Author: gdkemble

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English 1A (Spring 2022) – Learning Outcomes


Table of Contents

Learning Outcomes

Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

The English Department at Yuba College has four Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) that guide much of our instruction in composition courses.

Upon completion of the course, students will:

  • use reading strategies to understand argumentative texts that contain both literal and implied meanings;
  • compose a clearly-written, well-organized, purpose-driven essay;
  • synthesize evidence from outside sources to support claims effectively;
  • attribute and document sources correctly.

I have a number of other objectives, as well; I would like you to:

  • develop your skills as a critical thinker, reader, and writer;
  • affect people in your sphere of influence; 
  • engage deeply with an important public policy issue related to a profession of your choice.

Ideally, you also have your own objectives. If you don’t, I recommend you spend some time thinking about what those objectives might be. Why (beyond earning a grade) are you taking English 1A? Why are you in school more generally?

The clearer your sense of purpose, the more likely you are to stick with the course when it becomes challenging.

Next up: Policies

The next section is about the course’s policies.

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Notes from the English Dept. meeting of October 5, 2021

Announcements

  • Virtual Happy Hour has been reinstated — Fridays at 4 pm. Happy hours are (IMHO) a good mix of talk about work and life (books, movies, pets). At the last meeting, as it was winding down, Zack and Tina and I had a pretty deep discussion about contradictions or paradoxes (complications?) at the heart of Inoue’s “labor-based grading contracts” and related issues about teaching (or refusing to teach) “standard English.”
  • The Program Review Update is sort of on hold as the process for migrating from TracDat to eLumen is finalized. Jeremy said that I can expect the instructions for Program Review toward the end of October. I will get a survey out as soon as I know what we’re asked to do for our update. (Like last year, the survey will include everything that is relevant to the update, but all questions will be optional so that respondents can focus on the things they have insight about.)
  • The Rotation Schedule has been given the thumbs up by Carla, so (last I heard) it’s in Sara’s and Kristi’s hands for update the rotation spreadsheet and Self Service. I meet with Walter tomorrow and will ask if there’s any further update — until the changes have been made, he is refusing to take credit for getting further than any of our previous deans.
  • Spring 2022 schedule update – I didn’t mention this during the meeting, but I though people might want to know: this semester, only 8 of our part time faculty received courses (and one of those was offered only one course, rather than the two that she has return rights for). Seven (or eight, depending on how you count) didn’t receive a course. This is partly due to low enrollment, which is a state-wide issue; we also have a little less release time among us. However, we also have one full-timer on sabbatical. Until enrollment bounces back, assuming it does, I fear that this will be an ongoing problem.

Decision-ish items

These are items where I said, “If there’s no objection…” If you did not attend but think you do have an objection, or if you’d like to be sure we consider something before finalizing the decision, please let me know right away.

Faculty Staffing Request request

Walter sent out a call for faculty staffing requests for 2022-23. Included in that request was a strong encouragement for Art (who lost three faculty to retirement) to apply, as well as gentler encouragement for other departments with only one faculty member (Speech, Music, Foreign Language, ESL).

I would argue that English needs more faculty less than Art, for sure, and possibly for the others. I also can’t imagine that we’d appear high in the ranking process. For both reasons, I recommended that we not bother to request a position for the upcoming year. Everyone seemed to agree.

C-ID Changes for 1A, 1E, and 1C

The course descriptors for the C-ID versions of our 1A, 1E, and 1C have all changed to reduce the word count from 6000 words to 5000 words. Since C-ID descriptors are meant to include the minimum requirements that our courses should meet, there’s no problem with us keeping our 6000-word requirement.

I recommended (affirmed in a discussion with Carrie) that we not worry about revising these courses at this time. When the courses come up for their periodic update (as required by our curriculum processes), we can include the discussion about a word-count change in that more general discussion.

GE Humanities Degree “ownership”

At the end of last semester, the Curriculum Committee approached me to find out if the English Department would be willing to “take ownership” of the GE Humanities degree. We discussed this lightly at our final meeting, but didn’t have enough information to make a meaningful decision.

I emailed Elena and Lore asking for further information, and here’s my best understanding of what would be expected. (Two notes: 1) their actual answers are in a document I attached to the email that announced this dept. meeting; 2) the stuff below includes discussion from our meeting.)

