The Corequisite Support Workbook Walkthroughs In this part of this instructor‘s guide, we will walk through each workshop of The Corequisite Support Workbook, providing with you with an overview, strategies for teaching these materials, and the answers for each activity. Of course, there isn‘t a right way to teach students in corequisite-supported classes, so this guide will show you some possible strategies that you can build upon. We will help you succeed with the over 60 activities in The Corequisite Support Workbook that you can use in your classroom. Something to keep in mind is that students receiving corequisite support are not all the same, and each will benefit from various kinds of activities. One student may need a full introduction to post-secondary education with basic approaches for succeeding in college. The student sitting right next to this student may only need a brush-up on sentence writing and perhaps some new techniques for prewriting and drafting. We like to begin with the assumption that all students can succeed in college if they are given the appropriate support and they are motivated to continue their education. Their successes and their struggles are as varied as the students themselves. Your role as an instructor is to facilitate their progress and possibly identify what motivates each of these unique individuals. That‘s a tough task. Admittedly, you won‘t be able to reach all students, even if they have chosen to be in a college course that uses corequisite support. Some of your students, albeit only a few, just aren‘t ready to attend college at this time in their lives. They may be giving college a try because their parents, mentors, advisors, or a coach persuaded them to do so. Maybe you can ignite a passion for succeeding in college, but don‘t take it as your personal failure if you cannot. Going to college is ultimately something of a choice for each student. Attending college is not compulsory like much of their education to this point. There are many paths to success in life, and universities and colleges only offer a few of those paths. You may not be able to reach each and every student in front of you. Before you begin each workshop, look over the walkthrough in this part of the instructor‘s guide. These walkthroughs should help you come up with various ways to reach out to these students in constructive and even fun ways. The Corequisite Support Workbook and Writing Today are designed to work hand in hand. Each workshop in The Corequisite includes a Helpful Hint cross-reference that will help you pair it up with chapters in Writing Today. You can also use the Quick Start Guides in both Writing Today and The Corequisite Support Workbook to help you determine what will fit the needs of each of your students. 1 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Workshop 1: Getting Your Edge In this workshop, your students will learn some strategies for succeeding in college. Something to keep in mind is that for various reasons, many of these students have a limited framework for understanding what college is for. College may be, at best, an abstraction. High school may be the closest thing to a university or college that anyone in their family has experienced. So, they are reacting to what is happening around them by falling back on what worked in high school. Sometimes those high school behaviors don‘t work at college. Moreover, first-generation college students, who usually make up many of the students receiving corequisite support, often don‘t have family members or friends to turn to for advice. In a way, that‘s the purpose of this workshop—to offer some general advice for ―doing college.‖ To you, these strategies may seem like common sense. But, again, what appears to be common sense is often based on a person‘s background and prior experiences. Each of the sections in Workshop 1 is designed to be completed within 10-30 minutes. You can use them in the classroom, or you can assign them as out-of-classroom activities that students should complete on their own. We will recommend including a reflective component to each of these activities, whether you spend some time discussing each activity in class or you ask students to write a small reflection on what they learned from the activity. These reflections will help them better understand what they learned and let that material sink in. Module 1.0 Why Do People Succeed in College (and Some Don‘t)? This is the basic question that many of your students are already asking themselves, perhaps in a different form. They may be asking ―Am I going to be able to make it here?‖ or ―Do I even belong here?‖ You can help them answer these kinds of questions with a ―yes.‖ They can make it and they do belong, but they need to show up, arrive on time, participate in the course, and hand in their work on time. In Module 1.0, you‘re primarily laying the groundwork for learning how to be there, be active, and get their work done. Your students will respond in a variety of ways to Activity 1.0.1. Some students may already have their whole futures laid out in front of them. Others will express anxiety and hesitation about whether they belong in college or even want to be here. Your goal is to get them to reflect on what they want in the future and how college fits into the future that they want. Our suggestion is that you ask the students to complete this module in the classroom. To begin, ask them to discuss their responses in small groups, and then with the full class. They will learn that they each have many of the same goals in life and similar anxieties and doubts about how college will help them reach those goals. There are no right or wrong answers here, but don‘t be surprised when students express doubt about whether college is for them. The idea is to listen and offer encouragement. You‘re not going to be able to convince them that college is what they need in their lives. They 2 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
need to figure that out for themselves. This reflective exercise should help them start seeing how college can help them reach their goals. Module 1.1 Managing Your Time Time management is a struggle for almost all college students, but students receiving corequisite support can struggle even more with figuring out how much time to devote to their studies, activities, and just hanging out with friends (possibly in addition to other family or work responsibilities). This module should provide them with some time-tested techniques for time management. Have them create their calendar and work out their first task list. Make sure you talk about where fun fits into their college lives. You want them to understand that college isn‘t all work, and it‘s not running from one scheduled activity to another. You can show them that time can be allocated in a way that allows them to get their work done, leaving time for fun and friends. They may be new to college, so they may not fully understand the kinds of distractions that can keep them from getting their work done. If they have just graduated from high school, until now, someone has probably been checking up on whether they have completed their work. In college, that person probably isn‘t around. These students will need to learn how to use their calendar and task list to manage and allocate their own time. If you have your own time management strategies, share them with your students. You can also admit to your own struggles with time management. We all have these struggles, and your students will appreciate knowing that even a successful person like yourself can find that it‘s a challenge to get things done.
