Critical Thinking Outcomes: Comm 370 Desktop Publishing

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Exploring Reading Success An Intervention with
Entry Level Courses GEN 105
2009 KADE Conference Eastern Kentucky
University November 13, 2009 Cathy Leist,
Executive Director of REACH Mark Woolwine,
Coordinator of GEN 105
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Overview

• KY Law 13 KAR 2020
• GEN 105
• Overview of Course
• GSA Training
• Critical Reading Rubric
• Using the Rubric
• Examples of Student Work
• Portfolios
• Comments from the Instructors
• Strengths and Weaknesses of the Program
• Discussion Questions

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KY Law 13 KAR 2020

• System wide standard" means an ACT Assessment
  sub-score of eighteen (18) in English, nineteen
  (19) in mathematics, or twenty (20) in reading.
• If a student is determined to have not met the
  system wide standards for readiness, an
  institution shall use a placement exam to help
  place a student in the proper course.
• An institution shall place a student who scores
  below the system wide standard in mathematics,
  English, or reading in an (a) Appropriate
  developmental course in the relevant discipline
  or (b) Entry-level college course, if the course
  offers supplementary academic support, such as
  extra class sessions, additional labs, tutoring,
  and increased monitoring of students, beyond
  that usually associated with an entry-level
  course.
• Effective with the fall semester of 2010, an
  institution shall enroll a student who scores
  below the statewide standards in an appropriate
  developmental or entry-level course until
  readiness for credit-bearing courses has been
  demonstrated.
• An institution shall ensure that a student who
  completes a developmental or supplemental course
  shall enroll in a credit-bearing course in that
  subject or discipline, or in the case of reading,
  appropriate course work requiring college-level
  reading skills.

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For UofL.

• In compliance with state law, the university
  requires that all university first-year,
  degree-seeking students with less than 24 credit
  hours who are admitted with reading deficiencies
  participate in placement testing and course
  registration as determined by their placement
  test results

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Placement Testing for Summer Orientation

• Students with an ACT Reading sub score of less
  than 20 (or an SAT Critical Reading score of less
  than 470) MUST take the Reading COMPASS exam.
  The exam serves as a second predictor of college
  reading readiness.
• Students whose scores on the Reading COMPASS exam
  are less than 84 will be required to register for
  GEN 105, Special Topics in Supplemented College
  Reading.

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GEN 105 Description

• Students enrolled in GEN 105 will attend the
  general education lecture course for 3 hours each
  week .
• Students enrolled in GEN 105 will attend 2
  additional hours each week for supplemented
  instruction in college reading, critical
  thinking, and study strategies.
• Students will receive 3 hours of college credit
  for successful completion of the general
  education course section linked to GEN 105.
• Students will receive 1 hour of college credit
  (elective credit only) for GEN 105.
• Students will attend a total number of 5 hours of
  class each week for these linked courses.
• Students will earn a total of 4 credit hours for
  attending the 5 hours of class each week.
• GEN 105 will be graded Pass/Fail and will appear
  as a separate course on the students transcript.

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Registration

• Use the online schedule of courses
• General Studies
• 14890 GEN 105 01 Supp College Reading - Biology
• Note The section above is a supplemented
  reading course reserved for students in the Reach
  Supplemented Reading Program. Students will be
  moved to BIOL-102-01 after the last day to
  drop/add. Students will remain in a one hour
  credit section of Gen-105.
• TTh 1100am-1215pm SK102
• TTh 0100pm-0150pm SK111
• 0 of 25 0 of 0 Karpoff, A
• 4.00
• BELKNAP

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3 Content Areas- 7 Courses

• Offered 7 sections of GEN 105 for 2009 Fall
• GEN 105-01 Biology 102
• GEN 105-02 Biology 102
• GEN 105-03 Psychology 201
• GEN 105-04 Psychology 201
• GEN 105-05 Psychology 201
• GEN 105-06 History 101
• GEN 105-07 History 101

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Details to Remember

• For BIOL 102 only, a conditional student is
  approved to take 15 credit hours
• (can register for BIOL Lab GEN 105 GEN
  101).
• GEN 105 can only be taken 1 time for college
  course credit.
• Students may repeat GEN 105 but need a different
  general education course to replace an F grade
  earned in GEN 105.
• Students are not required to repeat GEN 105 but
  the F earned will affect GPA.
• Noncompliant students will be contacted by the
  REACH ADS staff following each summer
  orientation.
• Noncompliant students who do not register for GEN
  105 in their first college semester will be
  administratively registered for GEN 105 in their
  second college semester.
• Letters informing the students of the
  administrative registration will be sent out by
  REACH.

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GSA Training

• Each GEN 105 section instructed by a graduate
  student assistant (GSA)
• Selected to be an expert in the content course
  (Biology, History, Psychology)
• Training 3 Days

• How the Brain Learns
• Comprehension Development
• Strategic Study- Reading
• Note taking From Lectures
• Test Taking
• Critical Thinking/Reading with i2a

• Work with experienced GSA
• Developed Reading Prompt for Pre/Post Test

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Critical Reading Prompt

• To assess reading comprehension, created critical
  reading prompt to be administered the first day
  of class and again at the end of the semester
• Served as Pre/Post Test
• Demonstrate your text book reading skills by
  marking and annotating the text.
• Summarize the excerpt by the following
• Briefly describe the key concepts the author is
  trying to get you to understand.
• Show evidence from the reading that supports the
  key concepts.
• How can you take this information and apply it to
  you and to the study of X (Xcontent area)
• What questions does this information leave you
  with?