  • They do not anticipate that this “ownership” would require that we write Program Review for the GE degree (in part because the college has never before done Program Review for such degrees). (My own view is that such a requirement would make me vote a hard “no.”)
  • Our primary responsibility would be assessing Program SLOs. I’ve sent an email requesting confirmation that we’d be assessing PSLOs (as opposed to developing them) — a question that is important because we couldn’t find PSLOs listed in eLumen yet.
  • Currently, at least, “assessing PSLOs” involves mapping Course SLOs to Program SLOs. The other main question we had, then, involves what we’d be expected or authorized to do if we believed that a course’s SLOs don’t in fact map to the Program SLOs. If taking ownership is to be more than just doing grunt work to ease the Curriculum Committee’s load, then bleh — we’d expect ownership to involve a level of responsibility and stewardship.

Those present at the meeting lean toward accepting this responsibility, though much will depend on the answers to our questions. I’ve already sent an email to Elena and Lore. When I get a response, I’ll send out an email with their answers and a request for input on the question of whether or not we should accept this responsibility.

4th SLO for ENGL 1B

There are some issues with eLumen right now, so I’m not 100% sure that we haven’t already developed a fourth SLO for ENGL 1B. (Remember that the Outcome Committee’s recommendation was for us to have one SLO for each unit, and ENGL 1B just converted from 3 to 4 units.) I am, however, about 90% sure, which means I think it’s likely we’ll need to have this discussion at some point.

Shawn told us that she’s shepherding the development of an “SLO Only” workflow in eLumen so that we don’t have to go through a full Curriculum Committee process just to change SLOs. We decided that it would be fine to wait until next semester until we see how that pans out. So I’ve got this on my list of backburner items to return to next semester.

Points of Discussion

We had two things we discussed — one of which had been on the agenda, the other of which had not.

Data sent by Carla regarding completion rates

On the email that announced this department meeting, I attached a copy of the email that Carla sent, which include a screenshot from a dashboard that the state has made available to us. Aside from my bitching about data being dropped in our emails without context, three things from the meeting seemed noteworthy from our discussion (if someone was there and you found something else noteworthy, let me know and I’ll update this — I may just have forgotten it):

  • On the attachment, there is a live link to the state Chancellor’s Office’s dashboard. It is a good resource, and fairly flexible. If this screenshot raises questions for you, they might be answerable elsewhere in the dashboard. It’s worth checking out.
  • Though we may come in a bit under average with the completion rates overall, we are in surprisingly good shape when it comes to Disproportionate Impact. Of course, there are groups that aren’t listed (e.g., Asian Americans), and in some cases the information is challenging to understand (e.g., our “-32%” DI regarding Native Americans is hard to understand since we have so few Native American students. Is this one person? A handful? A dozen?)
  • Zack noted that he had taught at both Sac City (well below average) and Sierra (above average) at the same time, and that it was notable the difference in affluence between the two schools. This insight might focus our attention less on what we’re doing (or not) and more on discovering what kinds of economic support students who are not in affluent areas might need.

Support for AB 705 changes, esp. embedded tutoring

In a recent District meeting about AB 705, I complained about my sense that we weren’t adequately supporting the shifts needed to support students, and used the issue of embedded tutors as an example. Jeremy expressed some frustration at that characterization and asked that I meet with him to discuss it.

I would like to enter that meeting truly as a representative of the department, so if you have areas in which you’d like to see more support — especially if you feel the support has been less than expected — please send me an email with that information. That way I know more than just my narrow experience.

Carrie pointed me to the requests we’ve made in Program Review for some time — computers in the classrooms, smaller class sizes, classes with tables, and so on. I will certainly draw on them. I will also be contacting a few of you — Kiara, Brian J, and Shawn at the very least — about embedded tutoring and the challenges we’ve encountered. If you have additional ideas, especially about embedded tutoring, please let me know.

[As I was writing this, and email came from Walter noting that there is some money available for classroom renovations. Feel free to deluge Walter with ideas. To his credit, he began his search for ideas in Program Review — though apparently Dr. Dotson wants us to “think broadly.”]

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Notes from the English Dept. meeting of September 7, 2021

Announcements

  • Census date is today (Tuesday, September 7).
  • WLDC: Fridays will be online only. We also talked about the benefits of bringing your class into the Center; it guarantees that they know where it is, and many students feel more comfortable when they’ve met the tutors or IAs.
  • DE: If you missed the email from Laura Shrettner (sent Fri., Sept. 3, Subject: “Submission of DE Courses,” be sure you read it. If you want to teach online after June 30, 2022, you’ll need to submit your course (or courses?) to the DE Committee for validation by Dec. 31, 2021. We’re not fully clear about whether having one course fully validated will cover other courses (and the policies have recently changed), so if you have any questions, contact Laura at lschrett@yccd.edu. (In my experience, she responds quickly.)

Schedules and staffing

Spring 2022

Once I get the finalized Spring 2022 schedule, I will able to begin the process of assigning classes to faculty for the Spring semester.

