Resources

The traditional emphasis on delivering content in community college classrooms through lectures may become less prevalent as teachers find better ways to help students engage in college-level learning.

While lecturing may still have a role, it has significant limitations, especially for students new to college and those at risk of faring poorly.

Federal legislation making its way through Congress would support the integration of basic skills teaching into regular content courses.

The Strategic Literacy Initiative at WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship® is a research-based approach being adopted by a growing numbers of community college teachers.  It takes very little modification of the Reading Apprenticeship approach to make it relevant for community college instruction.

Reading Apprenticeship fosters a climate of “shared responsibility” and more sophisticated teaching and learning. As students read and understand most of the text on their own, teachers can use class time to focus specifically on what’s not making sense, or to delve deeper into the material. As for the students, they become more independent learners.