In the beginning …
Our essential question was: “How can we cost effectively accelerate student progress in basic skills reading?”
To begin to answer this question the inquiry focused on Reading 20, a developmental reading course 3 levels below transfer. The course is an open university course that works to improve the reading abilities up to the 9th grade level.
Our goals were to find strategies to accelerate student progress and minimize time students spend in remedial courses.
At the end of the first year the team, who at the time was all Reading 20 instructors, disbanded, and a new team was formed.
Now …
Our team consists of instructors from across the disciplines. And, thus our focus has shifted to “reading across the curriculum” (at all levels: transfer and remedial, as well as non-credit). In addition, the team has taken a holistic approach by asking students to do think-alouds, a Reading Apprenticeship technique.
Out of this new team and re-designed focus comes our new essential question:
How do we, as instructors from across the curriculum, address, in an authentic way, the struggles our students have with reading within our individual discipline?
