Adams Named Speaker for Gribben English Lecture Series

Parsons, KS- Peter Adams is a retired professor of English, teaching for thirty-six years at Baltimore County Community College before retiring in 2014 . He has been chosen as the speaker for the 35th Annual Jack & Ruth Gribben English Lecture Series at Labette Community College. Adams’ topic will be “Tying it All Together: Addressing Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking for All Our Students”. A committee of LCC English faculty arrange a speaker and help host the lecture series in which 30-40 English faculty from area schools, community colleges and universities attend. 

Adams’ professional experience includes tenures with the editorial board of the Journal of Basic Writing and leadership positions with the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), such as chairing the Conference on Basic Writing (CBW) for three years. His publications include the 1994 HarperCollins Concise Handbook for Writers and Connections: A Guide to the Basics of Writing, a Little, Brown text on grammar and punctuation for developmental writers. His article “Basic Writing Revisited,” appearing in the Journal of Basic Writing in 1993, has had a major influence on the movement toward mainstreaming basic writers. His influential article “The Accelerated Learning Program: Throwing Open the Gates” appeared in the fall 2009 issue of the Journal of Basic Writing.

From 2007 until 2014, he directed the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) at CCBC, which he designed to improve success rates for students placed in developmental writing courses. In 2012, ALP was the focus of a major study by the Community College Research Center at Columbia, a study whose “results suggest that ALP students are more likely than similar non-ALP students to pass English 101 and to take and pass English 102.” Professor Adams has spoken widely about ALP and about developmental education more broadly. He has consulted regularly for Complete College America and for the Education Commission of the States. In addition, he has addressed state-wide gatherings of developmental educators in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan, Hawai’i, Utah, and West Virginia. ALP has been adopted at more than 300 colleges around the country. He has advised many schools as they planned to implement ALP and has conducted professional development for faculty preparing to teach ALP in more than 20 states.

Adams numerous recognitions span his tenure by being awarded ALP certificates of excellence and awards, prestigious ALP grants, and publishing a major study of ALP at the Community College Research Center

This free professional development will be held on Friday October 19, 2018, at 9 a.m., with lunch included. To register, contact Jodeci Turner at 620-820-1281.