College Bridge: Transitioning ESL Students to Successful English 101 Completion

College Bridge: Transitioning ESL Students to Successful English 101 Completion Jamila Barton, North Seattle Community College jamila.barton@seattlecolleges.edu Gary Gorland, North Seattle Community College gary.gorland@seattlecolleges.edu Innovations Conference, March 3, 2014, Anaheim, CA League for Innovation in the Community College

Discussion College transition = moving from basic skills (ESL, ABE, GED) to job training, developmental and/or college-level classes • What are the barriers to college transition that students face at your college? • What are you doing at your institution to accelerate basic skills students through the developmental education sequence while giving them the skills they need to succeed? • What challenges are you facing when transitioning basic skills students? Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Why College Bridge? • Immigrant/refugee students at NSCC • Low transition rate for upper-level ESL (20%) • Avoid/Put off degree requirements for English • Complete requirements without “college ready” skills • English Department at NSCC • Retention ↓ and Attrition ↑ from Dev English to English 101 • Dev English classes are 80 – 90% ESL and IEP students • Traditional approaches not effective for non-native reading and writing problems • Academic IBEST Models • Too expensive ( Instruction Costs) • Difficult to articulate career pathway for Gen Ed degree requirements • Adapted Jumpstart model from Highline Community College Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Aspects of the Program Barton and Gorland, NSCC

From Idea to Implementation • College Readiness Committee • Focus on ESL College Transition • Transitions Fair - English 101 Success Workshop • Committee Workgroup - English, ESL Faculty, Director Strategic Initiatives • Highline C.C.-Jump Start Site Visit • Designed program aligned to the college strategic plan • Buy-in-Deans, Faculty Coordinators • Identified English/ESL Faculty • Proposal to the Executive Team • Secured funding from the Education Fund Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Strategic Plan – ESL Transition Barton and Gorland, NSCC

College Bridge Launch • Coordination-Get Everyone Involved • Registration (Class Caps) • Educational Fund (Funding Requirements) • Financial Aid (Pell and State Needs Grant rules for ESL classes) • Informing Advisors, Division Staff and Deans (Points of Contact for students) • English, ABE and ESL Faculty • Establish Practices for Residency Status and Undocumented Students (in state tuition, HB 1079) Barton and Gorland, NSCC

College Bridge Launch • Scholarship Application-Process (COMPASS, CASAS, teacher recommendation, student letter to the committee) • Posters and Flyers • Presentations at ESL Faculty meetings • Presentations in all level 5 and 6 ESL classes • Encourage students (big next step) • Important for the future • Walk thru steps to apply • Answer questions (abundant) • Highlight Resources (COMPASS prep for all NSCC students) • Selection Committee Barton and Gorland, NSCC

College Bridge Flyer Barton and Gorland, NSCC

College Bridge Orientation Barton and Gorland, NSCC

ESL Support Class • Academic Preparation • Academic rhetoric and conventions • Vocabulary Development • Reading Comprehension Strategies • Grammar for Editing • Building Community • Weekly Student-Teacher Conferences • Participation Log • Class Dictionary (Google Docs) • Modelling Study Skills • Time Management • Note-taking • Test-taking Strategies • Study Aids (notecards, graphic organizers, etc.) • Embedded Student Services • Teacher Collaboration Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Differentiated Reading Instruction Barton and Gorland, NSCC

ESL Support: Reading Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Differentiated Writing Instruction Barton and Gorland, NSCC

ESL Support: Writing Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Data Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Results: Comparison Fall 2012-Winter 2014 English 97-98 • College Bridge Scholarship Cohort (36) students97% Completed and passed English 97-98 with (3.4)avg. grade • Average pass rate for all students, in all 97/98 classes, is 83% with (2.67) avg. grade English 101- 99/101 • To date: 68% have completed 99-101/101 with a (3.5) English 101 avg. grade and (3.0) English 99-101 avg. grade • 100% completion for those who enrolled • Average pass rate for all students, in all English 101 classes, is 82% with a (2.8) avg. grade Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Results: Persistence • 63% of College Bridge students have enrolled in and passed additional college level courses after completing English 101 • 20% of all ESL level 5-6 students passed any college level courses (2005-2012 data) Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Questions Barton and Gorland, NSCC College Bridge Scholarship presentation and materialshttp://facweb.northseattle.edu/ggorland

