Many regular Bakersfield College academic courses will be linked with reading courses in fall 2008.
Academic Development instructor Susan Pinza says that an ACDV B50 reading course can be taken concurrently with a regular transferable academic course such as physical anthropology or geology. Of course, either the transferable course or the reading course can be taken separately.
The linked courses have come under the appellation “Learning Communities.” According to Pinza, the paired courses have their own CRNs.
A linked course, for example, might be officially listed as LRNC B301 for the paired physical anthropology and reading courses. Each pair will be worth six units. The time schedule for the paired classes will run almost back-to-back. For example, BC geology and earth science instructor Natalie Bursztyn’s geology class will run from 8-9:25 a.m. and will soon be followed by Pinza’s ACDV B50 from 9:35-11 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.
Pinza and Bursztyn will both be using Christopher McGowan’s novel “The Dragon Seekers.” Other paired classes will very likely be sharing the same textbooks, according to Pinza.
Several BC instructors, including ACDV instructors Pinza, Emily Hurlburt and Bonnie Suderman as well as anthropology instructor Karen Kettner and history instructor Ann Wiederrecht were inspired by a workshop they attended in San Francisco in January 2007 called Leadership Institute in Reading Apprenticeship to improve student reading skills. BC instructors have become concerned about students who may not have sufficient reading skills to understand the concepts and specialized terms presented in the textbooks used in the transferable courses.
“Learning a specific discipline is a lot like learning a new language,” said Kettner.
Kettner’s physical anthropology course will be working in conjunction with Odella Johnson ‘s ACDV B50.
Phil Feldman, who will be instructing an ACDV B50 that will be paired with Annette Charron’s ENSL B2 course said that the “Learning Communities” program has proven to be very successful in other colleges such as Grossmont Community College where an overall increase in student grades was observed.
Ann Wiederrecht, who will instruct the history B17a course that will be paired with Kimberly Nickell’s ACDV B50, is eager to engage in this program and is looking forward to seeing a hike in the student success rate.