Enhanced Developmental Skills Workshops and Professional Development

To accelerate students in need of developmental education, Title V supports activities that contribute to the expansion of developmental skills workshops and curriculum redesign for the Winter/Summer Immersion program.
With the support of Title V and in collaboration with the academic departments, developmental skills workshops offered during the Winter/Summer immersion program have been enhanced to offer targeted instruction intended to meet the unique and specific learning needs of the different Hostos student populations that includes incoming freshmen, continuing students, transfer and multiple repeaters.
 
The enhanced workshops align curriculum, instruction, professional development and assessment to support student success.   The enriched curriculum utilizes different instructional styles and methods that consider the implementation of new assignments and also encourages the employment of new techniques to evaluate student learning to produce positive results and show increased persistence and retention. 

Our goal for the next few years is to continue to support faculty from the English, Language and Cognition and Math departments with the revision of existing curriculum and with the development of new curriculum for the different developmental skills workshop models

New Developmental Skills Initiatives


Small Group Tutorial
The Reading/CATW small group tutorial, a collaboration between Title V and the Writing Center,  supports students who continuously persist yet fail to pass their reading and writing exams. The tutorials (5-8 students) are tutor led and run for two seven-week blocks during Spring and Fall. The sessions are three hours each week and integrate reading and writing skills development with learning software. The self-guided online learning software encompasses English grammar exercises, tests, and review in the computer program “Comfit.”

The tutorial provides students with a high level of support and increases access to non-academic offices throughout the College. This tutorial intervention is cost free for students and provides access to those who have exhausted their financial aid and/or have difficulty passing their exams.   Our goal is to help students build new skills and meet academic standards to increase higher pass rates and academic success.             

ESL Freshman Grammar Workshop
Immersive grammar workshop for entering ESL students at beginner and intermediate levels. This free 20-hour intervention prepares students for the ESL sequence by building grammar knowledge. 


Students who complete the grammar workshop earn a certificate of completion and are well situated to face the demands of grammar application in the ESL sequence.

Computer labs
The Hostos Reading Lab and Math Lab are situated in C-596G and C-596F. The labs have been introduced to support students in developmental math, reading and writing courses and workshops.
 
The labs utilize innovative software to support students’ skills development. COMFIT is used for ESL95, ATB preparation, immersion workshops, and to support Writing Center appointments. The math software ALEKS is being used in MAT22 courses and MA22 workshops.