Student Comments – Winter 2013 • English 097/098 class was the beggest challenges for me the first time because it was a big jump up after I finished ESL classes. All assignments which were writing and reading took so much time to finish them; however, everyday works made me improve so much! • I had an interesting experience in English 97/98, which was different from ESL classes... I had to write between 3-5 pages for each assignment. That required writing many details and having good vocabulary to enrich our writing with the meaning. However, our ESL support class helped me by knowing easy ways to understand the essays, giving me valuable feedbacks, and checking my grammar. Because of my class, I did not find any lesson or assignment difficult. • ESL support class helped me to easily understand the essays, know how to read quickly, and get some direction to organize my time. Moreover, my ESL instructor was always there to help me in improving my writing by giving me feedback for each assignment. That helped me to correct my grammar and smoothing my writing. Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Teacher Comments – Fall 2012 Steve Quig, English 097/098 Instructor, Fall 2012 • Strengths • …I would say that my College Bridge students did as well as my other English 097/098 students--in some cases, better. When I entered the classroom every day, the CB students would already be there (having their support class in the same room the hour before), filling the front seats of the room. The CB students were probably more highly motivated to do well, too, and happy to be in English 097/098. That can’t be said for all 97/98 students at the beginning of the quarter since most would rather be in English 101, of course. • Challenges • A few of the CB students had rather weak writing skills and this was a challenge throughout the quarter. Their writing abilities weren’t always up to the writing tasks expected of them. A few were, at least initially, a bit nervous about being in a large diverse class such as ours. I think the seating arrangement helped them in some ways to be not so nervous, but it also isolated them in some ways with less interaction with the rest of the students, at least initially… Another challenge for the CB instructor is the extra time needed to facilitate the program—before, during, and after the quarter. It’s not a huge commitment, but it’s more than it would be for a normal 097/098 class. I suppose if an instructor is not involved in the selection process, then there would be much less of a commitment. Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Teacher Comments – Winter 2013 Kaitlin McClanahan, English 097/098 Instructor, Winter 2013 • Strengths • The College Bridge students were very motivated and much more vocal than the rest of the class. I could depend on them to ask questions and participate in class discussion. What was most impressive to me was the sense of responsibility they felt for one another's understanding. They were constantly discussing things with one another during breaks and before and after class. • Challenges • I think the most difficult thing was watching a couple students struggle, despite help from one another and from having a second teacher. One student could not catch a break with home life obstacles, which made attendance sparse. Another student had such a hard time with word order and sentence structures that he needed much more time to fine tune papers and understand texts. It was hard to ask or require a student visit the Writing Loft in addition to having two classes. Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Bibliography • Burt, Miriam, Peyton, Joy Kreeft, & Van Duzer, Carol. (2005) How should adult ESL reading instruction differ from ABE reading instruction?Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA). • Capotosto, Lauren. Decoding and Fluency Problems of Poor College Readers. Diss. Harvard Gradute School of Education, n.d.N.p.: National College Transition Network, World Education, n.d. Print. • Conley, David T. Redefining College Readiness. Publication. Eugene: Educational Policy Improvement Center, 2007. Print • Eskey, D. (2005). Reading in a second language. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 563–580). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. • Hecker, Linda (Landmark College). Teaching Writing: Universally Designed Instruction for Adults Workshop Series. Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges. May 2012. • Henderson, P. A. (2009), “Is everybody getting it?: Sustained support for English as a second language students.” About Campus, 14: 8–15. doi: 10.1002/abc.296 Barton and Gorland, NSCC

Bibliography • Prince, David. Building Pathways to Success for Low-Skill Adult Students: Lessons for Community College Policy and Practice from a Longitudinal Student Tracking Study (The Tipping Point Research). Rep. no. 06-2. Olympia: Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, 2005. Print. • Reid, J. (1997) Which Non-Native Speaker? Differences Between International Students and U.S. Resident (Language Minority) Students.New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 70, 17 – 26. • Schoenbach, Ruth, Cynthia Greenleaf, and Lynn Murphy. Reading for Understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship Improves Disciplinary Learning in Secondary and College Classrooms. 2nd ed. N.p.: Jossey Bass, 2012. Print. • Silva, Tony and Muriel Harris. “Tutoring ESL Students: Issues and Options.” College Composition and Communication, Vol. 44, No. 4. (1993), pp. 525-537. • Zafft, Cynthia, SiljaKallenbach, and Jessica Spohn. Transitioning Adults to College: Adult Basic Education Program Models, NCSALL Occasional Paper, December 2006 Barton and Gorland, NSCC

College Bridge: Transitioning ESL Students to Successful English 101 Completion