RETHINKING COMMUNITY COLLEGE GENERAL LITERACY COURSES: CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING AS A FOUNDATION Synthesis Presentation by Mary Lou R. Horn Critical and Creative Thinking UMass/Boston May 6, 2013

Community College Applicants Open-admission policy and mission  Prior education - dropout/GED, Diploma, Distant Grad, AP and Honors courses  Literacy levels - 4 th to 12 grade and above  Between 40 and 70% deemed underprepared  Ages range from 16 to 75  Linguistically, culturally, socio-economically diverse 2

Underprepared - the norm High failure rates in this group Low percentage complete programs and degrees “Students who enter community college with…shaky academic backgrounds often end up stuck in remedial courses…”(Chronicle of Higher Education, April, 2013). Open admissions policies such as the one at the City University of New York (1970) created a perceived literacy crisis (Gleason, 2001). This “crisis” persists. 3

Premise Community college applicants whose general literacy is deemed below that needed to succeed in college would benefit from a course in which they develop cognitive and metacognitive skills and strategies, along with critical and creative thinking habits essential for academic reading, writing, and study. 4 Chabot College CLIP Reading Between the Lives

Course Structure – balance of individual, small group, whole class activities Work through modules in small groups Learning outcomes stated in cognitive skill terms Reading Activities - apprentice Writing Activities - apprentice Individual Learning Journal – chart growth Reflections on group processes 6 modules – views of literacy 1. Self 2. Family 3. Peer Groups 4. Community 5. Academic 6. Workplace 5

Action: A General Literacy Course Designed for Underprepared Applicants 1. Based on Critical & Creative Thinking 2. Develops Process Awareness & Cognitive Skills 3. Accessed through Interpretive Communities 4. Combines Reading and Writing as one course 5. Scaffold Reading of College-Level Texts 6

Build-up Cognitive Skills, Critical Thinking Analyze Examine Explore Compare Analogize Reason *Memory, processing, and attention are not within the scope of this project 7  Reading Process Awareness  Writing Process Awareness  Metacognition  Alternative order, leads  What if – to open up  Role play – viewpoint  Brainstorm  Idea Mapping Nurture Process Awareness, Creative Thinking

Interpretive communities Students are readers and writers Meaning-makers Members of many discourse communities Users of language accessing many registers Entering Academic 8 Mary Lou Work Variety School peers Friends Variety Classroom instructor Family Variety

In Reading AND Writing Critical Thinking Textual analysis Structures (sentence, paragraph, essay, genre) Meaning making Process awareness Reading apprenticeship Traits Revision Creative Thinking Multiple meaning Play with order, style, words, structures What ifs, opposites Role play Mapping Risk-taking Revision 9

Student Learning Outcomes Students will be able to: Think critically to read and produce texts Think creatively to read and produce texts Articulate use of cognitive skills Articulate use of strategies Collaborate with peers Reflect on learning 10

Text selection considerations Risks and benefits of low-demand Too easy slows progress Shelters from college work Boredom Independently readable High comprehension Achievement Risks and benefits of high-demand Frustration Limited Comprehension Quits College experience Persistence/confidence Growth/gains 11

Scaffold in teaching and in texts: begin with modeling > imitation Connect, relate Structural awareness Strategies (speed, etc) Analyze Writers’ rhetorical moves Use of evidence 12 oomtax.htm

Sample Scaffolded Text - chunk, focus, examine, relate From Pedagogy of the Oppressed, chapter 2 New York: Continuum Books, Embedded Support < Narration refers to lecture-style teaching, for example (relate, exemplify) Taking notes during a lecture Memorize for tests < Question to check assumptions (strategy, judge, accept/reject) Can teachers fill students with knowledge? What is the learner’s part in this process? < Purpose (assess, predict, defend) Is Freire criticizing this approach? What evidence is used? < Tone (infer, interpret, translate) Consider this paragraph in relationship to the title of the chapter “Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teachers she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are” (Freire 1993). 13

4. Reading Scaffold/Print Texts and Independence 14 Independence Scaffolding Start of semester End of semester

What is college-ready? The student who… Questions ideas Monitors understanding in reading and writing Seeks/provides clarification Identifies and uses patterns and relationships Calls for, uses supporting evidence Examines Assumptions (author, peer, self) 15

Reflections Steps – Missteps – sticky points, centrifuge, doubt Next steps – preparation, details, wider application? 16