Copyright ©2021 The NROC Project
ADAPT INSTRUCTION, NOT CURRICULUM
USE CASES
Curriculum Pre-Assessment (Placement)
Curriculum Post-Assessment (Summative)
UNIT-BY-UNIT INSTRUCTOR GUIDES
Welcome to NROC’s Developmental English—An Integrated Program. This collaboratively developed, innovative program of study is designed for students preparing for either college or a career. After conversations with developmental English instructors across the country and in-depth research into state and district studies, we elected to compress the standard developmental English curriculum—reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary building, grammar, punctuation and usage skills—to allow learners to accelerate into credit-bearing college courses and certificate or post- secondary training programs, or to enter economically viable career paths. The course also provides essential study skills, such as note and test taking, to build confidence and boost skills required for overall success at the college level and beyond.
This program integrates numerous media-rich instructional approaches into basic reading and writing strategies in an engaging and efficient environment. The prescribed reading selections provide models that “show” rather than “tell” students how to read, comprehend and then respond to the writing assignment.
The key is blending the reading and writing components so that students can combine critical reading with the writing process. This eliminates the redundancy that students often experience once they are classified as developmental learners. Institutions, instructors, and students can adapt and re-mix the content to meet varying program and learner requirements.
The curriculum consists of ten units, each following the same sequence of integrated reading and writing experiences. Students begin with pre-reading, move into reading and post-reading activities, and finish with pre-writing, writing, revising, and editing. This sequence helps learners to analyze content and rhetorical structures and build their vocabulary, and improve their writing mechanics with grammar, punctuation and usage exercises. Media-rich presentations and exercises model and develop strategies for reading and writing effectively.
Throughout this curriculum, learners experience similar strategies for both reading and writing. Fully integrated units allow the learner to apply these strategies directly within assignments and activities, while building vocabulary and grammar skills in the context of both reading selections and writing assignments. As the units progress, the reading and writing assignments engage students in progressively deeper analysis and synthesis of text and ideas, preparing them for first-year college classes.
Students will learn to:
Complete academic tasks effectively by combining critical thinking strategies, learning strategies, reading techniques, and writing proficiencies.
Apply the steps of the reading process—pre-reading, reading, and post- reading—to texts and materials in order to read critically for multiple levels of understanding.
Identify unknown terms in a text and use various methods to define them in order to expand vocabulary.
Apply the steps of the writing process—pre-writing, drafting, and editing—to texts and materials in order to write informatively and persuasively in multiple genres.
Use punctuation, grammar, and mechanics correctly within the writing context.
Apply and engage in the behaviors of a consistent and successful college student.
ADAPT INSTRUCTION, NOT CURRICULUM
In general, our reading selections assume at least a 9th grade reading level. This curriculum is not intended to address early literacy needs. As this program was designed to accelerate college and career readiness, our team of subject-matter experts specifically chose readings that represent the type of texts students encounter in a first- year college class.
The average national age of community college students is 29, which means that the students typically using this program are adult learners who can handle sophisticated ideas—they just don’t have the skills and experience for addressing those ideas in an academic setting. Our team of subject-matter experts believes that step-by-step scaffolding throughout the program will support students through the unit reading and writing assignments and give them the confidence and skills necessary to succeed in introductory college courses and real world experiences.
Although the reading and writing assignments may be challenging, formative assessments are included in each unit to help students and instructors identify specific areas of concern. This allows for targeted instruction in the foundation lessons, which are focused on core competencies, or for instructor-generated lessons in either a typical classroom setting or online environment.
When adapting instruction for English Language Learners (ELL), much of the information on implementation, tips, and enrichment contained in the unit-level instructor guides will also be applicable to the advanced ELL. Most often, ELLs just need more models, practice, and time. The focus for adapting this curriculum for English Language Learners will be on English language elements, text structure, and writing conventions. There can be a great deal of diversity among ELLs in a single classroom in terms of previous experience with academic reading and writing, both in their native language and in English. Once instructors learn more about their students, they can select the tips and practices in the unit- specific instructor guides that are most useful to these specific learners.
For more information about how this course supports ELLs, click here.
When using NROC Developmental English for secondary instruction, much of the information found in the unit-level instructor guides on implementation, tips, and enrichment will also be applicable to high school students. However, we have provided an additional section near the end of each unit instructor guide that offers supplementary extension activities to specifically address Common Core standards.
