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COLLEGE OF THE SEQUOIAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT Board of Trustees Meeting April 9, 2018 CONSENT CALENDAR 12 Ratification of 2018-19 Sabbaticals Status: Action Presented by: Stan Carrizosa Superintendent/President Issue The collective bargaining agreement between the College of the Sequoias Community College District (“District”) and the College of the Sequoias Teachers’ Association (“COSTA”) indicates “a faculty member will become eligible for sabbatical leave upon successful completion of the sixth (6 th ) year of employment (COSTA Master Agreement Section 12.5.1). Upon becoming eligible, faculty members may submit their sabbatical leave applications to the Faculty Enrichment Committee (“FEC”) for consideration. After reviewing these applications, FEC will submit its recommendation(s) to the Superintendent/ President. The Superintendent/President will forward FEC recommendation(s) to the Board of Trustees for ratification. Facts At the February 12, 2018 Board of Trustees meeting, the Board approved the funding of two (2), one-semester sabbatical leaves for the 2018-19 academic year. FEC forwarded the sabbatical leave proposals submitted by Economics Professor, Christian Anderson, and English Professor, Stacy Brand to be ratified by the Board of Trustees. Recommended Action It is recommended that the Board of Trustees ratify Christian Anderson’s one (1) semester sabbatical leave for 2018-19, and Stacy Brand’s one (1) semester sabbatical leave for 2018-19 as recommended by the Faculty Enrichment Committee.

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Page 1: CONSENT CALENDAR 12 Ratification of 2018-19 Sabbaticals. Consent... · ... Sabbatical Project ... course sequence comprising the Coursera/Johns Hopkins University ... Getting and

COLLEGE OF THE SEQUOIAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT Board of Trustees Meeting

April 9, 2018

CONSENT CALENDAR 12 Ratification of 2018-19 Sabbaticals Status: Action Presented by: Stan Carrizosa Superintendent/President

Issue The collective bargaining agreement between the College of the Sequoias Community College District (“District”) and the College of the Sequoias Teachers’ Association (“COSTA”) indicates “a faculty member will become eligible for sabbatical leave upon successful completion of the sixth (6th) year of employment (COSTA Master Agreement Section 12.5.1). Upon becoming eligible, faculty members may submit their sabbatical leave applications to the Faculty Enrichment Committee (“FEC”) for consideration. After reviewing these applications, FEC will submit its recommendation(s) to the Superintendent/ President. The Superintendent/President will forward FEC recommendation(s) to the Board of Trustees for ratification. Facts At the February 12, 2018 Board of Trustees meeting, the Board approved the funding of two (2), one-semester sabbatical leaves for the 2018-19 academic year. FEC forwarded the sabbatical leave proposals submitted by Economics Professor, Christian Anderson, and English Professor, Stacy Brand to be ratified by the Board of Trustees. Recommended Action It is recommended that the Board of Trustees ratify Christian Anderson’s one (1) semester sabbatical leave for 2018-19, and Stacy Brand’s one (1) semester sabbatical leave for 2018-19 as recommended by the Faculty Enrichment Committee.

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Part 1: Sabbatical Project Description Page 1 of 5

Proposal:

To further my professional development by completing a 10-course certificate program in Data Science.

The certificate program is administered by Coursera in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. The

following description of the certificate program appears on the Coursera website,

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/jhu-data-science#:

This [certificate] Specialization covers the concepts and tools you'll need throughout the entire data

science pipeline, from asking the right kinds of questions to making inferences and publishing

results. In the final Capstone Project, you’ll apply the skills learned by building a data product using

real-world data. At completion, students will have a portfolio demonstrating their mastery of the

material.

Description of the need the proposed sabbatical will address:

As stated in the college’s 2017 Integrated Planning Manual, “the analysis of data is central to the College

of the Sequoias Model for Integrated Planning and serves as an important tool in each of the District’s

planning processes” (p. 6). Moreover, research and the associated collection and analysis of data are

referenced in all four of the standards used by the ACCJC, the college’s accreditor, to assess the

institution’s academic quality, integrity, and student success.