If you’re a full-time faculty member, expect the usual spreadsheet to circulate starting late this week or early next week.

If you’re a part-time faculty member, expect the usual survey to gather information about your availability, possibly by the end of this week. I’ll use that information to assign classes to you, based on the usual criteria (which I will list in the email I send out with our proposed schedule).

The schedule goes live to students early in October, so the sooner I can get this to Walter, the better.

Summer and Fall 2022

At about the same time, I’ll be working with Walter on the Summer and Fall schedules. These are due mid-October.

Basically, we look at the previous summer’s and current fall’s schedule and decide what we need to adapt, mostly in response to our best guesses at enrollment trends. Walter said he has access to a new enrollment database that goes back six years or so, which might help. I’m considering cartomancy, though.

An email that Carla (our VP of Instruction) sent out seemed to suggest that I’m supposed to staff these classes (full- and part-time!) at the same time. That’s just silly. No one knows what summer and/or fall look like at this point. And, anyway, the schedule itself should be approved before we assign names to the classes. Walter has told me not to worry about that at this point. I would probably not worry about it regardless.

General Thoughts and a Request

Before I set up a schedule, I work with the dean (Walter, in this case) to discuss the direction we want to go. That discussion includes assumptions about enrollment, instructions from above, our own sense of the State of Things (esp. problematic in uncertain Covidiot times), and so on.

From there, I adapt the schedule and give it to the dean to get approved by what used to be the scheduling committee, but which is now, as I understand it, Carla.

While developing the Fall semester, I want expand what we consider a little bit. That leads to my request: If you have any thoughts or observations about how the schedules have or have not been working up to this point, please let me know (gkemble@yccd.edu).

For example, Brian J noted that he had an early morning 1B at Sutter canceled; Michael has taught numerous 1B courses at Sutter in the afternoon that all made. Observations like this could help us as we balance offering a range of times for our students with filling our classes (or, at least, avoiding having them canceled for low enrollement).

Course Rotation Status

I presented Walter with the course rotation proposal that the English department developed last year, including the rationale. When I spoke with Jeremy about my frustration with a lack of a clear process for making these changes, he seemed to suggest that Walter and Rita have access to the rotation and could make the changes directly.

Walter, understandably, is a bit reticent about just jumping in and doing that without verifying that this is the correct process, so he’s working to find out the best way to handle this.

I’ll continue to hound him on this. I’d like this solved before the Fall schedule is taken to Carla so that we stop getting the “This class isn’t in the rotation” comment on the schedule.

SLO Inquiry Group

Shawn, Carrie, and Cassandra are heading up a serious inquiry project into the question of the best way to norm our SLO assessment.

They’ve submitted the proposal to the LEAD (Equity) committee so that part-time faculty can receive a stipend for participating. They’ve not heard back yet, so it’s unclear if that proposal was accepted. I would expect it will be, but I’m not yet fully adept with Tarot.

Shawn sent out a Doodle poll to see who would like to participate; if you missed the invitation, or if you think you might be interested, please read the proposal (PDF).

The group will meet every other Tuesday starting next week (Sept. 14).

Program Review

I was pleased to learn that we are not up for a full Program Review this year, as I’d feared; we only have to provide an update.

However, we are moving the process to eLumen. I am waiting for instructions, which will mostly likely arrive later than is useful, with the update due at the same time as the abovementioned schedules.

As I did last year, I plan to send a survey out to gather information we want to include in the update. The survey will be cumbersome, but you won’t have to respond to every damn question — you can just jot notes in whichever questions you have information or insight or recommendations about.

I’ll do my best to compile this into a document that everyone can look at before discussing it. I’m not sure this is doable by the next meeting, so I may ask to schedule an extra meeting at some point. But I’ll play this a bit by ear.

COVID Exposure

We had a brief discussion about when we should report that students have let us know they’re staying home for COVID. Generally, according to Walter, the names of such students are forwarded to Dalexh (Dr. Hunt, our VP of Students Services), who will contact the student and work out when the student would be safe to return.

Walter mentioned, as he has in some emails, that the admin would appreciate seating charts so that students who were in closer contact with such students can also be contacted. (I need to start making them, though it’s challenging when we do so much group work.)

Also, if a student mentions that she is staying home because someone at work or in the household has COVID, we should report that to Dalexh, too, so that he can determine if other students were exposed. (It’s a little fuzzier if students report that a close contact has been tested, but they don’t have the results yet. I think we agreed that the student would be wise to stay home, but that we wouldn’t report it until we had word of a positive test.)

