Initial Approach to Acceleration—
English 360: Focused English
Fundamentals
The California Acceleration Project
CAP supports colleges to increase student completion of transferlevel English and math through evidence-based practices that
reduce or eliminate students’ time in remediation.
High-Leverage Practices:
• Transforming placement policies to broaden access to transfer-level courses
and enable all students to begin higher in the sequence
• Contextualizing math remediation to students’ program of study -- algebra
for math-intensive pathways, statistics & quantitative reasoning for others
• Redesigning curricula to accelerate students through remediation, including
co-requisite models at the transfer-level and single-semester remedial
courses aligned with the transfer-level courses in students’ program of study
http://cap.3csn.org
Our original developmental sequence:
• English 305: Introductory Reading and Writing Skills
(3)
• English 355/355L: Writing and Reading Skills with
lab co-requisite (3+1.5)
• English 370/370L: English Fundamentals with lab
co-requisite (3+.5)
• English 380: Advanced English Fundamentals (3)
*At any point, students could “skip” a step (or steps) based
on CME score (department-read common final) and
instructor recommendation at the end of a course.
Our new developmental sequence:
• English 310A: Introductory Reading and Writing
Skills (1.5)
• English 370/370L: English Fundamentals with lab
co-requisite (3+.5)
-OR• English 360: Focused English Fundamentals (5)
*CME has been turned into a simple common final,
to be weighted as instructor sees fit.
English 360: Focused English
Fundamentals
• Five units
• Open enrollment
• Just-in-time remediation
• College-level reading and writing tasks from the
beginning of the semester
• Scaffolding
• Numerous opportunities for revision
• Portfolio assessment (which includes common final)
Student Learning Outcomes
• Write essays which demonstrate the following:
• the ability to present a thesis and to develop it through
coherent paragraphs with controlling ideas;
• the ability to critically read and analyze college level
essays while identifying the controlling idea and main
points;
• the ability to synthesize ideas from reading with personal
experience;
• an awareness of the need to credit sources;
• the abilities to use a variety of sentence patterns and the
standard conventions of written English correctly.
Sample Texts
• Sheff, N. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines. Atheneum
Books for Young Readers, 2009
• Linde, P. Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist.
University of California Press, 2011
• Grandin, T. Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism. Vintage, 2010
• Hornbacher, M. Madness: A Bipolar Life. Mariner Books, 2009
• Slater, L. Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of
the Twentieth Century, classic ed. Norton, 2005
• Pink, D.. Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us, classic
ed. Riverhead Trade, 2011
Sample Assignment (first essay)
Educational Autobiography
Tell me the story of your educational history, including analysis of that history in
light of the ideas presented in Daniel Pink’s book Drive. Tell me about the journey
you’ve been on, the good, the bad, how you have felt about yourself as a learner
in your past schooling, how you dealt with failures and successes, whether you felt
much “intrinsic motivation”… Paint me a detailed picture, so that I can start to get
to know you by learning about your experiences.
Some things I’d like you to include:
• What have been the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in your education
so far? Offer specific examples of times you’ve experienced each kind, and
explain how each kind of motivation has impacted your outcomes.
• Has your previous education included much autonomy, mastery, and/or
purpose? (Please refer to at least two of the above.)
• If you HAVE had these experiences, please describe at least one example and
how it felt.
• If you have NOT experienced these ideas in the past, please think of at least one
specific example when this was true and describe how that felt.
• Identify and describe your current motivation as a college student. Do you feel
the drives of autonomy, mastery, and purpose (any or all)? Why or why not?
Are your motivations primarily extrinsic or intrinsic? How might you apply Pink’s
ideas to maximize your success as a college student?
Sample Assignment (final essay)
From chapter 2 of Slater’s Opening Skinner’s Box:
Lee Ross, coauthor of The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social
Psychology, says, “I wouldn’t say there are no stable character attributes in a
person that contribute to moral or immoral behavior, but they are far
outweighed by where the person is, and at what time, and with whom.” In
other words, Ross and his colleagues claim that our behaviors do not result so
much from a stable set of internalized preferences or beliefs, but rather from
external influences that change like wind and weather (Slater 45).
From chapter 4 of Slater’s Opening Skinner’s Box:
Darley and Latane . . . like Milgram . . . believed less in the power of personality
than in the power of situation (Slater 98).
Do you accept this explanation of human behavior/psychology? Yes? No?
Somewhat? Why do you see it like you do? (Your answer should be summarized in
your thesis statement in your introduction.)
In your essay, be sure to include support for your argument with relevant ideas,
information, and quotes from the Milgram handout, Opening Skinner’s Box, and/or
any other source(s) you find. You will want to discuss Darley and Latane’s
experiment as well as Milgram’s, and your essay will be stronger if you include a
discussion of the opposing viewpoint, evidence that contradicts your argument.
Be sure to explain what you think of the evidence you present and discuss why this
evidence supports your view or, if it doesn’t, why it does not cause you to abandon
your own position.