IRW Articles

Goen and Gillete-Tropp, 2003.  Integrating Reading and Writing: A Response to the Basic Writing “Crisis.”  Journal of Basic Writing, Vol 22 No. 2

The authors report on the progress of an integrated reading and writing basic skills course one year after it was implemented at SFSU.  They discuss the fact that basic skills courses and are  usually very vulnerable to being cut in times of budget crises, despite the fact that a large percentage of incoming freshmen are placed at the “remedial” level.  They name six principles that their program is based on (integration, time, development, academic membership, sophistication and purposeful communication), and 5 objectives (briefly, to understand the way that people read and write in the university and beyond, to develop a metacognitive understanding of processes of reading and writing, to understand the rhetorical properties of reading and writing, to engage in reading and writing as a way to make sense of the world, and to develop enjoyment, satisfaction and confidence in reading and writing).  This is all achieved in a two semester IRW course, one semester shorter than the traditional remedial program.

            The authors report on the success of the program by citing higher completion rates, higher grades, and higher reading outcomes.

Goen-Salter, 2008.  Critiquing the need to Eliminate Remediation: Lessons from SFState.  Journal of Basic Writing, Vol 27, no.2, 2008

Goen-Salter gives an update of the SFState integrated reading and writing program.  The program becomes more successful as each year goes by.  She discusses the history of remediation at CSU and other colleges, and the fact that it is becoming ever more necessary, even as outside forces demand less and less money and time be spent on remediation.  Goen-Salter  argues that the CSU system describes itself as a leader in accessible and high-quality education, but that these two ideals are often at odds.  The IRW program is a cost-effective solution to this problem.

I don’t have any questions, other than the fact that I want to learn about the techniques that the IRW instructors use to such success, but I think that is what we are going to be studying in this class!  As a result, I am primed and ready to learn all about the IRW program.