Post-meeting Survey

I was impressed with a survey that Kiara started to give to LEAD committee members after each meeting, and decided I would start following that example. So you should have received an email with a link to this short survey.

As the email explains, it’s meant in part to capture ideas that, for any number of reasons, might not have come out in the meeting. So please, if you have something you’d like to say about anything that we talked about (or in these notes), put it in the survey (though, of course, you can always contact me directly).

It’s optional — it’s not meant to add to our workload. But it’s short and, if you have something you’d like heard, or emphasized, or whatever, please fill it out.

The Usual

If you have any questions, or if you attended the meeting and notice that I missed something or got something wrong, please let me know.

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English 1E (Fall 2021) – Resources

Table of Contents

Resources

COVID Resources

Yuba has put together a resource for issues related to COVID-19. You’ll find it in your Canvas dashboard, next to your courses (“COVID-19 Fall 2021”). It’s full of resources, including modules about COVID-19 in general, taking classes during the outbreak, services that are available for you, and self care. It’s quite impressive, actually; I hope you’ll check it out.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have the most up-to-date information about COVID:

If you want to get a free COVID-19 vaccine — and if you haven’t gotten one yet, you should! — you can get information about how to do so in your area on the My Turn Public Health Website.

And finally, there is an overwhelming amount of misinformation (incorrect information) and disinformation (intentionally misleading information) about COVID-19 on the Internet and on television, especially spread through social media. Be sure you use credible and reliable sources to stay informed. And if you’re feeling confused or unsure about the information you’ve heard, visit The World Health Organization Mythbusters. It might help you sort out some of the confusion.

College (and Life) Resources

The Writing and Language Development Center (WLDC) offers writing tutors, computers, and workshops. In addition to the Marysville center, they usually have a limited presence at the Sutter Center. They also have online tutoring available. You can visit them in the front of the library or on their website.

Disabled Students Programs and Services  (DSPS) offers support for students with learning and other disabilities. If you know (or suspect) you have a learning disability, be sure to contact them. There are resources available to support you. You can visit them in Building 1800 or on their website.

The Yuba College Library has great staff. As I write this, the library is open, but they also have an online presence. I’ll talk a bit more about the library during the course, especially as we approach the research portion.

The Yuba College Counseling Department has both in-person and online counselors to help. They can help with a lot of different needs, from academic questions (what classes should I take if I want to go to Chico?) to personal questions (I’m hungry and don’t have any money. Where can I get food?). You can find them in the 100A building or online.

Closing Thoughts

I have struggled a bit over the past year and a half, hopefully for obvious reasons. And if I’ve struggled — even with a secure job and a healthy family — I can only imagine the challenges that many of you have faced, or are currently facing.

I was feeling hopeful that things would improve with time, but — for any number of reasons — I feel a bit less hopeful. The new variant (“Delta variant”) seems to be able to spread to vulnerable members of our community through vaccinated people. And the refusal of many to vaccinate makes the possibility of more variants much more likely.

In other words, the stress isn’t going away.

So: if you find yourself struggling, I hope you will reach out — to me, at least, or to some of the resources listed above. Please don’t think that I’ll be upset, or that I won’t care, or that I won’t want to help.

I want you to succeed. Of course, I can’t do it for you — I don’t give grades; you earn them. But I’ll support you in any way I can.

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English 1E (Fall 2021) – Grading

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Grading

Grading Policy

In order to pass this course, students must both:

  • Complete all major writing assignments (Essays 1-3)
  • Receive an average grade of “C” or better on all assignments

The “average grade of ‘C’ or better,” mentioned above, follows this breakdown:

AssignmentPercentage
Essay 110%
Essay 220%
Essay 330%
Informal Writing Assignments (e.g., assignment reflections, online discussions, etc.)25%
Annotated Bibliography10%
Reflective Essay5%
  • 90%+ = A
  • 80%+ = B
  • 70%+ = C
  • 60%+ = D
  • <60% = F

Late Assignments

General Thoughts on my Late Policy

I have tried many different policies for late work — everything from refusing all late work, to accepting all late work with no penalty. Students have made it clear that they need something in between; they need some flexibility, for when life gets in the way of school; but they also need deadlines, so they don’t put things off for so long that they can’t catch up. So I’ve developed a policy that falls somewhere in the middle.

But here’s the most important thing: I am willing to work with you, as long as you contact me. This is especially true in these uncertain COVID times; many lives have been completely upended, and many that are fine now might run into serious problems sometime during the semester.

So please keep in touch. If you think your situation requires that you’ll be late with an assignment, let me know. As I said, I’m willing to work with you. But I need you to let me know what you need.

Major Essay Assignments

For the three major essay assignments, I lower an essay’s grade one-third of a letter for each day that it is late.

