In attendance:
1. Vi Brett (Okanagan College, Coordinator)
2. Bev Charlton (former ASL instructor)
3. Vincent Chauvet (VCC, ASL Instructor)
4. Lori De Frias (Thompson Rivers University, Coordinator)
5. Cheryl Dill (Malaspina University-College, Coordinator)
6. Wendy Dobbie (Malaspina University-College, ASL Instructor)
7. Aastrid Evensen-Flanjak (Douglas College, Coordinator Interpreter Program)
8. Sandra Fennings (Surrey College, ASL Instructor)
9. Anita Harding (formerly ASL technician Douglas College)
10. Julie Lampitt (former ASL instructor)
11. Julie Martin (VCC, Coordinator)
12. Boyd McWilliam (Douglas College, ASL Instructor)
13. Alexandra Morley (North Island College, CE Coordinator)
14. Kristen Pranzl (Family Community Resource Worker, Prov Services for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing)
15. Louise Reniere (Sooke School District 62, ASL Instructor)
16. Marla Spencer (North Island College)
17. Russ Ward (Armstrong High School, ASL Instructor)
Regrets emailed:
Susan Birley, Suzy Gaspar-Smith, Cheryl Jeffs, Roger Chan, Deb Perry, Dale Wiggins
1) Welcome and Introductions
i) Checkin/Attendance: CoChairs Cheryl Dill and Wendy Dobbie called the meeting to order at 9:30am, Roundtable introductions and attendance taken. Interpreters Liz, Suzie, Leona, Tara were introduced.
ii) Minute Taker: Kristen Pranzl volunteered for this meeting.
iii) Approval of Minutes: Aastrid added the clarification of new business agenda item “Criteria for ASL” be changed to “Criteria for ASLPI “. Vincent moves the agenda to be accepted as revised. Carried.
iv) Approval of Minutes: Anita moves for the 2005 minutes to be approved. Carried.
v) Purpose of Articulation Meeting: Cheryl briefly reviewed the purpose of the articulation meeting which is to track ASL programs, identify and follow up on changes or improvements needed, discuss curriculum and provide the opportunity to interact with instructor/community members/coordinators.
2) Brief Reports from Institutions
· Each representative present discussed briefly what was happening within their organization/school/school district. General Summary as follows:
· With the exception of VCC, educational institutions are not base funded for their ASL programs. That means costs for delivering the programs are funded through student registrations fees. Increasing costs and low enrolments present challenges for institutions to run the programs. Most programs offer Prep Level training with some continuing to Basic and Intermediate. Many Basic and Intermediate courses have been cancelled due to low enrolments.
· VCC offers courses in Prep Level, Basic Level, Summer Fast Track Prep, & Deaf Studies
· There is new published curriculum on the market called “Master ASL” that is visual and colourful. http://www.masterasl.com/
· Kristen reported on funded government program from Provincial Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Roger delivers 1 to 1 support; ASL classes for teens; contracts instructors
· Astrid reported on Interpreter Program at Douglas which is capped at 22 students. Coordinator Cheryl Jeffs emailed her report to Chair but Cheryl D was not aware of this until after meeting. See attachment at end of minutes.
· Important to note that successful completion and pass of Mastery exam for ASL Prep level grants credit for second language (grade 11) and same for Basic Level for Grade 12 language credit.
3) & 4) Follow up on Previous Business
i) Re-Evaluation of Vista Program
· Committee of Wendy, JulieM, Vincent recommended that the Prep Level hours and order of units be revised. Julie clarified that suggested changes are welcomed.
· Handout was distributed to those in attendance. Summary of recommendations follow:
· 120hr increased to 144hr; Prep 1 to include Visual-Gestural Communication
· Order of material to change as follows: Prep 1: Units 1,2,5; Prep2 Units 10,8,11 plus cumulative review; Prep 3: Units 6,9,12; Prep 4: Unit 4,3,7 plus cumulative review
· Coordinators expressed concerns over increased length because tuition fees will increase drastically as well.
· Recommendations to be discussed in separate groups during the afternoons.
ii) List of Back- Up Instructors
· Julie Lampitt has put together and e-mailed to Julie Martin.
ACTION: Julie will e-mail to the ASL Articulation committee.
iii) Instructor Qualifications for ASL Post Secondary & K-12
· There is a general understanding at the Articulation Committee level that all instructors in programs are deaf.
· Current practice is such that whenever possible coordinators do follow this but there are no definitive policies in place or a governing body around this.. Struggling or isolated communities may resort to hiring hearing instructors rather than canceling class in order to fulfill the demand.
· Anita mentioned that if policies are in place, this may improve the likelihood of everyone following this general understanding, instructor recruitment may be easier.
· Vi indicated there is advertising for instructors, but instructor are often not willing to travel and incur expenses for short term work.
· Lori commented that the Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center did send a letter warning coordinators to hire Deaf instructors; perhaps they should be contacted to find out if policy already in place?
· Cheryl suggested that perhaps BCCAT would host an ASL Articulation webpage so that our minutes, decisions, guidelines and related policies could be viewed there.
· Aastrid suggested adding to a webpage a ‘job/event’ page to the Articulation website- this might help increase communication.
ACTION: Cheryl will follow up with BCCAT to see if webpage is possible.
ACTION: Vi will check to see if any policies are in place already for instructor qualifications.
ACTION: More discussion to follow later in day
iv) Follow-up on Elimination of ASL Mastery Exam: Standardized exam committee
· Please refer to page 3 of 2005 minutes
· Subcommittee of Wendy and JulieM commented that they each developed a student assessment and shared these two handouts with the group.
