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Description


BSI Coordinator Tasks:
Manage BSI publicity/information distribution, create/institutionalize BSI budget

BSI Team Tasks:
Improve/expand basic skills curriculum and articulation between courses, create First Year Experience/ BSI learning community

Related BSI Proposals & FYE Recommendations


BSI REC's: 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 30: Summary of BSI Faculty/Staff Development Proposals
FYE REC's: II.B


Members

 

Lead Confirmed:
BSI Coordinators:
Rachel Bell:
bellr@smccd.edu  x4349
Jacquie Escobar:
escobarj@smccd.edu  x4305
Rick Hough:
hough@smccd.edu  x4193

Team Confirmed:
Kate Browne:
brownek@smccd.edu  x7092
Liza Erpelo:
erpelol@smccd.edu  x4119
Leigh Anne Sippel:
sippell@smccd.edu  x4408
Rosie Bell:
bellro@smccd.edu  x4213
Nohel Corral:
corraln@smccd.edu  x4473

Mike Moynihan:
moynihanm@smccd.edu  x4300
Karen Wong:
wongk@smccd.edu  x4369
Christine Roumbanis:
roumbanis@smccd.edu   x4248
Vanson Nguyen:
nguyenv@smccd.edu  x4221
Joe Morello:
morelloj@smccd.edu  x4271

Consultants: Pat Deamer



Meetings


Meetings:

Thurs, Feb 21st 3-5pm in 1319
Thurs, March 27th 3-5pm in room 1319
Mon, April 21st 1:30-3:30pm in room 5131
Tues, May 20th 3-5pm in room 5131


Activities


Meeting Notes: from Thurs, Feb 21st 3-5pm in 1319

Create First Experience course, submit to curriculum committee, and design 18-week all-inclusive curriculum for First Year Experience (Originally decided to follow this course of action, but changed plan after consulting with counseling.  See next meeting notes for revision of plan):

Chapter template for 18-week course

Week 1: Overview of course and introduction to and history of campus. 
Design team: Rick, Karen, Nohel, Joe

Week 7:  Study Skills: note-taking, assessing learning styles
Design team: Vanson, Mike, Rosie, Kate

Week 13:  Research and Citation
Design team:  Karen, Christine

Week 2:  Orientation
Design team: New Students Group

Week 8:  Study Skills: test taking, oral presentations, showing mastery of content
Design team: Vanson, Mike, Rosie, Kate

Week 14:  Math: study skills
Design team:  Rick, Vanson

Week 3:  Orientation
Design team: New Students Group

Week 9:  Reading Strategies
Design team:  Rachel, Liza

Week 15:  Math: problem solving, cooperative learning
Design team:  Rick, Vanson

Week 4:  Orientation
Design team: New Students Group

Week 10:  Writing Strategies
Design team:  Rachel, Liza

Week 16:  Interpersonal Communication: self-advocacy, inter-cultural communication, diversity
Design team: Leigh Anne, Christine

Week 5:  Being a Student: classroom etiquette, self-management, instructor expectations, student preparedness, active learning
Design team: Nohel, Jacquie, Liza, Kate, Joe

Week 11:  Writing Across the Disciplines
Design team:  Rachel, Christine, Mike

Week 17:

Week 6:  Study Skills: time management, goal setting, classroom expectations
Design team: Vanson, Mike, Rosie, Kate

Week 12:  Student Wellness: maintaining well-being, relieving stress, nutrition, balancing time demands
Design team:  Rick, Nohel, Jacquie, Joe

Week 18:  Final Exams


Other suggestions for BSI Curriculum to work on:

1) Teach study skills such as note taking, active reading, and managing time, but contextualize them in GE courses (such as Math, Business, History, Sociology,  ECE). We could develop materials for instructors to employ in their GE courses, as was done by Cal State LA about eight years ago through a FIPSE grant. They worked from the assumption that all of their students are "language minority" students, and as such, teachers across the disciplines were asked to devise teaching strategies to accommodate these students without lowering standards. For more information, see http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED418598&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED418598. I also have print materials from when their grant coordinator gave a Title III workshop years ago.

2) Explore strategies for students to develop their metacognitive strategies, the means to reflect on and evaluate the quality of their learning, including whether or not they actually *are* learning.
 

3) Employ and integrate more formative means of assessment. Many of us "scaffold" our assignments, helping our students to complete major assignments by breaking them down into manageable steps, ideally with feedback for each of these steps. This feedback enables students to revise their plan if they're off-base, and it helps us teachers to know whether we need to revisit a concept or skill if many of our students don't seem to understand. Some formative means of assessment are CATS (classroom assessment techniques a la Angelo and Cross), and "clicker" technology. I'm sure there are more out there, which our group could brainstorm. Formative means of assessment not only will improve our instruction, but also we can engage meaningfully in the student learning outcomes assessment cycle.

Nohel Corral provided the group with information on the FYE program at Cerritos

The article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on outreach was also distributed to the group

A link from Connie Beringer on
DeAnza's College Student Success and Retention Center


Decided to form 3 smaller groups to do the foundational work for the following tasks:

Group A:  Karen Wong, Liza Erpelo, Vanson Nguyen, Lucia Lachmayr, Christine Roumbanis.  Consultant: Jacquie Escobar

Design materials we can give to all instructors offering assistance in incorporating effective basic skills-related instruction in their courses.  Also design professional development/training component.

