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ESL 21A End-of-Semester Meeting
13 Dec. 2006, 11-12, ESL 103
Present: Jim, Abbie, Anita, Joanna, Lois, John, Claire, Patricia, Vicki, Toni
1. We reiterated the final essay exam and grading exchange procedures and reviewed five final essays provide by J. Hoover that were borderline unsatisfactory.
a. Even if instructors are able to exchange only one of their two class sets (due to late or evening finals dates) that is better than not exchanging essays at all.
b. Final grades should be submitted ASAP, preferably no later than the last day of finals (Tuesday the 19th).
c. Final grades should be turned in online if possible. Remember that your login name is: last name and initials, eg.randall t r. Very soon, this will be the only method of submitting final grades, so we recommend that instructors familiarize themselves with the procedure and website sooner rather than later. If you need guidance, please r any other fulltime faculty member.
i. NOTE that this same website allows the instructor to view each student’s placement score/level and SMC transcript. Go to the class roster, click on the student’s name, click on “placement history,” and voila!
d. Instructors should recommend support courses to their students who receive a “C.” Check the winter schedule for offerings online (winter – 16A/B, 20A, 28) and on-ground. Instructors using eCompanion may email recommendation forms as attachments to their students:
d. It is not necessary to return final essays to students; however, instructors may wish to allow those few students who want their final essays to retrieve them by notifying their instructor via email and arranging to have them available for pickup.
e. Make sure you keep final essays and your grade rosters for a MINIMUM of 6 months after the completion of the semester. If your grades are in eCompanion, they are preserved for eternity (well, close enough).
2. Instructors who would like to allow other instructors into their eCompanion course shells should and request that specific instructors be added to the by-pass student roster. Instructors who wish to have the content of this semester’s eCompanion materials “duped” (duplicated) into either their winter or spring course should request this . Remember that you must “activate” your eCompanion shells before any content can be duped into them. This is done from the class roster page.
3. Destinations 2, our text through Sp07, seems to be satisfactory if supplemented. As a number of instructors have now had a chance to develop such materials, we ask that they email links to readings, docs they’ve developed, and suggestions for video support to the entire department: with a subject heading that indicates that you are sending materials appropriate for 21A.
a. Instructors may assign recommended texts as well. Please consult the list on our website:
b. Grammar instruction is on the weak side in D2. While we don’t want to reinsert grammar lecture into 21A, instructors should certainly have their students learning and practicing the appropriate grammar through revision/editing of student writing, by sending students to tutors, by strongly recommending the grammar support courses to them (20A/B), and by assigning additional grammar homework. There are several grammar books on reserve in the library for this purpose.
i. Cutoff scores for our core courses will be raised beginning in Sp07 (?). This may solve some of the problems we experience with incoming students possessing exceptionally low grammar skills in 21A.
c. D2 practice on summary-writing appears to be less than satisfactory. Instructors generally supplement these activities with their own presentations.
d. D2 doesn’t offer an adequate number of readings for students. Instructors have supplemented with online articles and have added a video component eg. Smoke Signals or Edge of America. Instructors are encouraged to suggest to the Chair that DVD’s of particularly useful programs be purchased for our office collection. Email requests to and cc .
e. As T. Randall doesn’t currently teach 21A, she will request a model syllabus from fulltime instructors who taught 21A this fall and presumably have a syllabus that includes supplemental materials. This will be posted on Randall’s website of materials for 21A instructors:
All other materials on that page will remain.
4. Several of our instructors will pilot Quest 3 in Sp07. We will meet halfway through that semester to get their feedback and decide on the F07 text.