English Area

Office: Room 329, Davies Hall
Phone: (916) 484-8101
Fax: (916)484-8867

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How Does RAD work?

RAD teaches students a process. We do not teach/tutor curriculum topics; we do not, for example, explain the fundamentals of thermodynamics to physics students. We help students develop and refine their reading strategies and study skills as applied to specific classes to become more efficient and effective readers.

RAD is not a stand-alone program; students must be taking another class in which they are using some sort of text, so they will have materials to which they can apply what they are learning in RAD. Research on our program shows that RAD students have an 84% success rate in the accompanying curriculum class as opposed to the 60% success rate achieved by non-RAD students.

Students who wish to participate in RAD need to enroll in ENGRD 314 for a minimum of ½ unit. They need to then bring a copy of their class schedule to the RAD Center and set up an appointment that they are required to keep for the duration of the program. Appointments run 20 – 30 minutes and are usually once per week for 6-8 weeks per ½ unit.

During appointments, the RAD instructor will introduce strategies and skills that the student will read about in the RAD book. Most students will work from a book they will purchase from the book store; a few others (depending on which class they are getting help with) will use a module provided to them by RAD (this must be returned when the student completes the program or if the student drops). The student will begin applying these strategies and skills to the curriculum class work on his own. During the following appointment the instructor will review the strategy or skill and the student’s application of it. The student and the instructor will work on refining the student’s application of the strategy and, also, discuss how to make it part of the student’s larger study strategy.

When the student has completed the program he will be asked to complete an evaluation of RAD. RAD will send a form to the student’s instructor informing the instructor of the fact the student has completed RAD and explaining what the student worked on during his RAD project. RAD is credit/no credit.