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!