1. The Writing Connection: Bridging the Gap between High School and College Passaic County Community College’s “Connections” program to work with area high school teachers across disciplines to create varied opportunities in writing-to-learn rather than the traditional learning-to-write approach that might apply only to the English classroom.

2. The Writing Connection: Bridging the Gap between High School and College Two Year College English AssociationWashington, DC - November 2010

3. Who – about us Why – the rationale What – the activities How – lessons learned Continuing the connections

4. Who

5. About Us Ken Ronkowitz – Director of the Writing Initiative (Title V Grant) Alexandra Della Fera – Professor of English Elizabeth Nesius – Coordinator of the Writing Center

6. About PCCC Main Campus - Paterson, NJ with 3 satellite campuses Total enrollment 10,000+ Past Year - 9% increase; 36% online growth Enrollment 64.4% Basic Skills 20.0% ESL 15.6% College Level

7. About PCCC Top 5 Degree Programs A.A. Humanities 16.5% A.A.S. Nurse Education 13.9% A.S. Business / Accounting 7.6% A.A. Criminal Justice 6.8% A.S. Human Services 6.5% Graduation Requirements include One or two writing intensive courses College Writing Exam

8. Why

9. About the Writing Initiative 5 Year, Dept of Ed. Title V Grant to improve writing Build college-level writing center Design 20 writing intensive GenEd courses across disciplines (40 course sections) Incorporate writing, critical thinking & information literacy ePortfolios Year 3: Connecting with county high schools and Year 4: area four-year colleges

10. The Connections 4-year colleges where PCCC students often matriculate Dual enrollment program Connecting to other writing programs and writing centers, especially at community colleges Sending county high schools

11. What

12. Activities: Big Ideas Teachers as Writers Process Writing to Learn Learning to Write Reflection NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing www.ncte.org

13. Teachers as Writers Bluebook writing exercise on feedback experiences in our own lives Quotations Blogs and Wikis

14. Process Pre-Seminar Questions Visual Prompts Best lessons Lessons in Progress Grammar Interactive Sites

15. Writing to Learn Blogs Instant Messaging Facebook Website Creation

16. Learning to Write Email exercise audience, purpose, point of view Rubrics Holistic Grading Session

17. Reflections Portfolio work Reflecting on the teacher as writer Reflecting on how we teach writing

18. HowLessons Learned

19. Limitations in the High Schools Limited technology In many places, technology unavailable due to budget or unavailable to students at home Restrictions on websites that can be accessed within schools But… Faculty were still interested in incorporating more technology into their classes They were creative in coming up with solutions or end-runs around technology problems

20. Limitations in the High Schools Unable to access their campuses during summer Invitations sent to school emails may not have been received. For the second institute: Faculty were unable to test links on campus to gauge access capabilities. But… Many responded to mailed invitations. The links are still provided to them (on the LibGuide) for use when they get back to school. Some faculty had tried similar things and were able to guess at access capabilities

21. Challenges / Solutions Most respondents were English and social studies teachers Asking teachers to do pre-institute activities was unsuccessful Coming up with session topics – managing time Second Institute: targeted non-humanities departments Possibly contact faculty earlier in the school year Used survey results from the first Institute to inform plans for second

22. Challenges / Solutions 4. Their shared materials were limited In some cases, only hard copies were available Some brought no copies and instead described the materials 4. Have faculty send materials with their application Request digital copies in advance so that copies could be made for all

23. Challenges / Solutions 5. Tended to form “cliques” when multiple people came from the same school 6. Some personalities dominated 5. Tried to choose faculty from a variety of schools Arranged seating to encourage collaboration with new people 6. Used “classroom management” techniques

24. Most popular topics Teachers as writers Using prompts (visual, audio…) Critical thinking activities Portfolios and reflection in the classroom Sharing college level writing and materials Topics suggested for future sessions Technology for writing (blogs, portfolios, podcasts…) Sample materials and lesson plans, especially for writing assignments Survey Results

25. Additional Benefits Noted Learning about the approaches to writing at other schools Sharing ideas and lessons and getting feedback on them Hearing about the problems other schools face (and that they’re not so different)

26. Continuing the Connections… Possibility of going into high schools to offer professional development workshops Writing at 4-Year Colleges Other community college writing initiatives – you?

27. Contact: writingcenter@pccc.edu Presentation and Resourceshttp://pccc.libguides.com/connectionhttp://pcccwriting.blogspot.com