Meetings:
Meeting One—Friday, April 4th 3-5:30pm at Chevy’s on Hickey: Meeting notes from 4/4
Meeting Two—Thursday, April 17th, 4-6pm in the room 5113--next to Lucia’s office in the Learning Center (at this meeting we’ll look at the draft of materials that each of us will generate between the two meetings)

April 21st meeting:  Gave to the group a rough version of the "Strategies to Be a Successful Student" to be used in Achieving College Success (ACS) Learning Community.  Handbook will also be distributed to all faculty on campus as support materials for their classes and faculty development workshops will be developed around use and incorporation of the handbook.

For May 20th meeting:  Group A will add a "Writing Strategies" and "Student Wellness" chapter to the handbook, revise/complete the existing materials, and create a complete electronic version to be submitted to the bookstore for copying and distribution. 

For Fall 2008:  Will complete “Student Success Handbook” by June 30, 2008.  Submit all revised materials to Liza Erpelo.  Then when the handbook is complete, copies will be made in spiral bound readers to be distributed to all faculty on Fall 08 Opening day.  Also, the handbook will be made available electronically on the BSI website with password protection so only Skyline staff can download it.  The Faculty/Staff coordinator will design faculty development activities that involve discussing, using and revising the “Student Success Handbook.”

Group B:  Jacquie Escobar, Kate Browne, Leigh Anne Sippel

Research feasibility of making Counseling 100 mandatory with a possible equivalency and pre-requisites.  Would also need to design and put in place On Course training for the counselors.  Also, discuss with counseling the possibility of creating a non-mandatory follow-up course to Counseling 100.

Consult with: division deans, Lori Adrian, Regina Stanback-Stroud, curriculum committee members

Related questions/answers from BSI Steering Committee:
i Can we make a course mandatory?  We can make a course mandatory for a degree or program but it's not clear if we can make a course mandatory for attendance (mandatory to register). 
i There is no educational code that says we can require a student to take a particular course by a particular time.
i Can create a structure that channels all students towards the course you want them to take by including the course in the student's SEP, linking it with required courses, making the course a requirement for a degree/certificate.

Page 132 of the Fall 08 catalog and under "AREA E: Lifelong Understanding & Self Development," Counseling 100 is one of 23 options to satisfy a 2-unit requirement in section E1. 

Meeting notes:
Step 1:  Create an aggressive marketing campaign for COUN 100

·  On campus:  target select classes of students (high #s of HS students, returning students, etc.)

·  Incoming HS students:  get stats on how successful students are after taking COUN 100

·  ESOL students (start at ESOL 400):  highlight the reading and writing practice COUN 100 offers as a good prep before ENGL 100

·  Pluses for COUN 100:  it’s transferable, it meets area E1 for CSU and area A5 for the AA/AS degree

Step 2:  Gather data

·  How much more successful were HS students who took COUN 100 than those who didn’t?

·  Look at success, retention, etc.

·  If data available on returning (older, re-entry) students, look at success rates there as well

Step 3:  Discuss making COUN 100 a requirement for the AA/AS degree and AA/AS certificate

·  Ss would be strongly encouraged to take it in their first year

·  ESOL sections and possible learning communities could be investigated

April 21st meeting:  Reported on the above 3 steps to the group

For May 20th meeting:  Group B will outline specific approaches to getting the word out about the ACS learning communities (i.e. letters of invite into ACS learning community sent to students, working with Shelly Hausman on advertising and logo, etc.).  They will look into how to begin the processes of the three steps this group described above.  Created proposal for marketing Counseling 100.


Group C:  Rick Hough, Rachel Bell, Rosie Bell, Nohel Corral, Mike Moynihan, Joe Morello

Research and propose viable models of a First Year Experience program at Skyline, but come up with a more suitable, cool name.  Look into issues of: linking courses to Counseling 100, scheduling, release for instructors in linked courses and/or basic skills learning communities, deciding on program components, incorporating BSI mission/vision, analyzing programmatic issues.

Meetings: 
Tues, April 8th 3-5pm in faculty lounge in building 6
Mon, April 14th 3-5pm in faculty lounge in building 6

Models of FYE Programs at other colleges to review:
Glendale CC in Maricopa in Ariz.  Website address: http://www.gccaz.edu/fye/
LaGuardia CC in queens, NY – their website is http://www.firstyear.org/institution/cc/laguardia.html
Kingsborough CC in New York.  School homepage: http://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/

Sketch of possible FYE program (from Rosie)

Meeting notes on Tues, April 8th: Created proposal for a First Year Experience program at Skyline called ACS (click below for full details)

Meeting notes on Mon, April 14th:  Added SLOs and Institutional Objectives for Achieving College Success (ACS) Learning Community and fleshed out the campus and community component aspect of the program. 
        Also, the group requested that we ask the president if we can present an all-school BSI update to include all faculty and staff.  On 4/14/08, this email was sent: Request for opening day BSI update

Consult with: division deans, Lori Adrian, Regina Stanback-Stroud, Cathy Hasson, Don Biederman


April 21st meeting:  Presented idea for Skline's First Year Experience program titled: Achieving College Success (ACS) Learning Community. 

For May 20th meeting:  Group C will create an outline for possible assessment components for the ACS program and add in websites and organizations with contact information for the Campus Community Involvement component of the ACS learning community.

Organization contact
sheet created:  Sustainable San Mateo Organizations Guide to be used as resource for CCIPod (Campus-Community Involvement component).  Also, each English course will also distribute the free report titled "Indicators for a Sustainable San Mateo County" which can be requested from: http://www.sustainablesanmateo.org/      advocate@sustainablesanmateo.org        650-638-2323

Suggested next steps:
* Post sample CCIPod assignments
* Connect ACS to a 0.5 unit Service Learning course that involves hands on helping in the community and reflection on that involvement
* Design curriculum for ACS
.