Minutes of the Composition Committee, September 7, 2006

Present: Michelle Sidler, James Truman, Chris Keirstead, Eva Shoop, Kathy McClelland, Pam Horn, John Hagerty, Judy Troy, Kevin Roozen

We have 4 major tasks to discuss/take action on:

revising exemption of ENGL 1100 and 1120 requirements at the request of the Associate Dean; includes review of AP/SAT scores and questions concerning CLEP
assessment – a report is due late September, early October
textbooks for ENGL 1100, especially a handbook
revisions to ENGL 1120

Re: exemption requirements - After some discussion of the implications and impetus for the request, we asked that we have more information before trying to make a decision. Informal consensus of the committee seems to be that exemption from ENGL 1120 for any student is counterproductive given the research component of the course; however, more info will help our discussions.

Re: Assessment – We have some papers from Spring 2006 to use; we will use the existing rubric to assess them. However, we will want to revise the rubric so that we can obtain information useful for the revision of ENGL 1120 and eventually ENGL 1100. We also have a number of final exam papers; we hope to eventually consider these exams to determine whether composition exams have been reflecting the goals of the program.

Re: Textbooks – Michelle has been in contact with the publishers and set some guidelines for reviewing texts. We will establish a committee charged with defining characteristics of texts teachers want; Michelle will communicate that to the reps. We will review texts by early Spring ‘06 and select a new handbook for Fall ‘07.

Re: 1120 Revisions – Michelle explained problems concerning the current structure of ENGL 1120 . She relayed information accumulated through various information literacy studies which aim to track students’ achievement in such a course. Kathy introduced us to the experimental ENGL 1120 course she has started teaching this semester which involves more library/instructor interaction and a scaffolding approach to teaching research.

Sub-committees:

Assessment: Michelle, Eva, Kathy, James, John

Textbooks: Kevin Chris, Pam, Judy, and a graduate student to be named.

The Assessment subcommittee will meet at 3:30 on Thursday, September 14th; the Textbook subcommittee will meet at 3:30 on Thursday, September 21.

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Last updated September 25, 2006