2014 pcc esl retreat slides
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Pasadena City College ESL Program Retreat, 2014TRANSCRIPT
Curriculum Innovation and “Acceleration”
PCC ESL Retreat 2014
February 28, 2014Creveling Lounge
Retreat Goals
• Identify possible benefits and consequences of curriculum innovation.
• Identify approaches to enhance the quality of student learning and effective progression through the PCC ESL program.
• Build interest an willingness among ESL faculty for curricular innovation.
Agenda
Time Theme/Activity
8:50 Welcome & Agenda
9:00 Connecting with where we are
10:00 Break
10:10 Innovation & Design
12:00 Working Lunch
1:00 Actions: Moving Forward
2:00 End
Connecting with Where We are (or… bitch, moan, and move on…)
Top Five Gripes
• Underprepared Students
• Too Big a Jump Between Levels
• Lack of Student Motivation
• Traditional Grammar and ESL- Writing-Based Curriculum
• Students’ Unrealistic Expectations
Discussion Activity
• Take a gripe out of the head.
• At your table, discuss the following question:
What kind of curriculum change that faculty have control over could help to address this gripe?
Summary of Fall 2011 Focus Groups
1. Barriers to student successo Lack of sentence-level control in higher levelso Plagiarismo Underprepared studentso Students lacking critical thinking skills, skills to
manage challenging content, and research skills
2. Proposed actionso Creating a language-rich environment for
studentso Paired classes, field tripso Professional development/interactiono Outside exposure (book clubs, study groups)
Summary Conclusions from 2012 Retreat
• CLASSROOM: Engage students in MORE integrated authentic READING
• CURRICULUM: Curriculum redesign: narrowed, deeper content addressing critical thinking & reading.
• ASSESSMENT: Use multiple ways of assessing program success from the POV of all stakeholders.
• COLLEGE: Build awareness and partnerships across campus re: ELL needs
Data, part 1: Success Rates by Type
2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-20130.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
Chart Title
Core Linear (Core)L/S Reading
Data, part 2: Success & Retention - ESL 33A
2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-20130.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
Chart Title
Success Linear (Success)Retention
Data, part 3: Core SLO Attainment: 2012-13
ESL 420 ESL 422 ESL 122 ESL 33A ESL 33B0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
Chart Title
Writing SLO Language SLOLinear (Language SLO) Linear (Language SLO)
Pre-Retreat Faculty Survey
1. ESL Course outines should be updated.
SA: 8 A:6 D: 1 SD: 0 DK: 0
2. Student progress through Levels 1-4 should remain grammar-based.
SA: 3 A: 5 D: 7 SD: 2 DK: 2
3. Levels 1-5 should be academic literacy and fluency-based combining reading and vocabulary writing listening and note-taking with grammar presented in an alternative way.
SA: 8 A: 5 D: 2 SD: 0 DK: 1
Pre-Retreat Faculty Survey (cont.)
4. Research Skills should be scaffolded throughout the program
SA: 8 A: 7 D: 1 SD: 0 DK: 1
5. Critical Thinking should be scaffolded throughout the program
SA: 13 A: 4 D: 0 SD: 0 DK: 0
Additional thoughts
• Lack of substantive curriculum updates since ???.
• “Remedial” isolated skills approach.
• Lock-step, one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t serve diverse groups of students (faster/slower, non-credit, international, etc.)
• Cafeteria approach to skill development.
• Lack of consistent scaffolding for college/career skills
• External factors (enrollment, politics, funding, financial aid)
Break Time
Innovation & DesignActivities and Reports
• We are all designers!
Think of something you DESIGNED for your students in your class that you’re happy with / that worked really well/that led to development for your students
Discussion Activity
How do we React to Innovation/Change?
Experimental Reading Class
Report out on STACC4ESL
What is STACC4ESL?
• What does STACC mean? Stretch + Acceleration
• STRETCH• Stretch out 33B curriculum by
scaffolding skills
• ACCELERATION
• Teach to English 1A Outcomes• Apply Acceleration principles over
2 semesters
What We Did: Logistics
• Spring-Summer 2013• Advertised --Continuing 33A AND new
33B students• DSP---- Recs/Questionnaire/Video/
Workshop• Released to Register
• Fall 2013-Spring 2014 • Two-Semesters• 33B (Fall2013)English 1A (Spring
2014)• Fall: Two Sections / Spring: One Section
(27)
How did we S—T—R---E---T---C---H?
Scaffolded
• Fluency First: Fluency-ClarityCorrectness
• Building of Research Skills --- Full paper
• Writing Process --Product
How did we Accelerate?
• Backward design from college-level course
• Relevant, thinking-oriented curriculum
• Just-in-time remediation
• Low-stakes, collaborative practice
• Intentional support for students’ affective needs
• Hern and Snell
What We Did: Curriculum4 Cycles: Theme-Based/ Integrated Reading & Writing/Process-Oriented –-- 3-4 weeks each
Semester 1
1. Literacy Narrative – narrative reading and writing; outside sources and synthesis of ideas
2. Observation Paper – observation reading and writing; Primary sources: Interview re Ethnic cuisine; Secondary sources - cultural values
3. Reflection-Research Writing – reflection reading and writing; Research Poster (Southland) Annotated Bibliography- Research-Reflection Paper
4. ePortfolio- Revising/Editing/Metacognition/Reflection
Semester 21. Change Writing: readings and writing about
concepts; outside sources and synthesis of ideas.
