In these austere and uncertain financial times, colleges are caught in a quandary: they need to admit a certain number of students each term in order to make budget, yet many of the students they admit are developmental in nature by virtue of their critical thinking, writing and/or math scores on their entrance exams. Creative colleges are currently combining the critical thinking/reading and writing components into a unified course addressing both skills gaps. In this article, the author presents the story of two successful activities she has been using in the Integrated Reading and Writing developmental education course at Berkeley College in New York and New Jersey.