Class changes in works
New English offerings will replace existing course
By Morgan Steger
The Collegian
Fresno State students will no longer be assigned to lower-division general education English classes based on their English Placement Test scores starting next fall.
Under a new pilot program, Directed Self Placement, English 1 will be eliminated and students will instead choose between one of three new options to satisfy the English requirement, said Magda Gilewicz, Director of the English writing center.
Students will determine which class will best suit their needs, based on detailed class descriptions created by administrators and faculty in the English and linguistics departments, Gilewicz said.
Fresno State isn’t the only CSU implementing Directed Self Placement. CSU Chico is developing a similar program and CSU Channel Islands has been using the program since it opened four years ago.
Bob Mayberry, Director of Composition at Channel Islands, said students there have been successful in choosing their own English class. More than 90 percent of students are able to write at levels that meet the basic passing requirements for their respective classes, he said.
Students who place themselves are more motivated to complete a course than students who are forced to take a class based on the results of a standardized test, Mayberry said. “There is nothing more insulting and demeaning than to be told what class to take based on your scores on a standardized test,” he said. “If it was up to me, the EPT would be scrapped completely.”
Fresno State students will still be required to take the EPT, even though it will not be used to determine placement, said Rick Hansen, Director of English composition. Students can use their test scores to help pick a class, he said. “They may want to think about their test scores,” he said. “It’s all about what you can do.”
The new class options are meant to cater to the varying levels of English proficiency among entering freshmen.
English 10, accelerated academic literacy, a one semester advanced course, requires students to be self-sufficient in their writing abilities before they enter the class and will immediately immerse students in academic writing and research methods, Hansen said.
English 5A and 5B is a two-semester “stretch” course, which will start with shorter assignments in the first semester and gradually move into more complex, research-based compositions in the second semester, he said.
A three semester course will also be offered, which begins with a semester of linguistics 6, followed by English 5A and 5B, said Gilewicz. Linguistics 6 is designed for students who are learning English as a second language and need to brush up on basic writing skills in order to succeed in English 5, she said.
“We have a lot of students who really need to work on sentence-level and paragraph-level composition,” Gilewicz said.
Organizers have been working on the program, which has been approved by both Fresno State’s Academic Senate and the CSU Chancellor’s Office, since December, Hansen said. They plan to distribute detailed class descriptions, complete with checklists of skills to master for each option to high schools, so future students will know what to expect when choosing a class, Hansen said.
Hansen said he hopes students will embrace the new program. “I think most students want to read and write better and once we can convince them that those skills are learned, they will be pretty happy with the program,” he said.
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