Spring 2011 Meeting

Agenda

Wednesday Afternoon, April 13 | 2:30-5:00
GWAR Coordinators Meeting | Fiona Glade (Sacramento) | Shasta

Wednesday Evening, April 13 | 7:00-9:00
Composition Coordinators Meeting | Kim Costino (San Bernardino) | Redwood-Sequoia

Thursday Morning, April 14 | 8:00-8:30
Registration ($60) | Sarah Nielson (East Bay) and Sugie Goen-Salter (San Francisco) | Redwood-Sequoia
Continental Breakfast | Redwood-Sequoia

Thursday Morning, April 14 | 8:45-10:15
Plenary Panel I: “The Future of English Education’” | Mary Warner (San Jose), Convener | Redwood-Sequoia
Nelson Graff (San Francisco State)
“Using Rhetorical Analysis to Teach Metacognition, Audience Awareness, and Structure”
As many of us have seen in this era of high-stakes testing, school administrators are increasingly pushing teachers toward test prep and the five-paragraph essay formula (in all its forms) believed to improve student performance on the timed writing that accompanies the CAHSEE and SAT. However, formulaic approaches to writing fail to prepare students effectively for writing in college and non-testing contexts (whether they succeed for testing is arguable). In this talk, I share an approach I use with my upper-division Advanced Composition for Teachers students to help them see (and to help them teach their students to see) writing as a series of choices made to affect a particular audience. This mindfulness about language, structure, and organization can help students transfer their learning about writing into new contexts.

Bill Foreman (Stanislaus)
“Common Core English—Is It Really Language Arts?”
Looked at through the lens of English education, the reduction of literature in the Common Core represents a step backward for the profession of English. While English educators recognize the inter-relatedness of the four language arts skills and regard them as inherent elements of human cognition to be nurtured together, the design of the Common Core recognizes only the most skeletal notion of English Language Arts. In English education, we balance a number of approaches to learning that include personal growth and expression, the exploration of cultural differences, and the study of language as artifact. The Common Core takes a much more direct approach to learning, assuming that fewer goals and more direct pursuit of those goals will increase tangible learning. This view of learning about English disregards our discipline’s understanding of the connection between the various elements of our field. As a result the Common Core foregrounds supposedly tangible skills such as technical/professional reading, writing, and rhetoric at the expense of aesthetics, figurative language, and what might broadly be called “the humanities.” Just as art and music have been under assault in public schools in the last 40 years (and Latin was pushed out of the standard curriculum at the turn of the 20th century), so today literature study is under attack by the Common Core. We must defend literature as essential to the education of all citizens, not just because it provides a spare framework of cultural literacy but also because it is essential to our understanding of our lives as human beings. If we do not save literature study at the K-12 level, we may find that our entire discipline as currently constructed finds itself upended as tangential, relegated to the extra-curricular.

Teri Clark, Acting Director Professional Services Division (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing)
Presented by Mary Warner (San José State University)
“Issues and Concerns Related to English Preparation for Teaching Program Approval”

Beverly L. Young, Assistant Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs, Office of the Chancellor, California State University)
“Response and CSU Perspectives on English Education”

Thursday Morning, April 14 | 10:15-10:30
Break

Thursday Morning, April 14 | 10:30-12:00
Plenary Panel II: Further Discussion with the English Council | Redwood-Sequoia

Task Force on Deliberation and Voting
Cathy Gabor (San Jose), Tara Lockhart (San Francisco), Kim Flachmann (Bakersfield), and Mark Thompson (Stanislaus)
Discussion of Recent Developments with the EAP and the ERWC

Thursday Afternoon, April 14 | 12:00-1:15
Buffet Luncheon | Courtyard

Thursday Afternoon, April 15 | 1:30-3:15
Plenary Panel III | Redwood-Sequoia

“Update on Teaching First-Year Writing as a Jumbo Course: Shifting Roles, Mentoring, and Social Media”
Chris Fosen and Kim Jaxon (Chico)
Discussion of the C-ID System and SB 1440
Convener: Mary Ann Creadon (Humboldt)
“Early Start Update and Discussion”
Convener: Sugie Goen-Salter (San Francisco)

Thursday Afternoon, April 14 | 3:15-3:30
Break with Refreshments

Thursday Afternoon, April 14 | 3:30-5:00
Disciplinary Breakout Sessions

English Education | Mary Warner (San Jose) | Redwood
Composition | Kim Costino (San Bernardino) | Sequoia
GWAR Coordinators | Fiona Glade (Sacramento) | Monterey
ESL/Multilingual | Sarah Nielsen (East Bay) | Muir Woods
Department Chairs | Kathryn Rummell (SLO) | ?

Thursday Evening, April 14 | 5:30-6:30
Official CSU English Council Beer and Wine Soiree | Jonathan Price Memorial Suite
Featuring the First Annual Jonathan Price Impersonation Contest

Friday Morning, April 15 | 7:30-11:45
Reports and Business Meeting | Redwood-Sequoia
7:30-8:30 | Continental Breakfast and Hair of the Dog
8:30-9:00 | Meeting with ECCTYC Representative Gary Enns (Cerro Coso Community College)
9:00-10:00 | General Reports: Special Topics and Breakout Sessions
10:00-10:30 | Break
10:30-10:45 | Report from UC Representative George Gadda (UCLA)
10:45-11:00 | Resolutions and Directives: Kathryn Rummell (SLO)
11:00-11:45 | Business Meeting
11:45 | Adjourn
12:00 | Executive Committee Luncheon and Planning Meeting

Take Note: Fall Meeting
October 12-14, 2011 | Bahia Resort Hotel | San Diego

CSU English Council