The final cluster of curriculum goals involves content. When we choose our speakers, plays, books, and
articles, we are primarily concerned about subject matter. We want themes—not discrete random units—
that will involve the students for weeks at a time. An analysis of our programs and materials since 1984
reveals three major trends: a bias in favor of Afro-American materials; a focus on classics in Western
European heritage; a respect for the diversity represented by third world cultures,

We choose works because of the richness of the conflicts and resolutions within them and because they
df! about well-known people, by well-known people, or because they help students from frameworks of
historical or geographical knowledge. For developmental students particularly, their repertoire of
background information often limits their ability to comprehend what they are reading. To discuss the
phenomenon of becoming "well-known," we have had a folklorist from the University of Pennsylvania
discuss the changing concept of heroes from Achilles to Luke Skywalker; we have provided material on a
variety of Greek myths. Developmental students have argued about Helen of Troy, Achilles and Odysseus;
and while one student would have "given her red dancing shoes" to have been Helen, most judged all
ihree fairly harshly after setting out their own criteria for hero or heroine. Students were also fairly skeptical
about how Oedipus’s problems applied to their own personal urges (even, or especially, after reading an
essay by Freud), although the students did enjoy the gospel music of Oedipus at Colonus. We have read
works by Dickens and Tennyson, Yeats, Auden and Arthur Miller. We have had extended units on
evolution and dinosaurs, on World War II and the Holocaust.

We value the diversity of world cultures. This semester we promoted examinations of Africa, Cambodia,
and Maya Indians. Grant monies brought Ali Mazrui to C.C.P.; he created the PBS series The Africans. Our
program provided 300 students, in developmental and in college credit courses, with materials written and
edited by Mazrui, newspaper articles condemning and praising his series, and study materials to make the
articles useful in a variety of English courses. Our Student Activities Office booked Dith Pran, the survivor
of the killing fields of Cambodia; our Cultural Series coordinators supplied newspaper articles on Dith Pran,
an essay by a Cambodian student who also lived through Pol Pot's regime, and arranged for a Cambodian
student to talk with other students. This semester students wrote an essay defining the word "civilization"
and discovered enough information about Maya Indians to form strong conflicting opinions about whether
the Maya were "civilized." In the past three years we also have prepared extensive units on South Africa,
Ethiopia, Vietnam and El Salvador.

Conclusion

Our goals for developmental students have changed the instructional strategies in our courses. Years ago
students worked on writing skills in courses where their own essays were the primary text. Separate
reading courses emphasized critical analysis, yet the textbooks offered a variety of short, unrelated essays.
Content courses were taught by different teachers of history, geography, and psychology.

Today, English teachers teach both reading and writing courses to the same students; we teach in clusters
with the content teachers and use their textbooks, if we want, as our reading text. We have decided that we
want significant content in our own classes with texts and themes we decide upon. We integrate goals of
basic skills, independent thinking, greater knowledge and appreciation of the world in each class, ideally
within each thematic unit. Our classroom discussions become educational experiences valuable in
themselves and as preparation for further learning. Our Cultural Series allows teachers to grow by sharing
materials, insights, problems and solutions. We challenge ourselves while we challenge our students!

Kay Beauchamp
Associate Professor of English

lor further information, contact the author at Community College of Phildelphia, 1700 Spring Garden Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19130.

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
March 4, 1988, Vol. X. No 7

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS Is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of
Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, (512)471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding in
part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are In session during fall and spring
terms and once during the summer.

The University of Texas at Austin, 1988
Further duplication Is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel. ISSN 0199-106X