Sandy Jones: Assistant Professor/Reading
sjones@ccbcmd.edu
Cheryl Scott: Assistant Professor/English
cscott2@ccbcmd.edu
The Community College of Baltimore County
What is a Learning Community?
 “Any of one of a variety of curricular structures that link
together several existing courses – or restructure
curricular material – so that students have opportunities
for deeper understanding and integration of the
material they are learning and more interaction with
one another and their teachers as fellow participants in
the learning enterprise.”
(From: New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 41, Spring
1990)
Purpose
 The purpose of CCBC’s Learning Communities
Program is to offer students a more integrated
learning experience by providing greater curricular
coherence and by increasing collaboration of
students and faculty in the pursuit of learning.
Students are provided with an enriched and
supportive learning experience.
CCBC’s Learning Communities:
Quick Facts
 50 plus learning communities a year, including
general education, developmental education, ESOL,
and Honors.
 Developmental learning communities pair RDNG 052
with an introductory or general education course
such as PSYC 101, SPCM 101, HLTH 101, HIST 116,
SOCL 101, CRJU 101, and ENGL 101.
 Some communities pair developmental reading 051
and 052 with developmental English 051 and 052.
 Our LC is new and pairs RDNG 052 with ENGL 101.
Characteristics of CCBC’s Program
 Offer students an integrated learning experience, including
the use of integrative assignments and syllabi.
 Help students understand the relationship between
different subjects and disciplines.
 Provide opportunities for students to think critically and
analytically.
 Encourage students to be personally accountable for
learning.
 Provide students with an enriched and supportive learning
experience as they form close bonds with faculty and peers.
 Provide opportunities for students to work collaboratively
with others.
Why Offer Learning Communities for
Developmental Learners?
“The most logical goal for college reading and
learning programs would be to teach
students a repertoire of strategies and tactics
that will prepare them for the tasks and texts
they encounter in college.”
(Stahl, Simpson, & Hayes, 1992)
Benefits of Developmental Learning
Communities
 Provides content validity.
 Transfers skills with authentic assignments.
 Views students as efficacious, not deficient in
intelligence or skills.
 Encourages student ownership of learning.
 Accelerates entry into credit courses.
Contextualizing Through a Developmental
Learning Community (RDNG 052/ENGL101)
 Pairs a developmental course (RDNG 052) with a
general education credit course (ENGL 101).
 Utilizes content of the credit course for skill
development within the developmental course.
 Assists students with connecting their learning
across courses and disciplines.
 Uses integrative assignments, materials, and class
activities to assist with that connection.
Strategies for Integration – Our L.C.
 Created common theme of
 Visited each others’ classes
“Culture”
 Designed integrative
assignments that met both
course objectives.
 Created syllabus to reflect
connections between the
courses and course
content.
 Used fiction and
nonfiction
periodically to observe or
participate in class
activities.
 Communicated weekly
with each other on student
behaviors and progress.
 Met with each student for
midterm conferences as a
team.
 Participated in research
efforts.
READING 052 AND
ENGLISH 101
LEARNING
COMMUNITY
THE PROBLEM
 Each
Fall at CCBC some students test into English
101 on the Accuplacer, but do not test out of
Reading 052. These students cannot take their
English because they have not met the Reading
prerequisite.
 These students have difficulty building a full
schedule (12-15 hours).
 In addition, in the traditional Reading 052 classes,
they can be bored and frustrated with work they
think of as “busy work.”
 Some of these competent students even drop out in
frustration.
A SOLUTION
A
learning community which will consist of
English 101 and Reading 052. This will
accelerate these students since Reading 052
is a prerequisite for English 101.
 Culture will be the theme
 Many assignments will be integrated.
 The Reading Lab will be used to integrate
not only cultural concepts but also English
skills.
 Teachers will attend one half of the sessions
of the other class.
RESULTS
 Acceleration
- 50% of our Reading 052 students
passed English 101 (over 2 semesters)
 Culture theme – students reported learning new
perspectives about themselves and the world.
 Integrated assignments – were essential to
success. English 101 assignments were first
introduced and discussed in the Reading class at a
comprehension level before the students had to
deal with them at an analysis and synthesis level
in English 101.
RESULTS
 Reading
Lab – enabled students to build
important background information, and
work with the new cultural concepts.
 Class visits- enabled both teachers to
integrate the concepts and to follow student
progress
RESULTS – FALL 2010
Total #
students
# Passed
% passed
Reading 052
1,466
956
70.7%
Reading 052
LC
13
11
84.6%
322 (22% of the
original 1466)
22%
SPRING 2011
English 101
(who took
Reading 052 in
Spring 2010)
522 (28% of the
original 1466)
FALL 2010
English 101 LC
13
7
53%
RESULTS – SPRING 2011
Total #
students
# Passed
% passed
English 052
Reading
052 LC
883
17
550
11
62%
64.7%
English 101
LC
17
8
47%
 STEP
1. M&M’s culture game