2. Problem-Based Learning: Problem-solution reading and writing; research paper process (L.A. Community)
3. Cause-Effect Essay: readings and writing about impacts of technology on language and thought; The Odyssey
4. Multi-Modal Position Paper: readings and writing on controversial issues (Discourse Community)
5. ePortfolio: Revising/Editing/Metacognition/Reflection
Features of Curriculum• Reading Apprenticeship Strategies; Synthesis
and Analysis Quizzes; Lit Circle Activities
• Freewriting Notebook
• Process-Oriented Projects//Timed in-class essays
• “Just in Time” Activities - Group Editing /Group Proofreading Jigsaw/Exercise Central/Grammar Flipping
• Research Skills: Integration of Sources/Searching Databases/Evaluation of Sources/Annotated Bibliography/Works Cited
• Capstone Projects: Research Poster and Presentation / ePortfolio
What Worked?
• Increased Fluency and Clarity in writing
• Socially active around reading tasks; Engagement with texts
• Willingness to engage with challenging tasks
• Increased sentence level accuracy
• Critiical Thinking skills
• Personal-Academic Voice vs. Researcher-Academic Voice
What Didn’t Work?
• Low- misplaced students
• Drops after Semester 1
• ESL Cohort in English 1A
Content-based Thematic Units
Acceleration Summit
ESL Acceleration Summit at Laney College
• Statewide Acceleration Project – AIC
• 4 Peralta Colleges implementing ESL Acceleration
• Other colleges at various stages of ESL AIC
Transforming the ESL Sequence: A Report from the First Year
Why the Change?
External Pressures
Budget Cuts
Financial Aid Cuts and Restrictions
Acceleration Principle: CAPACITY NOT SPEED
• NOT just going faster
• Helps more students to complete goals
• Engages students and increases intellectual rigor
• Instruction = application of integrated skills
• Contextualizes learning
• Builds capacity of student to learn and instructor to teach
• Students move more quickly toward their goals
Harm students by pushing faster?
• Lock-step progression vs. flexible progression
• Lots of models out there
• Peralta – able to move faster or slower depending on how meeting outcomes
• According to needs-- if S needs a passing grade in basic classes so get a AA to get job in their country DIFF from 20 yr old who wants transfer
How Has our CONTEXT CHANGED?
• Economic pressure – less time
• Fiscal challenges that we are facing -- keep our jobs
• Push for online courses, MOOCS
• Cognitive ability to work with language has changed bec. Of technology – trying to limit that is “Deceleration”
The New Peralta ESL Curriculum
Combined Reading and Writing
Changed from 6 levels to 4:
old new
(6) advanced5
high intermediate4
3 intermediate2
high beginning1
Changed from 4 to 3 Skill Areas
High Beginning
IntermediateHigh
IntermediateAdvanced
Grammar(4 Units) 284A/B 215A/B 216A/B 217A/B
Listening & Speaking(4 Units) 283A/B 232A/B 233A/B 50A/B
Reading & Writing (6 Units) 285A/B 222A/B 223A/B 52A/B
The Strands
• SKILL STRANDS in addition to language objectives run through all main courses at all levels
Critical Thinking
Information Literacy: Computer Skills/Research
Intercultural Communication and U.S. Culture
Sentence Level Accuracy
Comprehension (Reading/Listening) and Production (Writing/Speaking)
4-8 Level A/B system for flexible acceleration
Visualization of the A/B plan: Stairs
ADV B
ADV A
HIGH INT B
HIGH INT A
INT B
INT A
HIGH BEG B
HIGH BEG A
STUDENT ADVANCING FASTER
Visualization #2 of the A/B plan: Stairs
ADV B
ADV A
HIGH INT B
HIGH INT A
INT B
INT A
HIGH BEG B
HIGH BEG A
STUDENT ADVANCING SLOWER
Visualization #2 of the A/B plan: Stairs
STUDENT ADJUSTIN
G TO PROGRESS
ADV B
ADV A
HIGH INT B
HIGH INT A
INT B
INT A
HIGH BEG B
HIGH BEG A
I worked hard and
even got a C+, but I
can’t really perform all of the SLOs.
Wow! That was too
hard! I got a D or an F.
Got it! Ready to
move ahead!
Example: Students toward the end of High Intermediate A
Advanced A
High Intermediate B
High Intermediate A
Other features of A/B system:
• All students initially test into an A level
• B levels are only for those who have passed A and are not ready for the next A level
• Students advance to A with Teacher Permission
• Not repeating bec. Not same material – contextualized in a diff. set of materials.
• EXIT SKILLS ARE Diff. in B – and A FEW MORE
Report from the 1st Year: Data
• The new curriculum was implemented at all Peralta Colleges in Fall 2012
• All ESL students started out in an A course at one of four levels:
• High-Beginning• Intermediate• High-Intermediate• Advanced
• All students participated in a common assessment used to inform placement for Spring 2013
Conclusions
• At all levels, more students accelerated than did not
• More students accel at the first three levels than did at the highest level
% of students scoring Acceptable-Excellent on the English/ESL Common Portfolio Assessment Spring 11 vs. Spring 13
Flipping Grammar
Panel Q/A
Lunch!