Grant Proposal Draft

8118: Innovation in Education—Grant Proposal 1
Circles For Change:
Reading and Writing Circles for Nontraditional Students
by
Michele Sweeting-DeCaro
00471635
[email protected]
Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership
Program: PhD in Education
Specialization: Adult Education
Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
EDUC 8118: Innovation and Change in Education
Instructor: Dr. Nella Anderson
[email protected]
Walden University
Section 1: Context
CityC1 is located in downtown Manhattan. The College serves a diverse population of
adult learners who would otherwise be underserved at a traditional college. These students are
outside the traditional college ages of 18-22 years, old students. More than 40 percent of the
students are adult learners who have weak writing skills (Wyatt, 2011). Many professors are not
familiar with adult learning theories and teaching tools to help adult students acquire the skills
needed to be strong writers. CityC professors usually send the students to the college’s writing
center, where they receive assistance on reading and writing concepts, but the sessions are a
short 30 minutes. 30 minutes is not enough to help a student understand a text and then analyze
it. Students need more time to read and analyze text (Harris, 1990) but because of work
responsibilities and family obligations, students do not have time to stay after class for help
(MacArthur & Lembo, 2009).
Mission and vision statements are paramount to the development and progression of an
organization (Hall & Hord, 2015). The vision and mission of CityC are to provide working adult
students with an excellent education to better prepare them for job placement, job promotion and
for some, personal satisfaction. A proposed innovation for reading and writing circles (RWC)
presented by writing consultants aligns with the college’s mission and vision of presenting a
high-quality education to every adult learner.
Section 2: Need for the Innovation
Data revealed that over 30% of the students at CityC did not pass the college-wide
midterm essay exam. One of the reasons is that students are not completing analysis part of the
essay. Many students have shared that they do not understand the text. The faculty administered
a survey asking the students how they felt about the essay writing process. A large portion of the
students who took the survey said that they had a hard time understanding the reading.
1
Pseudonym
Furthermore, final exams and mid-term assessments prove that there is a need for innovation
(Bolman & Deal, 2013).
The innovation of RWC will address some fundamental issues nontraditional students
struggle with like analyzing texts and writing critical college essays. Adult learners are busy with
daily life and have little time to visit the writing center before or after class. Professors do not
want to spend extended time before or after class explaining the text to students. Although some
students do make the time to visit the writing center, more learning communities are needed at
the college as well as in the classroom.
Section 3: The Innovation
The innovation for social change is to create RWC in the classrooms with technology
links on the college writing center website with webinars. RWC are a place for collaborative
learning. With the guidance of a writing consultant, students help each other understand a text
and make sense of it. Beginning with reading circles, students use each other and through
working with each other become independent learners. The primary goal of the writing
consultant is to coach the students. The guidance, modeling, and support by the writing
consultant fuels the students to inquire about the text and begin interpreting through writing
about it (Vorhaus, 2013; Aguilar, 2010). The webinars would consist of recordings of writing
consultants discussing the text with students who are willing to be recorded. In this way, students
will always have access to the information and present a reason to want to join in on a session.
RWC are very popular in elementary schools and book clubs (Aguilar, 2010), but not as popular
at the college level.

For this innovative, social change, to take place, mandates from stakeholders and top
administrators like the Chair and the Dean need to be involved as they are invested in the welfare
of student success (Hall & Hord, 2015). The college budget would need to be reviewed to hire
five more writing consultants to cover each night the RWC sessions would be available. RWC
would be guided by writing consultants with the goal of actively engaging students in analyzing
text and then writing about the text. There are two ways the RWC can take place: either an hour
in the classroom with the entire class or the professor invites the writing consultant to sit in
during the analyzing of the text. If students are interested in digging deeper in the text, they can
schedule an appointment with the writing consultant. This will continue the development of
students’ critical thinking taking place in the writing center environment.
This educational change will improve student learning because it will lead students from
dependency to self-directed study. Students will look to the writing consultant for guidance but
as the students share their interpretation of the text with each other, they will discover their voice
and move into reading and writing dependency (Vorhaus, 2013). Furthermore, this innovation
will increase the adult learner’s success and reduce retention through the cooperative learning
structure (Wyatt, 2011). Cooperative learning leads to increased intrinsic motivation where
students are motivated to help their peers, a deeper engagement with the text, and the opportunity
for guided-decision making (Reiss, 2012).
This innovative program of reading and writing circles will help adult learners reach a
higher level of academic competency through collaborative learning. RWC may not be easy in
the beginning because the “new and different” collaborative work involves professors working
with writing consultants (Doughty, Meaghan, & Barrett, 2009, p. 2). Executing change is never
easy (Hall & Hord, 2015) but with stakeholders’ input, the of reading and writing circles will
prove to increase students’ critical thinking skills in order for them to be viable contributors to
society (Tyack & Cuban, 1995).

References
Aguilar, E. (2010, November). The Power of Literature Circles in the Classroom. Retrieved
October 9, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/literature-circles-how-to-and-
reasons-why-elena-aguilar
Doughty, H. A., Meaghan, D. E., & Barrett, R. V. (2009). The political economy of educational
innovation. College Quarterly, 12(2), 1.
Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M. (2015). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes (4th
ed.). NJ: Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Harris, M. (1990). What's up and what's in: Trends and traditions in writing centers. The Writing
Center Journal, 11(1), 15-25.
MacArthur, C. A., & Lembo, L. (2009). Strategy instruction in writing for adult literacy learners.
Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22(9), 1021-1039.
Reiss, S. (2012). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Teaching of Psychology, 39(2), 152-156.
Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (Eds.). (1995). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school
reform. MA: Harvard University Press.
Vorhaus, J. (2013). Reading circles, novels and adult reading development. London Review of
Education, 11(1), 87-88.
Wyatt, L. G. (2011). Nontraditional student engagement: Increasing adult student success and
retention. The Journal of Continuing Higher education, 59(1), 10-20.

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8118: Innovation in Education—Grant Proposal 1

Circles For Change:

Reading and Writing Circles for Nontraditional Students

Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership

Program: PhD in Education

Specialization: Adult Education

Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

EDUC 8118: Innovation and Change in Education

Instructor: Dr. Nella Anderson

CityC1 is located in downtown Manhattan. The College serves a diverse population of

(MacArthur & Lembo, 2009).

high-quality education to every adult learner.

Section 2: Need for the Innovation

(Bolman & Deal, 2013).

the college as well as in the classroom.

Section 3: The Innovation

at the college level.

students’ critical thinking taking place in the writing center environment.

for guided-decision making (Reiss, 2012).

society (Tyack & Cuban, 1995).

October 9, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/literature-circles-how-to-and-

innovation. College Quarterly, 12(2), 1.

ed.). NJ: Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Center Journal, 11(1), 15-25.

Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22(9), 1021-1039.

reform. MA: Harvard University Press.

Education, 11(1), 87-88.

retention. The Journal of Continuing Higher education, 59(1), 10-20.

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