Again, it appears to me the system has misdirected a message from
Philippa. This apparently was sent Friday night, but I just
discovered it in the error folder . . . if you've seen it before, let
me know and I'll rethink my conclusion (that it never went out).
-- Russ
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
> Hi again, Philippa. Hope you're beginning to relax as term ends
> (but I bet you're facing piles of marking too).
>
> Two questions:
>
> 1. Are you still looking for CCCC panelists? The new director of
> the Engineering Language Across the Curriculum program here might
> be lured down to speak. He's Rob Irish, and he's new, bright, and
> sensible. Shall I keep encouraging him to put time aside in
> March? There's some possibility too of the director in Pharmacy,
> who really has wrought miracles there. They would both benefit
> from an immersion in the Cs.... at least the book display and the
> restaurants....
At the moment, we have about 7 participants--I think we could easliy
accommodate one or two more, especially if they are as interesting
as these two people sound! Is Rob Irish by any chance a fairly
recent English PhD graduate from U of T? Or is he an engineer? I
seem to remember an English PhD with a name something like his...
> 2. Do you have some news or tips for me to take to a meeting at
> the Ministry next week? They asked me to speak to them about the
> Ministry next week? They asked me to speak to them about the
> prospects for university testing, as of course they are themselves
> heading into even more high-school level testing. Shall I tell
> them Laurentian is still doing testing, and building a good program
> on it -- or is it more in spite of it?
Well, personally I would have to say that we are trying to build a
decent programme inspite of the test... but certainly not everyone
here would agree. Actually, I've just come from a meeting of our WAC
senate committee, where we are debating the possibility of removing
or at least reducing our September testing session, leaving the main
session for end of March., Two main rationales: 1. the test does
not TEACH anything; also, we say that our ACADEMIC writing
competency requirement is a graduation requirement, not an entrance
one--how can we expect students coming from the high-school discourse
community to know how to write competently in the university
discourse community genres when they haven't had any
exposure/practice/instruction in them? (actually, I don;t use the
expression "discourse community" when talking to my colleagues--but
that's what I mean); also, of course, the test is generic and
artificial, essentially a humanities-style essay so it privileges
this genre over others at the university. And the test allows for no
research/preparation, nor for any other aspects of the academic
writing process. 2. Financial rationale: the test costs a lot of
money, which we could funnel into improving learning resources for
students--especially our writing assistant programme through the
writing centre. (that is, if the whole centre's budget isn't
decimated--I have heard nothing about this one way or another yet,
but of course I anticipate at least some reductions). We think, but
this is only tentative--please don;t quote me, that the test costs
between $12-15 per student. And MANY students write the test SEVERAL
times.
I think that we will be successful in reducing if not removing the
September test, if not next year then the following. As long as we
have a writing competency requirement linked with our WAc programme,
however, I think that we will retain the spring testing session
because we have to offer options to students for how they meet the
required score (and we cannot guarantee that there will be
appropriate WAC courses for them to take).
Does that answer your questions? Let me know if you want more
details! what is that you are arguing for?
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Philippa Spoel [log in to unmask]
Department of English phone: (705)675-1151, ext 4345
Laurentian University fax: (705)675-4870
Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6
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__|~_
Russell A. Hunt __|~_)_ __)_|~_ HOMEPAGE: www.StThomasU
Department of English )_ __)_|_)__ __) .ca/Faculty/hunt.htm
St. Thomas University | )____) | EMAIL: [log in to unmask]
Fredericton, New Brunswick___|____|____|____/ FAX: (506) 450-9615
E3B 5G3 CANADA \ / PHONE: (506) 363-3891
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
