Composition Steering Committee Minutes
9/13/07
Today's meeting focused primarily on ideas for a pilot study for program assessment. We are discussing a model currently in use at the DesMoines Area Community College in which teachers give a final assignment asking students to write a reflective essay. An assignment like this may work for us in assessing English 1101. We will be asking for instructors to volunteer their current sections of 1101 for this pilot. For continuing the pilot in English 1102 next semester, we discussed collecting a random sample of research-writing projects from among the same students who contributed reflective essays, so that we could look at longitudinal effects. We also discussed several procedural issues and longer-term projects.
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9/27/07
We reviewed slides from a panel presentation given by people from DMACC and discussed adapting their assessment model for our pilot. We identified practical issues and listed our needs for the pilot. We will try to recruit a few more faculty to give the reflective assignment at the end of 1101 this semester. We also briefly discussed what we might offer for a professional development program and decided to do a survey to see what both full-time and part-time faculty would be most interested in.
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10/11/07
We discussed what we would use for a rubric for evaluating student writing in our English 1101 assessment pilot project. We decided to create a rubric based on the ACF objectives, with three levels of proficiency: does not meet expectations, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations. Committee members will be drafting language for the rubric in sections, which we will combine into a one-page document. We discussed several other brief items, including the request from McGraw Hill for an 1101 section to field-test a new book. We were impressed with the materials and hope that faculty will be interested.
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10/25/07
We hashed out an overall approach to the assessment rubric for our pilot study in 1101, and we refined specific language for about half of the rubric. We are trying to write a general rubric that could be applied to most assignments in English 1101, without being prescriptive. The rubric also has to be relatively brief and simple so that readers in the assessment will be able to apply it fairly quickly. We plan to bring the rubric and the assignment to the full English faculty for review.
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11/8/07
We finished drafting language for the rubric for the 1101 pilot assessment project. The rubric corresponds generally to the objectives in the Active Course File. Our next task, which we will work on prior to the next meeting, is writing the student assignment materials. We sketched out the timeline for how we will be ready to conduct this project by the end of the semester, which is closing in.... Our next meeting would take place on Thanksgiving Day, but no one is planning to be there. More from us in December!
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View the student assignment for the English 1101 Reflective Letter
12/13/07
We set our plans for reading the reflective letters for the pilot assessment project in English 1101 in late January. All full-time faculty will be invited to participate in the reading, and we will hold calibrations and reading sessions on two days in order to accommodate more people's schedules. We expect to have about 120 reflective letters. We also discussed how we will extend the pilot project into English 1102. Tentatively, we plan to create a parallel reflective assignment based on the ACF course objectives and collect reflective letters and researched essays from a few sections of English 1102. In addition, we brainstormed for a faculty development mini-conference on teaching writing, to be held on the April inservice day. Our next meeting will be in January, after the start of spring semester.
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1/23/08
We focused on planning the letter/portfolio reading session for the Feb in-service day, including how to explain the reading task and calibrate readers, as well as the logistics of using the scantron sheets. We started planning a mini-conference for the April in-service days.
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2/11/08
We discussed the list of items we wanted to present at the English meeting on the Feb in-service day and figured out to get faculty input for prioritizing this list in a short meeting time. The prioritized items would be brought back to the faculty for further discussion and input on future inservice dates. The committee is especially concerned about signs that COD might implement national benchmarking in place of actual student outcomes. We have to have our own assessment data so we can counter meaningless national data.
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2/25/08
We discussed how to improve the asessment pilot based on the feedback we got from the discussion at the in-service day, and we planned how we would facilitate the "conversations" with faculty to be held this week.
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3/3/08
We defined tasks for three groups of faculty to approach reading the reflective letters on the March in-service day. One group would apply the process item from the original rubric, another would look for overall themes in the portfolios, and the third would consider how the student assignment could be revised. We plan to hold a reading session 11-12:30, lunch break 12:30-1:30, and faculty discussion 1:30-3. All full-time faculty will be invited to participate in these sessions. We also discussed the possibility of having a "menu" of options in next year's assessment. We would modify this year's pilot, but we would also set up several other choices. We would ask faculty to choose which option they would like to implement in their English 1101 classes and ask them to participate in defining the assignment and deciding how to evaluate the results.
3/12/08 Inservice Meetings
More than 20 English faculty participated in inservice meetings led by members of the Composition Program Steering Committee. Three small groups met in the morning; two of those groups read reflective essays from the assessment pilot project, and the third discussed possibilities for revamping the student assignment. After lunch, the three groups reported to each other, and we held an open discussion.
The consensus of the large-group discussion was that we should shift the focus of our assessment to skills that are critical to bridging between English 1101 and 1102, particularly working with sources, using attribution and citation. We will design a new pilot assessment for this purpose, which will have at least two components: a survey of instructors to find out what is being taught in English 1101 classes, and sample papers gathered from student assignments in English 1101.
The Composition Program Steering Committee will bring a proposal to the English faculty for a vote to approve this new plan before the end of the current semester.
Our discussions in all four sessions were documented on flip charts and later typed into a document. These notes are quite raw and may not make sense to you if you were not present!
View typed notes from flip charts
4/07/08
We discussed last month's in-service experience and worked on planning the mini-conference scheduled for the April in-service. We identified questions and options we would like to address at the plenary session focusing on the composition program guidebook for students.
