INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / FEBRUARY 20, 1990

‘VOLUME XI, NUMBER 30

© 8% INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

Into Century Twenty-One:

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION. -

       

After Writing-Across-The-Curriculum, Then What?

Despite the increasing popularity of across-the-
curriculum programs in reading, writing, speaking, and
thinking, educators as well as leaders in business and
industry seem generally agreed that there is still some-
thing of a national literacy crisis. While the educational
community tends to see the crisis as a lack of communi-
cation skills necessary for academic success, the busi-
ness community prefers to interpret the crisis as a lack
of communication skills required to function success-
fully in the world of work. This crisis has, therefore, at
least two dimensions: a “literary” or academic dimen-
sion, and a functional or real-world dimension. Most
across-the-curriculum programs, it seems, focus upon
the academic dimension.

Here in Tucson, the Community Communication
Corps, sponsored by Pima Community College, at-
tempts to reach beyond traditional across-the-curricu-
lum programs in several respects. The Corps tries to
address both dimensions of the crisis. The Corps also
endeavors to tailor its activities to the specialized (as
opposed to the generic) needs of students. Again, while
most programs promote literacy as a campus-wide
responsibility, the Corps believes that literacy, whether
for academic or real-world success, must be accepted as
a community responsibility because the literacy crisis
has simply grown much too large for schools to remedi-
ate alone. We need outside help—now.

Essentially, the Corps is a partnership between
business and education that promotes several commu-
nication skills across the disciplines, from middle
schools through community college. The concept was
borrowed in part from the Phoenix-based SWRL Project
and is partly an outgrowth of a local, multi-school,
writing- and speaking-across-the-curriculum program.

Central to Corps activities is Business Partners in
Education (or BPEs), a resource that is creative, stimu-
lating, and effective. BPEs, who receive release time
from their place of employment, are not expected to
have degrees in English, speech, or reading; they need
only a reasonable facility in one or more of the commu-
nication skills being promoted: writing, speaking,

reading, listening, and critical thinking. Having met
this requirement, BPEs meet in workshops with teach-
ers from courses across the curriculum and with
language arts specialists to form T-Teams (teaching
teams). These T-Teams develop communication units
for classroom presentation. The kinds of units vary
from role playing exercises to mock job interviews to
written scenarios to oral summaries to impromptu
debates.

The following example was a Corps activity pre-
pared for a class in human development at Pima Com-
munity College. The class, called “Women in Progress,”
enrolls re-entry women—typically single parents or
displaced homemakers planning to complete programs
of study and/or obtain marketable job skills. In fact,
many are in desperate need to find at least part-time
work to remain in school.

In considering the needs of this group, T-Team
members decided that a basic workshop in preparing a
resumé, completing application forms, and interview-
ing would be appropriate. The BPE, who works for
Pima County government, supplied job application
forms along with a listing of current job openings.
During the classroom activities, students were given
information about employment opportunities, how to
submit a good application and resumé, how to dress for
that all-important job interview, and how to handle that
interview. As part of the workshop, students were
required to “dress up” as though actually applying for
the position desired. The T-Team discussed the proper
“uniform” for particular job interviews and then
critiqued cach student's attire. At an appropriate
juncture, students were given a homework assignment
which required them to prepare an application blank
with an attached resumé. The T-Team provided an in-
depth critique of each application and required students
to re-submit corrected applications.

Asa result of this exercise, some students actually
obtained employment on a temporary basis. Even those
who were less fortunate discovered that their applica-
tion forms are often the only initial means by which a

 

 

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Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin

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