Angie Magallón
Personal Reflection
Jumpstart FIG, Fall 2009
What have you learned from the process of reflecting upon your English 102 this semester?
(e.g. analyzing placement data, doing case write-ups, having regular collegial conversations, using the
MARSI and shared in-take/post-take essay).
I learned that my assumptions about studenting skills being the biggest obstacle to success in 102
were validated by Jumpstart. Upon reviewing the Reading placement scores for the class, all of the
students were eligible for 101A or 102 and only 2 had reading scores that should have placed them
in Eng 116 or ESL. In the writing segment the lowest score was 46 but I noticed that a few of the
stronger writers in the class had similar placement scores to those students who did not pass the
class and struggled with their essays throughout the semester. It is clear that placement scores are
not a good indication of who will and who won’t succeed in 102.
For me, this seems to be further reinforced by our formal/informal findings in Puente. Regardless of
student scores and skills coming into the Puente program, if a student had made a firm commitment
to their success and took advantage of all the resources (tutoring, office hours, ESL or Eng 107) they
found a way to succeed with their classmates who initially had stronger writing/reading skills.
During our conversations something I struggled with and heard echoed a bit form the others was
this idea that our classes were feeling less like 102 courses because we were spending so much time
visiting and revisiting studenting skills. In retrospect I don’t feel I could have done things differently
unless I wanted to have a class of about 5 students midway through the semester. While I am
interested in learning more about how I can help and support my students with studenting skills, I
found that emphasizing these skills was detrimental to the integrity of the class. The intention on
reviewing student skills was to stress their importance and get the students to realize the
correlation to their success. Doing this completely shifted the emphasis from 102 being Accelerated
course, and instead gave the impression that this was a remedial course, so instead of the strong
students modeling good skills and habits for the weaker students, the stronger students stopped
taking the class seriously and began adopting the bad habits of their classmates. I was also able to
compare Jumpstart to my regular 102 where I was able to hold the standard and saw that my
regular 102 had much higher student success in assignments, papers and pass rates.
While assessing the MARSI data, I found the results to be less useful. The students in the beginning
of the semester were not familiar with some of the language and I felt that some of the items were
techniques I don’t even cover in my classes. It did however, make me realize that my emphasis is
predominantly on the writing process and I have considered how reinforcing reading strategies
might help support skills that students, esp. at this level, need.
2. What are the implications of this reflection for your own practice as a teacher? Have you made any
changes to your classroom as a result of the work? Are you planning any changes for future
semesters?
One thing I am considering incorporating more into my classes are reading strategies. I tend to go
over the basics such as annotating, pre reading, summarizing, responses etc, but I don’t really assess
these skills with the same frequency and formality that I do with writing. While the MARSI was not
something I found especially useful in terms of identifying particular student needs or trends, I did
think that discussing the MARSI scores with the students at the end of the semester, after they had
practiced some of those techniques, created an opportunity for students to reflect on their reading
habits. It was also a way for me to reflect on the techniques I had incorporated regularly and those I
did not.
3. Based upon our work in the Jumpstart FIG, are there issues you think the department should
consider (e.g. re: curriculum, pedagogy)? Also, are you ok with the results from your individual section
being shared? Are there issues you think the larger college (e.g. Basic Skills Committee) should
consider
I would like to see the Placement test revisited. It seems to me that it is not a good measure or
indication of a student’s ability to succeed in any course unless they score extremely high or low which
seems to be rare. If students in 102 are succeeding at a higher rate it may be because students with
strong studenting skills are more likely to seek out these courses. They may have low to medium scores,
but as was evidenced by our Jumpstart conversations, low writing and reading skills were not the
biggest obstacle to success—preparedness, self awareness and buy in were.
Another area to consider would be counseling both academic and crisis counseling. Students still seem
to have little awareness about the differences between 101A/101B and 102. The only factor they
consider is the fact that one is two semesters and the other is one. If we could find a way to more
clearly articulate the difference in curriculum and the skills needed to succeed, we might see that
students do a much better job of placing themselves in the appropriate course. Also, with everything
our students are confronted with, it would be nice to have more support from the campus so that as
instructors we could have a place to refer students we know are dealing with crisis but don’t have the
money or resources to get the help they need.
I’d also like to see more focus put on providing instructors resources for more community building esp.
in the basic skills courses. Having more resources for field trips, group activities, events might help helps
with student buy in. It also allows the instructor and students to get out of the classroom and into “real
life” where there are more opportunities to bridge life and the classroom together instead of focusing
solely on classroom strategies that don’t necessarily address the areas of motivation, buy in, etc.