RED: Personal/Self Expression
Interests/hobbies/sports
YELLOW: Ethnic/racial
backgrounds
GREEN: Family
BROWN: Community
ORANGE: Work/School
BLUE: Spiritual
 According
to E. Hollins, “Personalizing
culture …refers to a process of deep
introspection that reveals the centrality of
culture in your own life.”
 In order to assist students in exploring their
own culture in order to appreciate the
different cultures of their classmates, we
created an integrative Culture
assignment.
STEP 2 - “A Lesson on Culture “ (Patricia QuinteroHall, D.P.A.) was given to the learning community
students.
 We asked students to think about what cultures they
have been exposed to throughout their lives, and
what effect they have had on the person they
now are.
 We introduced 5 aspects of “culture” and shared our
stories first.
 Students then shared their own cultural
backgrounds.

 STEP
3 – Discussion about culture,
differences, understanding what effects your
own experience has had on you, your
values, and your perceptions will follow.
Emphasis was placed on appreciating the
culture of others.
 STEP
4 – Students read “No Name Woman,”
an autobiography by Maxine Hong Kingston.
Hong-Kingston uses the art of storytelling to
impress on her readers the characteristics of
her Chinese culture and how it has affected
her own identity as a woman of Chinese
background growing up in a very American
culture.
What is Culture ?
By
Sandra Jones
How would you define culture?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Think about different things that you
think make up an individual’s culture
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Adler’s 5 dimensions of culture
• 1. Family –includes your immediate family
growing up, relatives, close
• 2. Work/School
• 3. Community
• 4. Personal (self)
• 5. Spiritual life – includes religious, and spiritual
activities, but also includes things you are
passionate about (ex: nature, poetry, animals,
music)
My Culture
Family
Spiritual
Personal
Work/school
Comnmunity
Complete the “Your Culture” handout
• Directions: Reflect on your culture and the
cultures you have been exposed to and write
down the specific features of those cultures.
“No Name Woman” –Chinese Culture
Family
Spiritual
Personal
Work/school
Comnmunity
What aspects of Chinese culture do you find
in “No Name Woman?”
• 1. Family – strong family bonds
• 2. Work/School – school was very
important, in one school the
experienced discrimination
• 3. Community – strong community ties,
agricultural, community more important
than individual
• 4. Personal (self)- group identity
• 5. Spiritual life–strong ethical values, pride

STEP 5 – Students interviewed family
members, gathering as much information as
they can about their cultural heritage.
Artifacts such as pictures, year books, letters,
can be gathered.

STEP 6 – Students wrote an ethnic autobiography,
discussing their heritage, ethnic identity(ies), and
how ethnic identity has been transmitted and
passed down through generations
Student Comments
 “This is the only class that I know everyone’s name. It
helps me to feel comfortable to talk about my work.”
 “The culture theme was very helpful and it was very
interesting. It did cause me to think about the different
cultures around the world.”
 “I liked having the two classes cover the same readings.
That way I could really understand it before I had to write
about it in English class.”
 “I thought it was good to explore other cultures instead of
one’s (sic.) that I know about. Keep up with the culture
theme.”
How this LC has Benefitted Us
 Developed self-awareness of teaching.
 Placed more attention on delivery systems.
 Used more collaborative learning techniques.
 Developed more compassion for students.
 Developed better listening skills.
 Became more flexible teachers.
 Gave students more responsibility for learning.
Future
 We are planning to add a global citizenship research
project. Students will choose a culture that they have
read about and do research to compare it with their
own in several areas: family structure, role of religion,
cultural mores, political factors, etc. They will write a
research paper and prepare a presentation using
PowerPoint or Glogster.
 We plan to apply to be the first globally intensive
Reading and English L.C. Students may choose to take
15 courses designated as globally intensive to receive a
program of Global Distinction designation on their
transcript.
References
 Gabelnick, F., MacGregor, J., Matthews, R.S., and Smith, B.L.
(Eds). (1990). Learning communities: creating connections
among students, faculty, and disciplines. (New Directions for
Teaching and Learning, No. 41). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 Stahl, M., L. Simpson, and C.G. Hayes (1992). Ten
Recommendations from Research for Teaching High-Risk
College Students . Journal of Developmental Education.
Volume 16, Issue 1, Fall Issue.
 Tinto, V. Goodsell-Love, A. and Russo, P (1994). Building
learning communities for new college students. State College,
PA: The Pennsylvania State University National Center on
Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.
Questions?
 Sandra Jones, Assistant Professor/Reading:
 sjones @ccbcmd.edu
 Cheryl Scott, Assistant Professor/English and Learning
Community Coordinator/Essex campus:
 Cscott2 @ccbcmd.edu