In this context, I have assisted the college and the district by serving (and continuing to serve) as the co-

chair of the Research Advisory Workgroup and the college’s Institutional Review Board. In addition, I

have served as a former member of the Outcomes and Assessment and Institutional Program Review

Committees and as a member of the Standard I Accreditation Workgroup. The work of several of these

committees and workgroups was cited in the College’s response to Recommendation 3i, the need for

the college to develop its research capacity, from the ACCJC’s February 2013 Show Cause order and all

subsequent actions. The professional development afforded by the certificate would certainly expand

my skill set and my ability to make contributions to the committees I help to manage and serve on, and,

by extension, contribute to the research capacity of the college.

Completion of the certificate will also better equip me as an instructor of Social Science 25, Introduction

to Statistics in the Social Sciences. In this course, students are introduced to statistical descriptions of

data and methods of statistical inference. In addition, students are instructed in the application of

technology for statistical analysis including the interpretation of the relevance of the statistical findings.

Finally, there is an emerging interest in developing data science coursework and programs at the

community college level. Recently, the California State University system eliminated intermediate

algebra as a requirement to take some college-level math courses. As a result, the CSU has encouraged

Community Colleges to develop new courses which would provide an opportunity for transfer students

to meet their quantitative reasoning general education requirements without intermediate algebra

prerequisites (https://edsource.org/2017/cal-state-drops-intermediate-algebra-requirement-allows-

other-math-courses/585595). To this end, the National Science Foundation and the American Statistical

Association are sponsoring a Two-Year College Data Science Summit May 10-11, 2018

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Part 1: Sabbatical Project Description Page 2 of 5

(https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Education/Two-Year-College-Data-Science-Summit.aspx). This workshop

will bring together a diverse group of participants to make recommendations for two-year college data

science curricula. The organizers of the event have already developed and launched a data science

curriculum with the LAUSD which has been accepted as a substitute for intermediate algebra by the

University of California for their A-G requirements (https://edsource.org/2018/big-data-classes-a-big-

hit-in-california-high-schools/593838). Thus it seems that the results of this summit of will surely be of

use in meeting Chancellor Ortiz’s recent call for developing alternative math pathways for community

college transfer students which eliminate intermediate algebra as a prerequisite

(http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-community-colleges-algebra-20170717-

story.html). Though it would be beyond the scope of the one-semester sabbatical for which I am

applying, the training I will receive while earning the Data Science certificate from Johns Hopkins will

certainly be of great value to the College and its students should we decide to develop data science

curricula in the near future as part of an alternative mathematics pathway for non-stem transfer

students. In this regard I have already begun a conversation with the Math department chair, Jarred

Burch, and the developer of the LAUSD curriculum, organizer of the Data Science Summit, and UCLA

professor Rob Gould.

Goals of the sabbatical project:

The goal of the project is to fulfill the need described in the section above through completion of the 10-

course sequence comprising the Coursera/Johns Hopkins University certificate in Data Science during

the Spring 2019 semester. The 10 courses comprising the certificate are as follows: 1) The Data

Scientist’s Toolbox, 2) R Programming, 3) Getting and Cleaning Data, 4) Exploratory Data Analysis, 5)

Reproducible Research, 6) Statistical Inference, 7) Regression Models, 8) Practical Machine Learning, 9)

Developing Data Products, and 10) Data Science Capstone.

To the extent that my contributions to the workgroups described in the “needs” section above can be

enriched by the curriculum offered in the data science certificate, this sabbatical proposal will benefit

the college, and its students, by increasing the capacity of the institution to “improve operational

systems based upon data driven decision-making as described in the COS 2.0 manuals” (District

Objective 4.1). Furthermore, by updating my exposure to state-of-the-art technology and “real-world”

applications of theory, completion of certificate program will better equip me to facilitate my students’

achievement of all three of the Student Learning Outcomes for the statistics course I currently teachii.

