国产探花

Pilot Course Links Writing to Reading - and Provides a Foundation for College Studies

By Jane Eklund

Writing skills stem from reading skills.

That sounds like a no-brainer, but when Darrell Hucks and Tanya Sturtz, both assistant professors in the Education Department, set out to find ways to better prepare incoming students for college-level writing assignments, they found that research on student writing doesn鈥檛 address college students鈥� ability to read.

Hucks, who started his career as an elementary school teacher, had begun to link the two skills three years ago while teaching a sophomore-level course required for education majors. He had his students read aloud from a New York Times article they were discussing. 鈥淥ne of the students,鈥� he remembers, 鈥渃ame across a word as he was reading and he looked at me. That look? I recognized it from when I taught third grade. The student didn鈥檛 know how to decode the word.鈥� That prompted him to pay close attention to the quality of all his students鈥� reading. 鈥淚 knew, when we were talking about writing as an issue, it was tied to reading,鈥� he says.

He and Sturtz had been part of numerous conversations among faculty voicing concern about the quality of students鈥� writing, and they wanted to move beyond identifying the problem to solving it. Sturtz, a former secondary-school special ed teacher, had first-hand knowledge of the factors affecting high schoolers as they move into college. 鈥淲hen we started talking about the writing,鈥� she says, 鈥渨e asked, Well, what about the reading? We can鈥檛 take them apart.鈥�

Taking a cue from grades one through three, where reading and writing are seen as interconnected components of literacy, they devised a pilot project pairing a reading class with the Integrated Thinking and Writing class required of all first-year students at Keene State. The project launched last fall, with 25 first-year education majors who volunteered for the first-semester reading course and the second-semester writing course, both team-taught by Sturtz and Hucks.

The two teachers are quick to note that their pilot program isn鈥檛 about remediation or the idea that the students were coming to college with a deficit. 鈥淭his was enrichment,鈥� says Hucks, 鈥渨hich is a very different approach. It was not a deficit model of thinking about the students.鈥�

鈥業t鈥檚 About Fluency鈥�

Students who could happily flip through and enjoy a copy of People magazine had no idea how to read and comprehend a scholarly article, Sturtz and Hucks discovered. Reading is about fluency, notes Hucks, and fluency is about being fully invested in understanding the content. Engaged reading, he says, is very different from casual reading.

鈥淭here鈥檚 thought behind it, there鈥檚 inquiry behind it, there鈥檚 comprehension, definitely.鈥� So he and Sturtz modeled good reading, putting text up on a screen, reading it aloud, and walking the class through the process of understanding it 鈥� including looking up unfamiliar words (which today鈥檚 students can do in seconds using their smart phones). They also put together and distributed a guide for reading textbooks.

The second-semester Integrated Thinking and Writing class made the natural leap from reading to writing. Each section of ITW is based on different subject matter; Sturtz and Hucks鈥� focused on education reform. The course requires students to come up with a topic, research it, and write about it. With the skills the pilot program students had learned in the first semester, they were able to engage actively with the research, to summarize text, to read their writing aloud with an ear to flow, and to help each other edit 鈥� all of which led to stronger research papers. Sturtz and Hucks stressed that writing is a process of creating drafts, rewriting, editing, and revising. You can sit down at your computer with a can of Red Bull the night before a paper is due, but the chances of producing something you鈥檒l be proud of are pretty slim, they cautioned.

Launching College Careers

The year-long pilot program expanded to become a guide to approaching the academic side of college life. 鈥淪o many things went into this project,鈥� Sturtz says. 鈥淭he reading and writing skills, but also connecting students with resources.鈥�

They brought the class to the campus writing center and to the Aspire office, which offers academic support. They discussed how the strategies and skills the students were learning could be applied to education courses and also courses in any field. They talked about the appropriate approach and tone for emailing professors or college administrators.

And, importantly, the students in their class now have a sort of 鈥渉ome base鈥�: an affinity group of two dozen classmates who also hope to become teachers and mentorship from two faculty mentors. That鈥檚 good for both the students and the College, as indicators are that students who have such early peer and faculty support in their field of study are more likely to graduate.

The pilot classes created many levels of support for the students. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a model for induction into college life,鈥� says Hucks. 鈥淗ow do we induct our students into campus life, into the culture, into academic life, show them how to be a student at this institution? For them to have access to two faculty members, two professors in the program that they are planning on pursuing later on, it makes a huge difference.鈥�

Emily Fennes, a student from Long Island, New York, who signed up for the pilot program because she thought it would be helpful in navigating college courses, agrees. 鈥淚 came to this school knowing no one,鈥� she says. Being in a class with 20 other education majors was a great help, she adds. Her classmates got to know each other well, helped each other not just in the pilot classes but in other courses, and made an early connection with two professors in their major. 鈥淭he things I learned in that class I鈥檓 going to be using for the rest of my life,鈥� she says.

Creating Confidence

At the end of the year, the pilot class participants were not just better writers, they were more capable students. They now know how to read, decode, and summarize textbooks and research materials; they know the steps to take what they鈥檝e learned in their research and turn it into a cohesive paper.

Their final research papers, says Hucks, were of higher quality than those of some upper-class students. Writing is critical for these young people, he notes. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to be teachers. We can鈥檛 have them go out and be mediocre teachers.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we do what we do,鈥� Sturtz adds. 鈥淲e set high expectations and challenge them. If we don鈥檛 do that for our own students, how can we expect them to do it for their students?鈥�

For many of the first years in the class, meeting those expectations was a confidence booster. The quieter ones grew bold. The followers stepped up to take leadership roles. Some applied to Keene State鈥檚 Honors Program (Emily Fennes joined the program this fall) and others to its Global Studies Program. They showed interest in the education honor society. They became, Hucks says, 鈥渕ore involved in campus life. And they attributed that to having this course, having this connection.鈥�

Recommendations for the Future?

What does the pilot class tell us about ways to better prepare first years for college-level writing assignments and for college life? Observations based on the first year of the program suggest possibilities like offering the dual reading-writing course to more students; linking writing courses to students鈥� majors; offering team-taught ITW courses that pair writing teachers, who are often English adjuncts, with full-time faculty in the various academic departments; and involving adjuncts more in departmental planning and curriculum meetings.

But Sturtz and Hucks are quick to note that it鈥檚 too early to suggest broad changes to the way the College approaches teaching writing. While the pilot course is designed in part to show students how to put together a written research project, it鈥檚 also a laboratory for the two education professors. Through teaching the paired reading-writing classes, they鈥檙e gathering data for their own research on ways to prepare students for college-level writing. Last year they collected data on the ITW program; this year they鈥檒l be more focused on collecting data on the students.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to see what is working, what we are discovering from these students,鈥� says Sturtz, adding that they need to understand on a small scale what works and what doesn鈥檛 before expanding their scope. For now, they鈥檙e excited about working with this year鈥檚 crop of 27 first-year education majors, culled from the 40 who asked to be in the class.

But last year鈥檚 first years, the pilot program鈥檚 inaugural students, are still in the loop. They鈥檒l all have opportunities to work with Sturtz and Hucks in the future, through upper-level education classes or field study supervision. And many have signed on to serve as mentors for this year鈥檚 group 鈥� another indication, say the two professors, that the pilot course has been effective in engaging students in the College community.

This story originally appeared in the Fall 2013 issue of Keene State Today.