1
It Changes How Students Think About Themselves

• Teachers and Students Responses to a Year Long
  Reading and Writing Course

2
Overview of Pilot EvaluationSpring 2005

• In 2004-05 both the ERWC professional development
  and curricular materials were implemented for the
  first time
• The CSU 12th Grade Task Force worked with close
  to 700 teachers in California (as of this
  presentation weve trained close to 900 high
  school teachers)

3
Evaluation Questions

• Were there differences among 12th graders who
  experienced at least two modules and those who
  followed a traditional ELA curriculum?
• How were the ERWC materials being put into
  practice in 12th grade classrooms? (And how were
  they received by students and teachers?)
• How might instructional context be related to
  increased student proficiency in expository
  reading and writing?

4
The Qualitative Study Additional Questions

• What were teachers experiences of the ERWC
  materials?
• What kinds of shifts did they report in their
  students capacity to engage more effectively in
  critical reading, writing and thinking with
  expository texts?
• How effective were the ERWC materials for
  students, especially for ELLs?

5
Research and Evaluation The Qualitative Data

• Qualitative methods were used to gather these
  data
• Field notes from classroom observations
• Recorded sessions of classroom interactions
• Individual interviews with teachers
• Group interviews with students
• Classroom artifacts (lesson plans, assignments
  and student work)
• Field notes and recorded conversations at PD
  trainings

6
Teachers Views

• What Teachers told us about
• Their own experiences and practices
• Shifts they saw taking place for students

7
EAP Materials Help Teachers Embed Expository
Texts into Existing ELA Curricula

• Im not a teacher that has used expository
  articles much. Im a literary junkie and so
  seeing how helpful those were... You can come up
  with any topic like that and so really seeing how
  I can definitely incorporate bringing their world
  into their lives especially for seniors. And so
  these materials really helped me as a teacher. I
  can do American Lit, but to actually teach
  expository comp, this has been a challenge. This
  unit has helped me so much in seeing what
  directions to go. (TD, Los Angeles)

8
Slowing Down the Pace for Students

• And so I see what you guys gave us was helpful in
  the sense that it just kind of slowed things
  down, really made them pull apart their reading
  and although sometimes the kids were like okay,
  weve read this article five times now, like we
  get it, I still dont think they get that thats
  what they have to do when they go to college or
  when they read dense stuff. They think peruse it
  once, lets write an essay and Ill pull off a C
  and its all good, and it was hard for them to
  slow down and make them understand this is what
  you do. It just validates the fact that Im
  at the right pace. Im not going too slow, so on
  my own I think I would have moved faster because
  Im more like chop, chop, lets get it done. So
  it forced me to slow down with the knowledge of
  like okay, this is right. (AG, Alameda)

9
Students Demonstrated Increased Ability to
grapple with text themselves

• One of the biggest problems of high school
  students is they are so used to being spoon-fed
  information, and if they are just quiet, they
  will get the answer presented to them. And the
  EAP packets do not allow spoon-feeding. They
  must get in there and grapple with it themselves
  and this was the first experience many of them
  had had with having to do the work, the critical
  thinking, the critical reading. (JD,
  Bakersfield)

10
Teachers Reported that Students Enjoyed Readings

• Students were certainly interested in the
  articles The discussions at the beginning were
  really good. We brought in a lot of personal
  experience and that really brought about a big
  level of engagement. (JS, Bakersfield)
• They liked the articles and I think the topics
  really turned them on. (CL, Los Angeles)
• Students said the article topics were of high
  interest to them. (PD, Santa Rosa)

11
Materials Helped Teachers Imagine New Ways of
Approaching Practice

• I think this really lets me understand where my
  students need to be. I think that does help a
  lot to be understanding exactly what they need
  to be able to do when it comes to college level
  writing. (JS, Bakersfield)
• I already had a game plan of critical reading
  and helping people who dont read well, so it was
  perfect for both of those goals, and it made me
  much more conscious of, and conscientious about,
  introducing pieces. (MA, Temecula)