For example: assume an essay would have received a B+ if it had been turned in on time. It was due Friday, by 11:59 p.m.

  • If it were turned in Saturday (one day late), it would receive a B
  • If it were turned in Monday (three days late), it would receive a C+
  • If it were turned in the following Friday (seven days late), it would receive a D

Note that even an “F” is better than nothing, in two senses: first, as I mentioned above, you can’t pass the class if you don’t turn in all three major essay assignments; second, an “F” may count for as many as 55 points, which is significantly more than 0 points.

Other Assignments

Many assignments are only useful if they’re done more or less on time. Informal writing assignments will often ask you to respond to your something we’ve read, and you will not benefit from the process if you wait too long. The Annotated Bibliography asks you to process research in preparation for your third essay, and putting that off to the end of the semester negates any value the assignment offers.

In cases like this, I will accept assignments a few days after the due. But at some point, it will be closed, and I will no longer accept late work for that assignment.

However, as I said above, I’m willing to work with you if you have a good reason for being late. But please keep in touch. It is your responsibility to contact me.

End-of-semester Deadline

At some point, I need to wrap everything up and turn in grades. Thus, I have an end-of-semester deadline, which is the last day I will accept any work. Generally, this is early during Finals Week.

Given the past two semesters’ uncertainty around COVID, I’ve had to extend that deadline, so I don’t want to set a date that I’ll later need to change. I will make sure to announce that specific end-of-semester deadline in several Announcements as we approach the end of the semester.

The Main Takeaway

The most important thing I want you to hear: I see due dates as guard rails; they’ll designed to help you keep on track. They are not meant to be opportunities to punish you. So I am willing to be flexible.

This is dangerous, though. Every time a student turns in an assignment late, it usually means she starts the next assignment late as well. That can add up over the course of the semester. And I don’t know about you, but when I get overwhelmed, I procrastinate even more, which makes things worse.

So do your best to keep up with the pace of the course. But if you find you need to turn an assignment in late, please contact me (in advance, if possible). I’m happy to work with you — but I can’t work with you if you won’t keep in touch.

Next up: Resources

The next section is about resources that you might find helpful.

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English 1E (Fall 2021) – Policies

Table of Contents

Registration Policies

First Day Rule

Normally, I drop students who miss the first class period without having contacted me in advance. However, that rule is meant to make room for students who are hoping to register in the class. As I write this syllabus, there are plenty of open seats, so I won’t need to enforce this rule.

However, I will drop students who have not attended by the end of the second week of classes (again, assuming they have not contacted me in advance to explain their situation) so that they will be eligible for a refund of fees, etc.

Drop Dates

This semester, the deadlines for dropping the course are as follows:

  • August 27, to be eligible for a refund;
  • September 3, to avoid a “W” on your permanent record;
  • November 12, to receive a “W” on your permanent record.

Dropping after the November 12 deadline will almost certainly earn you an “F,” which can only be overturned in the most extreme circumstances.

NOTE: The state of California (which funds community colleges) no longer distinguishes between a “W” (Withdraw) and a non-passing grade (in ENGL 1E, a “D” or “F”) in determining the number of times a student may attempt a class; students are now limited to three attempts total within a district. If you decide you need to drop, I recommend that you see a counselor to discuss what effect that might have on your educational plans. (As we approach that “W” date, I will likely discuss this in more detail.)

Student Responsibility to Drop

Every term, a fair number of students disappear from the course for a variety of reasons—often without a word. Though I do try to drop such students before the last drop date (I am not a fan of putting an “F” on students’ transcripts), I am not always able to tell if a student has really left or has decided to prioritize her time differently. Therefore, I cannot be responsible to make sure students meet their drop deadlines.

It is the student’s responsibility to drop by the appropriate deadlines. If you decide you need to drop, please be sure you follow through with the Admissions Office.

More important, though: If you find yourself tempted to quit, I encourage you to contact me first. I might be able to help you get back on track.

Disability Statement

If you need special arrangements for a physical or learning disability, I recommend you work with our Disabled Students Programs and Services. That isn’t a requirement, but they offer helpful support for both you and me.

Please visit the DSPS website to see what kind of help is officially available to you.

Standards

Formatting

Your three main essays should be formatted using MLA style format. We’ll talk about this during the course, but here’s a short version:

Essays should:

  • be typed, using a standard 12-point font (e.g., Times or Times New Roman);
  • be double-spaced (never single-spaced; never triple-spaced);
  • have one-inch margins;
  • have a correctly formatted header, title,  and pagination
  • document sources correctly, using both in-text citation and a Works Cited page.

