“Stretch at 10: A Progress Report on Arizona State University’s Stretch Program” by Gregory R. Glau

Like the Accelerated Learning Program at The Community College of Baltimore County, Arizona State University's Stretch Program is another innovative approach to basic writing pedagogy.  The Stretch Program "stretches" English 101 over two semesters.  The goal: to give more time to students who many not have a lot of experience at academic college-level writing.  This program sees basic writers as those capable of writing, full, complete, and thoughtful papers, but who also might need more time for revision, group peer review, and conferences with their instructors.  These students do the same readings and write the same papers as all English 101 students, but their class moves at a slower pace.

I like the examples of how some composition programs have and continue to develop new ways to examine and rework basic composition teaching.  The class extension, the scaffolding of assignments, and the student cohort are the means through which these basic writing students can take some control and responsibility for their own education.  Apparently, students who have participated in the Stretch program have higher pass rates for English 10 than students who took only one semester of the course.