12
Activities Within and Across Units Teachers Found
Helpful

• (In alphabetical order)
• Annotating
• Believing and Doubting Game
• Descriptive Outlining
• Focus on Content versus Purpose
• Discussions
• Freewrites and Quickwrites

• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing
• Exploring Ethos, Logos Pathos
• Analytical Questions
• Surveying the Text
• Timed Writing
• Vocabulary Activities

13
Rewards of Group Discussion Making Critical
Thinking Visible

• Through discussions you get to see really
  quickly at what level students understand this
  material. Theyre talking about it at the
  level they comprehend. Thats whats really
  nice about the small group discussions. ...The
  discussion questions are good for helping me
  understand where theyre at in the article. (JS,
  Arvin)
• Definitely I saw some flourishing, I did see with
  the topics that when we were allowed to
  brainstorm and do free writing, really heavy,
  heavy discussions happened which were really
  great. (AG, Alameda)

14
Analytical Questions Not Plug and Chug

• Its the design of the questions. Theyre not
  plug and chug questions, theyre actually
  synthesis and analysis questions, and its the
  scaffolding the previewing, the prewriting, the
  prethinking. Its getting them to look at the
  text. (JD, Bakersfield)
• Some of the strategies are really good. I
  liked the detail with some of those questions,
  they made the kids really dig back into the
  text. (SH, Los Angeles)
• The activities where there are questions
  piercing, specific questions about the logic, the
  ethics, and about emotion, really are
  sophisticated. I will use some of those, and
  then the generic template thats in the book is
  really good, too. Very, very useful. (SH, Los
  Angeles)

15
Leveling with Students Creating Buy In and
giving students a fighting chance

• The day that I came back from the first EAP
  training, I looked through it that night and I
  thought, wow, this is really good stuff and this
  is what seniors need At this school I think
  20 of the kids pass the EPT... We cant let my
  70 students walk out without a fighting chance,
  so I came in the next day, it was kind of close
  to the new semester, in the middle of the year.
  The report cards had just ended and I remember
  making a split decision that evening -- like if
  my kids will go with me on this, were starting
  this tomorrow... So I came into the class and I
  said I was absent yesterday because I was at this
  conference about 12th graders who arent passing
  exams in college and theyre really worried.

16
Leveling with Students Creating Buy In and
giving students a fighting chance

• So we need to help you learn how to write and
  they want to implement this next year but I think
  we should do it this year. Do you agree that you
  need help with writing? And they all said
  yeah, we hate writing, were scared of writing,
  it sucks and I said that means were cramming in
  six essays before the end of the year and they
  were okay with that. So I think they just knew
  that as boring as writing is to them that going
  into college they needed a little more of a
  fighting chance

17
Leveling with Students Creating Buy In and
giving students a fighting chance

• Do you want to waste 900 on a remedial class?
  I mean the fees are going up. Im trying to save
  you money here, so they bought into it.
  Logically I just talked real to them and gave
  them all the facts and theyre old enough to
  say like okay, youre right, my parents dont
  want to pay for two more remedial classes.
  Lets try to pass the EPT. (AG, Alameda)

18
Developing Confidence

• Teachers saw students developing greater
  confidence in themselves as
• Readers
• Writers
• Thinkers
• Test Takers

19
Changes in Students Reading Habits

• Teachers saw students
• pulling things apart
• examining text more closely
• reexamining ideas in the text
• relooking at language
• rereading the text with different (multiple)
  purposes in mind

20
Changes in Students Reading Habits (contd.)

• Teachers saw students
• evaluating and analyzing the strength of a
  writers argument
• reading more complex texts by choice
• Transferring the skills they were learning with
  expository materials to literary texts

21
Changes in Students Writing Abilities

• Teachers reported that
• Student writing reflected thoughtful reading and
  discussions
• Timed writings demonstrated more structure and
  organization
• Students were more able to take a position and
  support it skillfully with evidence
• Students wrote with more ease and confidence