Module 1.2 Reading Smarter for Classes The purpose of this module is to give students some quick reading strategies for their college classes. If they just started college, they may be feeling overwhelmed by the amount of reading their instructors are asking them to do. This ―Five-W and How‖ analysis should help them better understand that they can manage all of the reading by focusing on what they need to do tomorrow and by the end of the week. Plus, they can use reflection to figure out what places and times of day are best to do their reading for classes. Activity 1.2.1 is designed to help them recognize their personal habits and strengths. They will have different answers to many of these Five-W and How questions. That‘s an opening for them to discuss their answers in small groups, and then perhaps write them up on a whiteboard for a full-class discussion. Try to avoid sermonizing to them. Your approach to reading may be different from one that works for them. Plus, keep in mind that they are just learning how to read for college classes. They are more likely to internalize strategies for reading if they figure them out themselves. 3 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Workshop 2, ―Reading to Strengthen Your Writing,‖ in The Corequisite Support Workbook offers a much more thorough approach to reading for college classes, so this module is just a way to open the discussion about reading strategies. Get them started with this activity, and encourage them to talk through their ideas. You want to get them through this first week or two of college classes. You can go into more depth about reading strategies later in the course.
Module 1.3 Taking Good Notes in Class Until college, many of your students may not have taken thorough notes in classes. They may have been one of the smartest students in their classes, and they could learn by just paying attention. Or, maybe they were never taught how to take notes, so they did more doodling than actually writing down what their instructors were saying. Notetaking is not a skill people are born with. It‘s a skill that needs to be learned. They are probably taking other courses in addition to your course, so encourage them to practice in your classes and others. Teach them the outline system and the concept map system. Have them practice these note-taking systems in your class for a 10minute lecture. Then, ask them to use the outline and concept map system in their other classes. When they return, put them in small groups to compare what happened. You can then ask them to list five strengths and five weaknesses of each system. Maybe you can make a ―Top 5‖ list of the strengths and weaknesses on the whiteboard. They can debate which items should appear on that list. The idea is to get them to try out these systems to see what works for them. Some of the visual learners will gravitate toward the concept-mapping system. Your students who are linear thinkers will probably prefer the outline system. Some students may come up with a hybrid of the two systems. That‘s great. The idea is to get them taking notes and coming up with something that will work for them.