Essays that do not follow MLA format may have their grades lowered from one-third to one-full letter grade, with the penalty increasing as the class proceeds.

Final drafts of essays, especially, should be edited, proofread, and spell-checked.

And please give each essay a clever and informative title (“Essay 1” is neither clever nor informative….)

Submitting Essays

Most of the assignments — especially the three major essays — will be submitted through Canvas. I’ll work with you to be sure you know how all that works.

Please don’t submit work to my personal email unless it is absolutely necessary. It’s hard to keep track of work that is not submitted as instructed — especially work submitted outside Canvas.

If possible, please upload essays in Microsoft Word format (.doc, or .docx), as this format allows me to respond to your work most effectively. (Note that Google Docs can save a in Word format, under “File | Download.”)

If you do not have access to Word (or Google Docs), then please save and upload your essay as a PDF file. Though this is harder for me to work with, it’s much better than other formats (e.g., .pages or .wks files), which I often cannot even open.

Retrieving Graded Essays

I get feedback on working drafts back as soon as possible–usually within two or three days–and on final drafts within two weeks or so.

When I’ve graded an assignment, you will be able to find your letter grade in the Canvas Gradebook.

However, for most assignments, I will also upload a PDF of your graded essay with my comments, which is where I offer the specific, personalized response to your work. (Note: If you would prefer a Word document, please let me know. However, unless you need it in Word—for example, screen readers handle Word documents better than PDFs—I recommend staying with the PDF, as that format more consistently displays comments.)

You’ll find this document in the same place you submitted the original work—usually, in the Assignments section—and should be able to download it and then either read it on screen or print it out. (As with submitting essays, I’ll work through this with you so.)

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as using another person’s words or ideas without proper acknowledgment. This may take many forms: cutting and pasting from the Internet, using others’ ideas without proper citation, buying a paper, having a friend or family member do an assignment, and so on.

Please don’t.

Plagiarism is serious, and it carries serious consequences. At the very least, a plagiarized paper will receive a “0” on the assignment. But plagiarism may also result in disciplinary probation or suspension, or even expulsion. (See the Student Code of Conduct at https://bit.ly/yc-scoc ).

Most cases of plagiarism that I have encountered — and I have encountered many — have arisen from desperation. If you find yourself growing desperate, please contact me as early as possible so that we can discuss strategies for success on the assignment.

Next up: Grading

The next section is about my Grading policies.

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English 1E (Fall 2021) – Learning Outcomes

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Learning Outcomes

Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

The English Department at Yuba College has five Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) that guide much of our instruction in composition courses.

Upon completion of the course, students will:

  • use reading strategies to understand argumentative texts that contain both literal and implied meanings;
  • compose a clearly-written, well-organized, purpose-driven analysis;
  • synthesize evidence from outside sources to support claims effectively;
  • attribute and document sources correctly;
  • successfully employ academic mindsets.

I have a number of other objectives, as well; I would like you to:

  • develop your skills — and confidence — as a critical thinker, reader, and writer;
  • affect people in your sphere of influence;
  • engage deeply with an important public policy issue related to a profession of your choice.

Ideally, you also have your own objectives. If you don’t, I recommend you spend some time thinking about what those objectives might be. Why (beyond earning a grade) are you taking English 1E? Why are you in school more generally?

The clearer your sense of purpose, the more likely you are to stick with the course when it becomes challenging.

Next up: Policies

The next section is about the course’s policies.

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English 1E (Fall 2021) – General Information

Table of Contents

General Information

Course Title

English 1E: College Composition and Reading: Extended Instruction

Sections

This syllabus applies to section M2488.

Instructor

Greg Kemble

Office Location

1100 Building, Room 1179.

My office is in the rear of the library building, but you can’t reach it through the library. Walk around the right side of the library building (facing the front). Most of the way down the building (after the patio area), you’ll find a single glass door. Enter there, and then continue straight through the inner glass door. My office is in the second alcove on your right.

Note that I am not often in my office. This will be especially true this semester, as we continue to struggle with COVID. Indeed, I will probably find a place with better ventilation to meet students. So, when possible, please contact me in advance to make arrangements to meet.

Contact information

  • Email: gkemble@yccd.edu
  • Office Phone: (530) 749-3821 — please leave a voicemail.

Email is the best way to contact me, as I check my email much more often than I check my voicemail.

Student Hours / Office Hours

I’ve also scheduled three student hours (or, if you prefer, “office hours”) each week. One hour will be held in person; the other two will be held on Zoom.

