Pasadena City College ESL Program Retreat, 2014

1. Curriculum Innovation
and ―Acceleration‖
PCC ESL Retreat 2014
February 28, 2014
Creveling Lounge

2. 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.

3. 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

4. Connecting with
Where We are
(or… bitch, moan, and move on…)

5. Top Five Gripes
• Underprepared Students
• Too Big a Jump Between
Levels
• Lack of Student Motivation
• Traditional Grammar and ESLWriting-Based Curriculum
• Students’ Unrealistic
Expectations

6. 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?

7. Summary of Fall 2011 Focus Groups
1. Barriers to student success
o
o
o
o
Lack of sentence-level control in higher levels
Plagiarism
Underprepared students
Students lacking critical thinking skills, skills to
manage challenging content, and research skills
2. Proposed actions
o Creating a language-rich environment for
students
o Paired classes, field trips
o Professional development/interaction
o Outside exposure (book clubs, study groups)

8. 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

9. Data, part 1: Success Rates by Type
Chart Title
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
2008-2009
Core
2009-2010
2010-2011
L/S
Reading
2011-2012
2012-2013
Linear (Core)

10. Data, part 2: Success & Retention - ESL 33A
Chart Title
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
2008-2009
2009-2010
Success
2010-2011
Retention
2011-2012
2012-2013

11. Data, part 3: Core SLO Attainment: 2012-13
Chart Title
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
ESL 420
Writing SLO
ESL 422
ESL 122
Language SLO
ESL 33A
ESL 33B
Linear (Language SLO)

12. 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 fluencybased 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

13. 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

14. 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, noncredit, international, etc.)
• Cafeteria approach to skill development.
• Lack of consistent scaffolding for college/career
skills
• External factors
(enrollment, politics, funding, financial aid)

16. Innovation & Design
Activities and Reports

17. Discussion Activity
• 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

18. How do we React to
Innovation/Change?

20. Experimental Reading Class

21. Report out on STACC4ESL

22. 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

23. 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)

24. How did we
S—T—R---E---T---C---H?
Scaffolded
• Fluency First: FluencyClarityCorrectness
• Building of Research Skills ---
Full paper
• Writing Process --Product

25. How did we Accelerate?
• Backward design from collegelevel course
• Relevant, thinking-oriented
curriculum
• Just-in-time remediation
• Low-stakes, collaborative practice
• Intentional support for students’
affective needs
• Hern and Snell

26. What We Did: Curriculum
4 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. ePortfolioRevising/Editing/Metacognition/Reflection

27. Semester 2
1.
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

28. 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

29. 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

30. What Didn’t Work?
• Low- misplaced students
• Drops after Semester 1
• ESL Cohort in English 1A

31. Content-based Thematic Units

32. Acceleration Summit

33. ESL Acceleration Summit at Laney
College
• Statewide Acceleration Project –
AIC
• 4 Peralta Colleges implementing
ESL Acceleration
• Other colleges at various stages of
ESL AIC

34. Transforming the ESL Sequence:
A Report from the First Year

35. Why the Change?

36. External Pressures

37. Budget Cuts

38. Financial Aid Cuts and Restrictions

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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”

42. The New Peralta ESL
Curriculum

43. Combined Reading and Writing

44. Changed from 6 levels to 4:
old
new
(6)
5
advanced
4
high intermediate
3
intermediate
2
1
high beginning

45. Changed from 4 to 3 Skill Areas
High
Beginning
Intermediate
High
Intermediate
Advanced
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

46. The Strands
• SKILL STRANDS in addition to
language objectives run through all
main courses at all levels

47. Critical Thinking

48. Information Literacy: Computer
Skills/Research

49. Intercultural Communication
and U.S. Culture

50. Sentence Level Accuracy

51. Comprehension (Reading/Listening) and
Production (Writing/Speaking)

52. 4-8 Level A/B system for flexible
acceleration

53. Visualization of the A/B plan:
Stairs
STUDENT
ADVANCING
FASTER
ADV B
ADV A
HIGH INT B
HIGH INT A
INT B
INT A
HIGH BEG B
HIGH BEG A

54. Visualization #2 of the A/B plan:
Stairs
ADV B
ADV A
HIGH INT B
STUDENT
ADVANCIN
G SLOWER
HIGH INT A
INT B
INT A
HIGH BEG B
HIGH BEG A

55. Visualization #2 of the A/B plan:
Stairs
ADV B
STUDENT
ADJUSTING
TO
PROGRESS
ADV A
HIGH INT B
HIGH INT A
INT B
INT A
HIGH BEG B
HIGH BEG A

56. Example: Students toward the end of
High Intermediate A
Got it! Ready
to move
ahead!
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.
Advanced A
High
Intermediate
B
High Intermediate A

57. 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

58. 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

59. Conclusions
• At all levels, more students
accelerated than did not
• More students accel at the first
three levels than did at the highest
level

60. % of students scoring Acceptable-Excellent on the
English/ESL Common Portfolio Assessment Spring 11 vs.
Spring 13

61. Flipping Grammar

62. Panel Q/A