1. Getting Started: a CUNY START approach for struggling writers
Sarah Eisenstein, Professional Developer, College Transition Teaching Initiative
Thomas Dieter, Lead Instructor, CUNY Start
City University of New York
ALP Conference
Baltimore, MD, 2014
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

2. Pre-workshop analysis
Pre-workshop analysis
Welcome! Please read the student essay on your seat and make some notes while considering the following questions:
What do you observe about this student’s writing?
What strengths and weaknesses do you notice?
Some context: This is an intake essay written by a CUNY Start student in response to an article about a couple who won the lottery but gave away their winnings.
CUNY Assessment Test of Writing (CATW) Directions:
Read the passage above and write an essay responding to the ideas it presents. In your essay, be sure to summarize the passage in your own words, stating the author’s most important ideas. Develop your essay by identifying one idea in the passage that you feel is especially significant, and explain its significance. Support your claims with evidence or examples drawn from what you have read, learned in school, and/or personally experienced.
Remember to review your essay and make any changes or corrections that will help your reader follow your thinking. You will have 90 minutes to complete your essay.
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

3. workshop Agenda CTTI & CUNY Start: A Brief Introduction
Characteristics of Developmental Writers
Approaches to Scaffolding Writing
Cognitive Apprenticeship: Modeling, Scaffolding, Fading and Coaching
Closing: Personal Reflection
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

4. Cuny college transition teaching initiative (CTTI)
CTTI provides research-based professional development and curriculum development for college transition.
CTTI has worked with a range of programs and faculty, most notably helping to create and develop CUNY Start.
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

5. Thomas
A television still from a recent NY1 story.
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

6. cuny start A brief History
CUNY Start began in 2007 as an intervention for GED recipients at two community colleges in the CUNY system.
Today, the program has expanded to eight CUNY campuses and now serves both GED recipients and HS graduates.
Total students served to date: 3,400
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

7. cuny start Results Most students in the full-time
Outcomes: Fall 2009 – Fall 2013
Most students in the full-time
program enter with remedial
needs in all three skills areas.
After one semester, 49% of
students become fully proficient.
Those who don’t become fully
proficient make significant
gains.
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

8. Program structure & training
cuny start
Program structure & training
15-18 week program with two opportunities to retake CUNY Assessment Tests
$75 student fee; no financial-aid drawdown
Intensive study:
- Full-time Program: 25 hours/week, or
- Part-time Program: 12 hours/week
Rigorous instruction by highly trained teachers and advisors using a model of cognitive apprenticeship.
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

9. Developmental writers
Characteristics of
Developmental writers
Developmental writers need support in many ways, including:
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

10. Developmental writers
Characteristics of
Developmental writers
Developmental writers need support in many ways, including:
Development
Organization
Analysis
Clarity
Control
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

11. Approaches to scaffolding writing
Using the writing process to support students to develop their own voices:
Brainstorming
Free-writing
Drafting and revising
Sarah
Clean this page up? Title says it’s about writing scaffolds, but the bullet points are about brainstorming, free-writing, drafting and revising?
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

12. Approaches to scaffolding writing
Essay plan
Before you write your essay, plan the points you want to make, and find evidence to back up your ideas. Try using T.E.E.L. to help you structure each paragraph.
Topic Sentence – this is a statement about what point your paragraph will make.
Example – this is evidence to back up your point.
Explanation – this is where you demonstrate that you understand your example, and explain how it supports your point.
Link – this is where you sum-up your point, and then introduce your next idea.
Essay question
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Topic sentence
Example
Source:
Explanation
Link
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

13. Without mental models of essays, students May:
Get overwhelmed and not know how to get started
Not understand the rationale for teachers’ feedback; revisions can be rote and not carry over to the next essay
Misuse scaffolds
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

14. Cognitive apprenticeship
Modeling
Scaffolding
Fading
Coaching
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

15. Cognitive apprenticeship
MODELING
Scaffolding
Fading
Coaching
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

16. model essay ANALYSIS & Student Sample
Please read the model essay in response to the “What Are Friends For?” CATW prompt, then fill out the model essay analysis sheet.
As you read, make notes on the following:
What benefits do you see to starting with this kind of model essay analysis activity?
How do you anticipate students will struggle with this activity?
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

17. Starting with Fully-Written Models
In a traditional shoe-making apprenticeship, apprentices could see the master make the whole shoe. Seeing how it looked as a complete whole was necessary for beginning to start work on even one piece of the shoe.
Similarly, students need a mental model of a fully developed, coherent essay because having the big picture enables them to work meaningfully on any particular part. Model essays should be fully written and coherent to give a complete picture. (Collins, Brown & Holum, 1991).
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

18. Structured analysis of Accessible models
For models to work, students need to be able to see how they’re constructed.
Students should interact with models in structured ways, so that they can easily identify and reproduce salient features. (Macbeth, 2010; Ponsot & Deen, 1982)
Sarah
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

19. Reflections on the use of models
Model Essay Analysis gives teachers and students a grounded starting place.
Over time, weaker students become more comfortable using the model-essay structure, and teachers can begin coaching them to strengthen sub-skills.
Some students’ essays may become formulaic after a while; students need support and coaching to infuse their own voices into their writing.
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

20. Closing Personal reflection
How is the model analysis from this workshop similar to and/or different from the scaffolds and models teachers use in your program?
How do you imagine you might be able to adapt or use model analysis in your program?
Thomas
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

21. Thank you! Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter

22. Works cited
Collins, Allan, John Seely Brown & Ann Holum. “Cognitive Apprenticeship:
Making Thinking Visible.” American Educator Winter (1991): Web.
Grubb, W. Norton & Robert Gabriner. Basic Skills Education in Community
Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Print.
Macbeth, Karen. “Deliberate False Provisions: The Use and Usefulness of
Models in Learning Academic Writing.” Journal of Second Language
Writing 19(2010): Web.
Ponsot, Marie & Rosemary Deen. Beat Not the Poor Desk: Writing: What to
Teach, How to Teach It and Why. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers
Print.
Sarah Eisenstein Thomas Dieter