Annual Assessment Report, January 15, 2010
Major in English
I. Summary Statement
Our 2009 assessment focused on curricular offerings and class size relative to student enrollment, and on the senior thesis experience. We looked at patterns of enrollment in 100-, 200-, and 300-level classes in creative writing and literature courses relative to growth in the English major, and in the student body overall. As a result of this assessment, we decided to cut some under-enrolled or non-essential 300-level courses, and offer other courses more regularly, so that English majors are better able to fulfill requirements, and less-specialized writing workshops and English literature classes remain accessible to non-majors. We also increased class size in ENGL 105, in 200-level writing workshops, and in most 200-level literature courses. In fall 2009 we had 20 students writing the senior thesis, our highest number in at least 16 years. The outcomes for the senior theses overall were quite high: well designed, researched and written essays and creative writing projects, resulting in nearly 70% at the A level, 20% at the B level, and 10% at the C level. However, this number of students strained our ENGL 401 seminar format, which traditionally has involved all seniors writing the thesis in the fall and meeting together in a workshop format with the faculty in English. That 16 of the 20 English seniors this year are in the creative writing concentration also created an imbalance in thesis advising. Our assessment and planning work in spring 2010 will address these concerns, with the goal of revising the ENGL 401 seminar to improve the experience for senior English majors, while also distributing the work more effectively among the faculty in English. We will also assess the format and evaluation process for the comprehensive examination in English.
II. Summary of the Assessment Review and Planning Meetings
In addition to regular department meetings, the faculty in English held two assessment and planning meetings in fall 2009. The first meeting was held on September 24 and lasted about an hour and a half. The second was held December 16, 2009 and lasted a little over two hours. Professors Bennett, Burroughs, Garrett and Lohn attended both meetings.
The September meeting focused on long-term curricular revision relative to learning objectives and to growth in student enrollment, both in the English major and in the student body as a whole. We discussed patterns of enrollment in our courses to determine where we needed to offer a course more often and which under-enrolled or infrequently offered courses we might cut or combine to accommodate increased rotation of current courses. The December 16 meeting focused on the ENGL 401 seminar and the thesis advising process.
As a result of our assessment, the English major dropped three 300-level courses from our offerings to accommodate more 200-level literature courses and writing workshops. As indicated above, we are still considering changes we might make to ENGL 401: Senior Essay in English. The senior thesis and comprehensive examination will be the focus of our planning as the spring 2010 semester begins.
The Assessment Committee response to our January 15, 2009 Assessment Report noted serious problems in the way we defined outcomes, indicated standards or measurements of success, and presented (or didn’t present) results. To address these concerns, we have reorganized our assessment plan using the Assessment Committee’s suggested headings. We have included fewer but better defined objectives and indicated more specific outcomes. While we have also identified more specific means of measurement, many of these means are qualitative, not all involve specific measurement tools, and we have not yet defined success criteria. As we work to further refine and simplify our assessment plan, we will consider measurement tools and success criteria appropriate for the outcomes we seek for students in English. Please note that because we have completely overhauled our Assessment Plan and Report, we have not annotated the January 15, 1009 plan.
III. Action Plan 2010
Our focus will be on the senior thesis and comprehensive examination. We will determine whether the senior thesis seminar currently offered only in the fall should be offered both fall and spring, and how the faculty in English will divide responsibilities for the seminar. We will consider models for the senior thesis seminar and advising used in other majors at Wells, as well as at other small liberal arts colleges. In addition, we will review and revise the process through which seniors propose a thesis topic and choose or are assigned a thesis advisor and second reader. We will also evaluate the purpose and format of the comprehensive examination.
Since information on the senior thesis in English will need to be revised for distribution to rising seniors before the registration period for fall 2010, we will decide by February whether we will offer the senior seminar in English both fall and spring semesters, how we will supervise the seminar or seminars, and how students writing the thesis in a given semester will be advised. We will decide on any changes to the comprehensive examination by the end of spring 2010.
IV. Updated English Assessment Plan 2010
The mission of the English Department is to educate students in the diverse voices and forms of British, American and Anglophone literature, and to approach literature both critically and creatively in their writing. By analyzing literary texts and genres, and considering the personal, aesthetic, and historical forces that inform them, students will develop their abilities to think critically and develop a well-supported analysis. By encountering and creating a wide range of literary perspectives, students will gain an appreciation of complexity and difference necessary to engage in humane actions.
