The Chaffey English 1A Course Outline of Record (COR) was designed to meet the requirements of the California General Education Transfer Curriculum (CalGETC), so that the 1A course will transfer for university credit. Our English 1A courses meet those standards through a required set of essays in different expository genres, of 1250-1500 words each.
For the pilot program (Spring 24, Spring 25, and Fall 25), we are requesting that faculty assign teach the four following essay genres to allow us to integrate ERWC material and to learn from each other:
Personal narrative essay and unit (narrate a meaningful event that occurred in your life, write a literacy narrative, etc.)
Textual analysis essay and unit (centering on the book-length text the HS faculty member plans to use)
Arguing a position essay and unit (teaching pair could choose the topic/s or allow students to choose)
Research unit (the research piece is a very important part of the 1A COR, but it can be interpreted in many different ways; teaching teams may develop something in collaboration that meets the 1A COR requirements; sample prompts are included in the 1A TTP Hub [see below])
Essays need not be taught in this order, though generally the narrative essay goes first and the research essay, usually the longest of the course, goes last. These larger essays/units do not preclude smaller writing assignments, quizzes, etc. Per the CalGETC requirements, the majority of the student’s grade should be determined by their performance on the major essays. While there are sample prompts for each of these assignments linked through the Teaching Resources page, teams are also encouraged to draft prompts and select readings that will best serve the needs of their students.
Beginning in the spring of 2026, students will take English 1B (C1001). We have asked that these three units, each centered around a 5-7 page research argument essay:
Claim of fact (argument that conditions exist: For example, Electric cars positively contribute to the environment and the economy.)
Claim of value (argument that something is desirable or undesirable [right or wrong]: For example, Driving an electric vehicle is the right thing to do.)
Claim of policy (Argument for a particular course of action: For example, The United States should adopt California’s policy of phasing out all new sales of gas-powered cars by 2035.)
Instructors sometimes teach the course thematically (the whole course is about environmental issues), or allow students to choose their topics, or take an in-between approach and give a list of topics allowed for each essay. Instructors also typically assign a final metacognitive/reflection essay. Due to the requirements of ERWC, we are also asking instructors to begin the semester with a short discussion of one of Shakespeare's plays, and use that discussion to inform the topics on one or more of the the major essays.
The class should end with a short unit (no more than a week or two) in which students write a paper reflecting on the semester/year as a whole and their growth and learning and preparedness for future college reading and writing.
For this pilot, we ask that faculty teach the single-author text already selected by CJUHSD partner faculty. This will be the focus of the textual analysis essay unit of the course. For English 1A readings, faculty should select texts from the English 1A Textbook Transformation Hub as well as the English 1B Textbook Transformation Hub. If you are a Chaffey College faculty member, and you use a ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) text that is not currently included in the Hub for English 1A, please reach out to Leona so that she can have the text reviewed and included on the Hub.