22
Shifts in Students Thinking

• One of the things that I really wanted the EAP
  packets to do for them this year was to help
  them become more objective thinkers. And they
  now can at least see someone elses point of
  view. It may not change their own point of
  view, but they can recognize that theres a
  different point of view there. And students
  see a lot of payoff. I do this huge amount of
  work and they know now which cracks me up because
  I heard them talking, saying things like Im a
  much better writer but I still need work on my
  grammar. They know that now. They had no idea
  what kind of writer they were and they had no
  idea what good reading and writing looked like
  when they came in, and I think thats one of the
  things that the EAP packet has shown them. (JD,
  Bakersfield)

23
Teachers Views of Students Perceptions of Self

• Students have a tremendous amount more
  confidence and more self-esteem and the young
  lady, Kristen Perry, with the braids who was
  talking a lot to the evaluator during third
  period, African American young lady, at the
  beginning of the year, she wasnt going to go to
  college and midway through the year there were
  these EAP packets and she had some success
  academically. She applied to Northridge, so she
  never would have done that. (JD, Bakersfield)
• This is material that I thought they could relate
  to, but it also challenges them. These kids
  are not stupid but theyve convinced themselves
  they are. This class has made an amazing
  transformation (CB, Arvin)

24
Benefits for English Language Learners

• The curriculum offered English Language Learners
• A slower pace with more opportunities to engage
  in freewriting and timed writing
• More time to wrestle with text
• Concrete strategies for taking text apart
• Frequent opportunities to participate in
  discussions and formulate opinions

25
English Language Learners step up to the plate

• I think ELLs stepped up to the plate. Some of
  it was tough but they got through it. (SH, Los
  Angeles)
• ELLs seem to do pretty well on this, because
  theyre given more time and they can look at it
  more methodically. The pace works well for
  them because they have to go over something two
  or three times and then listen to how other
  people are arguing and so forth. (CL, Los
  Angeles)

26
While Helpful for ELLs, Curriculum is of
Interest to a Wide Range of Students

• A lot of the second language strategies are
  written directly into these units whats nice
  about the materials is that they are not
  written for a group, but for teenagers.
  Whether youre special ed, or ELD, or general
  level, or honors, the units are about issues
  that teenagers are interested in. While ELLs
  may have a bit of a delay in accessing the text,
  they too have improved with their writing
  skills. (JD, Bakersfield)

27
Challenges to Implementation

• Policies and practices at various levels
• Departmental
• School
• District
• Meeting the needs of diverse students in
  heterogeneous states like California

28
Challenges to Implementation

• Most of our kids come from migrant farm working
  families. Most of their parents have not
  completed high school if they attended high
  school. Im going to say 50 its probably a
  little higher are not U.S. citizens. In terms
  of your second language student and the things
  that theyre asking you to do, its very
  difficult. They have to have a 2.0 GPA. There
  are several requirements that make it extremely
  hard for some of them to get out of ELD and when
  they do, they get plunked into either a general
  class, or sometimes a college prep class, and
  they dont do well because theyve been in the
  ELD program. (CB, Arvin)

29
Students Experiences with ERWC Materials

• Materials Helped Students Work with Text in New
  Ways and Discover New Dimensions of Themselves as
  Participants in Literate Worlds
• Described the nature and value of discussions
• Perceived themselves as more skillful readers
  writers
• Made reading and writing connections
• Considered the real world and their futures in
  new ways as a result of the reading they had done
  and the repertoire of textual skills they were
  developing

30
Value of Class Discussions we learned more from
each other

• I think the best parts of both these packets
  were the discussions... I mean especially with
  the first packet, all the discussions that Ive
  had with my questions were like after class just
  like on our own. (PD, Santa Rosa)
• It was interesting to work with a partner and
  groups to read it and stop and give our opinions
  because we had different opinions so we learned
  more from each other (PD, Santa Rosa)