GOAL ONE: Students will analyze the literary forms of the genres of poetry, dramatic literature, prose fiction and creative nonfiction, gaining knowledge and critical skills central to textual analysis in the liberal arts.
Objective 1: Students will recognize distinctive features of poetry, dramatic literature, prose fiction and creative nonfiction.
Outcome 1: Students will define specific qualities that distinguish different genres.
How measured: class tests and examinations, comprehensive examination part 2 on genres.
Measurement tool: test and examination grades, comprehensive exam rubric
Data location: faculty files and registrar’s office (for comps grades)
Outcome 2: Students will identify and explain the subjects, styles, intellectual or cultural issues and aesthetic effects associated with each genre.
How measured: class tests and examinations, comprehensive examination part 2 on genres
Measurement tool: test and examination grades, comprehensive examination rubric
Data location: faculty files and registrar’s office
Objective 2: Students will analyze specific literary forms within and across genres.
Outcome 1: Students will learn the terminology of generic analysis by mastering terms such as “sonnet,” “epic,” “lyric,” “revenge tragedy,” “realism,” “post-modernism,” “creative nonfiction,” “journalism” and “the new journalism”
How measured: class tests and examinations, oral use of and presentations on terms from the Norton anthologies of British and American literature and from The Glossary of Literary Terms, comprehensive examination part 2 on genres
Measurement tool: test and examination grades, presentation rubrics, comprehensive exam rubric
Data location: registrar’s office and faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will apply their knowledge of generic distinctions and terminology as a method of literary analysis, demonstrating their ability to think critically and reason wisely.
How measured: essay exams and short analytical and interpretive essays, comprehensive exam parts 1 and 2
Measurement tool: exam and essay grades, comprehensive exam rubric
Data location: registrar’s office and faculty files
Outcome 3: Students will evaluate how a text supports or defies the literary conventions of its genre.
How measured: analytical and interpretive essays, research presentations and papers, comprehensive exam part 2
Measurement tool: essay and presentation rubrics, comprehensive exam rubric
Data location: faculty files
Goal Two: Students will closely observe structural and formal elements of literary texts and recognize patterns of meaning, practicing interpretive methods central to textual study in the liberal arts and relevant to interpretation and analysis in political and civic life.
Objective 1: Students will learn the language and methods of literary analysis.
Outcome 1: Students will identify and define the major rhetorical and formal structures that found literary analysis, such as figurative language, tropes, and motifs.
How measured: tests, exams, in-class exercises
Measurement tool: test and exam grades
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of a work’s use of rhetorical and literary structures.
How measured: short essays, research papers, peer review and workshop critique
Measurement tool: essay grades, peer review and workshop critique guides
Data location: faculty files
Objective 2: Students will master close reading as a way of understanding and evaluating literary texts.
Outcome 1: Students will interpret the meaning of a short passage of text.
How measured: writing exercises, short interpretive essays, peer review and workshop critique
Measurement tool: essay grades, peer review and workshop critique guides, comprehensive exam part 2
Data location: registrar’s office and faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will incorporate close reading of specific passages into a broader interpretation and evaluation of a literary work or works.
How measured: interpretive essays, senior theses in literature, critical introduction or afterword to creative writing theses
Measurement tool: essay rubrics, senior thesis guidelines
Data location: faculty files
Goal Three: Students will comprehend the historical and theoretical development of British and American literature, enabling them to relate current literary works to past methods and forms, developing new ways of knowing.
Objective 1: Students will demonstrate knowledge of the specific periods and movements in the development of British and American literature.
Outcome 1: Students will identify major features of literary production in the following historical periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Eighteenth Century, Victorian and nineteenth-century American, twentieth-century modernism and post-modernism
How measured: exams in the survey courses ENGL 105, 215 and 250, and in period-specific upper-level courses, research presentations and papers, comprehensive exam part 1
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will evaluate how a text uses or defies specific literary conventions of a period.
How measured: essays, research presentations/papers, comprehensive exam part 2
Measurement tool: essay rubrics, comprehensive exam rubric
Data location: faculty files
Objective 2: Students will comprehend the relationship between historical and cultural developments and influential literary theorists and theories from given periods.
Outcome 1: Students will identify broad literary theories or approaches used in specific periods.
How measured: tests and exams in ENGL 104, 105, 215, 250.