The NROC Project course model relies on, and seeks to support, the role of the instructor. "Effective teaching is not a set of generic practices, but instead is a set of context-driven decisions about teaching. Effective teachers do not use the same set of practices for every lesson . . . Instead, what effective teachers do is constantly reflect about their work, observe whether students are learning or not, and, then adjust their practice accordingly.” (Glickman, 1991, p. 6)
Each unit is designed around a specific reading selection and a pattern of writing to expose students to a variety of relevant reading and writing genres. Each unit follows the same sequence of integrated reading and writing experiences.
The design assumes that the skills taught in this integrated approach are recursive, not sequential. Therefore, the design used to teach reading and writing strategies will be similar from unit to unit, but advance in level or complexity as the student progresses through the curriculum. Each unit has a unique focus or theme and provides grammar, punctuation, usage, and vocabulary within the context of the reading and writing lesson.
We took great care during the development of this curriculum to ensure versatility and adaptability to varying instructor and student needs and requirements. While this program integrates reading, writing, vocabulary building, grammar, punctuation and usage along with essential skills, it can be adapted for self-guided instruction in a lab setting with minimal tutor interaction, flipped classroom and online approaches where the course becomes the textbook, and traditional classroom settings looking for online supplemental materials for their existing curriculum. Materials can be taught separately for discrete reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation and usage instruction or practice, and basic composition. The essential college skills material for orientation sessions can be used to augment other developmental courses.
The NROC Course Manager (also referred to as the “Grade Service”) is a proprietary service that NROC created so our course will work with all of the various Learning Management Systems (LMS). The Course Manager provides a database of student scores and progress generated by the Developmental English course and allows instructors to manage the Writing Center process. The data generated by students is available to instructors and institutions in a secure format, and can be downloaded as an Excel file. Each institution can work with that data as they choose. We encourage members to map the data produced by the Grade Service to their LMS grade book, and share their methods with the NROC community.
To access the NROC Course Manager, click the Course Management and Reporting link in the Instructor Resources area of the course. Once you click that link you should see a login screen that looks like this:
Before you can begin using your course, you need to register it with the NROC Course Manager. We’ve provided a few short tutorials for how to use the NROC Course Manager:
Video 1: Register Your Course (and you can also read instructions for registering your course here).
Video 2: Set Up Your Course (Basic)
Video 3: Set Up Your Course (Advanced)
Video 4: Monitor Student Progress
My Journal is a feature that captures responses to activities and exercises within each unit. Questions and prompts provide writing opportunities for students and enable the expression of free form ideas and thoughts, low-stakes writing tasks that are used as building blocks for the unit writing assignment. Additionally, students will use My Journal to annotate the unit reading selection. My Journal will be available to students as a constant unit resource and allow students to retrieve their responses during the writing process. Material is stored within each unit and does not carry to the next.
My Journal should help students engage in the reading process and encourage them to think about and document important information gathered during pre-reading, active reading, post-reading and pre-writing. The reward of keeping information in My Journal will become obvious to learners during the writing process when information gathered will be organized and easily accessible for use in the Writing Center.
My Journal entries can be emailed to instructors, tutors and peers, or printed for offline work.
RESOURCES
Unit Resources
Grammar in Context: These multimedia presentations teach grammar, punctuation, and usage. ‘Student writing samples’ are shown to demonstrate how to identify mechanical errors and how to correct them.
Worked Examples: These are instructor-led videos (featuring Larry and Ted, two experienced teachers), explaining the grammar concepts in the unit and providing clear step-by-step examples.
The Foundations provide lessons about the core concepts in the unit: basic grammar, punctuation, and usage; vocabulary building; and essential college skills. These text-based resources can replace* or supplement traditional handbooks and you can choose to assign them to students at multiple points in any unit: before students begin the unit, between post-reading and pre-writing, or a combination of the two. Although some lessons focus on reading strategies more than writing strategies, and vice versa, all are contextualized to both reading and writing disciplines, making the lessons pertinent regardless of where in the unit they are assigned.
Foundations are listed in the Resources for a specific unit, but the Foundation topics apply to the whole curriculum and will be available to students at any time through a search feature in the Resources. Instructors have the ability to assign any of the Foundations at any time for review, remediation, or test preparation.