(It may be noted that Social Science 25 is part of the required core curriculum for students pursuing

their Associate Degrees for Transfer in Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, and

Economics. To the extent that my completion of the certificate enhances to the instruction I am able to

deliver in this course, District Objectives 2.1 and 2.2 may be supported as well.iii)

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Part 1: Sabbatical Project Description Page 3 of 5

Activities and itinerary:

According to the Coursera website, the certificate can be completed in 3 to 6 months. Courses in the

program are offered monthly and typically begin on the first or second Monday. Courses 1 and 2, The

Data Scientist’s Toolbox and R Programming, must be taken be taken sequentially and all other courses

can be taken in parallel. Given these constraints the following timeline is offered:

Spring 2019 Course Title Course Description

Jan./Feb. 1) The Data Scientist’s Toolbox

The course gives an overview of the data, questions, and tools that data analysts and data scientists work with. There are two components to this course. The first is a conceptual introduction to the ideas behind turning data into actionable knowledge. The second is a practical introduction to the tools that will be used in the program like version control, markdown, git, GitHub, R, and RStudio.

2) R Programming

In this course you will learn how to program in R and how to use R for effective data analysis. You will learn how to install and configure software necessary for a statistical programming environment and describe generic programming language concepts as they are implemented in a high-level statistical language. The course covers practical issues in statistical computing which includes programming in R, reading data into R, accessing R packages, writing R functions, debugging, profiling R code, and organizing and commenting R code. Topics in statistical data analysis will provide working examples.

Feb./Mar. 3) Getting and Cleaning Data

This course will cover the basic ways that data can be obtained. The course will cover obtaining data from the web, from APIs, from databases and from colleagues in various formats. It will also cover the basics of data cleaning and how to make data “tidy”. Tidy data dramatically speed downstream data analysis tasks. The course will also cover the components of a complete data set including raw data, processing instructions, codebooks, and processed data. The course will cover the basics needed for collecting, cleaning, and sharing data.

4) Exploratory Data Analysis

This course covers the essential exploratory techniques for summarizing data. These techniques are typically applied before formal modeling commences and can help inform the development of more complex statistical models. Exploratory techniques are also important for eliminating or sharpening potential hypotheses about the world that can be addressed by the data. We will cover in detail the plotting systems in R as well as some of the basic principles of constructing data graphics. We will also cover some of the common multivariate statistical techniques used to visualize high-dimensional data.

5) Reproducible Research

This course focuses on the concepts and tools behind reporting modern data analyses in a reproducible manner. Reproducibility allows for people to focus on the actual content of a data analysis, rather than on superficial details reported in a written summary. In addition, reproducibility makes an analysis more useful to others because the data and code that actually conducted the analysis are available. This course will focus on literate statistical analysis tools which allow one to publish data analyses in a single document that allows others to easily execute the same analysis to obtain the same results.

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Part 1: Sabbatical Project Description Page 4 of 5

Mar./Apr. 6) Statistical Inference

Statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions about populations or scientific truths from data. There are many modes of performing inference including statistical modeling, data oriented strategies and explicit use of designs and randomization in analyses. Furthermore, there are broad theories (frequentists, Bayesian, likelihood, design based, …) and numerous complexities (missing data, observed and unobserved confounding, biases) for performing inference. A practitioner can often be left in a debilitating maze of techniques, philosophies and nuance. This course presents the fundamentals of inference in a practical approach for getting things done. After taking this course, students will understand the broad directions of statistical inference and use this information for making informed choices in analyzing data.

7) Regression Models

Linear models, as their name implies, relates an outcome to a set of predictors of interest using linear assumptions. Regression models, a subset of linear models, are the most important statistical analysis tool in a data scientist’s toolkit. This course covers regression analysis, least squares and inference using regression models. Special cases of the regression model, ANOVA and ANCOVA will be covered as well. Analysis of residuals and variability will be investigated. The course will cover modern thinking on model selection and novel uses of regression models including scatterplot smoothing.

