave Mills, Linda Krasny, Ann Iseda, Jo Omo

2. Mission To promote the effective use of active reading strategies by students in reading courses and across content areas. Effective reading skills are critical to success in all college classes. By training instructors to model and embed active reading strategies in their classes, we are promoting the application of reading skills by students as they move from semester to semester and from one content area to another.

3. ADO 7, Critical Thinking ENG 080 • Generate questions before and while reading • Distinguish between fact and opinion • Incorporate new knowledge with old ENG 085 • Generate questions before and while reading • Distinguish between fact, opinion and inference • Recognize bias in a piece of writing • Incorporate new knowledge with old

4. Goals The primary goal of the reading program is to increase students’ mastery and application of active reading strategies. This goal will be achieved by inculcating common instructional practices through: • Professional development in reading strategy instruction for reading instructors. • Professional development in reading strategy instruction for instructors across content areas. • Professional development in reading strategy instruction for teachers in Vandercook Lake Middle School and Vandercook Lake High School. Additionally, providing students with frequent opportunities to review and practice these reading strategies throughout their academic experiences at JCC is essential.

5. Engagement with Stakeholders Stakeholders: Foundation Studies students, content area faculty, transfer colleges and universities and local employers. Lead faculty Amy Gamel . . . • communicates with content area faculty and other stakeholders in Foundation Studies Committee meetings • visits department meetings to provide information about the RAMP and FIRM initiatives and to describe available reading resources. • confers with individual faculty about their students’ reading challenges. • surveys students at the conclusion of each RAMP visit.

6. Engagement with Stakeholders (cont.) • builds relationships with and receives feedback from reading faculty. • reviews surveys of reading students about their experiences as learners in reading courses and instructor evaluations • meets monthly with faculty and administrators at Vandercook Lake Middle School and High School to implement school-wide literacy initiative. • confers with instructors and administrators at Baker College, Albion College and Spring Arbor University • asks business owners about the reading needs of prospective employees and reading assessments used as a part of the application and hiring process

7. Expectations for Stakeholders • Faculty members expect students who are skilled in critical thinking and reading comprehension. Many faculty also desire expertise in introducing and incorporating active reading strategies in their classrooms. • Students expect to develop confidence and increased competency in applying effective reading strategies. • Transfer institutions expect students who are skilled in critical thinking and reading comprehension. • Potential employers expect employees who are skilled in critical thinking and reading comprehension.

8. Comparison Colleges

9. Figure 1: Percentage of students receiving 2.0 or better, by course. Reading Success Rates: Trend Reading: Success Rates (2.0 or better) by Course *2010-11 was a transition year: switch to textbook with more challenging expository/academic content and workshop model with focus on metacognition/active reading strategies.

10. Measures Taken to Improve Success Rates • Instructor’s job: 1) improve reading skills, 2) promote attendance and successful course completion. • Know characteristics of developmental students and apply best practices and strategies for persistence and retention. • Provide feedback to students early and often • Hold regular conferences with student • (Adjunct candidates) submit lesson plans covering one reading strategy from Tovani’s book, I Read It But, I Don’t Get It. • (All instructors) do pre/post assessment of student application of Tovani’s active reading strategies—report to lead faculty.

11. Executive Summary Strengths • Through a Title III Grant, JCC promotes active reading strategy instruction campus-wide, modeling best practices in higher education literacy. • Several content area faculty have been receptive to suggestions and training opportunities for helping their students with reading in their classes. • ENG 085 course pack provides grade-level appropriate reading material with current and high interest topics. • Reading instructors are receptive to training opportunities; have a good understanding of characteristics of, and enjoy working with, DE students. The camaraderie among reading instructors is strong.

12. Executive Summary Weaknesses • Among both reading and content area instructors, a new paradigm in which instructors are role models in how to effectively read and comprehend materials in all content has not been fully embraced and practiced. • Success rates are still low, though improving. • Reading instructors are very creative. For some, having common materials feels limiting. We want to encourage creativity while maintaining consistency across sections.

13. Executive Summary Opportunities to: • learn specific reading tasks from content specific instructors and share strategies for developing students’ competence. • promote literacy development as a college-wide endeavor. • contribute to the literacy development of incoming students before they complete high school. • increase instructor reporting of student performance in demonstrating active reading strategies, ADOs’, etc.

14. Executive Summary Threats • Students are arriving to JCC with lower and lower reading skills. • The belief that reading instruction belongs only in reading courses deters faculty in other disciplines from learning to integrate active reading strategies in their own courses. • Lead reading faculty’s directing and implementing all reading initiatives is problematic. We need to have more faculty trained to sustain and grow reading instruction.

15. Action Project 1: Faculty Inquiry Reading Meeting (FIRM) Person responsible: Amelia Leighton Gamel Complete by: 2015 Description: Monthly instructional workshops that • train instructors to model and embed active reading strategies in their classes. • enable instructors to share experiences of implementing active reading strategies in all content areas. Desired impact: • Reading and content area instructors will effectively model and embed active reading strategies in their classes; • Students will effectively apply these strategies as they move from semester to semester and from one content area to another.

16. Action Project 2: Reading Apprentice and Mentoring Program (RAMP) Persons responsible: Amelia Leighton Gamel and Charlotte Finnegan Complete by: 2015 Description: Amy Leighton Gamel provides in-class instruction and demonstrations of active reading strategies in all content areas using content-specific materials. Desired impact: • Reading and content area instructors will effectively model and embed active reading strategies in their classes; • Students will effectively apply these strategies as they move from semester to semester and from one content area to another.

17. Action Project 3: Literacy Collaboration with Vandercook Lake Schools Persons responsible: Amelia Leighton Gamel Complete by: 2015 Description: Amy Leighton Gamel facilitates monthly instructional workshops that train VCL teachers to model and embed active reading strategies in their classes and provides in-class instruction and demonstrations of active reading strategies in all content areas using content-specific materials. Desired impact: • Teachers will effectively model and embed active reading strategies in their classes • Students will effectively apply these strategies as they move through the secondary grades and beyond.

18. Thank you! Questions…