Module 1.4 Coping with Stress in College Even if your students are happy and looking forward to their futures in college, they are still under an increased amount of stress. For most of them, college is new and exciting, but it‘s also a large change all at once. Think about how you felt when you started college. Where will you get food? What‘s the best way to get somewhere? What happens if something goes wrong? Now, put yourself in your students‘ places. Everything they knew before has been upended, and they need to learn new ways of doing even the basics. That can be very stressful. In this module, you can show them some common ways to manage stress. The ―good stress vs. bad stress‖ approach is especially memorable, because it allows them to see that some of the tension they are feeling may actually be good and a way of tapping into their creativity. This dichotomy between good and bad stress also helps them recognize when the tension they are feeling may be destructive to them. They can learn to identify what triggers their negative stress reactions and then manage those reactions in constructive ways. 4 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Even more importantly, this module will help them identify moments at which they have reached the limits of managing stress on their own. To this point in their lives, they may have had teachers, counselors, coaches, or other mentors they could turn to for help. In college, they may not know where those mental health supporters can be found. Activity 1.4.1 will help you facilitate a discussion of good stress vs. bad stress, and then come up with some ways to manage those bad stress moments. You can then transition to situations in which your students may need more support from professionals on campus. To be completely honest, we don‘t imagine your students will write or print out this document and post it in their room. They might, but the activity here is to show them how to search for the kinds of mental health support they need. Finding phone numbers and websites to these services will show them that these services are available nearby. Typically, they can use the Internet to find these resources.
Module 1.5 Starting a Study Group Many of your students have never been in a study group. As the semester moves forward, they may notice that other students seem to be grouping together in the libraries, dorms, or classrooms. What are those students doing? Study groups are one of those learning strategies that students who come from collegeexperienced families and communities often know about. First-generation students and students from underrepresented backgrounds often don‘t know about this tool for success. The five-step approach that we offer in this module may be more formal and structured than you remember. That‘s fine. The idea is to show your students some common steps for forming study groups. You might spend some extra time talking about the ―ground rules‖ for study groups. Often, students receiving corequisite support aren‘t sure what is supposed to happen in study groups, and they grow frustrated when the ―rules‖ for behavior aren‘t obvious. These kinds of ground rules help them understand what is typical behavior in study groups, and when a problem may exist. Your students may balk at these kinds of rules, and that‘s fine. Let them push back against the idea of having rules for doing something informal like a study group. They will likely benefit by finding a happy medium between a formal rule-bound study group experience and an informal social approach.
Module 1.6 Talking to Your Instructors If you‘re like most writing instructors, you have probably wondered why more students don‘t stop by your office hours for some support or even just to chat. Admittedly, some of us didn‘t do that when we were college students. Visiting our college professors seemed scary when we were college students, and that‘s still true today. Also, today, students have many avenues to communicate with us, including e-mail, learning management systems, and even social media. So, they don‘t need to stop by with questions about assignments, the syllabus, and policies. 5 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is that video conferencing will likely be much more common and even normal. Many instructors are offering online office hours and doing conferencing online. We‘re hoping that students will connect more, one-on-one, when they can do so through their laptop, from their dorm room or somewhere else on (or off) campus. In any case, talking to instructors is still scary and something students need to learn how to do. In this module, you can see what kinds of questions students receiving corequisite support often ask themselves. We brought together groups of students and asked them what kinds of questions they had in their classes, and what they‘ve learned about interacting with professors. You can go through these questions with your students. We have provided the obvious answers, and you can elaborate by adding your own communication tips that are perhaps unique to your campus or college. Figures 1.7 and 1.8 in this module are especially important. Some of the items in the ―Don‘t Ask This!‖ column may seem obvious, but many students don‘t know the codes for interacting with college instructors—and they may not have any family members or friends to turn to for advice. You might ask them to cover up the ―Do This Instead‖ side of these figures and have them work in groups to come up with their own answers. Then, have them check their answers against the ones in the ―Do This Instead‖ columns. You might even play a Family Feud-style game in which they need to come up with ―Five Things You Don‘t Ask a Professor‖ and other similar topics. They can have some fun while they are learning the codes of behavior for interacting with college instructors. Of course, there are no right answers, and professors will accept a wide range of behaviors from students. What you really want to do with this module is open a conversation. You can swap advice with your students about how to interact with people who have power over them. Your students will appreciate your advice, even if it feels like you‘re telling them something obvious that everyone should know. They might not.
