Kingsborough English
Resources for Faculty at Kingsborough's Department of English
Kingsborough English
Resources for Faculty at Kingsborough's Department of English
Posts

October 10 2023 ACE/ESL Program Meeting Minutes

by |Published

Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

English Department ACE/ESL Program Meeting – Virtual Zoom

MINUTES

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

3:00-4:30 pm

In Attendance

English Department Chair,Ann DelPrincipe; ESL Co-Director, Patricia George; ESL Co-Director, Kristine Mariano; John Keller, Neil Kernis, Doug LeBert, Ryan Lee, Gabrielle Kahn, Monica Filimon.

Introduction: Doug Lebert was welcomed, and he introduced himself. Patty noted Doug came to us from City College, received his B.A. in Linguistics from Brooklyn College, and earned his M.Ed. in TESOL from Hunter College. Doug is teaching ESL91 in the evenings this semester.

Announcements

  • At the last meeting of the Learning Communities Leadership Team (9/22), Yelena Bondar, Dean of Students, shared that the ACE/ESL program will likely need to accommodate 116 CLIP graduates in Spring 2024/Fall 2024. Dean of Faculty Gordon Alley-Young said we could see an influx of about 50 students who have just been granted an extension on their visas.
  • Victor Zharov (M.A. in TESOL from NYU) has been hired to fulfill our program’s increasing need for TESOL-certified instructors. He will begin teaching as an adjunct lecturer in Spring of 2024.
  • Annie said she is hopeful that we will be able to expand our program’s TESOL-certified full-time faculty in the near future.
    • Gabrielle asked how many sections we plan to run in Spring and Fall 2024. 
      • We will offer two ESL101, three 102 sections, and two ESL91 evening sections in Spring. All courses are currently staffed.
      • In the Fall 2024 we have scheduled and staffed four ESL101 sections, two ESL102, and two ESL91 evening sections.
    • Monica asked to keep one ESL91 on reserve to encourage daytime enrollment. 
      • Annie responded that we could do that but should also look long-term at the big picture, which involves meeting the needs of students by offering evening and weekend, in-person/online courses in the future.
      • Gabrielle suggested that we could run an evening ESL101 / ESL102 course and offer Speech to run as a link.
    • Monica asked if we could open more ESL/ALP sections and have MaryAnn Navarro teach the course.
      • Annie said she defers to the ACE/ESL Co-Directors and will look at enrollment numbers with Kristine and Patty before making a decision.
  • Provost Russell has approved $2000 in the budget for catering (for New American Voices in December and Choose Your Major in the Spring), field trips, and theater education.
    • Monica requested funds for prizes for students.
    • Patty will provide a budget update after learning the cost of catering for both ESL student events this AY to determine what is left over for field trips, ESL theater tickets, and prizes.
  • Patty has reached out to Colleen Davy to seek out statistics about the success rates of students who have progressed from CLIP to first-year composition. This information will be presented to advisors prior to Fall 2024 enrollment so that they can share it with students to guide their decision-making when considering opting out of CLIP.
    • Gabrielle asked how many students go from CLIP to ENG1200.
      • We hope to have that data before fall enrollment begins or by the end of the Spring 2024 semester to present during the summer months and will share those findings.
  • The ESL Discipline Council learned that CUNY Central is revisiting the idea of counting the students’ listening scores in their composite score.
    • Melissa Uber has been invited to attend the next ESL DC meeting on October 20th to discuss this further.
    • We will look at listening scores for students who failed or just barely passed to see if there is a correlation. Patty and Neil will be adding that data in the Accuplacer Pilot report to Provost Russell.
  • Please sign up to offer professional development strategies during our ACE/ESL faculty cohort meetings to achieve our program goal to Increase faculty excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service:
    • November 14 Meeting – Gabrielle Kahn & Janine Graziano will present on the topic of ACE ESL learning communities: research rationale for the 2-semester model, exploration of the history at KCC, and the types of activities promoted (e.g., integrative assignment).
    • December 5 Meeting – Kristine Mariano
    • NEED: March / April / May
    • Please sign up to present a brief strategy: email us which meeting you’d prefer and the topic you’ll share (if known).
  • ESL CAWS Library room update – CAWS is now the KLC (Kingsborough Learning Center) tutoring center space.  Dean Bondar contacted Patty about moving the books out of the space since it is rarely used and the space is needed to accommodate increased enrollment.
    • Gabrielle asked where the books are being stored, how the ESL students will access them, and if Dean Bonder plans to keep the books separate from the other students.
    • Patty will reach out to Dean Bondar and copy Gabrielle so that Gabrielle can be involved in the decision-making process.