8) Practical Machine Learning

One of the most common tasks performed by data scientists and data analysts are prediction and machine learning. This course will cover the basic components of building and applying prediction functions with an emphasis on practical applications. The course will provide basic grounding in concepts such as training and tests sets, overfitting, and error rates. The course will also introduce a range of model based and algorithmic machine learning methods including regression, classification trees, Naive Bayes, and random forests. The course will cover the complete process of building prediction functions including data collection, feature creation, algorithms, and evaluation.

Apr./May/ Jun.

9) Developing Data Products

A data product is the production output from a statistical analysis. Data products automate complex analysis tasks or use technology to expand the utility of a data informed model, algorithm or inference. This course covers the basics of creating data products using Shiny, R packages, and interactive graphics. The course will focus on the statistical fundamentals of creating a data product that can be used to tell a story about data to a mass audience.

10) Data Science Capstone.

The capstone project class will allow students to create a usable/public data product that can be used to show your skills to potential employers. Projects will be drawn from real-world problems and will be conducted with industry, government, and academic partners.

Detailed course syllabi can be viewed at https://www.coursera.org/specializations/jhu-data-science.

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Part 1: Sabbatical Project Description Page 5 of 5

Methods of evaluating goals:

The achievement of my sabbatical goal to complete the Data Science certificate (and thereby further

contribute to research capacity of the college and to improve teaching and learning in my classroom)

can be directly measured using assessments/grades generated within each individual course and

through the final award of the certificate itself.

Another indirect method of evaluation will include my own reflections regarding the application of

knowledge gained in completing the certificate and the potential applications of that knowledge to my

work as a faculty member both inside and outside the classroom. These reflections will be incorporated

into the written report submitted to the college upon completion of the sabbatical and will explicitly

connect to the State Mandates, District Objectives, and the Student Learning Outcomes identified

above.

i “Recommendation 3: The team recommends that the college increase the research capacity of the institution in order to compile and provide data to guide institutional planning and resource allocation, program review and assessment, and decision-making for institutional effectiveness. (Standards I.B.2, I.B.3, I.B.6, II.A.1.a, II.A.1.c, IIA.2.e, II.A.2.f, II.B.4, III.A, IV.B.2.b)”

ii Outcome #1: Given a set of data, students will be able to apply appropriate basic statistical techniques

(descriptive and inferential) to assess and interpret information in a manner consistent with an understanding of

the assumptions and limitations of the method employed. Outcome #2: Given an argument employing basic

statistical techniques, students will be able to critically appraise the quality of the conclusion or evidence

presented in a manner consistent with an understanding of the assumptions and limitations of the methods

employed. Outcome #3: Given a simple research question, students will be able to identify and apply appropriate

data collection techniques that would reasonably contribute to the description or analysis of the social

phenomenon of interest.

iii District Objective 2.1: Increase the number of students who are transfer-prepared annually. District Objective

2.2: Increase the number of students who earn an associate degree or certificate annually.

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Part 2: Past Accomplishments Page 1 of 3

Highlighted past accomplishments are most closely allied with the current sabbatical proposal.

Projects and Studies

Spring/Summer 2017 Faculty Mentor/Co-Author -- “STEM Associate’s Degree Wage Premiums: Evidence from the California Community College System”; Science Undergraduate Research Group Experience (SURGE)

Summer/Fall 2015 Writing Team Member – Midterm Accreditation Report Summer/Fall 2014 Writing Team Member – Follow Up Accreditation Report Summer/Fall 2013 Writing Team Member – Show Cause Accreditation Report Fall 2013 Author - COS Human Subjects/Institutional Review Board Administrative

Procedure (AP) and Board Policy (BP) Spring 2013 Faculty Co-Chair - Accreditation Standard I Member – Accreditation Response Taskforce Fall 2010 – Spring 2011 Faculty Researcher – Statistical Validation for UC Transferable Social

Science English 251 prerequisites Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 Recipient – COS Institutional Improvement Project (IIP); Author, COS

Program Learning Outcomes Handbook, and PLO campus coordinator Fall 2005 Co-Founder – College of the Sequoias Arts & Lectures

Workshops & Conferences

Spring 2018 Presenter – “How to write your Letter of Interest” COS Academic Senate Workshop for Adjunct Faculty

Summer 2017 Review Panel Member – 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, Division J, Section 5: Policy, Finance, and Economics

Spring 2017 Presenter – “Evaluating Early Alert Midterm Grade Reports: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a California Community College,” 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association.

