An enhanced replication of an original quasi-experiment (Tom Bellomo, 2009b) was conducted to quantify the extent of long term retention of word parts and vocabulary. Such were introduced as part of a vocabulary acquisition strategy in a developmental reading course at one southeast four-year college. Aside from incorporating changes to the test…

The issue of preparation of the nation's student body has many facets, including the preparation of faculty charged with their instruction. This article reviews findings from a single-case study of community college English faculty members' perceived self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) using best instructional practices, as identified by the…

As a remedy to the lack of student success in developmental mathematics courses, many institutions have been moving toward computer-based instruction as a means of replacing current lecture offerings. An increasing number of institutions have reported using technology as the primary instructional tool for mathematics courses, with digitized…

When evaluating the effectiveness of their program, members of the Brooklyn College SEEK Department, a higher education opportunity program, decided to make their pedagogy more student-centered. They created a method of reading instruction, which they named critical inquiry. Its goals are to build community through teaching students to annotate,…

The use of book clubs in college developmental reading classes is an effective way to encourage reluctant readers to build and strengthen reading skills, foster reading enjoyment, and engage students. In addition, book clubs build a sense of community within the classroom as the students converse and share their interpretations of the reading…

While clinical competence and hands-on ability are crucial to nursing, students in college-based nursing programs face almost certain failure if they lack skills and strategies for textbook reading. Faculty and staff at a small liberal arts college with a two-year nursing program used focus groups consisting of first-semester and final-semester…

The Silent Socratic Dialogue (SSD) writing warm-up technique places college students in a dialogic setting in which they construct the texts that explore, inform, and challenge each other through a succession of questions and answers. It validates students' voices, ideas, and interactions as worthy of study while engaging them in the…

The nature and role of developmental education classes are under tremendous scrutiny across the nation today. Specifically, students are entering community college and four-year institutions of higher education unprepared to understand and apply much of the reading material presented to them in college-level classes. This article describes the…

This manuscript describes a first-year college study strategies course designed to introduce students to literacy practices typical in academic settings. Given constraints imposed by institutional requirements on students' schedules during their first year, an authentic course pairing with a content area course is rarely possible; therefore, the…

This hypothetical case of a freshman wrestling with her identity as an English user demonstrates that the old categories of native and non-native speaker do not adequately describe today's college population. The lack of informed strategies in college writing courses to deal with students possessing different degrees of proficiency in English…

Because students starting college are not always prepared to succeed, colleges and universities frequently offer courses designed to help students who need remediation in mathematics, reading, and writing. At Utah Valley University (UVU), peer mentors are integrated into the University Student Success course to help first-year students learn the…

Teaching developmental writing courses is a high-wire act, complicated by its need to balance both rudimentary skill-building and college-level writing preparation. However, many developmental writing instructors spend most of their time on the former, focusing on rote memorization of grammar rules and sentence skills development, which often…

The values and needs of today's college students are different from the needs of students from past generations. It is important that developmental educators recognize the characteristics of these students in their classroom and develop strategies to address their needs. This article focuses on the characteristics of the Millennial student, as…

Reading professionals at the college level have long taught their students multiple and varied strategies to master textbook reading and learning. Students are continuously encouraged to adapt their strategies to the discipline and the type of text they are reading. Now that students have the option to complete at least a portion of their academic…

Health sciences faculty members at a two-year college were concerned about the poor pass rates in medical terminology, a gateway course for all students planning to major in health-related fields. Faculty suspected that students coming out of developmental reading might not have adequate reading skills to do well in medical terminology.…