ACCELERATING FRESHMAN
UNDERSTANDING OF COLLEGE
TASKS
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Breakout 4: Dr. Deborah Culbertson
Texas A&M University - CC
GOALS
Improve freshman literacy through improved
thinking skills
 Use techniques that accelerate proficiency using
multiple resources, including technology
 Provide a collegial environment using academic
language without communicating failure

POSITS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Reading, writing, listening and speaking define
literacy and are connected literacy tasks.
Critical literacy processes ask students to
understand and evaluate the arguments of
others.
Academic words for thinking include analyze,
evaluate, defend, and judge.
Academic words for format include essay, study,
report, and article.
Rhetorical evaluation of assignments is only
part of reading comprehension; good readers use
the information gained from reading.
IRW AT TEXAS A&M – CORPUS CHRISTI,
TX
Campus size: 10,000 approximately
 Developmental Reading and Developmental
Writing integrated into IRW in 2013-2014.
Moved from Reading Department in the College
of Education to the English Department in the
College of Liberal Arts.
 Classes – Fall - 7 sections of 25; Spring - 3
sections of 30

IRW CONFIGURATION
Integrated reading and writing – 3 hours a week
 Co-requisite is Freshman Composition 1
 Mandatory tutoring at the reading section of the
Student Success Center - 1 hour a week (40%)

1 hour a week
 Must be tutoring in a content other than English

Mandatory tutoring at the writing section of the
Student Success Center – ½ hour a week
 If the student fails English Composition, they
repeat the non-credit based IRW along with
English Comp 1. If the student makes below a C
but does not fail, then they repeat IRW and move
on to English Comp 2.

BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PIERCE

Throughout its history, the United States has
often grappled with controversial domestic issues
that have divided its citizens. In a wellconstructed essay, discuss at least two such
issues and the historical background that led to
the controversy. Explain the government's
legislative and/or judicial responses in each case,
and assess the effectiveness of those responses.
MARKERS OF GOOD ACADEMIC READING
AND WRITING
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Hass & Flower (1988) defined critical reading: it
involves more than careful rhetorical skill and
comprehension of text; critical reading requires the
reader to build a complex representation of meaning.
Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz (2011) talked about reading as
a tool students use to construct, clarify, and extend
meaning in a given discipline.
Kantz (2011) published a goal of reading and writing.
It is to invent an original structure, talk about the
sources paying close attention to originality and self
expression.
Bean (2013) added to the discourse with student need
to compare messages of text using questions of the
text and evaluate the sources of information.
STUDY OF READING

Professors
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What does a reading assignment look like?
What are your expectations for the student?
What behaviors are appropriate for reading?
What do you do if they don’t read?
What do you do if they don’t understand?
RESPONSES
The responses were interesting but expected—
 What are your expectations/behaviors for
students?

Pre-empt class so the information can be used for
discussion or questions.
 Professors talk about expected behaviors while
students read – highlight, connect to previous lecture
information, write down questions they may have
regarding the reading.

STUDENT ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
What behaviors do you have when reading for
your classes?
 What do you do when you do not read?


Goal: Strategies for reading and content
acquisition
RESPONSES
Students use many strategies while reading
including highlighting, notes in the margins, and
they have special places to do their reading.
They use the internet for additional information.
 Students who do not read slowly, skim read.
They reading the first sentences, skim, then
continue to the last sentences
 Students who do not read will look up bolded
vocabulary and read the main headings. They
may use the internet to look at more details.
 Students who do not touch their book, use other
students to verify the information. They may
look online.

STUDENTS USE STRATEGIES….
 They
have a gap in their understanding how
to perform high school and how to perform
college.
 They do not use reading to catapult more
inquiry.
 They do not explicitly understand what they
should do when you use academic vocabulary.

You can do many things with information


Describe, explain, compare, analyze, define, synthesize
An essay can have many formats….

Report, argue, research, comparative
ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

Essentially, literacy format is the structure of the
thinking …academic vocabulary gives that
thinking a name.


We can describe verbally, read a descriptive essay,
and write descriptively. The format can be an essay,
narrative, or a journal article.
By the definition of Maxwell (2013), academic
language is necessary for college literacy as they
learn to read, write, and speak within a discourse
community.
WHAT IS THE GAP?
Background knowledge of a the world outside of
themselves
 Background knowledge of a discourse community
 Vocabulary of a discourse community
 College discourse vocabulary
 Global connections to information
 Using reading as a tool to clarify and extend.
 Using writing to communicate information in a
variety of academic formats.
 Presenting information in a variety of ways.

METHOD AND PEDAGOGY
Interactive with each other and sometimes me.
 Facilitator and sometimes Sage on the Stage
(I do not talk longer than 10 minutes at a time
before I have students interact.)
 Thematic Units that include a variety in the
reading, discussion, writing, peer evaluation,
presentation, and listening exercises.
 Use collaborative and individual work
assignments.
 Peers evaluate the efforts of their group members
and have the responsibility the jobs each will do.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS
Everything…
 Access information by cell…….
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Newspapers both online and print
Library both online and print
Posting journal articles for students to read; they also
post journal articles to share
Textbook – reader which can be purchased as a text
or e-book
Music
Video
Pictures
CELL PHONES
Access to information, especially for vocabulary
 Find information…..
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Instant access also means in class they are
reading, researching, and must talk about the
credibility of the resources they locate.
College level phone use must be a discussion
class…but the rule of no phone usually means
students are engaged in looking at their laps or
inside their bags most of the class.
LAST NOTE ON PHONES
The students have my cell number. I have theirs.
 They exchange contact information with two
people while they are in my class.