31
Discussions Led to High Involvement

• I liked how the class got involved and you got
  two pretty good arguments between each other and
  it got everybody involved (JD, Bakersfield)
• The classroom discussions the good thing about
  it is we have a lot of like different sides to
  it, like theres a lot of different things to
  blend like something like (?) fast food and so it
  was like heated cause there are so many
  viewpoints you can take... (AG, Alameda
  County)

32
Students Perceived High Interest Topics as
Relevant to Their Lives

• This stuff kind of connects to us more than
  what we would usually read because it has to do
  with stuff that we face every day. Like its
  pretty neat because kids would have totally
  different opinions... We argued our points
  pretty strongly and we just really discussed it
  a lot. (RFS, Lake County)

33
High Interest Topics Relevant to Students Lives
(contd.)

• I think what kept most of us interested
  throughout the whole few days that we were
  discussing it was that now, or just recently, or
  in the near future were all going to be going
  through that with college and getting jobs and
  all that kind of stuff so I think that what
  appealed to us most, whether we all know it or
  not, was that were in that situation as we
  speak. So we all kind of related to it in that
  aspect and I thought thats probably one of the
  most interesting assignments we had all year.
  (MA, Temecula)

34
According to Students, Accessible Topics
Heightened Their Awareness of Real World Issues

• The packets are better if they have things to do
  with the age group theyre directed to. Like
  the Fast Food unit -- I always eat fast food so
  we were more passionate about it because thats
  what we do like daily so the more it has to
  deal with that age group the better people
  respond to it. (JD, Bakersfield)
• I thought it was really interesting reading the
  different articles because it made me, and Im
  sure everybody else, realize theres a lot of
  things we didnt know a lot of the stuff that
  was brought up in the articles in Going for the
  Look it totally gave me a different
  perspective. (RFS, Lake County)

35
Real World Topics (contd.)

• About the Racial Profiling packet, I think that
  is a topic that happens daily. maybe adults
  think that we dont care, but really we do
  because we see it happen every day at school
  whether youre Black, mixed skin, White,
  whatever, or even by the way you dress. Its not
  just really ethnic so it just hits like the most
  important issues happening right now. (JD,
  Bakersfield)
• Going For The Look just made me really think
  twice about things.

36
Real World Topics (contd.)

• this discussion were having in this classroom
  is like one of the only times Ive ever been
  in an environment where we discuss such a thing
  racial profiling. We need more of this
  where we discuss real world problems in our
  classrooms and educate our kids. (TD, Los
  Angeles)

37
Topics Evoked Passion

• Well, it was nice that we were so emotional about
  the subjects that we were doing we were
  basically yelling at the top of our lungs at
  each other about clothes and whats right and
  wrong about it. (JD, Bakersfield)

38
What Students Tell Us They Are Learning

• Becoming More Analytical
• Readers
• Writers
• Thinkers

39
Students See Themselves Becoming Stronger Readers

• I feel that Im a stronger reader now because I
  dont just glaze over what Im reading. I take
  into consideration the things that we learned
  beforehand about pre-reading, doing the quick
  writes, skimming the vocab. Making sure that we
  understand everything before we read the article
  actually helps a lot, and I never did that before
  I would read something. (MA, Temecula)

40
Building Awareness of Text Structure and Genre

• We analyzed these articles more and like picked
  out certain sections of them and found out all
  the different sections. (RFS, Lake County)
• I personally never like really knew the different
  kinds of essays that you do argument and like
  descriptive analysis and this was the first
  time that I personally have ever explored those
  different kinds of essays. (RL, Petaluma)

41
Consciously Reading for Specific Purposes

• Well, its like if Im reading something for a
  specific purpose, like writing a paper, now,
  because of this curriculum, like I can look at
  it and analyze it better, so I can get a better
  understanding of the reading. (CL, Venice)

