SYLLABUS REVISION: PROCESS AND PRACTICEN.J.EDGE CONFERENCE, SETON HALL UNIVERSITY, MARCH 2010

Kelly E. Bender, Passaic County Community College

Introduction:

In the spring of 2009 the Developmental Studies Committee shifted its focus to the curriculum of the EN004, Writing Skills II course. The committee began the process of revisiting the structure, course objectives, themes, assignment designs, and methods of assessment.

One of the main objectives of this curriculum review and revision was to create a more forward thinking developmental writing course that would serve as a bridge between developmental English and college level composition. To do this, the committee brought to the table reflections and recollections of daily classroom experiences that included a variety of underlying personal assumptions about what we teach and how to teach it. From there, the committee was able to identify common threads within seemingly diverse pedagogical pathways.

Materials and Methods

The committee addressed current syllabi and texts used in developmental courses.

Assignments and readings were studied to see how closely they reflected the Student Learning Outcomes.

Results:

The committees ongoing collaboration eventually produced the shift in course materials. This new design in curriculum was created to move students from a literal, plot identified way of reading, writing and thinking about texts to a more conceptual, abstract and analytical way of instilling them. The assignments challenge students to write and speak about ideas and values rather than to merely report on “what happens next” in any given text.

One of the primary goals of constructing the new curriculum in this way was to emphasize that revision is not editing and that invention is valued.

Hence, the committee created materials that invite students to engage in a dialogue with the text, each other, and even themselves. The scaffolded writing assignments gently nudge students beyond providing summary and endless discussion of minor details, prompting them, instead, to engage textual messages and inferences.

Sample Assignments and Tools: Assignments and tools created were done so with the

curriculum in mind. Scoring rubrics for writing were created that placed value and focus on a meaningful response to the assignment and demonstrating engagement with the assignment. Also, significance was given to the number of drafts a student submitted.

Overall, assignments were viewed as more than just their own sum total, they were regarded as vital parts of the whole. With this thinking in mind, assignments were scanned across the curriculum to ensure bridges were created where there were once gaps; this was done to aid in a seamless transition from level to level.

Conclusions and Future Work While there are no simple and immediate conclusions to this project., the

hopes were that we could increase our retention rates and increase the number of students that we pass into college level English courses.

Lastly, comparing and contrasting the Student Learning Objectives between the different levels of our remedial English courses, the committee worked to ensure that the objectives linked one course to the next. And, just as importantly, that these links, or connections were clear to the student's as well.

The results of this committees work was the creation of the following Student Learning Outcomes for our second level remedial English course:

Upon completion of this course the student, using the writing process, will be able to:

• Construct a thesis statement in an organized introductory paragraph

• Support a topic sentence accurately and effectively in a five paragraph detailed body using Standard English and appropriate transition words

• End the essay with a concluding paragraph

• Apply the use of a rhetorical method for varied styles of writing

Questions:

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Or you may email me at: kbender@pccc.edu