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will understand the development of new literary theories in a given period, such as the Neoclassical and the Romantic.
How measured: research papers and presentations in ENGL 105, 212, and 250, and period-specific 200-and 300-level courses
Measurement tools: essay and presentation rubrics and guidelines
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 3: Students will recognize features of several twentieth-century schools of literary theory, chosen from New Criticism, New Historicism, Reader Response Criticism, Marxist Criticism, Feminist Criticism, Post Colonial Studies, and Queer Theory.
How measured: tests and exams in ENGL 104, 215 and 250, and research papers and presentations in upper-level English literature courses.
Measurement tools: essay and presentation rubrics and guidelines
Data location: faculty files
Goal 4: Students will develop knowledge of ways class, religion, race, gender and sexuality inform literary works and reader or audience reactions, enabling them to better appreciate complexity and difference and so contribute to their acting humanely.
Objective 1: Students will engage with diverse literary voices, cultural experiences and values.
Outcome 1: Students will demonstrate knowledge of literary works from a variety of race, class and gendered perspectives.
How measured: examinations and short essays in the survey courses ENGL 105, 215 and 250 and research presentations and papers in upper-level courses, comprehensive exam part 1
Measurement tools: essay and presentation rubrics
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will demonstrate understanding of works from traditions and perspectives other than their own.
How measured: analytical and reflective essays, dramatic readings/role playing, creative writing exercises adopting the perspective of another
Measurement tools: essay guidelines and rubrics, peer review and workshop critique
Data location: faculty files
Objective 2: Students will understand the personal and cultural forces that lead to the development of new literary subjects and modes of expression.
Outcome 1: Students will identify and analyze how specific individuals defied cultural conventions against writing or publication.
How measured: examinations and short essays on “exceptional” or pioneer writers and writings in the survey sources ENGL 104, 215, and 250 and research presentations and papers in upper-level courses
Measurement tools: essay and presentation guidelines and rubrics
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will define and analyze how formerly marginalized groups develop new forms of writing.
How measured: examinations and short essays in ENGL 104, 212, and 250 and research presentations and papers in upper-level courses
Measurement tools: essay and presentation guidelines and rubrics
Data location: faculty files
Goal Five: Students will develop the writing, research and presentation skills needed to meet goals 1-4 and prepare them to embrace new ways of knowing in their personal, professional and civic lives.
Objective 1: Students will write well-focused and supported interpretations of literary texts.
Outcome 1: Students will practice various methods of developing and supporting an analytical thesis.
How measured: ENGL 104 trial thesis paragraphs, peer review of drafts, conferences on essay topics and theses, short analytical essays
Measurement tools: peer review guidelines, essay rubrics
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will conduct research on well-defined interpretive questions, making judicious use of secondary sources in their analytical essays.
How measured: annotated bibliographies, internet and bibliographic research exercises, research proposals, presentations on research, research papers
Measurement tools: bibliography and exercise guidelines, essay and presentation rubrics
Data location: faculty files
Objective 2: Students will create and sustain a clear and compelling voice in their writing, analytical and creative.
Outcome 1: Students will define their aims in specific writing projects, defining criteria by which they and others will judge their work.
How measured: research paper proposals, story ideas, revision plans, senior thesis proposals
Measurement tools: guidelines for proposals
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will draft and revise major writing assignments for clarity and expressiveness.
How measured: oral or internet presentation of drafts, peer review and workshop critique, conferences with faculty, revision assignments and portfolios, senior theses
Data location: faculty files and Long Library on-line senior theses
Objective 3: Students will engage in informal and formal discussion of literary works.
Outcome 1: Students will participate in and present results from small group discussions of literary texts.
How measured: submission of discussion questions, presentation of group results
Measurement tools; guidelines for discussion questions and presentation
Data location: faculty files
Outcome 2: Students will present the results of research and read from their research papers and creative work.
How measured: class presentations of research, reading of creative work in workshops, public reading of creative works, public reading of theses
Data location: faculty files
V. Data Used
For the curricular changes we made in the fall, we reviewed course enrollment for selected courses, particularly ENGL 104, 105, 215 and 250 and for particular courses that have either filled quickly (200-level writing workshops) or have been under-enrolled. We also considered patterns in ENGL 401 over the last four years. We did some preliminary internet research on how some other English departments at small liberal arts colleges structure the senior thesis and/or comprehensive exam.