Each Foundation adheres to the following structure:
*If the Foundations are used as a replacement for an English handbook, students will still require MLA/APA style guides. Suggestions include:
MLA: Purdue OWL -- https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/*
APA: Purdue OWL – https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/*
https://academictips.org/mla-format/*
The Active Reader displays the Unit Reading Selection(s). Each Reading Selection is broken into manageable “chunks,” or segments, to support student learning. Following each chunk of text, students will answer self-assessment questions to reinforce comprehension. Additionally, the Active Reader provides unique lenses to support student learning:
This includes reading selection, as well as the purpose of reading it, and instructions on how to use the Active Reader.
Synchronized audio narration is timed to the reading selection, with the current sentence highlighted and each word in that sentence highlighted in a different color as it is spoken.
Vocabulary terms, colloquialisms, and words that might be challenging for ELL or low-level readers are highlighted within the reading selection. Selecting one of the highlighted words or phrases will display the word or phase with audio pronunciation, part of speech, and three show/hide links: How to Break Down a Word, How to Use Context Clues, and Definition. Students should start at How to Break Down a Word, and if they can't define the word by answering the questions provided, they should open How to Use Context Clues. If, after answering the context clues questions, they still cannot define the word, they should open the Definition. The definition will be in the context of the reading selection and will also provide synonyms.
The vocabulary words selected in the unit reading selections are not always difficult, but they may be “false friends”—they could appear similar to words in a student’s native language, but mean something else. An example of such a word is “actual.” In English, actual means real, true, confirmed, definite, etc., but in many other languages, actual (or a word with similar spelling) means current or happening now. Instructors should check with students to ensure they know the meanings of these “false friend words.” You may wish to use additional ELL vocabulary resources such as the following:
Academic Word List (AWL):
Grammar, Punctuation, Usage
Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage lessons are applied in relation to the Unit reading selection. The intent of these mini-lessons is to reveal nuances of how each concept is applied in authentic practice. Clicking on a highlighted portion of the reading selection on the left-hand side will display mini-lessons related to the grammar Foundation lessons for the unit. Students can also click a link to open the associated Foundation lesson for further help.
These lessons are simplified for the learner so that the conceptual framework of Standard Written English is distilled into compact, easy-to-digest explanations that avoid the abstract nomenclature often associated with grammar. Common grammatical terms are used when necessary, but explanations are student focused to help them understand the underlying structure of the language they use every day.
The Writing Center is a writing workspace that supports the steps in the writing process. Features of the Writing Center include:
This includes the writing assignment, as well as detailed instructions, rubrics and unit reading selections. Links to My Journal will take students to materials they have already created during the reading and writing process and serve as a starting point for their writing.
The rubrics provided for each writing assignment reflect the increase in complexity as the core focus of each unit builds on skills from previous units. These student-centered rubrics can be adapted as grading tools by assigning them point values.
Navigation at the bottom of the Writing Center provides learners with a process for writing: 1st Draft; Writing Workshop 1; 1st Draft Review; 2nd Draft; Writing Workshop 2; 2nd Draft Edit; Final Paper.
Scaffolding (boxed spaces for composition) breaks the writing into manageable sections that provide structure for learners and allow them to focus on each required component—topic sentence, thesis statement, supporting sentences, etc. Scaffolding is specific to each unit writing assignment and provides a progression as a student works through the 10 units, from a highly directed, task- specific structure, to a less directed, 'bigger picture' focus.
Tips (show/hide) for each of the writing boxes remind learners what to include in the space and help stimulate writing. Instructors can elect to use default tips or insert their own personal tips. Example from Unit 2:
Tip: Thesis statements are some of the most difficult sentences to write, so think of this as a “tentative” thesis statement (sometimes called a working thesis), meaning that you will come back to improve it later. Here are some examples of tentative thesis statements: “Just like Fong’s experience, my family also celebrates Thanksgiving by honoring our mixed cultural heritage” or “Unlike Fong’s experience, my family celebrates Thanksgiving in a very traditional manner.”
In the First Draft Review, a review feature (self, peer, instructor) provides prompts to guide the review process and keep reviewer comments focused on Unit objectives.
In the Second Draft Edit, reviewers can use an editing tool to “mark-up” each draft with feedback before returning it to the writer. Students complete a self- review and instructors are automatically notified through the Reviews tab in the NROC Course Manager (Course Management and Reporting) when each student has completed his or her Second Draft and it is ready for instructor review. Once in the Second Draft Edit, instructors have an additional option to use the quick Comment feature. This feature allows instructors to highlight a portion of the student’s writing and select from a list of comments, like “Run-on,” “Comma Splice,” and “Insert Comma,” allowing for faster editing.
