English Department: A few announcements of varying importance (email)

Here’s an email I sent out July 24, 2019. The title of the post is the subject line of the email. And here are the three attachments:

Hi all,

The Fall semester is (too) fast approaching, so I thought I’d send out an email with some of the more important things that all y’all should know. There’s a lot here, but I’ve tried to keep it brief. Please read the whole email, and mark your calendars as appropriate.

New English 1A course description

Many of you may remember that we recently revised the Course Outline of Record (COR) for English 1A. If you are teaching 1A this Fall, please make sure that your syllabus uses the new course description, as that’s what will appear in the new college catalog.Here’s the new course description:

Course Description

An introductory course offering instruction in expository and argumentative writing, appropriate and effective use of language, close reading, cogent thinking, research strategies, information literacy, and documentation. Focus on the recursivity of writing processes and integrating reading, writing, and speaking skills. Students will write a minimum of 6000 words.

I’ve also attached a PDF of the COR to this email [Update: see link above], as the old COR is still the one listed as “Active” in META (I expect that will change as the semester begins….). [UPDATE: The new course is now listed as Active]

SLOs to be assessed for Fall 2019

At the end of last semester, we selected which SLOs we would be assessing for the Fall for each of the composition courses. For ENGL 1A and 56, we chose to assess a different SLO from last year. For ENGL 1B and 1C, we’ll be assessing the same SLO we did last year.

I’ve attached a PDF of the SLOs for each course [Update: see link above]; the bold-and-underlined SLOs are the ones we chose for this semester. Note that the format for this list looks a lot like earlier versions, so be sure you use this one. (I added the dates this time, so that should help.)

Spring 2019 SLO results

I’ve attached a PDF of the results of the SLO assessments from Spring [Update: see link above] . Early in the semester–possibly during our pre-semester SLO meeting or, more likely, during one of our first department meetings–we’ll want to have a discussion about what we can learn from these results.

Of course, they don’t mean a lot on their own, but I’m not sure what all we’d like to see to put them in context. So: please let me know what information you would like me to gather to help us make meaning of these results. I have a couple ideas, but your insights on that would help a lot.

Pre-semester SLO meeting

When we stopped holistic scoring, we agreed to meet before and after the semester to discuss SLOs. This semester, our convocation week activities include campus-wide work on outcomes, though I believe we’ll be focusing our attention on program outcomes. Since that’s a different focus than course SLOs, we’ll still need to meet as a department to talk about SLOs and assessments.

Please join us Friday, August 16, from 12:00 – 2:00 pm, in Room 1171 (the journalism lab) for that discussion.

Note that this is a paid meeting for part-time faculty.

Readers Apprenticeship and AB 705 Professional Development

As announced last May, we’ll be offering a professional development series, starting in the fall, to support us as we adjust to the fallout of AB 705. (Here’s a link to the email that announced the series, with the schedule and an explanation of compensation for part-time faculty. (You’ll just need to ignore the first item, “Face to face meeting 1,” which happened in May.)

Next up in that series is a two-day Readers Apprenticeship workshop on August 8 and 9. We’re offering up to 10 stipends ($900) for part-time faculty to attend the workshop, and I believe there are still stipends available. (The stipends will require attendance and a “making it real” assignment.) Here’s a link to the email that announced the workshop, which includes a link to short (2.5 minute) video explaining RA, as well as links to the forms for registering and for applying for the stipend.

Department Meetings

Last year, we decided to meet twice per month. Those meetings are scheduled from 12:00-12:50 on the second and third Tuesdays of each month. For now, we’ll meet in Room 1171 (the journalism lab).

Our first meeting will be Tuesday, August 20. (I’m not counting the Convocation Week Division/Department meeting, which I believe is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 15, at 2:00.) I know that many faculty teach class at that time or aren’t on the Yuba campus on those days, but everyone who is able to attend is welcome.

Questions?

Let me know if you have any questions about any of this.

See y’all soon,

Greg Kemble

English Composition Coordinator