Fall 2016 Presenter – “Dealing with Multiplicity and Complexity in Institutional Research Management,” 2016 Annual Conference of the California Institutional Research Association.

Spring 2016 Attendee – “Multiple Measures Assessment Workshop” Fall 2015 Presenter – “Redesigning America’s Community Colleges,” COS Faculty

and Admin Read a Book together Presenter – “Establishing a Basic Communication Skills Prerequisite for

Social Science Courses: An Outcomes Assessment,” 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association.

Presenter – “Program Review in TracDat,” Institutional Program Review Committee Workshop

Attendee – “2015 ASCCC Accreditation Institute” Spring 2015 Attendee – “Program Learning Outcomes with Dr. Marshall,” COS

Outcomes and Assessment Committee Workshop Presenter – “Accessing and Using Data from the COS Extended Information

System” COS Data Advisory Workgroup Workshop

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Part 2: Past Accomplishments Page 2 of 3

Fall 2014 Presenter – “Revising Program Review” COS Faculty Enrichment Committee Workshop

Presenter – “Mater Plan Summit” Attendee – “2014 ASCCC Accreditation Institute” Presenter – “Scaling Up Excellence,” COS Faculty and Admin Read a Book

Together Spring 2014 Presenter – “How write your Letter of Interest” COS Academic Senate

Workshop for Adjunct Faculty Presenter – “Smartest Kids in the World,” COS Faculty and Admin Read a

Book Together Fall 2013 Presenter – “COS Accreditation Forum” Presenter – “COS Accreditation Summit 1” Attendee – “2013 ASCCC Accreditation Institute” Presenter – “Integrated Planning Summit 2,” COS Academic Senate

Workshop Spring 2013 Presenter – “Integrated Planning Summit 1,” COS Academic Senate

Workshop Summer 2012 Presenter – “Engaging Students In Hypothesis Testing,” COS Faculty

Collaborative Training Workshop Presenter – “Social Science English 251 prerequisites,” COS Giant

Conversations Fall 2010 Presenter – “Creating a Culture of Curiosity with Data,” COS Convocation

General Meeting Spring 2010 Presenter – “Preparing for Program Review,” COS Faculty Enrichment

Committee Workshop Spring 2008 Attendee – CSU Fresno Liberal Studies Conference Fall 2006 Presenter – “Economic Damages in Personal Injury Cases: Methods &

Assumptions,” COS Community Education Spring 2006 Presenter – “SLOs in Course Outlines,” Faculty Enrichment Committee

Brown Bag Discussion

Committee Participation

Spring 2018 Member – Faculty Hiring, Administration of Justice Spring 2018 Chair – COSTA Elections Committee Spring 2017 Chair – Faculty Hiring, Economics Fall 2016 – Spring 2018 Member – Faculty Enrichment Committee Fall 2016 – Spring 2018 Member – Academic Senate Fall 2014 – Spring 2015 Member – Academic Senate Fall 2013 – Present Co-Chair – Institutional Review Board Fall 2012 – Present Co-Chair – Research Advisory Workgroup Spring 2011 Member – Faculty Hiring, Political Science Fall 2010 – Spring 2012 Member – Data Dissemination Team Fall 2009 – 2015 Member – Program Review Committee Spring 2009 – 2010 Member – Academic Senate

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Part 2: Past Accomplishments Page 3 of 3

Fall 2008 – Spring 2010 Member – Honors Committee Spring 2008 Member – Faculty Hiring Committee, Psychology Spring 2007 Member – Faculty Hiring Committee, Administration of Justice Spring 2006 Member – Faculty Hiring Committee, Political Science Fall 2006 – Fall 2007 Treasurer – COSTA Political Action Committee Fall 2005 – Spring 2012 Co-Chair – COS Arts & Lectures Committee Spring 2005 –2012 Member – Student Learning Outcomes/Outcomes & Assessment