42
Actively Reading just go back and look at your
notes on the side

• Now I take little notes on the side before I
  didnt do that. It was like reading and then
  trying to memorize the whole book, and that would
  be kind of confusing cause then your points
  would be in different places. Now you can
  just go back and look at your notes on the side
  and remember your feelings. (AG, Alameda
  County)

43
Analyzing Rhetorical Choices

• Well, like todays and yesterdays assignment
  (Rhetoric of the Op-Ed Page), highlighting the
  claims and the evidence you can show a difference
  between whats hard facts and what the writers
  opinion is. And like today with changing the
  sentences, it shows you different ways to write
  it, and how certain words that you use evoke a
  certain emotion. (MA, Temecula)
• I thought we were able to do a really nice job of
  analyzing the articles and like figuring out what
  they were about -- not only analyzing them
  structurally but also content wise, debating why
  authors chose to do the things they did (PD,
  Santa Rosa)

44
Analyzing Biases and Multiple Viewpoints

• When we read an article that has some bias in
  it and opinion, you have to kind of change your
  mind frame of how youre reading it and you have
  to think about the author and the situations you
  have to put it together in your mind and think of
  ways so you can read through the lines and get
  the story besides just the opinion. (PD, Santa
  Rosa)
• Within the last year Ive learned to actually
  look at someone elses point of view and to
  comprehend what they think about it, and take
  note of what theyre saying and try and figure
  out whats the best way to look at the argument.
  (JD, Bakersfield)

45
Separating Fact from Opinion Learning how to
break it down

• we had to find out what the argument was about
  and how to break it down, separate the factual
  information from opinion judging between what
  the writer could back up with actual facts as
  opposed to things that the author just believed.
  (JD, Bakersfield)
• Now I analyze everything that I read, and see
  what the authors trying to say Is it
  positive, is it negative? Is he strong in some
  things? Is he weak in something else? Is he
  describing both sides of the story or is he just
  focusing on one? (JD, Bakersfield)

46
Becoming More Skeptical Readers

• As a reader Ive become more skeptical when I
  read So like weve been learning how to read
  skeptically like not just believing everything
  everybody says. Like everything we read we
  believe about half of everything, of every side
  of the argument, you know what I mean? So like I
  think thats helped me a lot because you have
  to look at the world skeptically too. (MA,
  Temecula)

47
Seeing Reading as More Enjoyable

• I guess I enjoy reading now. (JD, Bakersfield)

48
Looking at Text (and Life) with an Open Yet
Critical Mind

• Well, the curriculum taught us to look at
  text with an open mind and look at what the
  authors saying and see bias, see holes in it,
  when I was earlier in my years, like Id read
  something and Id believe it. I wouldnt even
  question it and after reading this like now Im
  starting to question things. (MA, Temecula)
• These lessons helped us be more open-minded,
  basically to find different points of view...
  (AG, Alameda County)
• Its not so much about learning facts but
  about learning to see both sides of an issue.
  (SH, Los Angeles)

49
Students See Themselves Becoming Stronger Writers

• Its easier to write now and I find myself
  looking more forward to writing a paper in this
  class than in some other classes. (TD, Los
  Angeles)
• When I started out, I was a very mediocre essay
  writer. when I went into Miss D.s class.
  Thats when I really started writing essays...
  So I now enjoy writing essays. Before I used to
  hide from them, I wouldnt do them, I would get
  bad grades, but now when I write them, I know
  that I can do it, I can fight with it. (JD,
  Bakersfield)

50
Becoming Stronger Writers Questioning the Text

• I didnt used to like to write. I still dont
  like to write really, but now I realize that
  when you read something you dont have to agree
  with what theyre talking about. You can like
  disagree with it and you can write about that.
  (JD, Bakersfield)

51
Paying Greater Attention to Process and Audience

• Makes you want to think before you write,
  brainstorm, figure it out instead of just going
  off the top of your head, you have to go through
  and prewrite it. (JD, Bakersfield)
• When you write you have to think about the
  readers and how theyre going to respond. (CB,
  Arvin)

