In 2016, the Center for Teaching & Learning, the Foundations for Student Success/Title III grant, and Maintenance & Operations teamed up to design an integrated Reading-Writing Classroom in the AS corridor. The CTL offered a professional development workshop and utilized Rapid Design Challenge to capture essentials for the classroom design. They also conducted a facility design survey to get faculty input.

The professional development workshop and survey outcomes influenced the final classroom design and the Title III grant purchased furniture, equipment, and computers to make the design a reality. Maintenance & Operations provided consulting services for carpeting and paint and the electricians installed an LEC lighting system to improve the lighting quality with an eye toward sustainability.

Student input for the project included a desire to include cultural artifacts into the learning space. This element will be realized when cultural art is added to the walls. Faculty and staff with cultural artifacts (art) representative of our ESL student population are invited to donate artifacts to the learning space. Contact: Melissa Carpenter @ (480) 461-7698

Rather than creating an entire computer lab, ten computers were deployed to allow for technology enhanced instruction for small groups of students as well as to facilitate assessment (an important consideration for the Reading program).

Individual white boards were purchased and are available at each cluster of desks. Also, some wall tracks were installed so that students can hang their work on the wall to display for their classmates.

There is a reading corner and conversation area so students can practice in a small group setting. Now that the remodel is complete, the English and Reading departments are scheduling several classes in AS-195 for Spring Semester 2017.