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Basic Skills Committee Meeting Minutes--Agenda
March 11, 2014
Call to Order
Good of the Order
STEM/Allied Health and Mathematics Presentation
Great Debate Presentation
NEXT Meeting: March 25, 2014, Noon, Room 504
Basic Skills Committee Meeting Minutes--Draft
February 25, 2014
Attendees: Hisako Hintz, Michael Thompson, Carolyn Arnold, Trish Shannon, Michael
Robinson, and Carmen Johnson
12:05 -- Meeting Called to Order
1.
Good of the Order. Information on a few upcoming conferences was provided to
attendees. Some funding is available for conferences.
2. In reviewing the minutes, Carmen asked for some clarification about CEMC and how
that committee functions, that is, that it is a product of administration, faculty, and
Faculty Union representatives (per contract).
3. Hisako then presented on the ESL Writing Workshop. Her written notes follow.
What is it?
A place for ESL students to get extra help with their writing assignments from any
course
½ unit, late start, 2 hrs/week for 12 weeks
An instructor and 3 coaches work with students on a one-on-one basis
How did it start? Dialogue between ESL and AIC team
Why?
Our accelerated ESL program can’t provide as many writing opportunities as students
may need.
ESL students benefit from highly individualized coaching and feedback.
Many non-native speaking students across the disciplines need additional support in
their writing skills.
IR data indicating that ESL at Chabot is not primarily for personal development.
Our proposal inquiry:
Will our writing workshop course successfully address these concerns? (Yes, it did!)
Timeline:
Sp 12 -- BSI Proposal submitted and approved
Summer 12 - Fall 12:
o Attended AIC Summer Learning Institute
o Visited the Writing Workshop at Laney and Berkeley CC
o Held ESL retreat and weekly meetings
o Met with English instructors
o Collected IR data and writing samples from various disciplines
o Submitted course outline
o Identified and hired tutors
Sp 13 --Started offering course
Fa 13 --Submitted revised 4 course outlines for repeatability with different emphasis on:
o Pre-writing & paragraph
o Thesis development & essay organization
o Editing & writing process
o Use and citation of source materials
How is the course working out?
YouTube video & Facebook page
Here are the links to the YouTube video and Facebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhx68jVQhVA
https://www.facebook.com/eslworkshop
rd
Students love it, and many repeat it (3 semester now)
Course now institutionalized, coaches funded by TRIO
One or two future sections may be funded by TRIO
Challenge:
Identifying, hiring, and training high level tutors and keeping them
Slow HR paperwork processing
Restriction on how many semesters a tutor can work
We tried to hire CSUEB TESOL graduate students
4. Carmen Johnson presented on the proposal and current work of an English faculty
subgroup. Their investigation is the achievement gap of Latino and African-American
students. Initially inspired by the statistics that Dean Kritscher shared and spurred
more by the initial work of the Poverty and Equity group. They used their Program
Review to look at this and to recommend action, and this year, Carmen and Kristen
Land got the work started. They’ve put out a call to faculty, and they have shared some
initial work during Flex Week. They’ve created a WIKI space that holds their data and
work, including recommended readings. The data does suggest that there is an
achievement gap, and there is research around the factors that influence this gap,
specifically in what pedagogically faculty can do. They hope to provide information
and ways to construct the classroom to better serve students. The first audience is
English, then the whole college. This is an equity issue: these students do not achieve
their goals. The next step is to do student-led focus groups with ENGL102 students
who were successful but on the line. The goal is to elicit information about what did
help you complete and what might have helped you do better. They are working on the
questions presently. The group seeks funding for the leadership and participants.
5. Meeting was adjourned at 12:55 PM.
Calendar…
March 11: STEM and Math, Great Debate
March 25: JANE WOLFORD (Habits of Mind), please confirm
April 25: Update from Student Services on SSSP
May 13 Deonne Kunkel, FYE
FALL: Title III Completion Celebration