HAVE IT YOUR WAY!

No, this isn’t Burger King. It is, however, the GCC English and reading team available to help you and your colleagues contextualize your literacy courses to fit your FOI.

This past fall, Lisa Lewis and her Fitness and Wellness team members worked with David Miller and me to craft ENG101 and ENG102 course offerings to fit both the time schedule and the topic requests for their students.

Fitness and Wellness has moved to eight-week blocks. They requested eight-week courses. Can our department do that? YES!

Fitness and Wellness students have a break Mondays and Wednesdays at noon. Can we teach courses at that time? YES! One of the new sessions goes from 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.

Fitness and Wellness faculty want students to be proficient with APA format. Can our department do that? YES! ENG102 is all APA format.

Fitness and Wellness want topics to relate to the course materials in F&W. Can our department do that? YES! Assignment topics now include sedentary lifestyle, body image, and recess in the K-12 schools. The F&W librarian, Michelle Petry, helped add the Library Resources specific to the FOI. In addition, she helped select literary selections to align with the topics.

In response to the planning sessions we held, we offered eight-week accelerated hybrid courses beginning in January. Enrollment was light, but the courses made. In spite of efforts by the Fitness and Wellness advisor and faculty, only one F&W student enrolled. However, it was interesting to see that over half of the students were nursing majors. They were very interested in the course topics.

We just completed the ENG101 eight-week courses and are prepared to begin ENG102 after spring break. ENG101 writing assignments included evaluating GCC resources like the Fitness Center and the lap pool. Students wrote position arguments on sugar and diabetes as well as using personal tracking devices to improve fitness. 50% of the students who completed ENG101 enrolled in ENG102. In addition, plenty of other students signed up. The courses currently have wait lists.

After seeing the success of the contextualized English courses, we’ll be revising hybrid CRE101 to have similar readings and topics. We will also offer the contextualized ENG101 and ENG102 again in the fall.

Is your department wanting to support student success by creating reading and writing assignments to align with your FOI? If so, you CAN have it your way! Department chairs should contact David Miller. Our English and reading instructional team is diverse and able to craft F2F, hybrid, and online offerings to meet your needs.

You CAN have it your way. The answer is YES!

 

One thought on “HAVE IT YOUR WAY!”

  1. We love Burger King — I mean our English Department partners! You guys rock! We will continue to keep promoting the classes. Once the pathway planners kick in I think the students will be there. Thank you for all your time and effort on our students behalf!

     

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