Like all students at SUNY New Paltz, students enrolled in Supplemental Writing Workshop (SWW) courses come from a variety of backgrounds and possess a wide degree of academic strengths and weaknesses. The rubric placing students into SWW ENG160 looks at their high school English scores, including their grades in English courses, and when applicable, scores on Regents and other standardized exams. During the first week of class, the SWW course instructor will review a sample of their students’ writing to ascertain whether student placements seem appropriate.
The Educational Opportunity Program and SWW
A significant number of our students are enrolled in the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP).
The EOP Honors Society, group photograph from 2019
LISTEN to the following podcast from Peggy Hach, an instructor in the SWW Composition Program, as she offers advice for working with SWW students
English Language Learners (ELL) and SWW
You may have noticed that some ENG160 and ENG170 sections are given a dual designation of: SWW/ESL. The ESL or English as a Second Language designation is an older term, which has been widely replaced by ELL or English Language Learners. For students placed in ESL sections, English is their second, third, or even fourth (or more) language. L1 is the term used to define the first language students speak, while L2, L3, etc. refers to a students second, third languages and so on. Many of them are either international students and/or have immigrated to the United States within the past year or so. While their critical thinking and composition skills in their first language may be strong, their English skills need more practice than those students enrolled in non-ESL sections of SWW.
Generation 1.5 Students
Non-ESL sections of SWW classes often have many bilingual students who were born in the United States or immigrated to the States as children. They may speak a language other than English in their home communities, but they have a good command of spoken and written English, even when their more formal, academic English contains multiple errors. Linguists and educators have made it a point to differentiate these students from ELL students, sometimes calling them Generation 1.5 students.
To learn more about these student populations, see Unit 3: ELL & Gen 1.5 Students.
Please follow this link from DeAnza College to READ more about Generation 1.5 students: Who Are Generation 1.5 Students?
DeAnza is a community college in California. They are well known for their The Puente Project, which that helps underserved students transfer to 4-year institutions. “Puente” means “bridge” in Spanish, which symbolizes the bridge the program builds for the students to reach higher education. Puente is made up of three key components: English, individualized counseling, and individual mentoring.