I use the cell to give them assignments when
they are not in class.
 They use the cell to ask questions about college
assignments.

VISUAL MEDIA: PHOTOJOURNALISM
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Pictures tell the story in photojournalism.
I use a Ted Talk to let an expert tell students
about taking pictures that communicate
information.
We also use the newspaper to look at
photojournalists work.
Since we use the National Geographic reader, it
is easy to use the articles in their readers and the
National Geographic online presense also.
LIBRARY: JOURNAL STACKS
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Their library access is specific to task…find the
journals of their proposed majors.
The goal is to see how their discourse community
is looking at the world and what language they
use.
Find problems the discourse community is
solving.
VOCABULARY

Academic terms

Assess using a CUBING writing technique


Describe, explain, compare, analyze, evaluate, synthesize
Practice verbally using the skills; the terms are part
of the conversations in class
Discourse of the composition terms (Rhetoric)
 Vocabulary work is not isolated; self-selected
terms from the reading are part of their work.

(board work)
SAMPLE DISCOURSE COMMUNITY VOCAB
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Inc = Increase
Dec = Decrease
Hdc= Half double crochet
Dec hdc= Half double crochet 2 stitches together
Inc hdc= 2 half double crochet in same stitch
Dc = Double crochet
Inc dc = 2 double crochet in same stitch
Dec dc = Double crochet 2 stitches together
Tc = Triple crochet
Dtc = Double triple crochet
Inc tc = 2 triple crochet in same stitch
Dec tc = Triple crochet 2 stitches together
READING USING DISCOURSE VOCABULARY
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Heart: using color A yarn
R1: form a magic ring, crochet 12 dc into the ring,
total 12 dc (pull ring close, sl into first st to join, ch 1)
R2: work all sts into front-loops only, 1 hdc and 1 dc
into 1st st, 3 tc into next st, 2 dc into next st, 1 dc and
1 hdc into next st, 2 hdc into next st, 1 dc into next st
( you have just finished half of the heart now)
Go counter clockwise: 1 dc into next st, 2 hdc into next
st, 1 hdc and 1 dc into next st, 2 dc into next st, 3 tc
into next st, 1 dc and 1 hdc into last st, total 24 sts ( sl
into first st to join, ch 1)
READING SELECTIONS
Current use: National Geographic Readers.
GREEN and Diversity in America
 Current strategy: Mind Mapping
 Project Samples:

GREEN – Presentation/group work. Groups where
formed by the students according to discourse
community. Their goal is to come up with a solution
according to what their community focus.
 FICTION – Fairy Tales – Inception to present. They
learn the global nature of these tales and how each
rendition reflects the society in which it was told.
Presentation and paper.

CRITICAL LISTENING SKILLS

Ted Talks – practice listening

What do critical listeners do?
To prepare the students as a class we discuss the
goals of writing a speech. What are the parts of a
good speech?
 Then the class listens for the topic, the problem,
examples given, then the proposed solution.
 For credibility of the information they also record the
speaker and judge what makes this person worth the
lecture.

ANALYZE THIS…..
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If you want the students to use this skill, the
student must understand what make up the
whole of whatever they are told to analyze.
For example, in art……
We practice analysis and talking about the parts
and what relationship those parts have to the
whole.
 How is it different then explain, synthesize, or
compare?

JOURNALS: DIVIDED IN SECTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
Great writing lines from reading or
environment with citations of the sources
Notes for class lectures and Ted Talks
Vocabulary – Mirrors freshman composition
class or is centered in the thinking vocabulary.
The strategy utilized in class is the Concept of
Definition Map.
Personal Writing Problems – This sections focus
is on their personal issues such as they’re,
there, and their. We use the space to comment
on the readings and to comment on essays from
other classes.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Students write every class period
 Practice changing everyday language to academic
language……

I can imagine how the people can get sick using the
water available to them.
 The people of Ghana have medical issues because of
the waste, both human and animal, in the water they
use for daily consumption.

Find and record ways writers use the language
that appeals to their style.
 Use “just in time” or mini lessons for grammar
issues and sentence structures.

CLASS CONNECTION TO CAMPUS
Class is tied to using the Tutoring Lab once a
week for…..
 Assignments parallel freshman composition in
vocabulary to give students more time to
understand the discourse of the format of the
required reading in their Freshman Comp.
 I am the guest speaker in many of the classes in
freshman English.

Reading
(variety
of text)
Assignment
writing
Vocabulary
of
academia
Presenting
Current
Global
Issue or
Content
Discourse
community
vocabulary
Writing
Listening
FINAL NOTES
Give students the voice of academics
 Practice using the vocabulary of their major
 Create opportunities for students to see what
they haven’t seen – I love TED Talks for this
reason, who doesn’t have 5 to 8 minutes?
 Use group work and individual work evenly
 Let the group fire bad group members …
everyone has a job.
 Materials – online/text,, journals, library, phones,
internet, newspapers, journals, magazines,
billboards.
