Teacher Evaluation of the Program
School: Phillip and Sala Burton High School
Teacher: Jessica Gruner
School Year: 2001–2002
Overview
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this program. It was wonderful to be able to take part in such an enriching experience, especially as a first-year teacher. I intend to continue to teach Advanced Composition using the curriculum materials and structures provided by the program to better prepare students for the challenges of college.
Do you think your students have benefited from your collaborations in the CAPI project?
During my participation in the CAPI program, I taught approximately 80 Advanced Composition students in Fall Semester and 30 students in Spring Semester. I feel confident saying that a majority of these students clearly benefited from our collaboration with CAPI.
One major reason was the boost in motivation and self esteem they gained by knowing they were engaging in college-level curriculum. The participation of San Francisco State University made clear to these students the importance and relevance of the work they were doing. I felt they took their work more seriously because the curriculum targeted skills they would need to pass the English Placement Test and succeed in a college English class.
Additionally, the curriculum was well-designed and challenging; I think many students found the readings considerably more rigorous than much of the material they had been exposed to so far. I saw them get excited about the topics and work to meet the challenges of the material. This positive experience with difficult material was a beneficial influence on how these young people would come to view themselves as students. I was pleased to know that they began to feel more confident about the college work they would pursue.
Which, if any, of your teaching practices have changed or been influenced by working with your SFSU collaborator? What was the most useful/valuable practice you implemented in your classroom?
One major way my teaching practices have been influenced is in the way I approach essay assignments. Rather than structuring units around rhetorical models, such as the argumentative essay or definition essay, the CAPI curriculum develops units around content and theme—culture, gender, education, and so on.
The reason I think this approach works better is that it prepares students for the way college classes in many disciplines are organized. It also teaches them how to approach authentic writing situations outside the academic setting.
Another valuable teaching practice I have added to my repertoire is having students generate sentences and paragraphs on a topic before beginning to write the essay. In doing this, students accumulate usable material and have a chance to work out ideas before starting the essay. This activity also teaches them a useful writing process they can carry into other situations and make the essay itself somewhat less intimidating. Additionally, I appreciate the fact that particular sentence structures were “featured” in each unit. This made teaching grammar more integrated and relevant, and helped me emphasize to students the importance of sentence-level work on the quality of their writing.
What can you suggest as further methods of improving student proficiency for entering the CSU campuses?
One way to further improve student proficiency would be to include more teaching practice specifically aimed at improving students’ reading skills. Many students in my classes are reading below grade level, and this meant the assigned readings were difficult for them. I included a unit each semester that focused solely on reading skills and strategies so that students could become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses as readers and work to improve their proficiency. More explicit instructions on the text structures, vocabulary, and assumptions that college-level readings typically contain will help these students “join the conversation” say they are expected to do upon entering college.
Did the Diagnostic Writing Service (DWS) help you or your students? Why or why not?
An aspect of the program that was particularly helpful was the focus on on-demand writing and the Diagnostic Writing Service. The purpose of our work on essay tests was very clear to students, and they were highly motivated to learn skills that would help them place out of remedial college classes. Students specifically liked the idea that “real” essay test readers—the same people who read the actual tests—would be evaluating their work.
I found it helpful and necessary to explain to students beforehand the results we expected to see in tests. Since students are taking the test about 1.5 to 2 years early, most scores are expected to be below passing, and students need to be reassured that this does not reflect poorly on their abilities as high school juniors.
They also need preparation for reading and understanding the comments in the back of the evaluation booklet. As one student put it, the comments are rather “harsh,” and the egos of emerging writers needed some cushioning. In the future, it would be helpful if CAPI were to work on developing curriculum that specifically focused on the skills needed for writing strong on-demand essays.
Students are very eager to learn strategies that will improve their in-class essay writing. If possible, a visit from a test reader would be something students would really find interesting and motivating.
What other assistance or involvement would you like to have from San Francisco State University?
I felt we had adequate assistance and involvement from SFSU during this program. The Saturday sessions were always very interesting and sparked many new ideas for instruction strategies. The books, readings, and other materials given to us teachers were high quality and relevant. Having program participants from the University visit and speak to my classes was very valuable, and I would recommend that this be done in every participating class in the future.
My collaboration with Claudia Wilson was extremely fruitful. I especially appreciated how she responded to feedback on the units. When students found the education unit less than intriguing, Claudia suggested we develop a new unit on culture, and this unit proved to be fascinating and very successful. I regret that I never took advantage of her offer to participate in class activities. In the future, I’d recommend that teachers work more on planning activities that would include her presence, since I think students would appreciate interacting with her.
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