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4/21/08
This meeting had a very full agenda. We discussed the mini-conference which was held on 4/17 and had to compete with the announcement of the new faculty contract. We met with Jason Ertz and Diana Fitzwater from the library and reviewed the results of their information literacy pilot project in English 1102. The results of the pilot were interesting, with questions remaining about whether the multiple-choice format lends itself to getting at what the librarians really want to know about students' knowledge and their ability to apply it in their research. Jackie reported on her trip to the Allerton conference and the feedback she got from other writing program faculty about our assessment plans. They recommended that we consider bringing in consultant-evaluators from the Council of Writing Program Administrators. We also worked on the draft of our response to the Program Review Update form, which is due by the end of the semester.
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View Information Literacy Assessment results per question
View Information Literacy Assessment report
4/28/08
Jackie and Jim reported on their meeting with Joe Collins, and we continued our discussion of the idea of having a consultant visit from the Council of Writing Program Administrators. We also discussed possible readings about program and outcomes assessment.
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5/5/2008
We will complete the program review update form after the faculty forum about the self-study. We discussed the article about self-studies and planned the forum. We planned our summer meetings and discussed what to read from the sourcebook. We made a plan to read essays from Lemont during exam week.
7/29/200
We identified our four major initiatives for fall:
• Follow up curriculum alignment (HS and college), including any extension of the pilot program w/ Lemont HS. Bob and Dan lead.
• Meld the work of the self-study with the composition program handbook. Use the self-study as the basis for the handbook. Jackie and Cathy lead.
• Community development with part time faculty. Need to reach out to part-time faculty more, find out what would make them feel more connected and help create more consistency within the program. Discussed including a part-time instructor on the steering committee. We will meet with Bev and Nancy Webb before we decide how to move forward.
• Ongoing assessment and Norming of COMPASS/WPE scores: Need a random sample of students with their scores and their first graded assignment in 1101. This could be our SOAP project for this year. Karin and Jim lead.
8/27/2008
We discussed online composition course offerings, and suggested that more discussion is required among the English faculty as a whole about teaching online. We reviewed our committee tasks and priorities, and determined that Karin will continue taking minutes, and Jackie will take over the website. We discussed using an inservice day to discuss a composition program sourcebook with all faculty. We decided that each subcommittee will report on accomplishments and priorities at the next meeting.
9/10/2008
Subcommittees reported on plans and priorities for the year. Jim reported that data has been requested on correlations between grades and Compass scores and WPE scores and Compass scores. We will also see whether ACT scores correlate with Compass. Jim and Karin will meet with Tom when he is ready with data that will answer our questions. After that meeting, we will define our next steps. Jackie created a Wiki for working on the WPA self-study. We will identify gaps that we need to address in the self-study. Dan and Bob reported on the curriculum alignment subcommittee, and plan to continue working w/ Lemont HS. Jackie reported on discussing outreach to part timers with Nancy Webb, who suggested several useful directions.
9/10/08
Subcommittee reports:
1. Validation/norming of placement tests for English 1101. Jim reported that he has requested data from Tom Schrader in R&P on correlations between grades and Compass scores and WPE scores and Compass scores. We will also see whether ACT scores correlate with Compass. After that meeting, we will define our next steps.
2. The Wiki is set up for working on the WPA self-study. We will parcel out questions for each of us to respond to in the self-study—using documents to fill in what we already have. This will identify gaps that we need to address in the self-study
3.
Curriculum alignment: we will continue working w/ Lemont HS. A panel on this topic has been accepted at 4Cs.We will examine issue of their top students failing our essay exam. We will repeat the conference we held last May with high school teachers for more information about what they are teaching about writing, effects of standardized testing and prep.
We discussed working more closely with part time faculty (as per Jackie’s discussion with Nancy Webb).
9/24/08
We agreed to get started on the self-study by composing answers one question at a time on the wiki. We will put ACFs for writing-related courses in other divisions as well as our responses on the wiki.
We agreed to ask adjunct faculty for a volunteer to serve as a liaison to the committee.
We discussed the RCR. We also discussed the seminar on the Maimon handbook. She would be a good person to bring for an in-service program here.
10/29/08
We added Sue Frankson to the committee as the part-time liaison. Welcome, Sue!
We received an update from Research and Planning on ACT scores correlating with writing placement. A score of 20 on ACT is reliable predictor of success in 1101. A score of 70 or higher on Compass seems valid according to grades achieved in English 1101. According to Bev, Datatel can handle this variety of options, including ACT, Compass, and WPE for placement into English 1101. We need to discuss this with the English faculty and request a vote. What is timeline for implementation?
The Lemont trip is scheduled for Thursday, Nov 6.
11/5/08
We reviewed details of the Lemont meeting. This goes back to our curriculum alignment project, and our need to work with high schools to help teachers understand what kinds of writing we want freshman to be prepared for. Lemont HS asked groups of their students to write our placement essays, and their honors students did poorly.
We discussed placement issues that grew out of the Lemont topic. How can we do a better job of identifying students who are ready to WRITE in English 1101, as opposed to students who are good at taking the multiple-choice tests?
We discussed Dual enrollment – Bob is now on committee. We will ask the English faculty for input.
We also discussed the self-study and options for future speakers at a Saturday seminar for full and part time faculty.
11/19/08
Re: the implementation of ACT scores for placement, we will ask English Faculty to vote in order to set up equivalency. It would require a curriculum change. We will set up two meeting times when people can come to ask questions, and share concerns on Dec 3 at 2:30, Dec 4 at 9:30. We will work with Research and Planning on an assessment project in the fall to track the results.
Re: the Lemont visit, we also discussed factors contributing to different groups of students’ performance on WPE. We also discussed dual credit courses for English 1101.
We are planning a Saturday seminar for part time and full time faculty on a Saturday in January, and will investigate working with the TLC on this.
The Willowbrook meeting is coming up, and we also discussed possible funding for another symposium with high school faculty this spring.