Old Westbury recently received $20,000 from SUNY for a grant written by Drs. Jacqueline Emery, Margaret Rose Torrell, and Linda Camarasana of the English Department.
This grant will fund the development of “co-requisite” courses and workshops as a part of an “Accelerated Learning Program” approach to improving student writing skills at Old Westbury. A co-requisite course is “a course a student must take at the same time as another course or requirement.”
The SUNY campaign to build a Developmental English Learning Community was created to help SUNY colleges spearhead their co-requisite programs and provide more aid to students improving their writing skills.
“This grant enables us to provide students in our English composition courses with additional support with their writing,” stated Dr. Emery. “While all of our English composition courses help students with their writing, students who are placed into English Composition I or II with a writing workshop will receive additional writing support.”
“Co-requisite models like the one we are piloting at Old Westbury have been successful in increasing student confidence in reading, writing, and critical thinking skills,” said Dr. Emery. “Assessment data from SUNY colleges and other colleges with co-requisite models also demonstrate increased retention rates.”
These workshops will benefit many students at Old Westbury, not just English majors. All Old Westbury students are required to take English Composition I and II. Students work on ‘writing prompts’ in composition courses to improve their skills. The added support of the writing workshops will enable them not only to expand their writing skills but also to be more confident in using what they have learned.
