Helping Students with Reading in Developmental Courses

The Developmental English courses have redesigned to reflect the latest research and trends.

A new approach for Reading Comprehension:

Students will be reading college-level text. They will be working on strategies that they can use to break
down and understand difficult text.
The curriculum is less skills-based and more focused on the strategies using a metacognitive approach to
monitor comprehension.

Helping Students with the Reading Process

Activate Schema - Activate students background knowledge about the topic. Ask them what
do they already know about the topic. Suggest an Internet search on the topic

Text Annotation - Ask the student where they are in the reading process:
Pre-Reading: What is their purpose for reading? What did they learn when they previewed
the reading, What do they want to learn from the reading. What Questions will they look for as
they read? What predictions can they make about the reading
During Reading. How do they plan to be an active reader? Are they going to annotate, or
take notes? What metacognitive strategies are they going to use to monitor their
comprehension? Where am I getting stuck? What strategies can I use to help me fix this?
What are the authors key points? What are the text structures or features that can help the
reader? How is it organized or what is the rhetorical mode?
After Reading: Review and Discuss

Self-Reflection Give students a chance to reflect and make connections to the reading. Ask
students how their lives relate to the text on a personal level, how it connects to other readings,
or how it connects to the world.

Rhetorical Reading Return to the reading to look at it rhetorically. As fellow writer to fellow
writer what does the author teach me? What did the writer do to convey his ideas? How is he
convincing? Who is his audience? What is his purpose? What are his language choices?

Vocabulary: Students in 093, 096 and 099 will have assigned vocabulary words. Students
need practice with the words beyond the definitions to deepen their understanding of them.
Ask students to write a sentence using the word correctly
Write different forms of the words and parts of speech
Ask questions: Who/What can have a rift? How is it similar/different to disagreement? What
connotation does it have? Positive or negative? Use rift and between or over in a sentence
Helping Students with Writing in Developmental Courses
The Developmental English courses have redesigned to reflect the latest research and trends.
A new approach for Integrating Reading into Writing Classes:

Major essay assignments will be based on texts students read actively (in class and as homework);
students essays must be based on their own understanding of these challenging texts

The curriculum encourages students to focus on their understanding of the readings--to figure out a thesis
statement for an essay by examining and reexamining the readings instead of starting out with a thesis
statement and using texts to find support
A (simplified) step-by-step to use with students struggling on an ENGL-097 or ENGL-099 paper:

1. Read and reread the assignment sheet

Often students dont realize how much guidance is there--what is their purpose? What should they be
focusing on? What are the relevant readings for the unit? What requirements are there for the body
paragraphs? How should they use sources? What is the basic prompt? What kind of writing is it (personal
response or informative/formal)?
2. Return to the text(s)
If a student cant explain or talk about the texts being read for a Units Major Essay Assignment, then they
need to spend more time reading. Help the student refocus their energy on the text. Help them read to
fully understand the ideas, They should review their annotation and notes and try to find connections
between the text and the essay goals.
3. Work on turning supporting ideas from the texts into a thesis statement
Method 1: start with a thesis claim/statement and THEN return to the text to find more ideas, data, or
examples to support that thesis
Method 2: collect interesting ideas/data from the text and THEN try to turn those ideas into a thesis
statement
Either way--the students should be using the readings to discover what they will write about in their
essays. Note: have students look at class notes, annotations, their graphic organizers/reading responses,
and summaries that they create in class and as homework--these will help them process and think about
the texts.
4. Check quotes and paraphrases
Work with students to make sure their quotes are accurate and represent the authors original ideas;
check to make sure all source material is introduced (with signal phrases/verbs); check paraphrases for
accidental plagiarism.
5. Miscellaneous/Rhetorical Considerations
Help the student think about their essay being READ by SomeOne
i.
Is it well organized? Could a reader follow their ideas? Are there topic sentences that introduce focused
paragraphs? Do paragraphs prove/support thesis? Does thesis introduce main idea of the essay? Etc.
ii.
What is the genre/type of assignment? Have they met the requirements and/or stayed within parameters
outlined on assignment sheet?
iii.
Who is the reader? What is their purpose? What does the assignment sheet ask them to consider--do
they have to engage readers? Give background information? Make an argument or just report
information?