Moreno Valley College
Michael Schwartz
Student Learning Outcome Assessment Report
English 7 (Survey of British Literature, 1800 to the present), Fall 2011
What section did you assess?
English 7, #28730, with 25 students.
Which SLO from the course Outline of Record (COR) does this project assess?
2. Explain how this literature both reflects and shapes the intellectual history and cultural assumptions of this
period with an awareness of how differences of culture, gender, and other social markers may shape a writer's
interactions with this history.
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Critical Thinking - Identify one's own and others' assumptions, biases, and their consequences
Global Awareness - Demonstrate understanding of ethnic, religious and socioeconomic diversity
Global Awareness - Demonstrate understanding of alternative political, historical and cultural
viewpoints
Why did you choose that SLO?
I chose this SLO because it includes gendered difference within its group of focal interpretive
considerations. Because the period studied in this course (late 18th century to the present) coincides with
(and produces) significant changes in our understanding of gender, as a crucial aspect of human identity, I
make this an ongoing theme throughout the term. Part of the pedagogical impetus for this SLO is an
interest in having students become better “readers” of human identity, so that they become more adept at
understanding how difference—in gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, nationality, etc.—is
represented in literature, and also understanding what is at stake in that representation (its implications).
Gender is not given a disproportionate amount of the focus during the term, as this SLO explicitly calls
for a variety of “social markers,” but for the purposes of this project, I chose gender as the focus because
it nicely brings together the three subcategories of this SLO: critical thinking about bias
(sexism/genderism); broader awareness of diversity (“alternative” gender identities); and broader
awareness of marginalized viewpoints (feminism, LGBTQ).
What specific topic does this project focus on?
Using sound critical thinking to locate and analyze a text’s representation of femininity and/or
masculinity.
What were the results of initial assessment?
Students were given a short written exam in class, where they were asked to explain how Coventry
Patmore’s narrative poem The Angel in the House constructs a notion of ideal or exemplary femininity;
this an important text of the Victorian period in British literature, as it gives us a sense of the
ideas/assumptions surrounding middle class femininity during the period. In the weeks preceding this
exam, students spent ample amounts of class time working on similar tasks, where we read a text together
(either a short text in class, or something lengthier as a homework assignment) and then practiced locating
gendered signifiers: words, images, phrases, metaphors, tropes, and/or motifs that signify either
femininity or masculinity. This pre-exam stage is important, from a pedagogical standpoint, because it
helps to orient students to the kinds of critical thinking tasks they’ll be expected to undertake throughout
the term. Also, it helps to begin our ongoing discussion of gendered representation in literature, broadly
speaking. By the time students took the written exam, most had grown more comfortable thinking and
speaking and writing about gender, and they had also gotten a sense of what a “close reading” entails (a
term that appears on the actual exam). We also spent time in the week preceding this exam going over a
rubric constructed as an assessment instrument for evaluating a “close reading; the rubric is attached.
Moreover, the exam itself was designed as an early assessment of their ability to think and write critically
about a key component (the signifiers that constitute femininity) of this literary text. Out of 17 students
present for this assessment, 2 received As, 3 received Bs, 4 received Cs, 5 received Ds, and 3 received Fs.
What modifications to the delivery of instruction were made?
After examining the results of this assessment, I noticed that while some students were progressing in
their ability to recognize some signifiers of femininity within a literary text, others struggled to locate the
more subtle, less obvious ways that the poem expresses ideas about femininity. An example would be the
poem’s representation of Honoria’s actions/behaviors, and Vaughan’s subsequent reaction. The poem’s
narrative, in other words, sets up situations which in turn become opportunities for the performance of a
normative femininity, typically exemplified by Honoria. But recognizing these moments in the poem can
be challenging. On the exam, many students had no trouble finding stanzas containing laudatory
descriptions of Honoria’s nature or character (usually a series of adjectives), but this is only one way – a
more readily locatable way – that femininity is rendered in the poem. So while I was pleased to see
students locating these more easily discernible signifiers of femininity in the poem, I wanted them to get
to the point where they would feel equally adept at finding the poem’s more subtle insinuations of
femininity.
In order to address this issue, I modified my delivery of instruction in two significant ways: (1) I added
some readings to our syllabus. These readings consisted of excerpts from longer texts of the Victorian
period (by G. Eliot, C. Bronte, et al), which contain the same kinds of implicit or suggestive
representations of gender codes/signifiers as found in Patmore’s poem. Reading these texts gave students
further opportunities to locate gendered signifiers, and our subsequent group activities during class
allowed for the kind of collaboration that can help bring the lower scoring students up to speed, (2) I
showed students 15-20 minute portions of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair,
filmic adaptations of Victorian novels. The portions we watched contain useful visual representations of
Victorian femininity, discernible through female characters’ fashions, non-verbal gestures, postures,
manners of speech, decorum, sexuality, etc.. These filmic representations of femininity were useful in
two ways: they provided content in a visual medium (which some students find more accessible), and
they provided further examples of these more subtle signifiers of femininity, which many students
struggled to locate on the initial assessment. After spending time on these print and filmic texts, I had
students revisit Patmore’s poem. I wanted to see if they’d grown in their ability to locate and explain the
poem’s less transparent signifiers for femininity, and I was pleased to see that several indeed had.
In summary, these modifications proved effective. By working on a variety of additional texts (both print
and visual), most students grew more comfortable with this intellectual task and were more on target to
meet this SLO.
Describe your re-inquiry strategy, including scoring criteria and timeline:
My re-inquire strategy used the same format with a different text. We read (and then watched a filmic
adaptation of) Shaw’s Pygmalion, a post-Victorian, early Modernist play which, like Patmore’s poem,
deals very directly with femininity. I asked students to record their ideas about femininity (and
masculinity), as they read/watched the play, and they were then allowed to use their notes on the
assessment activity. On the re-inquiry assessment, a full four weeks later, there was notable improvement
(this time, 20 students were present): 5 As, 7 Bs, 6 Cs, and 2 Ds; 90% received a passing score (C or
better) compared to the earlier assessment where only 52% passed.
Have you shared this project with your colleagues?
It has been shared via email with my colleagues, and I hope to discuss it in person with them in the
coming weeks.
What future assessment plans do you have?
I plan to assess this particular SLO on both their final exam, and on their final paper assignment. Beyond
this semester, I plan to target different SLOs in future sections of this course, particularly those directed
by the MVC English discipline.
Summary of assessment process:
1. Tested students, got pass rate of 52%.
2. Modified delivery of instruction for a period of four weeks, and then re-tested, this time achieving
a pass rate of 90%.
3. This was the first time I taught this course. During the assessment process, I discovered among
my English 7 students that achieving a high success rate with this SLO requires careful planning
and, in some cases, repetition of certain class activities. This SLO explicitly calls for students to
develop the ability to explain “how the literature of this period both reflects and shapes the
intellectual history and cultural assumptions of this period with an awareness of how differences
of culture, gender, and other social markers may shape a writer's interactions with this history.”
This is an ambitious yet attainable SLO, and I think that by organizing the syllabus in a way that
will allow students to first focus on an individual “social marker” in their readings (such as
gender) before moving on to the more challenging and important task of understanding how/when
these social markers intersect, we facilitate students’ success with this SLO and also with several
other related ones.