Attendance: 

Jane Weiss 

Elroy Esdaille 

Monica Filmon 

Frank Pecaccio 

Enid Stubin 

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Literature Learning Objectives- Assessment  

–Jane solicited assistance with designing assessment. The program assessment she has been working on she needs assistance in terms of suggestions and tweaks to produce workable Learning Assessments for the literature program. 

–It was pointed out that we have Four cycles before Middle States occurs. 

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–The question was asked: “What should we do if we don’t have multiple sections of a course.” One option suggested is to find ways to define the proper language that encompasses the assessment, while remaining true to what we do.  

–It was suggested that we can consider Carlene’s Davis’ idea where produce one Learning Outcome out of a title.  

–It was said that coming up with assessment–means that we need to find ways to meet expectations. 

               How do we access single assessment courses? 

We who are working with to create assessment should take the matter seriously, in terms of consider diverse approached, and we should also take the students’ seriously.  

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            Literature Program Assessment: 

How do we assess single-section courses? Identify an assessment instrument (need not be identical in sections) but it should be an artifact – an essay, exam, presentation or other “thing.” Poll for students asking if they are learning something in their literature courses. Suggestion: Time to revive pop quizzes as a technique. “Students don’t like bad classes. When they [the class discussions] are bad, they know it – and they rise.” Tests as motivators rather than as judgments. Argument for many different courses – 

— Also, it was said that we need to keep the assessment simple. 

–It was mentioned that Lea and Tobi are looking into ways students are assessed in class. They are using a simple survey with a few questions. This research is important, and we need to get some data as to their findings and what we can learn from them.  

–Also, it was said that we need to keep the assessment simple. 

— When people who examine the assessment for Middle States and otherwise, want to see the data, but they do not need any long narrative.  

—- Middle States wants multiple approaches, critical schools, interpretations. Desirable that students encounter many different faculty because of the different specialized courses. Suggestion: show the variety by emphasizing different assignments, reading lists, etc. 

— It was also mentioned that the main focus should be about faculty discussing whether our courses are accomplishing what they want them to. 

–Are we thinking about ways to get the students to get better? 

–We should also consult the students as we contemplate assessment. 

–When we think about assessment, we should consider the idea of assessment in terms of: 

    -Taking a close look at everything we are doing in the program and the classes and examine what we need to change, and what needs to stay the same, and what we need to adjust.  

–How do we go about assessing? For example: How do we assess things like what are the major themes etc.  

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–Jane will write up an assessment plan, initially for English 30. She would start with the literature Committee and solicit feedback. Marylynn is working on English 40, and the committee is open to her soliciting feedback and responding in kind. 

— Over the next 3 semesters- it would make sense for faculty teaching other classes, to get things documented. We need to explore the question: Are students doing what we want them to do? 

— However, we need to understand that it is difficult to design something that only has one assessment at a time. 

–Bear in mind that in Community College we need to understand that Middle States and all other assessment bodies do not like the idea of their only being one voice, one method. 

–By taking multiple courses, they would be exposed to multiple genres and methodology, multiple techoniques and multiple pedagogies.  

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–The idea of sharing a course was brought up. It was noted that this can be beneficial. We can teach a course one semester and be willing to let someone else teach it another semester. There was no consensus on this idea. The idea that sometimes it is difficult for others to allow someone else to teach a course was brought up. The idea is that different learning experiences might be had if we are open to this idea. To counter this argument, it was brought up that we are somehow constrained if the teacher’s scholarship is in a specific area, and they are flourishing in their area of professionality and give the best of themselves.  

–There was also the argument that same faculty teaching the same classes repeatedly can lead to monotonous teaching that lacks creativity and innovation. There was no consensus on this proposal.  

–It was also suggested that other faculty need to be given a chance to teach classes they have not taught before, if they have the interest and the expertise. Some faculty have expertise in several different areas and are capable to teaching in different areas. 

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Leadership for The Literature Committee 

–The idea was brough up about how we should go forward in terms of deciding leadership for the literature Committee.  

–It was brought up that the committee should establish its own way. 

–The Committee should be self-governed. 

–The idea was also brought up about the possibility of people stuffing the ballot box.  