Committee Spring 2005 Member – Faculty Hiring Committee, Psychology Fall 2004 –2009 Member – Distance Education at COS (DECOS)

Other Past Accomplishments

Spring 2018 BOD Member – The Academies Charter Management Organization Spring 2016 – Fall 2016 Fellow – Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Educational Advisory

Group Summer 2016 Panelist – 210 Connect, “Rising Minimum Wage: What does it mean for the

local economy?” Spring 2015 Giant Award Recipient - Faculty Member of the Year Spring 2013 Graduate – MS Psychology (Concentration in Research and Program

Evaluation) Spring 2010 Panelist – 210 Connect, “That's Entertainment, Visalia” Fall 2010 Panelist – 210 Connect, “The California Budget Challenge: The People

Show the Politicians How.” Fall 2009 – Present Founder/Funder – COS Foundation “Mathew Johnson Memorial

Scholarship for Orphans and Foster Youth” Spring 2009 Author – Visalia Times Delta, “The Long and the Short” Spring 2009 Author – Visalia Lifestyle, “Five Silver linings (Amid Some Very Dark

Clouds)” Fall 2008 Author – Visalia Times Delta, “Q & A with COS Economist” Spring 2006 – 2007 COS Campus Ambassador - California Educational Technology

Collaborative Spring 2006 CCC Faculty Rep. – Intersegmental Major Preparation Articulated

Curriculum Spring 2005 – 2009 Faculty Advisor – COS Clay Target Sports club Spring 2005 – Present Founder/Funder – COS Foundation “Anderson Economic Scholarship”

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Stacy Brand 1

Stacy C Brand: LARTS/English Length of Sabbatical leave request: Spring 2019 Part 1: Sabbatical Project Description A. Study/Research: Create a supplemental textbook to use for English 261, English 01 with a

co-requisite, and English 01. *Confirmation letters are not included as I will not be needing access to

any archives or other official depositories of information. B. Proposal Narrative B1. Need With the passing of Assembly Bill 705, my sabbatical project could not come at a better time. As stated by the Chancellor’s office:

AB 705 requires community college districts to maximize the probability that a student will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in math and English within a one-year timeframe by utilizing assessment measures that include high school performance to achieve this goal.

The most recent guidance language from the Chancellor’s office states that in order to prepare for this legislative change, departments and campuses are encouraged to begin:

• Developing and/or increasing support systems to accelerate skills development of

increasing numbers of students who will be placed into transfer-level English and mathematics

• Discussing pedagogical implications resulting from these changes. With the new recommendations and guidelines from the Chancellor’s office, our English department has resolved to create a co-requisite model for Eng 01. These new acceleration models and placement changes make supplementary support materials even more necessary and urgent. The Supplemental Textbook: I have been teaching composition at COS for eleven years now, and for all eleven of those years I have struggled with selecting textbooks that truly contribute to student success in writing. Discussions with colleagues repeatedly reveal that I am not alone in this textbook challenge. There have been many good ones. I’ve used top compositionists’ texts like Lisa Ede, Wendy Bishop, and Nancy Sommers to name a few, but I end up using only a percentage of the book that makes it difficult to justify the expense to the students. Some textbooks go too far in depth and lose students’ interest. Others fail to incorporate the most current research and pedagogy for