Module 1.7 Getting Help on Campus In some ways, this module may be the most important one in Workshop 1. Students in corequisite courses will have many of the same struggles as other students, but they often don‘t have the same experienced support networks of family and friends to fall back on. Students from college-bound backgrounds are more likely to be aware that these supports are available, and feel at liberty to use them if needed. First-generation students and students from underrepresented backgrounds may hesitate, only reaching out for help when they are experiencing a crisis. You should talk through the kinds of support on campus that are listed in this module. Activity 1.7.1 is one you should ask your students to complete, probably in class. If you 6 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
can, make this a game, perhaps a scavenger hunt, in which they use the Internet to locate this information themselves. You could even create a real scavenger hunt in which they need to take a picture of specific buildings or even the front door of these services. That will help them locate and learn about these services, so they won‘t be too hesitant to visit. If you are teaching in a summer program, that‘s a good opportunity to bring in speakers from some of these organizations. Over the summer, the campus is a bit quieter and slower-paced, so these speakers may have time to talk to your class about the services they provide. They can also talk about adjacent services that are also available on campus. Your students can post this information in their dorm room, in case they need it. Just the act of filling it out will encourage them to reach out to these offices and resources if they need support. Some of your students may even go a step further and begin to register with offices like your university‘s accessibility/disability resource center or your campus‘s counseling center. Plus, they should always know how to contact their advisor or the student health center in case they run into a problem or an illness that they cannot handle themselves.
Module 1.8 Succeeding in Online and Hybrid Writing Courses As directors of writing programs ourselves, the authors of The Corequisite Support Workbook like to say that one of the positives of the COVID-19 pandemic was that we gained some new superpowers. Of course, online and hybrid courses existed before the pandemic, but we all ramped up our computer-aided teaching skills. Now we have some new ways to teach writing in online and hybrid forms. In this module, your students should learn some of the strategies for learning online and in hybrid classrooms. Many students have not had opportunities to work and learn online. And yet, their careers in college and the workplace will almost certainly require them to do so. The advice offered in this module is rather standard and probably not new to you. But this advice may be new to many of your students. If you are teaching your class in an online or in a hybrid form, here is an opportunity to help them build the skills and self-discipline they need to succeed in these kinds of digital environments. You could pair this module with some in-class Internet searches about working remotely. As we have witnessed, the pandemic revealed that people from economically stressed communities were inordinately impacted due to a lack of access and experience with technology. You can use this module as a way to teach your students how to succeed in these environments while raising their awareness of the inequities that we need to work toward overcoming.
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Workshop 2: Reading to Strengthen Your Writing Reading is something your students do every day—they are probably reading something on their phone or laptop just about every hour—so the ability to read is not in question. In this workshop, your students will learn how to read more mindfully and analytically, so they better understand the material and how it connects to things they already know. Moreover, the ability to read closely and critically is also related to strong writing skills. Good readers are more aware of what works and doesn‘t work in their own prose. In Workshop 2, your students will learn how to both ―look at‖ and ―look through‖ text to better understand the rhetorical choices that authors make while writing. This will help them be more aware of what will work in their own texts.
Module 2.0 What Is Different about College Reading? Activities 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 are designed to get them thinking and talking about what they read, why they read specific kinds of texts, and what analytical strategies they use to unpack and interpret texts. Some of your students will admit that they don‘t really like to read and that they haven‘t read a book in a long time. What we want to do in these activities is help them realize that reading is something they do every day. Reading isn‘t necessarily about reading novels or great works, just like experiencing music isn‘t about exclusively listening to Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven. Reading comes in many forms and situations, and we need to be more aware of the who, what, where, when, how, and why we tend to read. That allows us to think more deeply about the elements of text we experience and their meaning. That said, close and critical reading is vital, whether someone is reading for school, the workplace, civic life, or pleasure. In this workshop, your students will learn techniques that should help them become stronger readers.
Module 2.1 Previewing a Text Previewing a text is one of those ―work smarter, not harder‖ kinds of activities. Before diving right into a text, students can learn a great amount by stepping back and paying attention to some of the high-level features of a text. In Activity 2.1.1, we have suggested you use an article from NASA as an example of a text that can be used to practice previewing. You might also choose a text of your own. Ask your students to go through and answer the questions in small groups. Then, work up to a full-class activity where they share their ideas. If you‘re not interested in using this text from NASA, you can choose a text that you believe would work better for your students. You might find an article from a popular culture website or magazine. Some of the articles reprinted in Writing Today may be good ones to try with your students. Or, you can have students bring in a book that they can preview. An idea that you should reinforce is that their first responses while previewing a text are surprisingly accurate. People often say, ―You cannot judge a book 8 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.