Weekly WAC Minutes
March 7th, 2011
Brooklyn College, 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Present:
Co-Coordinators: Ellen Belton and Corey Frost
Fellows: Jamie Aroosi, Kathleen Dunn, Neil Meyer (minutes), Tahneer Oksman, Brendan
O’Malley, Jordan Pascoe
Business:
1.Writing Benchmarks Website Project (all):
A. Jordan and Neil narrated their expectations of the proposed website. The site
would begin with separate entrances for students and faculty with a user’s guide
tailored to the needs of each group. The benchmarks and the glossary would be
standard for both. Currently, they are undecided as to whether the supporting
documents (sample syllabi, assignments, student work) should be tailored to each group
or standard for both. Jordan cautioned that two versions of each document would
create a great deal more work.
B. The next portion of the project is deciding how the Writing Center tutors will
be involved in our pilot classrooms. Given the time frame, it seems that tutors will work
with the students ideally on one major, end-of-semester assignment. Jordan and Neil
have a tentative plan where faculty will be asked (through a questionnaire yet to be
designed) to analyze their writing objectives as outlined in the assignment. Students
would be asked to do the same, and the tutor would use these two documents to begin
assessment of the students and how well they understand the expectations of their
respective assignments. The benefit of this model is that it would assist getting
students, faculty, and tutors on the same page.
Jamie suggested that professor’s who have tutors assigned to their clasess
workshop their writing assignments, though there were some doubts whether the
calendar would allow that. Tahneer suggested that faculty also submit an example of a
successful student essay for the assignment in order to clarify their expectations and
further assist tutors when working with students.
C. Corey has been in touch with web design company Diezzain to work on the
project. They work with Wordpress and so far it seems that the platform can meet all of
our needs.
D. The group discussed the glossary for the benchmarks. Corey suggested that
the glossary be standard for both students and faculty and that some definitions need to
be revised for greater clarity for students. Brendan and Kathleen offered to assist with
these revisions. Brendan and Jamie also offered to assist with future work with the
Writing Center tutors when that time comes.
2. Faculty Roundtable Invitation (Ellen)
We have been asked to take part in a lunchtime faculty event on May 25th. It
seems this will be an informal event where faculty will speak with us over the course of
a lunch break. We will probably bring various documents on the goals and benefits of
WAC and network with interested faculty members.
3. Annual Evaluations (Ellen)
Ellen will need to meet with all of the fellows one-on-one in the coming weeks
for a year-end evaluation. She requested that each fellow produce a one-page narrative
of his or her projects and involvement during the year prior to the evaluation.
4. WF Job Description (All)
We discussed the current job description of WAC fellows at Brooklyn College. It
was suggested that the description be revised to include potential future projects, to
reflect institutional changes that have recently occurred (with a focus on outreach), and
reflect a more accurate assessment of travel time to Brooklyn College. Ellen and Corey
requested that any more revision ideas be e-mailed to them
5. Writing in the Sciences (Brendan)
Brendan and biology faculty member Rafael Ovalle, along with Ellen and Corey,
met with Donna Wilson (Dean of Undergraduate Studies) and Louise Hainline (Dean of
Graduate Studies and Research) to discuss making Writing in the Sciences a course at
Brooklyn College. Brendan will next be developing a course proposal; Ellen suggested
he make use of the course proposal template available on the Faculty Council website
(hhtp://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pub/departments/facultycouncil/publications.htm)
6. Organization Mini-Lesson (Tahneer)
Tahneer asked to confirm that this new mini-lesson was approved. And it was.
Jamie will be posting it to the website.
7. School of Education (Brendan and Jordan)
The School of Ed has requested another meeting for their faculty with Brendan
and Jordan. Details TBA.
For Next Week:
1. Mini-lessons from Jamie, and Kathleen and Jordan on Children’s Studies
2. Discussion of upcoming tech workshop (Jordan and Brendan)
3. Discussion of Tahneer’s dissertation excerpt.
4. Snacks: Jamie