ESL Dept Mtg Minutes

June 4, 2010, 11:15 – 1:30 p.m.

ESL105

Lunch funded by the Global Council

Present: John Hoover, Keith Graziadei, Andrea Spector, Judy Marasco, Shawna Kimmel, Elena Garate, Alex Ibaraki, Matthew Stivener, Molly Labarge, Bethany Alling, Melody Nightingale, Tracey Ellis, Debbie Levitt, Emily Lodmer, Michael Bronstein, Rena Horowitz

Guests: Toni Trives, Rebecca Anderson, Makoto Nishikawa, Jeanne Laurie, Miguel Aparicio, Nina Yoshida, David Dever

1. Dept Info:

  • W11 teaching schedule requests are due Monday, June 8th.
  • If your students evaluated you this semester, the small forms have been sent to MIS, and the results will be posted on your ISIS class roster page (click on “Miscellaneous reports”) after the semester is officially over and you have submitted your final grades. They will be available only until your teaching assignment for Sp11 is posted, at which time all info from Sp10 disappears. The large forms are being stored in my office until June 15th, at which time they will be placed in your mailboxes. These are for your eyes only and have not been read by anyone else. Envelopes were opened in order to identify to whom they belonged because most of them did not have the instructor’s name on the front.
  • Final grades are due NO LATER THAN Tuesday, June 22nd! For complete info on how to submit your grades online, go to: Obviously, the earlier you submit your grades, the better for students, who are facing tough competition enrolling in their classes both for summer and fall.
  • Please do not submit requests for waivers to me after June 4th. After that day,students will have to wait for the results of their final exams in order to know whether or not they may enroll in the next course. Summer classes are already full, so students are advised to enroll in F10 as soon as possible. Only newly arriving international students are required to take a course in the summer. We have opened and capped a new section of 11A to accommodate them.
  • Summer instructors should submit their Su10 syllabi to Pam and to me electronically NO LATER THAN June 21st. Make sure they include your textbook ISBN’s (see below).
  • Summer instructors should check their Su10 book orders on the bookstore website to make sure they are accurate.
  • Summer projects: develop an ESL certificate; contact Toni if you’d like to participate (volunteers so far: Janet, Matthew, Sharon, Tracey, Valerie)
  • In F10 we’ll be updating the following courses: 10G, 10W, 11A, 14A, 14B, 15, 21Aand sending them through Curriculum Committee.
  • Intensive English Program – Several instructors from our credit program will join the IEP faculty beginning Su10. IEP will offer ONLY a beginning level course (IE1, developed by Janet, one level below 10G/W). Incoming international students will take a comprehensive placement test, developed by Janet and Toni, that assesses their readiness to take ACUPLACER (and place into credit ESL). Beginning level students will take IE1.

2. Announcements

  • John Hoover, Honor Council – contact John if you’d like to be a member; FT and PT fac are welcome!
  • Keith Graziadei, ASUPCC – contact Keith if you’d like more info or would like to join the task force
  • Elena Garate (C.E. F10 date changes) – dates have been noted on the ESL website. Even if you’re not participating in the C.E., submission of possible readings is welcome. Send those to the committee: Emily Lodmer, Elena Garate, Laura Campbell, Kevin Menton. eCompanion now houses a C.E. page with all relevant materials past and present.
  • Congratulations to Anne York-Herjeczki, who has been elected Secretary of the FA

3. Conversation Exchange Program – (with Toni Trives, Chair, and MLC instructors and secretary), review student surveys and discuss how we should proceed in the fall.

Janine, Matthew, and Anne began this program several semesters ago.

Initially, students were paired with little followup by fac, so we decided to try to follow their progress or lack of it this time by having “mentor” instructors who kept in contact with them. These instructors were: Janine Poreba, Matthew Stivener, Anne York-Herjeczki, Sharon Jaffe, Janet Harclerode, Emily Lodmer, Valerie Lernihan, Bethany Alling, Michael Laib, Keith Graziadei, Kip Hinton, Sarah Engle, John Hoover, and Toni Randall.

Our MLC colleagues distributed, collected, and returned the initial participant applications to us and advertised the program to their students, many of whom applied.

The mentor instructors attempted to keep in touch with their assigned student participants.

In addition, Bethany worked to replace partners who decided not to continue to participate at some point.

Emily, Sharon, and Anne led a field trip to the Getty Villa (only 6 students ended up participating), which was a great success for attendees.

We had initially planned on having an end-of-semester party, but decided against it given the low attendance on the field trip. A questionnaire was distributed via email by the mentor instructors a few weeks ago to which there were 12 responses, generally favorable but with some suggestions. Internat’l counselors have suggested the possibility of a one-unit course, and students were asked about this in the survey.

Some suggestions on how to proceed:

  • one-unit course (variations include independent study, conversation group, reconfiguration of one section of Counseling 11, service learning requirement attached to it, global citizenship req attached to it, student club(s), tutor-training course for which ESL students would volunteer)
  • start the semester with a party at which partners would meet and decide schedules together, match larger groups of students rather than just two, begin the program later in the semester (8 week? 12 week?)
  • coordinate this with the weekly conversation groups already held in ESL

We will have future meetings between ESL/MLC depts (and possibly Internat’l Counselors) to discuss these options further.

4. Bookstore Policies and Procedures – discussed with David Dever best practices for handling book orders and ways of saving students money on their texts.

  • It is easier for the bookstore to deal with orders one by one rather than all at once, so, beginning W11, individual instructors will turn in their book orders ONLINE. You should keep a record of the ISBN’s in case there are mistakes made. You may wait as late as ONE MONTH before the beginning of the semester or intersession to submit your book order. PLEASE give Pam a copy of your book orders in any case so that she can troubleshoot if there are misunderstandings.
  • If you are using the same text as you did the previous semester, you will need to send the book order in before the end of the current semester so that students are able to sell their used copies back to the bookstore.
  • We are now obligated by law to include ISBN’s of our textbooks ON OUR SYLLABI, so please start doing that as of Su10.
  • Once you submit your book order, PLEASE don’t make last minute changes as it is unlikely the bookstore will be able to handle them in time.
  • Again, book orders for F10 have already been submitted, so the above ordering policy will take effect beginning W11.
  • If you find mistakes regarding your books on the bookstore site or you have questions or concerns, contact David Dever (x4384; 310-863-0926)) or Bob Adams (x8656).

Upcoming Meetings & Dates:

Summer Semester: June 21 – July 30 (6 wk), Aug 13 (8 wk)

Fall Flexdays: Wed, August 25 – departmental meeting 8:30-3

Thur, August 26 –institutional flexday 8-4

Fri, August 27 – departmental media day 9-1

Fall Semester: August 30 – Dec 21