         *Active Membership* 

— To avoid the possibility of the stuffing of the ballot box, the idea of proving the idea of “Active membership” was suggested.  

—How do we want to determine literature committee leadership? Well, so far it has been whoever doesn’t run away. Comment: three ideas: Whatever we think and feel, it will still have to get the imprimatur of the department chair. If someone wants to be chair of the committee, could they theoretically get a number of people to show up to the committee just for one meeting for ballot-box stuffing? What might “active membership” in a committee be? Active member might be participation for a semester before voting in an election.  

–Exactly what constitutes “Active membership was not agreed upon, and it was agreed that it should be discussed further by the committee in future meetings.  

— One idea presented was that after one semester of attending meetings, the faculty would automatically become an active member in the following Semester. Exactly how many meetings and how much attendance counted in terms of the meeting was not agreed upon.  

— Another idea was that it might be good practice to hold an election for the committee chair at the end of a semester and ask the “Active members” to attend at least two meetings. There was no consensus on this either, for meeting accountability it was suggested was not so easy to define.  

— Active membership is still something that is unclear in terms of how to figure out it out, for some people are not on campus and others who are on campus might be teaching or otherwise engaged, when meetings are called.  

 
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–Directors and Assistants: There was consensus that the director of Literature should be voted in for a three-year term. This should be so because of the nature of the work. Also, it was suggested that we should also have an assistant director who can step in case the director is unable to do so for any reason. The idea is that the director should train and groom the assistant for the position to ensure continuity.  

–Literature Department Chairperson: It was agreed that the director does not have to be the Literature Department Chairperson, and like the Literature Director, there should be an assistant Chairperson for the Literature Department. The term of the Chairperson of the Literature Department should be two (2) years.  

–The idea is that in each leadership position, there should be people who are in training to assume the role in the future, and they can step in when the time is right. 

— The idea is that these positions can be occupied by people who need service credentials to help them reach promotion, such as Assistant, and Associate professor.  

–These proposals had consensus and would be voted on in the future. 

**Suggestion: Director should be more of a rotating service – if everybody has to do it, if it’s required to be in the rotation; and there are two, a director and a junior director, each with three-year terms. [bear in mind the Glamorous work of director: looking up each of our electives to find transfer equivalents in 23 colleges’ catalogs, following the 80% course overlap rule.] 

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How to Boost Participation? 

–The idea was suggested that we need to consider ways to restructure the Liberal Arts Concentration.  

–It was suggested that we could send out invitations to our faculty to become involved with the Literature Committee.  

–A question was asked about how many sections of Literature are taught each semester, and the answer was given that is about twenty sections per semester.  

–The idea of boosting participation in our literature course might be attached to the Writing Intensive element that some students must carry out to graduate. The idea that we cannot force our literature teachers to become WRAC qualified was brought up. We need to somehow help our faculty to perceive the benefits of the WRAC certification, for it can boost registration in our course, so we can have more faculty be WRAC certified.  

–In the future, making an announcement at The English Department Faculty meeting might be effective.  

Any Other Business 

–There should be more than one section of a course offered.  

—-Suggestion: to get interested in courses, how about a flier with QR codes?  It is suggested that we make use of creating a flyer for each literature course—Have a QR code embedded—which can take the students to a place where they can register for that specific course. C123 Student Life will print it and post it. You can NOT post it on your own as well. You can also make your own flyers. 

–The idea of setting up a speaker series was suggested. How much money would we need for a speaker series in Literature? One or two per semesters perhaps.  

–How much money would we need for a speaker series in Literature? We might need to secure funds to have this speaker series. One or two per semester. 

–We can have speaker form at least every two, or three weeks, or every month. For the exact regular period for the speaker series, there was no consensus, but the idea itself had a consensus.  

–It was decided that Enid would draft a letter for potential speakers. 

–Also, we do not always need outside speakers, for we have capable faculty who can also fit the bill. For example, Masha Gessen – who is CUNY faculty! 

–Participation? ____ points out that the pool of people is limited because new hires may not be literature specialists. Suggestions: Beer and pizza?  More involvement in restructuring the concentration and major. 

• Next Meeting: We will decide a time after the next faculty meeting on April 7, 2024. A Doodle will be sent out to help decide when.