{"id":629,"date":"2017-04-25T07:15:06","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T14:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/successfultransitions\/?page_id=629"},"modified":"2024-03-28T17:06:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T00:06:35","slug":"what-weve-learned","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/successfultransitions\/ela-a\/what-weve-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"What We\u2019ve Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what ways has your work changed your thinking about students\u2019 \u00a0<\/i><\/b>transitions or your teaching?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Intervention Challenges\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Each member of the cohort developed their own intervention as it seemed to best fit their particular circumstances. For instance, Bradley\u2019s students were working with texts that were more written for high school and college English and writing teachers. He asked them to simply restate the content of the material. Katie\u2019s students worked with texts that were written for a more general readership, though that didn\u2019t make them necessarily more accessible as few high school students have practice with book-length nonfiction texts. Katie\u2019s students were asked to provide more in the way of response and commentary on their interaction with the text.<\/p>\n

Bradley\u2019s primary challenge was integrating the reading and annotation work into instruction in a consistent manner while not hindering progress in lesson plans and assignments. Certain activities had to be either truncated or dropped in order to implement the annotations efforts.<\/p>\n

Bradley Bleck’s Changed Thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bradley\u2019s primary concerns is whether students will embrace the newly introduced approach to annotating beyond being required to do so in his classroom. He has observed students who have completed his class reverting to or engaging in behaviors he taught against, such as highlighting large chunks of text as opposed to making restatement annotations. In short, is a 10-week college quarter enough time to ingrain in students the value of annotating as practiced. Similarly, when teaching the second of the two course sequence, can the practice be embedded in that class in a way that would work with students who did not have the experience in the first course, and, at the same time, can a functional way be found that will enable students who did take the first course to build on what they have learned.<\/p>\n

Katie O’Connor\u2019s Changed Thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three years ago when I started this journey of collaboration, I was very traditional in my approach to teaching thinking my students would get all they needed by the end of the year, but I didn\u2019t truly believe it was best for students because I was still using the traditional curriculum that has been used in Senior English classes for decades.\u00a0 Now that I\u2019m teaching the Bridge to College curriculum focusing on nonfiction modern topics that engage students, I feel as I\u2019m no longer fighting the \u201cwhy is this important\u201d battle any longer and am seeing gains like never before.\u00a0 Students understand they need to be global citizens, and the new curriculum helps them analyze and evaluate their role in this global society. Combining the curriculum with the collaboration with the college instructors, my instruction has also become much more transparent to students.\u00a0 We often talk about what is expected of them as they move into postsecondary institutions and realize the more they learn this year, the more success they will experience next year.\u00a0 In addition, they seldom ask \u201cwhy is this important?\u201d any longer because they understand the skills they are building will be extremely beneficial as they, not only transition to college, but also into adulthood writing as writing is a lifelong skill on which they will depend regularly.<\/p>\n

Working with my College Spark cohort and my Bridge to College cohort has been invaluable because I can say I do know what will be expected of students when they transition to college writing courses, and I know I\u2019ve done the absolute best job I can to prepare them the next phase in their journey.<\/p>\n

My final thought of wonderment is that of \u201cwhat happens next\u201d?\u00a0 I hate to see so much work just end and no follow up provided because there is so much more that could be done to help students transition more successfully.<\/p>\n

Lesley Hilt’s Changed Thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n