Discussion Post

Week 1

In a short post of about 250 words or more, please answer one of the following questions in the form of a paragraph based on our Week 1 content and readings. Please edit carefully for style, grammar, and punctuation. Please follow up with at least 1 response to classmates’ posts so that we can engage in a rich discussion.  Please reference at least one of the readings in your response.

1. Thinking about how students’ English and writing abilities are assessed as part of the college admission process or as part of the course placement process once students are admitted to a college or university: what issues do you think arise in determining which students are admitted to certain colleges/ universities based on language skills?  OR if a student is admitted to a college or university as part of an open admissions system, what issues do you think arise in determining which students are placed into learning support or basic writing courses based on language skills? 
2. Thinking about the history of basic writing courses introduced in colleges and universities from the 1960s forward, discuss some of the issues in opening access with learning support classes.
3. What do you see as the drawbacks and benefits of an accelerated learning program for Basic Writing students (ALP, for example)?
4. If you looked at the additional reading by Whitfield (an instructor who had taught learning support classes for many years), what do you think are challenges that you might face as an instructor in such a class?

For Week 1, read the lecture notes below and see the textbook readings at the bottom; engage in the Week 1 Discussion. 

Lecture Notes:

In this abbreviated Week 1 Unit, we will begin by looking at the history of learning support or developmental writing programs within higher ed over the years.  Within the University System of Georgia, for example, the term used for basic writing courses is “learning support.” Through the years, other terms have been used such as “developmental studies.”  Throughout the United States, we see other terms:  remedial English and basic writing courses, for example.  For many years, within the USG, these courses were offered separately from college level courses, and developmental studies programs were housed in separate departments with faculty members designated specifically as developmental studies instructors.  These programs were initiated as part of a broader, nationwide attempt to offer greater access to students who may not have had access to college prep curricula, who were returning to college as adult learners long after high school graduation, or who did not meet college admission requirements but were offered an opportunity for admission to some state colleges (or junior colleges) under an “open admission policy” which allowed students to complete a series of placement tests to determine if they needed remediation before tackling general education courses such as English and math.  If they placed into “learning support,” they had to take remedial English, Reading, and Math courses (for us in English, that meant English 99 and possibly Reading 99), and they had to pass that class or classes before they could take English 1101).  While they were in learning support classes, many general education college level courses in the core curriculum were closed to them until they passed their learning support class (or classes).  As you can imagine, some students had to repeat these learning support courses, and many wound up staying in learning support classes for a year or longer before they exited to take college level classes.  Many never made it out of learning support, often accumulating personal or student loan debt without any ever receiving any college level credit.

Additionally, there was a stigma attached to these classes.  Students often felt embarrassed by being in “learning support,” and they felt that they were not truly college students.  As time passed, change occurred, and other models of delivery began to be developed and offered.  The Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) was one of those models that had an impact on USG learning support offerings; most schools in the system were required to implement this mode by 2013 or 2014.  This model advocated placing the student who needed remediation directly in the college level course such as English 1101 and then providing support with a 1, 2, or 3 credit “learning support class” to be taken at the same time.  Middle Georgia State University has experimented with a variety of ways to offer these classes:

2 separate classes (English 1101 and English 0999 support class) meeting with different instructors
2 separate classes with the same instructor
2 separate classes meeting 2 days or 4 days per week with one instructor
1 class (with 999 curriculum embedded in 1101) on two days per week for an extended period with one instructor

If this is confusing to you, imagine how students have felt trying to determine which classes they need to take and when the classes meet.  To add to the confusion, the support class (0999) has been offered at 2 and 3 credit hours, confusing class schedules and course loads. 

Right now, students who are placed into learning support English, for example, take English 1101 (3 hrs) and English 0999 (2h hrs) back to back two days per week in a face to face setting: one hour and 15 minutes for 1101, and 50 minutes for 0999. The curriculum of 0999 is embedded in English 1101, so students may have a great deal of instruction over one day, and on other days, they may have time set aside in class for “lab” where they work on drafts of essays in class with an instructor’s assistance or where they complete grammar exercises.  All face to face classes of learning support English are taught in a computer lab.

Some of the students who place into Learning Support are good writers, but may have had issues with admissions criteria (see below).  Students who are placed into Learning Support have the opportunity to take a test such as “Accuplacer” and attempt to test out of the requirement, but they must pay for the test, and they must take it and get results before classes start.  Very few people go this route.

With the new University System of Georgia guidelines for placement in learning support English (see below), we have a range of students in our classes — from students who really do not need remediation to students who struggle with basic reading skills.  

As your textbook readings indicate, colleges and universities across the nation continue to wrestle with issues regarding the most effective way to teach basic writing courses so that students can succeed and move forward with college education. 

As this course moves forward, we will wrestle with these issues as well. I hope that we can open the class with some of these questions:  

What does it mean to teach writing, especially basic writing in the college or university setting?

What do we expect of our students?  What preconceptions might we have?

What is the history of college level writing, and what expectations of language, expression, and communication is embedded in that tradition?

How does or can our teaching matter — to our students, to ourselves, and to the world outside our classroom?

USG GUIDELINES FOR LEARNING SUPPORT PLACEMENT IN ENGLISH

All entering students will be enrolled in ENGL 1101 English Composition I and the corequisite Learning Support course, ENGL 0999 Support for English Composition, unless they meet or exceed one or more of the exemption criteria listed below or are enrolled in a program for which ENGL 1101 is not required. If students enroll in programs that do not require ENGL 1101, but they choose to take this course, standard assessment and placement rules will apply.

To exempt placement in corequisite Learning Support students must:

For English (reading/writing): Students must meet or exceed one or more of the criteria listed below. Students must

have transferred or transferable credit for an Area A English course (must meet the minimum grade requirement for the institution – which may be a “C” or higher); OR
have an English Placement Index (EPI) of 4230 or higher; OR
have a High School Grade Point Average (HSGPA) of 2.7 or higher AND have completed the Required High School Curriculum (RHSC) in English; OR
score 430 or higher on the SAT (old) Critical Reading; OR
score 480 or higher on the SAT (new) Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) section; OR
score 17 or higher on the ACT English or ACT Reading; OR
score 61 or higher on the Classic Accuplacer Reading Comprehension test AND score 4 or higher on the Accuplacer WritePlacer test; OR
score 237 or higher on the Next-Generation Accuplacer Reading Comprehension test AND score 4 or higher on the Accuplacer WritePlacer test.

Textbook Readings & Linked Articles:
OUR ONLINE TEXTBOOK: Chapter 1, “Historical Overview,” in Otte and Mlynarczyk’s Basic Writing,  https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/basicwriting/basicwriting.pdf (starts on page 3)

OUR ONLINE TEXTBOOK: Chapter 2, “Defining Basic Writing and Writers,” in Otte and Mlynarczyk’s Basic Writing,  https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/basicwriting/basicwriting.pdf (starts on page 41)

LINKED ARTICLE: Chapter 12, in Bernstein’s Teaching Developmental Writing, “Access, Placement, Assessment and Retention,” page 427 (print book):  available scanned here:  Access, Placement, Assessment, and Retention.pdf

LINKED ARTICLE: Chapter 12, in Bernstein’s Teaching Developmental Writing, “The Accelerated Learning Program: Throwing Open the Gates,” page 438 (print book):  available online here: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ877255.pdf