Spanish-American Institute

Faculty and Staff Meeting and Workshop Minutes

September 8, 2007

 

TO:      All Faculty and Staff  

 

Schedule:  The Faculty and Staff Meeting started at 10:30 am.  The Workshop convened at 11:15 am. and ended at 1:00 pm. 

 

Attendance:  J. Arbai, F.A. Bush, E. Castillo, L. Concepcion, G. Diaz, D.V. Ferraro, J. Gaylan, L. Grajo, L. Hernandez,, E. Manliclic, M. Marcus, D.I. Mumkaya, E. Nibeyro, N. Panganiban, C. Prager, E. Ramos, P. Schiffman,  A. Tuldanes, A. Verbine, B. Zohairi.   

 

President’s Report:  Mr. Ferraro welcomed everyone. 

 

ACICS Self-Study and Site Visit:  He reported that the Self-Study process is almost complete.  We can look forward to an ACICS evaluation site visit some time next year. 

Computer Room Use:  Faculty in non-computer courses may bring their students to the Computer Room for lesson-related activity.  Please first coordinate the visit with Dr. Prager. 

Special Events Center Events:   Faculty are also encouraged to use the Special Events Center for educational purposes.  Again, please coordinate first with Mr. Ferraro or Dr. Prager. 

I-Pods:  Mr. Ferraro thanked M. Marcus, A. Verbine, and N. Tomskikh for piloting the use of I-Pods to playback classroom audio instructional support material. A louder speaker will be ordered for M. Marcus and an I-Pod for L. Grajo who volunteered to be added to the project.  

Classroom Doors:  He asked faculty to make sure that the space behind classroom doors remained free so that students arriving late could enter easily.

Lockers:  Faculty should clean out lockers of material they no longer use.  If using a locker that was previously used by a faculty member who is no longer at the school, faculty are asked to dispose of the contents, except for textbooks, tapes, videos, etc. that belong to the school.  Please return any such items to Mr. Ferraro.  

Hot Beverage Service:  The free high-quality hot beverage service to celebrate the school’s anniversary was very well received.  Faculty and staff will continue to receive hot beverages without cost.  Students will be charged a modest amount going forward. 

 

Chair Reports 

 

              L. Hernandez, Business Chair:  Lilliam Hernandez spoke about the wealth of material available for teaching on the Internet.  She illustrated with several math-teaching activities from the Internet. 

            Faculty:  ESL faculty expressed concern about excessive repetition of the same lessons in different ESL classes at the same level each day or week.  Several recommendations were made about how to “repeat” material constructively.  We will review the unit start schedule again with faculty.     

 

Academic Dean's Report

 

  1. Student survey results:  Dr. Prager spoke about students’ generally high praise for teachers in school surveys.  She also specified areas where some students felt some teacher could improve. 
  2. School on-line resources:  She reviewed developments in the school’s on-line resources.  For example, updated syllabi, handbooks, and back issues of the Student Newsletter are now available on-line. She will spend time one-on-one with any faculty member who would like a hands-on introduction to the Spanish-American Institute Library’s automated Catalog and electronic databases.  

 

 

Workshop:  “Video-Prompted Lessons—The NorthStar Model”  (over)

 

 

 

Workshop:  “Video-Prompted Lessons—The NorthStar Model”

 

  1. Faculty discussed the difference between video-prompted and video lessons.  The video is not the lesson.  Videos in language learning courses are used to prompt language development.

 

  1. Dr. Prager reviewed the instructional support materials for NorthStar DVD material—Student Activity Worksheets and Teacher Instructional Guides.

 

  1. Faculty discussed how to use each component of the NorthStar model for video use—

q      predicting

q      focusing

q      checking comprehension

q      discussing

q      writing

 

  1. Time on task.  Optimally, faculty might spend two to three days on NorthStar Video activities.  The first day might be devoted to predicting, using the “Background” material and “Vocabulary for Comprehension” material in the Teacher’s Guide.  The second to third day might be devoted to the rest of the activities, including writing.

 

  1. If spending less than one day, faculty should select one concrete academic outcome from the Video Activity Worksheet that requires students to apply what they have learned from the video.   (A concrete academic outcome usually involves structured writing.  The writing need not be the final Activity Sheet writing question.  It might be a shorter written response to a less comprehensive question.)

 

  1. Writing—Considerable workshop discussion was devoted to strategies for generating student writing in response to the Student Activity Worksheet writing questions.  Faculty should help students organize their responses to the video writing question, by—

 

1.      Working with students to “decode” the questions.  Make sure students understand the question’s different parts.  Make sure students understand that they need to respond to everything the questions asks. 

2.      Brainstorming possible responses to each part of the questions and listing these possible responses on the board so that students have the raw material with which to work. 

3.      Guiding them in the development of their written response. 

 

For example, the NorthStar Intermediate’s video writing question is:  “Write about your personal style and how it has or hasn’t changed over the years.  What factors in you life have influenced the way you dress” ? 

 

Decoding the Question:  The question has three components, each of which students must respond in their writing—

1.      Their personal style.

2.      Changes, if any, over the years.

3.      Factors in their life that influenced their way of dressing.

Brainstorming Material:  Ask several students to talk about their personal style.  Write their answers on the board under the first part of the question.  Do the same for the second and third question elements. 

Guiding the Writing:  Ask students how many paragraphs they think they might need to answer the writing question (at least 3).  Brainstorm some topic sentences for each paragraph.