  • Mondays 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. (In person, location to be announced)
  • Tuesdays 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. (Zoom — see below for link) [updated time]
  • Wednesdays 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. (Zoom — see below for link)

However, I am also available by appointment. If you or I can’t make the above listed times, I’m happy to find a time that works for you, even if that means connecting in the evening or on a weekend.

When not meeting in person, I prefer to meet via Zoom (rather than the phone) because it gives us the opportunity to share a screen — we can look at a paper or website together, for example. But if you’d prefer to talk on the phone, we can arrange that by appointment.

Link for Zoom Student Hours

Passcode (it should be embedded in the link, but just in case): 538309

Final exam

As I write this, I can’t find the Final Exam schedule. Final Week is December 10-16. I will let you know our specific date and time once I know it.

Textbooks

Required

Cover of They Say / I Say

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say. 4th edition. Norton, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-393-63167-8.

This is the 4th edition, without readings, and it would be best if we all used the same text. However, the 3rd edition, or the 3rd or 4th edition with readings, should be fine, if you already have one of those. The differences aren’t earth shattering, and as long as you’re a bit flexible, you should be able to get by.

Optional

Cover of LB Brief

Aaron, Jane E. Little Brown Handbook: Brief. 2nd edition. Pearson, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-323-04096-6.

I’m not sure if this is the Yuba College edition; I know we used to have a college edition, but the publisher discontinued it.

However, all handbooks are pretty much the same. Older editions, or non-Yuba College editions, or even completely different handbooks are all fine (though information about MLA citation may be out of date). Indeed, you may even be able to get by with just the Internet, as long as you have good access. You’ll just need to use the index (or search engine) to find explanations about issues I point out in your papers.

Course Description

Here’s the description of English 1E that you’ll find in the Yuba College catalog:

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.

If you don’t already have a lot of experience with college or with college-level writing, some of that might not make a lot of sense yet. That’s okay — that’s why you’re here! Don’t let the fancy words intimidate you.

You might notice that the course description for English 1E is identical to that for English 1A. That’s because English 1E is English 1A with additional support. When you pass English 1E, you will have met the same requirements as if you’d taken English 1A. These include prerequisites, as well as graduation and transfer requirements.

As you might imagine, then, English 1E is a pretty demanding course. I don’t want you to be afraid of it — that doesn’t help anyone! — but I don’t want you to be complacent, either.

Time Commitment

As I just said, English 1E is pretty demanding. That’s not just because we English professors are ogres (though we may be); we’re also required to follow some policies that the state of California has set for us. (They even require us to include the following breakdown in the course’s syllabus!)

English 1E is a 5-unit course, which translates to:

  • Total hours for the course: 270
    • In-class (“lecture”) hours: 90
    • Out-of-class (“homework”) hours: 180

Does that sound like a lot? It is! I am often surprised at how many students expect to be able to do the work of the course in just a few hours each weekend — or, worse, in a few hours at the end of the semester.

Now, I’m not trying to scare you here. But it’s important that you understand what’s expected of you so that you can plan accordingly.

Are you ready?

Requirements for placing into transfer level composition have changed, due to changes in California state law; placement is now mostly based on high school Grade Point Average (GPA) — though passing ENGL 51 or 56 still qualifies you for the course.

This means that our class might include students with a wide range of reading and writing skills and expectations:

  • some of you may have been required to take this class based on your GPA and may feel nervous or intimidated by the thought of college-level writing, or frustrated because you don’t think your GPA reflects your actual abilities (that is very possible!);
  • some of you may have chosen to take this class because you don’t feel ready and would like the extra help;
  • some of you may be just out of high school and have not yet encountered college-level academics;
  • some of you may have been away from school for a number of years and fear that you have forgotten much of what you used to know;
  • some of you are masters of a language other than English, but struggle with English;
  • some of you are just sure that, for whatever reason, you’re not good writers.

I will do my best to meet you at whatever level you find yourself. As I write this syllabus, enrollment is relatively low, which means that I may be able to offer much more individualized instruction. And when I respond to your assignments, and especially your major essays, I do my best to address your particular needs.

But you will need to do your part, too. Please read my comments carefully, and ask questions when something is not clear.

Above all: understand that one aspect — probably the most important aspect — of college is learning how to learn. Don’t rely only on me and my instruction; make sure you also seek answers on your own. There are a lot of good writing resources out there (I’ll point to several of them throughout the course, including later in this syllabus). The more you pursue questions on your own, the more useful my help — and the help of teachers in future courses — will be.

Next up: Learning Outcomes

I’ve broken this syllabus up into several parts so that it’s not just one long, overwhelming document. The next section is about Learning Outcomes.

Posted on

Notes from the pre-semester SLO meeting of August 10, 2021

WLDC Announcement

The WLDC will be open, both in-person and online, at the following times:

  • M-Th 8-7
  • F 8-5.

