Cal State—Chico
Contact: Chris Fosen (CFosen@csuchico.edu)
The English 030 Program (formerly English
1A) is a supplementary instruction program based on the studio/workshop
model. Groups of 8-10 first-year students who score low on the
CSU English Placement Test (EPT) meet together for two hours a week to
compose and revise writing they bring from their First Year Composition
classes. Students sign up for class days to present their writing
to the group, and by asking concrete questions about content,
organization, audience, purpose, and other rhetorical issues, they
receive feedback specific to their particular writing
assignments. Workshop facilitators are all advanced undergraduate
or graduate students who have completed a course in writing center
theory and practice and have worked in our University Writing
Center. They lead these collaborative critiques of students'
essays and other writing, and through modeling and questioning
techniques work to scaffold students' acquisition of the literacy
practices of English 130 (our FYC course). Facilitators also
attend weekly staff meetings and monthly workshops in which we consider
theories of communities of practice and distributed cognition in light
of their developing pedagogies. Experienced facilitators take on
the additional responsibilities of mentoring new staff, observing
colleagues, and presenting teaching cases at 030 orientations.
Facilitators maintain contact with each student's teacher and have copies of syllabi and assignments from each student's class. No tests, quizzes, or homework assignments are given in 030; no grades are assigned. Students receive one hour of elective credit by showing up regularly and presenting their work for critique at least twice during the semester. In the fifteen years since 030 was founded, students in the workshop have passed FYC at rates largely equal to their non-030 peers, which indicates to us that 030 has a very positive effect on students' acquisition of the literacy practices needed for composition.
Facilitators maintain contact with each student's teacher and have copies of syllabi and assignments from each student's class. No tests, quizzes, or homework assignments are given in 030; no grades are assigned. Students receive one hour of elective credit by showing up regularly and presenting their work for critique at least twice during the semester. In the fifteen years since 030 was founded, students in the workshop have passed FYC at rates largely equal to their non-030 peers, which indicates to us that 030 has a very positive effect on students' acquisition of the literacy practices needed for composition.