52
Making Reading/Writing Connections

• I never would have guessed that making them
  little comments can just really make you think
  what youre going to say, so when you finally
  write your essay, it comes out how you want it.
  (TD, Los Angeles)
• Personally I didnt used to like to read I
  never picked up a book and then like you had to
  read, and then it made you want to read and then
  like the more you read, the better your essays
  get Its like you become more intelligent, you
  start writing in the style that youre reading,
  and so that kind of works. (JD, Bakersfield)

53
Making Reading/Writing Connections (contd.)

• on the back of each article we answered
  questions not just like yes or no questions.
  We answered questions in paragraph form and for
  me it was helpful cause I use it to write my
  essays. (TD, Los Angeles)
• Annotating, that really helps because when you
  highlight certain stuff you feel is important,
  then when you write your essay you go back to
  that highlighted stuff. (JD, Bakersfield)
• Im more critical when I read things. Basically
  I question everything they say. And then youve
  got to do that in your own writing too. (RL,
  Petaluma)

54
Becoming Stronger Test Takers

• When we took our placement test to get into
  college having done the curriculum helped us
  out And then when I took my placement test, it
  was like easy because we went over those
  articles and it got us there. (JD, Bakersfield)
  

55
Thinking for Ourselves Out in the Real World

• Not only did it teach us knowledge about these
  things, it gave us a way to think for ourselves
  once we go out to the real world... (RFS, Lake
  County)
• The thing about the articles is it makes me
  think a lot more cause Ive grown up in Lake
  County and never really been out of this area
  long enough to see what the rest of the worlds
  like. And by reading articles we get a look at
  what the rest of the world is like how people
  are a lot different from what were used to
  cause a lot of us have grown up with each other
  so were not as judgmental towards each other
  sometimes as we would be with someone in another
  city... (RFS, Lake County)

56
Thinking Toward the Future College

• Like yesterday we looked in the newspaper and
  read letters to the authors and evaluated the
  tone, so I think itll help us when we go to
  college, itll help us that way. (RFS, Lake
  County)
• Well, I know were going to be using it because
  when we reach college, youre going to have to
  know how to write a proper essay because if you
  dont know how to write a proper essay youre not
  going to get anywhere in life. (JD, Bakersfield)

57
You Dont Want to Be a Fool Looking Toward the
Workplace

• Well, depending on your career, like if youre
  reading stuff, sitting in our office reading
  stuff, you dont want to be taken for a fool.
  You dont want to read things and just believe
  every word (MA, Temecula)
• This seems like it will be relevant later
  because with almost every job theres something
  you have to write. Like if youre going to be a
  cop, thats most of what they do -- they write
  reports. Or if youre a manager for a company,
  you have to do a bunch of paperwork. (RL,
  Petaluma)

58
Even if we dont like it Developing a
Repertoire of Textual Tools and Resources

• I think when I like do all these things like we
  might not like when were doing them, it may seem
  like it takes a long time and everything, but
  when were writing papers like in college,
  were not going to have to necessarily do all
  that stuff in order to write a paper, but if we
  get like stuck somewhere its just teaching us
  this is what I can do. I can look up vocab or I
  can look at the deeper meaning of things and then
  find out even if we dont like it I guess. (MA,
  Temecula)

59
Students Major Critiques of ERWC Materials

• Some activities within and across units were
  repetitious (this cut both ways)
• Materials could be made more visually appealing
• Some articles seemed too one-sided (reflects the
  effects of the course)

60
Students Suggestions Start Earlier!

• I believe that to help students and the teacher
  we should start this a little earlier so by
  the time they get here to high school, they
  have that passion, they have that argument,
  theyre not afraid anymore and they can do it.
  Like you can do third grade but make it really
  simple same style, just tinier, and then make
  it progressive and then, when they hit senior
  year, youll have phenomenal writers. (JD,
  Bakersfield)