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Stacy Brand 2

composition. Essentially, too many textbooks are just too long; they function like the longwinded teacher-centered lectures that we know don’t work. Students simply do not learn about writing from what a textbook or a teacher can say about writing. They learn instead through guided practice, practice, practice—through modeling and through a variety of approaches. This sabbatical project will provide the information, examples, exercises, and modeling opportunities that our students need; furthermore, this project is specifically designed with our students in mind and the student learning outcomes they need to master in order to succeed. Over the years, in order to address students’ needs, I have created numerous supplemental handouts to compliment mini-lectures, provide visual accompaniment and modeling exercises, and give students opportunities for guided practice. Working with a colleague, I finally decided to compile these individual handouts into a supplemental guide that students purchase from the COS bookstore. Even in this photocopied, hodge-podge version, students see the packet as more “official” and user-friendly than the individual handouts they fail to organize in binders they often don’t buy. This supplemental textbook is the barebones, a skeleton, of what I will develop with this sabbatical. For the past several semesters, in collaboration with a colleague and informed by student feedback, I have been evaluating the packet’s contents and reflecting on the specific needs for revision and expansion, but I have never had the sustained chunk of time it will take to engage in the research, revision, and writing that will make this textbook complete and aligned with our new curriculum to meet AB 705 and improve student success. B2. Goals My goal for this sabbatical is to create a supplemental textbook that is affordable, informed by current composition pedagogy, and specifically aligned with COS’s learning outcomes for English 261, English 01 with a co-requisite, and English 01. Though the same textbook will be shared between English 261, English 01 with co-req, and English 01, I have found that I use similar approaches at all levels. The difference is what I expect from the students based on the student learning outcomes for each course. Specifically, the textbook will:

• Compile best practices and provide COS English faculty and students with a variety of strategies, modeling exercises, and, most importantly, ample opportunity for guided practice of composition concepts such as reading comprehension, thesis development, organization, analysis, and grammar.

• Be informed by current acceleration pedagogy, including “just in time” remediation. • Be cheap and concise enough to be used as a supplemental text, providing savings for

students and options for faculty. • Emphasize sentence-level clarity and approach grammar from a sentence-combining

angle so that students are learning to build effective sentences rather than just learning to correct them.

• Be easily updatable over the years, especially now as our course sequence is changing due to AB 705.

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Stacy Brand 3

• Include lots of practice using sources—a subject that, as our most recent English 360 assessments showed, our students at all levels always need help with (and these students will now place into 261 – and possibly directly into Eng 01).

• Provide visual aids and other models to reach students with different learning approaches. • Help me, and potentially other English instructors, with summative and formative

assessment and immediate feedback for students. • Be informed by the idea that different aspects of “English” are interconnected and

interdependent. For example, a student’s ability to construct grammatically correct sentences is essential to his/her ability to articulate a clear argument or introduce a source.

• Include an appendix with a variety of handouts developed by other COS faculty on composition elements such as thesis, development, analysis, etc.

• Begin to develop a common or collaborative language for the English department. Having a variety of teaching styles in the department is certainly an asset, but this supplement textbook can help those different styles and approaches begin to speak to each other.

• Serve as a potential starting point for new faculty, particularly adjunct who are often thrown into our classes without much orientation about our students’ needs.

These goals are aligned with:

• District Goal #2 College of the Sequoias will improve the rate at which its students complete degrees, certificates, and transfer objectives.

• District Goal #3 College of the Sequoias will strategically tailor and implement academic programs and student services that match the unique needs of its student population and the demands of ongoing changes in workforce development.

• District Objective 2.1 Increase the number of students who are transfer-prepared • District Objective 2.2 Increase course success and completion rates in pre-transfer

English • District Objective 3.1 Reduce the achievement gap of disproportionately impacted

student groups

• All three student learning outcomes for English 1 1. Students will locate, summarize, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety

of media sources and purposefully incorporate that information in their writing. 2. Students will write essays that develop logically and use cogent and sufficient

evidence to support a complex argument. 3. Student writing will demonstrate grammar and usage appropriate for a college-level

audience, and correct MLA format and documentation.

• All three student learning outcomes for English 261 1. Students will locate, summarize, and analyze information from multiple sources,

incorporating quoted and paraphrased material in their writing. 2. Students will write essays that develop a focused point of view organizing appropriate

details and illustrations as support to effectively explain their reasoning. 3. Student writing will avoid grammar and usage errors that distract from meaning,

demonstrate correct MLA format and follow conventions of MLA documentation.