Discussion Topics

  • ENG12ALP will likely be expanding in the future – almost all sections will be ALP so faculty can make recommendations for placement via grades.  All ESL102 students with final grades A+ through C- would automatically go to ENG12ALP (with perhaps some rare exceptions for ENG 12) which could be passed along to Christine Marchese and Shelly Benjamin. D+ through F students would automatically repeat ESL 102.  
    • Gabrielle and Monica want to keep Next English as a faculty-generated placement system instead of having students placed in the next course sequence based on grades and discussions with advisors.
    • Annie noted the trend is to have students self-select placement with advisement.
    • Annie, Patty, and Kristine will look at the numbers in December and determine the next steps.
  • ACE/ESL Leadership Terms:
    • Results from the May 25 Poll:
      • Q1: Would you be in favor of the ESL faculty, in collaboration with the Chair, instituting a process through which there will be a discussion about the ESL leadership transition at set intervals?
      • 4 voted yes / 1 voted no / 1 abstained
      • Q2: If you are in favor of such a discussion about leadership transition, which interval would you prefer?
      • 3 voted for six years / 1 voted for four years / 1 abstained
  • Monica said Mary Navarro and two other English department faculty members (names not noted in minutes) could be presented to the Chair as nominees for the ACE/ESL Co-Director position if no one teaching in the program wants to be considered during the next cycle of leadership. 
  • Monica stated that faculty members could return to the Co-Director position at any time.
  • Gabrielle agreed with Monica that term limits are necessary.
  • Monica questioned why Patty wasn’t in favor of term limits.
    • Patty reminded Monica that her concern in Spring 2023 was related to the arrangement she had made with the Chair, Ann DelPrincipe, to receive 10 of the 14 New Faculty Release Time hours owed to her (to be taken in Spring 2024). Once Annie assured Patty that she could take all 14 hours in the Spring regardless of the outcome of the vote, the discussion of term limits became a non-issue for her. To avoid a conflict of interest because she was serving in the lead role during the Spring 2023 poll, Patty abstained.
  • Monica stated Patty’s term would be grandfathered and unaffected by the vote.
  • Later, Monica stated Patty’s six-year term would begin after the vote.
    • Patty reminded everyone that she has already served nearly three years as Co-Director (two years since she was asked to serve when Tara left in January 2020 and nine months since she was asked to take the lead role in January 2023 so that Monica could work on her book).
  • Monica claimed another reason to have term limits is that she believes an untenured faculty member would not be comfortable declaring their interest in serving as Co-Director because Patty was elected to the P&B and could vote against that faculty member’s tenure application.
    • Patty responded that her role on the P&B is to serve as a mentor to both untenured ESL faculty members (Kristine and Neil) and she would never be so vindictive as to vote against tenure for any faculty member simply because they expressed an interest in serving as Co-Director. Patty asked if anyone was interested in serving at the present moment. No one responded in the affirmative.
  • Neil stated that he served in a similar capacity as an untenured faculty member before joining Kingsborough Community College and wanted to stop serving but did not ask to vacate the position because he was afraid of repercussions and no one else was willing to serve.
  • Monica asked Kristine to create a second poll and wanted to take the vote.
    • Kristine was not able to open a poll after creating the Zoom.  Patty suggested Monica create a second poll for a final faculty vote on leadership term limits.

Topic Number 3

Tabled for November Meeting Due to Lack of Time
Create a cohesive writing portfolio for ESL 101 and 102 to achieve our program goal to “Close equity gaps”.

  • GOAL: To introduce ESL students to as many common college writing genres as possible to expose them to cultural norms, expectations, organizational structure, and linguistic conventions of different college writing genres.

To Be Discussed:

  • In general, which writing genres should students have experience with by the end of ESL 102?
    • Should there be any repeated genres, such as persuasive?
    • Which genres should be taught first, in ESL 101, and which should be taught in ESL 102?

You may also like