After the meeting, Brian Jukes (who is the new WLDC coordinator) sent out a couple emails with further information:

  • one email [Subject: WLDC Flyer] includes a flyer that can be posted in your Canvas site;
  • the other [Subject: Writing Help for Students] is addressed to faculty, encouraging them to send students to the center.

If you didn’t receive one or both of these emails, let me know and I can forward it/them to you.

SLO Information

There are two important points about SLOs this semester. One is a repeat from last semester, and the other is new:

  • In the past, we’ve assessed one SLO per course. This semester, we’re going to assess ALL course SLOs for each course. We had some discussions last semester about different ways to handle this assessment — using Outcomes in Canvas or on your own — but we don’t (yet) have clear recommendations on how to do this. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to talk through options. (I said that we don’t have those recommendations “yet” — this will likely be one of the recommendations that come out of the SLO Norming Teaching Community [see below].)
  • As we did last semester, each instructor will enter the SLO results for each student directly into eLumen. As we get closer, I’ll re-send instructions for how to do this. (The consensus seems to be that the process is surprisingly simple.)

Masks and all that jazz

  • We talked about the mask policy, which changed yet again later that day. As I write this (11 am on Thursday), all employees, students, and visitors are required to wear masks indoors. I am not sure how medical exceptions work — contact Walter if you have a concern of question about that (I know at least two faculty who have mentioned situations that might warrant such an exception, but I don’t have authority to say anything about this). We also talked about how effectively to teach in masks — how to be heard and understood, how to manage group work when — despite the official advice — social distancing is a good idea. I think the discussion was probably fairly unsatisfactory, as we had many more questions than answers. I hope we can continue this discussion across the semester, both as we come up with strategies and as the requirements/recommendations change.
  • We discussed what to do with unruly students who refuse to wear a mask. This was probably a bit more likely to occur when the policy allowed vaccinated people not to wear them. Nonetheless, this is still a possibility. Walter should follow up on official recommendations, but the two ideas we discussed were:
    • Canceling class and reporting the unruly student to the dean.
    • Calling the campus police (I think this is the official recommendation). For both the Marysville campus and the Sutter Center, that main number is (530) 741-6771 or (530) 741-6772. (Brian Jukes also has a direct cell number you might try if the other two don’t work: (530) 870-1158.

SLO Norming Teaching Community

Shawn, Carrie, and Cassie have agreed to co-facilitate a teaching community to develop a norming process for our discussions about SLOs. I will be working with the LEAD committee to make stipends available for part-time faculty who want to participate in this process. Once that’s sorted out, we’ll put out a more official announcement. But, as in the past, we’ll be following the LEAD committee’s requirements for stipends (e.g., two levels of stipends, depending on attendance).

If you still just drop in for occasional meetings (e.g., if you don’t want to commit to full participation), you are still welcome. You’d be eligible for Flex.

More information to follow, as soon as we’re sure that the LEAD committee will fund the community.

Closing Thoughts

We talked about a few other things (rubrics, increased illness for grandmothers when assignments are due, etc.) but these were unstructured discussions. I wouldn’t know how to report on them.
If you were at the meeting and noticed something I missed, please let me know. And if you have any questions about anything I’ve reported, please contact me.

PS: For your possible amusement

“The Dead Grandmother / Exam Syndrome,” by Mike Adams (Biology, Eastern Connecticut State University – published in the Annals of Improbable Research):

The basic problem can be stated very simply:

A student’s grandmother is far more likely to die suddenly just before the student takes an exam, than at any other time of the year.

Complete with diagrams and solutions!

Posted on

English 1A (Fall 2021) – Learning Outcomes


Table of Contents

Learning Outcomes

Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

The English Department at Yuba College has four Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) that guide much of our instruction in composition courses.

Upon completion of the course, students will:

  • use reading strategies to understand argumentative texts that contain both literal and implied meanings;
  • compose a clearly-written, well-organized, purpose-driven essay;
  • synthesize evidence from outside sources to support claims effectively;
  • attribute and document sources correctly.

I have a number of other objectives, as well; I would like you to:

  • develop your skills as a critical thinker, reader, and writer;
  • affect people in your sphere of influence; 
  • engage deeply with an important public policy issue related to a profession of your choice.

Ideally, you also have your own objectives. If you don’t, I recommend you spend some time thinking about what those objectives might be. Why (beyond earning a grade) are you taking English 1A? Why are you in school more generally?

The clearer your sense of purpose, the more likely you are to stick with the course when it becomes challenging.

Next up: Policies

The next section is about the course’s policies.