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Critical Thinking Rubric
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Using the Rubric

• Model answer developed by each GEN-105
  instructor (all 4s)
• Student assignments are then scored using ideal
  responses

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Accuracy

• Identifies main purpose and/or concepts in
  reading
• Purpose
• The main purpose of this article is to inform us
  on how high fat diets really work and many
  misconceptions people have. Also, how they arent
  safe to follow and can damage your body.
• I found the main purpose of the article to be the
  information that high fat diets are extremely
  dangerous to your health.
• Concepts
• The main conclusions for this piece pay close
  attention to high fat diets because they are
  risky and if you really want to lose weight and
  keep it off you have to make better choices.
• High fat diets can lead to may complications
  later on in life. And that high fat diets are an
  unhealthy way to lose weight.

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Clarity

• Understands the facts, data, or examples used to
  support
• Pulling facts that were interesting needed to
  be present in the reading
• Being able to define good fat and bad fat
• Examples
• Unsaturated fat is the good fat and saturated
  fat is the bad fat. Although too much of any
  kind of fat is bad for you.
• A bad fat is dietary and saturated fats and a
  good fat is something that can be broken down
  easily.

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Precision

• Identifies and uses the content specific
  vocabulary from the reading or lecture
• Appropriate use of bad fat and good fat
  definitions
• Examples a lot of people put down the complex
  carbohydrates as a good fat which is imprecise
  and somewhat inaccurate an example of a good
  fat is olive oil (I mentioned it in class as did
  Dr. Karpoff)
• Support for your diet at risk or healthy
• I would say my intake in a week would be at risk
  while at school if Im hungry I eat and the
  healthy choices arent all that appealing as say
  a cheeseburger or something along those lines.

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Depth

• Demonstrates complexity of understanding
• Example
• I would categorize it in between, reason number
  one is because I fix my own food. I eat rice,
  salad, grilled chicken everyday but I also love
  fast food. When I have the chance, I eat it, that
  would be like once or twice a week.
• Yes, it is giving reasonable evidence that not
  even running 20 miles are you going to lose more
  than one pound. So this makes readers think that
  their high fat diets make effects but in an
  unhealthy way. They can just lose weight reducing
  the intake of sugars and eating what they usually
  eat. The low sugar intake is the key

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Relevance

• Identifies or generates conclusion(s) and
  personal significance based on content.
• Example
• I agree with this article because there are risks
  to any diet you come across. You have to pay
  attention to what is really effective and what is
  going to leave a healthy impact on you.
• I agree to an extent. This article makes sense.
  Why would any kind of diet that puts a lot of bad
  stuff (fat) in your body be good for you.
  However, my father did the Atkins diet and lost
  almost 160 pounds of fat, not muscle.

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Logic

• Applies concepts and content to other broad
  contexts
• I believe if he used a college students diet it
  would have had a more personal effect on me.
  College students diets are commonly more high in
  fat due to stress, not having time, or just
  simply what is common for our age group. It would
  have made me open my eyes more knowing the
  dramatic effects it has on our generation.
• I thought for the general public these examples
  were great. If the targeted audience was to
  change the college scene, I feel that examples
  should also change so that students would be able
  to relate to them better and base their decisions
  upon such examples.

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Portfolio

• Pre and Post COMPASS Reading Scores
• 5 articles scored with rubric at various
  intervals during the semester
• Pre and Post Reading Prompt scores

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Comments from the GSAs

• I think that the critical readings have been
  integral in helping students understand the need
  for the class. Sze Sze Tong
• I have had several students tell me that they
  were only so-so students in high school, but,
  because of GEN 105, they are excelling in
  college. -Sarah Jane Bodell
• What I would change about the GEN105 sections is
  earlier training for the GSAs who will be
  instructors in the future so that they are able
  to spend time crafting that integration. Sze
  Sze Tong
• Numerous students have commented that by taking
  the Gen 105 course they have learned how to
  interpret the meanings of their text, better
  articulate their understanding of the subjects
  key concepts and feel more prepared to comprehend
  the content of their current and future college
  courses. Tessa Kandikatti

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Strengths of the Program

• Direct application to the content
• Provides credit hour towards degree
• Use of skills across the spectrum
• Mix of content tutoring with reading skills
• Helps develop relationships with content course
  instructors

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Challenges of the Program

• Content tutoring vs. instructing skills
• Content-specific skills are not directly
  transferable to other content areas
• GSA training limitednever enough time
• Motivating students to apply new skills to
  content area

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Looking Forward

• More and more training for GSA Instructors
• Refinement of the rubric
• Revision of reading prompt
• Creating multiple critical reading prompts
• Improving the selection of critical reading
  assignments

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Gen-105

• Questions or Comments?