Two videos are included within the sequence of the writing process:
Writing Workshop 1 provides lessons on how to review and revise writing prior to entering the 1st Draft Review stage.
Writing Workshop 2 provides lessons on how to edit and proofread prior to entering the 2nd draft Edit stage.
Videos throughout each unit provide multimedia models of reading and writing strategies that describe a consistent approach that a student can use to complete college-level assignments. Visuals and text on screen reinforce unit concepts, and exercises embedded at strategic intervals encourage students to write early and often. Videos are close captioned for the hearing impaired. Videos include:
Each Unit begins with a short video that introduces the theme and provides a content overview. The introduction will convey positive, motivational encouragement to the learner.
These videos model pre-reading strategies (reading overview, preview, connect to the reading, make predictions and ask questions) by applying them to the reading selections. After each topic, students will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of the strategies by completing exercises and writing responses to questions about the reading selection.
These videos model post-reading strategies (review, discuss, reflect) by applying them to the reading selections. Students will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of the strategies by completing exercises and writing responses to questions about the readings and/or directly annotating them. Each presentation concludes with a bridge from reading to writing.
The Pre-Writing videos introduce specific writing assignments and model pre- writing strategies. During pre-writing, students are also reading, making the transition from reader to writer and learning to consider the audience. Throughout the presentations, students will be asked to complete exercises as they prepare for the writing assignment. These exercises lead through each step in the pre- writing process – understand the assignment, generate ideas, develop a thesis statement and organize ideas. Responses will be retained in My Journal and can be applied or revised in the Writing Center.
These brief video tutorials show students what common grammar errors look like and how those mistakes can be fixed. Complementary guides to these same grammar topics are also presented in Writing Workshop 1 in the Writing Center. Students are prompted to look for these issues in their own writing and in the writing of their fellow students during peer reviews.
There are four types of assessments in the Developmental English curriculum:
Curriculum Pre-Assessment (Placement)
The Placement Test of 50 questions will be available at the outset of the program through the Learning Management System (LMS). This test covers objectives from Units 1 through 5 and will allow placement of students in either unit 1 or unit 6, based on their skill level.
Each of the 50 questions were ranked and ordered from least difficult to most difficult. The assessment development team recommends 84% (42 questions) as the threshold score. So the instructor will place students who score 84% or below in Unit 1, and the instructor will place students who place above 84% in Unit 6.
Individual schools and instructors can adjust this percentage based on their school’s requirements.
Once students complete the Placement test, their instructor will have to manually place students in the appropriate unit. This could be done in a number of ways
through the LMS (and each LMS has different functionality). For example, in Moodle the instructor could use the “groups” feature and assign students to groups based on their score.
These brief assessments of approximately 8-10 questions, given halfway through each unit, will test understanding of the Foundation lessons. Upon completion of the Review, students will see a summary screen that provides remediation support, if needed, through direct links to the Foundation lessons.
A test that includes approximately 20 questions will be administered at the conclusion of each unit and cover the concepts in the unit. This assessment includes both multiple-choice questions and constructed response questions (short answer) that require an instructor to grade. Successful completion of both the unit assessment and the writing assignment (which is graded by the instructor) will indicate that a student is ready to move on to the next unit.
Curriculum Post-Assessment (Summative)
The summative test includes 60 questions (54 multiple choice, 6 constructed response) and is administered at the conclusion of the curriculum or whenever students want to know if they are ready to move on to a college level English course. Students’ scores on the Curriculum Post-Assessment should be considered in conjunction with their grades on the writing assignments in each unit. The application of the Unit Model and the Foundations to the writing assignment is a critical indicator of students’ abilities to read and write successfully at the college level.
The questions on the summative test represent a selection of learning objectives from each unit with a relatively equal distribution across units and a cross-section of learning objectives that include multiple skills and concepts.
There are two forms (versions) available. This will allow students to retake the summative test if necessary, and two forms also help maintain the integrity of the test if many students in the same class/school are taking it. Several of the same questions appear on both forms as linking items to ensure the same level of difficulty for both versions of the assessment. The remaining items are unique to each form.
NROC’s Developmental English curriculum includes prescribed reading selections that provide context for modeling successful reading and writing strategies. Research, Subject Matter Expert advice, and focus group findings led to authentic reading and writing assignments required for college and career ready students. (‘Authentic’ refers to the type of reading selections and subsequent writing assignments college students will encounter inside and beyond the classroom.)
