Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Celebrated Authors Educate on Innovative Learning Model at Free Workshop Oct. 11 at PCC Cascade Camp

Photos and story by James Hill

Community members, local educators and parents have the opportunity to hear from two of the more noted researchers and writers on the topic of learning, when Dr. Arthur Whimbey and Dr. Myra Linden bring their cognitive thinking skills workshop to the PCC Cascade Campus on Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 122 of Terrell Hall. The workshop is free of charge and a reception will follow from 1 to 2 p.m. in Room 112 of Terrell Hall.

Whimbey is the director of the Institute for TRAC (Text Reconstruction Across the Curriculum) Research, the Albuquerque, N.M.-based institute that encourages the use of text reconstruction to foster effective reasoning and language skills during the writing process. Whimbey’s methods have been covered in his books, such as “Problem Solving and Comprehension,” “Intelligence Can Be Taught,” “Analyze, Organize, Write” and others, as well as in the New York Times. He has methods incorporated into a software package designed for use in the classroom, a software co-created with the help of Dr. Linden and Dr. Eugene Williams.

Linden is the editor of the TRAC newsletter, the author of many books including “Why Johnny Can’t Write: How to Improve Writing Skills” and a former English and speech instructor who taught at the high school and college level.

“I believe that this approach works because the constant practice in arrangement of content from the general to the specific provided by the text fosters the most basic writing skills of presenting specific content and organizing it logically into a cohesive pattern,” Linden said recently.

Information on the Institute for TRAC Research, Dr. Whimbey and Dr. Linden is available at the institute’s web site, www.tracinstitute.com

For more information on the free workshop, contact Fred Miller at 978-5279. PCC’s Cascade Campus is located at 705 N. Killingsworth St.