· Julie said we need this assessment to determine the competency level of ASL students.
· These assessment recommendations to be discussed in separate groups during the afternoons.
· Anita suggested developing a new video for mastery assessment, since the video is challenging, thus accommodating all regions
ACTION: Aastrid to set up a committee for revision for video.
v) Report re BCCAT:Credit for Foreign Language:
Cheryl was not able to contact BCCAT about this.
ACTION: Cheryl to connect with BCCAT and report back to ASL Articulation Committee in 2007
5) New Business
i) Criteria for ASLPI
· Aastrid discussed her motion to clarify criteria for students who want to challenge their high school foreign credit course. The ASLPI is a language proficiency index. Students are asking for ASLPI to prove their abilities and get their skill in ASL recognized as a second language that is often required for admission to university or college.
· Vi commented that many places already use ASLPI for screening applicants. The ASLPI might be beneficial to students to see where their ASL standing is.
· Julie emphasized that assessment/LPI are NOT the same thing.
· Aastrid suggested that the LPI be used for youth to be accompanied by a letter of competence.
· Vincent says that a quick fix to this issue is impossible.
· Cheryl recommended a subcommittee be set up to look at this in further detail at a later time.
· MOTION: Julie Martin moved that we set up a temporary committee to investigate the possibility of a new assessment using the ASLPI for high school students. –Carried.
· ACTION: Julie Martin, Julie Lampitt, Louise Reniere and Aastrid Evensen-Flanjak to form the ASLPI subcommittee and to report back at 2007 Articulation meeting.
ii) Issues for Sub-Group Discussion:
At 2:30pm the coordinators and instructors separated into sub groups for discussion of the following issues and reconvened at 3:10 to share and make decisions:
a) Re-evaluation of Vista Program
· Lori commented that the coordinators are comfortable with the revised order of curriculum. The coordinators recommend that rather than increase from 120 to 144 hours, we consider a 12 hrs increase: 6hrs each to Prep level 2 and 4 to compensate for the Cumulative Reviews. VGC to remain a one day workshop.
· Implementation for Fall 2007 after all coordinators are notified and Ministry of Advanced Education (highschools) notified.
· Groups thought this was a good first step. Tabled for more discussion and confirmation at 2007 meeting.
ACTION: Cheryl to ensure all coordinators and Ministry of Advanced Ed/BCCAT are made aware of these pending changes and to gather feedback.
b) Standardized Exam Committee Recommendations
· It was agreed that the student assessments submitted earlier by Wendy and Julie are to be used for placement purposes only. Julie Martin’s placement assessment is to be the main assessment used and Wendy’s assessment is to be the backup assessment for placement decisions.
ACTION: Wendy and Julie to email these assessments to coordinators of ASL programs as soon as possible.
c) Instructor Qualifications Post-Secondary & K-12
· It was agreed that the following criteria be used for recruitment of ASL instructors:
· The ASL instructor must be Deaf; be in possession of an ASLIP (ASL Instructor Program) certificate, OR a BA in ASL studies, OR a BC Instructor’s Diploma; and have passed the Canadian Cultural Society’s ASLPI with a level of 5.
· For exceptions to this, such as in the case of remote communities the ASL Articulation committee to approve a list of names of hearing people and/or deaf mentors/supervisors for sign language classes.
· Use CCSD ASLPI rather than Deafcom’s because it is more neutral and they have a different, more comprehensive type of rater-training.
· More information is needed - it was recommended that a subcommittee be formed to gather information on this.
ACTION: Boyd, Aastrid (backup), Julie Lampitt and Lori De Frias to form Instructor Qualification subcommittee and report back to 2007 ASL Articulation Committee.
d) Prep & Basic Mastery Exams
The assessments put forward from the subcommittee will only be used for placement assessments, not assessment for credit and movement between Prep to Basic, Basic to Intermediate.
The following recommendation was made:
That the administration of the Mastery Exams now be the responsibility of the individual institutions. The mastery exams will be used for:
1) assessment of skills after Prep 4 for the purposes of moving into Basic 1; and
2) assessment of skills after Basic 4 for the purposes of moving into Intermediate 1; and
3) for high school students needing credit(s) for a foreign language.
ACTION: Cheryl to connect with assessment services at Douglas College to explain above.
ACTION: Cheryl to ensure the K-12 system is aware of this.
6) Closure:
i) Summary of Actions/Motions: See above
ii) Chairpersons for Next Articulation Committee
Wendy Dobbie and Vincent Chauvet volunteered to be co-chairpersons for the 2007 meeting.
iii) Next meeting: Friday, April 13, 2007; 9:30-3:30pm VCC to host again. (Week-end option was discussed but no agreement reached).
Meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
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Attachment: Report from Douglas College
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Report submitted by Cheryl Jeffs
Douglas College, Faculty of Child, Family and Community Studies
Continuing Education E-mail Tel: 604 527 5161
American Sign Language Instructor Program (ASLIP)
The Alberta Cultural Society of the Deaf (ACSD) in partnership with Douglas College is offering two courses in the American Sign Language Instructor Program this summer.
Elements of Instruction Part A: August 14 to August 18 2006
University of Alberta, Edmonton
and
Comparative Cultures and Research: August 21 to August 25 2006
University of Alberta, Edmonton
ACSD is sponsoring the workshops and they will not cancel them. Please contact them directly for registration details and campus housing. Contact Robin Demko at for details
American Sign Language: Douglas College cancelled all Prep and Basic courses this fall and winter due to low enrollment. The next courses will be scheduled for September 2006.
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