Reading Selection: "The Penny Debate," by Brad Andrews (commissioned)
Writing Assignment: Write a one-paragraph response that reflects a personal opinion of the reading.
Reading Selection: "Rice for Thanksgiving," by Jocelyn Fong (permissioned)
Writing Assignment: Write a summary and response to “Rice for Thanksgiving.”
Reading Selection: "The Fourth of July," by Audre Lorde (permissioned)
Writing Assignment: Write a multi-paragraph narrative essay about “The Moment that Changed Everything.”
Reading Selection: "Social Media: Friend or Foe?" by Kara Woodridge (commissioned)
Writing Assignment: Write a multi-paragraph essay that takes a side on Kara Woodridge’s blog article, “Social Media Friend or Foe?” Support your belief with varied personal examples.
Reading Selection: Sociology—A Global Perspective, Chapter 5: "Global Economies", Source: Excerpts from "Gross National Happiness in Bhutan: A Living Example of an Alternative Approach to Progress," by Alejandro Adler Braun (permissioned & adapted)
Writing Assignment: Write a multi-paragraph essay providing (defining) your personal criteria for happiness and exploring whether or not you have achieved happiness based on these criteria.
Reading Selections: "The Nature of Things: Biomimicry" (science textbook); "Don’t Sink my Battleship!" (history textbook); "Razzle Dazzle! Fashion 'Stars'—in Stripes" (Pop-culture) (all 3 commissioned)
Writing Assignment: Discuss the three reading selections on the use of camouflage in a multi-paragraph analysis essay choosing three of the following six discipline-specific features to incorporate in your analysis: writer’s purpose; writing tone and style; reader’s goal; discipline-specific language; discipline-specific features; organization.
Reading Selection: "Whole New Ballgame," by Brendan O’Shaughnessy (permissioned)
Writing Assignment: Write a multi-paragraph essay comparing and contrasting the best class you’ve taken with the worst class you’ve taken to show what you learned from the experiences. Include at least three examples of figurative language.
Reading Selection: "Global warming—this time it’s personal," by Casey Kennedy (commissioned)
Writing Assignment: Write a multi-paragraph essay identifying at least two of your personal or lifestyle choices and explain the positive and/or negative effects they have on the environment.
Reading Selections: “Is Happiness the Beginning or the End?” by Jamie Anderson (commissioned); "Your College Major May Not Be As Important As You Think," by Zac Bissonnette (permissioned article originally appeared in a NY Times blog)
Writing Assignment: Choose one of the reading selections and write a multi-paragraph critical analysis identifying the author's thesis and purpose, briefly summarizing the selected reading, and evaluating the author's success, or lack of success, in supporting the thesis and satisfying his purpose for writing.
Reading Selection: "Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?" by Jennifer Jenkins (commissioned)
Writing Assignment: Select a topic from the list provided and write a multi- page essay describing the argument, followed by a personal statement that is persuasive and supported by evidence from the provided sources. Personal or testimonial evidence may also be used as a defense for the argument, but should be secondary in nature.
Student Topics:
Should performance-enhancing drugs (such as steroids) be accepted in sports?
Does online dating create longer lasting relationships than dating people you meet in typical face-to-face situations?
Should the United States require mandatory national service in the form of a draft or required civil service?
UNIT-BY-UNIT INSTRUCTOR GUIDES
Each unit includes an Instructor Guide that provides specific information about that unit (including learning objectives), as well as tips and enrichment activities. These Instructor Guides are provided in the course. As the name indicates, these are just guides and recommendations, not requirements.
GRAMMAR RESOURCES
Below are some resources that can help students engage in grammar activities outside of this course. The more experience students have investigating and working with their own writing, the deeper their learning will be. This course is structured for that type of authentic engagement, where all activities lead to students using the learning outcomes in their own writing.
www.hippocampus.org - contains some additional videos, lessons, and tutorials on grammar that can be useful for students who continue to face challenges after completing the unit.
Grammar.CCC.commnet.edu* - interactive grammar quizzes.
We recommend that all instructors join the NROC English group at the NROC Community so they have access to all updates and notices about the English course.
The NROC Community is a user community of teachers and administrators who want to learn, share ideas, help each other, and work together to improve educational opportunities for everyone. We encourage all members to actively participate and support each other through posts in the Community.
*Any links to non-NROC, third-party resources listed in this Instructor Guide may change over time. We update the Instructor Guides annually and correct any broken links.
Developed by The NROC Project. Copyright ©2021 The NROC Project