Del Norte Education Center

College of the Redwoods invites the public to attend a presentation by Professor Ruth Rhodes, “Literacy, Equity, and the Community College” on Thursday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Del Norte Campus, in room DM 29.

 Over the past few years, the College has made dramatic changes to its sequence of English courses, significantly improving students’ ability to progress through their requirements and graduate sooner.

 Gone are the days of taking a year’s worth of “developmental” classes before tackling English 1A. Students either take the newly created English 102, or progress right to college-level English.

 “A few years ago, 80% of our applicants were placed into developmental English. Now, almost half of our students start right in at college level English,” says Professor Rhodes. 

In addition to discussing changes to placement scores, Rhodes will discuss the ways English instructors at College of the Redwoods have changed how and what they teach. For example, they’ve used something called “backwards design” to adjust their curriculum to better prepare students for college-level reading and writing assignments.

 “The reading and writing assignments are more challenging, but they’re also more interesting,” says Rhodes.  For example, in Rhodes’ class, instead of writing a paragraph about the worst job they’ve ever had—something her developmental students used to do—they’re writing multi-page papers in response to college-level texts like Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir, Between the World and Me.

 “It’s a messy process. The first drafts are very rough. But students who are really engaged rise to the challenge—and those who don’t pass the first paper learn a great deal from the experience,” says Rhodes. “They’re doing college level work—that’s what they came here for.”

 These changes come at a time when leaders in Del Norte County have been taking a hard look at literacy rates. According to the Del Norte School System Implementation Team, 66% of children entering kindergarten do not have the skills they need to succeed and only 50% of third graders test at reading level. 

 The presentation is designed for the general public but will be of special interest to those concerned about education and equity.

 Rhodes’ talk is part of College of the Redwoods-Del Norte’s Third Thursday Talks (T3) series presented once a month through the rest of the academic year.

 Here is a complete schedule of the Third Thursday Talks:

 Bernadette Johnson-November 17th: Getting On Course with Prison Education

 Ruth Rhodes-January 19th: Literacy, Equity, and the Community College

 Phil Freneau-February 16th: The Importance of Positive Communication in Child Guidance

 Ken Letko-March 16th: Bright Darkness: New & Selected Poems

 Chris Callaghan-April 20th: Sexual Violence Awareness Month

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