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Stacy Brand 4

B3. Activities Weekly activities include a combination of research, writing, and editing. The timeline begins with initial research following the writing of each chapter; however, throughout the writing of each chapter, I will conduct research and consult faculty as needed for best practices and feedback. Timeline

• Week 1 Jan 14-18 o Research overview

Reading of selected texts on reading and writing pedagogy Current textbook overview Faculty outreach (begin soliciting material from other faculty)

• Week 2 Jan 21-25 o Write Chapter 1: Summary and Reading Rhetorically

Annotation skills ATMs (author, text, main idea) Thinking maps: outlining essays From play-by-play to summary (main idea(s))

• Week 3 Jan 28-Feb 1 o Write Chapter 2: Claims/Arguments

Claims, evidence, analysis Practice

• Week 4 Feb 4-8 o Write Chapter 3: Organization—The Mythic Flow

Paragraph development Buzzwords, #hashtag your essay Find the refrain Highlighter exercise

• Week 5 Feb 11-15 o Write Chapter 4: Connections and Analysis

Level 1 analysis (a say-back) Level 2 analysis (connect to own thesis) Modeling and practice

• Week 6 Feb 18-22 o Submit first 4 chapters for feedback from colleagues o Write Chapter 5: Research—from Regurgitation to Inquiry

Writing as seeking/inquiry Research and Media literacy (i.e. beyond Wikipedia, more than

quotable.com, see CRAAP, and martinlutherking.org; additionally, research current information specialist’s work on identifying fake news.)

• Week 7 Feb 25-Mar 1 o Revise and edit first four chapters o Research—review grammar texts, particularly sentence-building

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• Week 8 Mar 4-8 o Write Chapter 6: Using Sources

Purpose for every source Signal phrases Purpose of using a style guide (MLA) Practice exercises Plagiarism exercises

• Week 9 Mar 11-15 o Finish Chapter 6: Using Sources o Write Chapter 7: The Annotated Bibliography – for the writer; for the reader

• Week 10 Mar 18-22 o Write Chapter 8: Best Revision Practices—The Prototype Metaphor

Scissor exercise Reverse outline Student samples for modeling and practice

• Week 11 Mar 25-29 o Submit chapters 5-8 for feedback from colleagues o Write Chapter 9: Best Workshop Practices (or abandon it altogether)

• Week 12 Apr 1-5 o Revise and edit chapters 5-8

• Week 13 Apr 8-12

o Write Chapter 10: Best Grammar Practices o Write Chapter 11: Sentence-level Clarity

• Spring Break Apr 15-19

• Week 15 Apr 22-26 o Write Student Resources chapter o Write Campus Resources section o Write Student Success chapter focusing on the “growth mindset” literature and

On Course philosophy, including handouts on such skills as email etiquette. • Week 16 Apr 29-May 3

o Submit chapters 9-11 for feedback from colleagues o Write Chapter 12: Sample Essays

Published essays Student essays Exercises

o Compile Appendix (based on material from colleagues) • Week 17 May 6-10

o Revise and edit all, emphasis on chapters 9-11 • Week 18 May 13-15

o Misc. (editing, formatting, table of contents)

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B4. Method of Evaluation

• My first method of evaluation is the completion of this textbook, a physical object ready to be used by myself and other faculty in our classrooms or as a reference.

• For further evaluation, I will a) solicit peer-reviewed feedback from faculty and b) implement student feedback surveys at the end of each semester for adaptation and revision.

• Pre and post assessment with faculty who use the supplemental textbook. I will convene with faculty members who choose to adopt the supplemental text and conduct pre assessments and post assessments to facilitate conversations about best practices and how best to help the students meet the student learning outcomes. These conversations will be linked directly to student learning outcomes assessments.

o Further, these assessments can help our department continue our discussions of the pedagogical implications of the course changes due to AB 705.

Part 2: Past Accomplishments Professional Duties: I’ve served on at least three full-time hiring and a few part-time committees. I attend meetings on a regular basis and when I can’t, I read the minutes and speak with colleagues for updates. Before Dialogue Days, our department met at mid-term and at the end of each semester to assess English 251 for department wide mid-term and final portfolio reads. Now that we have Dialogue Days, I attend regularly to participate in assessment. I firmly believe in constant reflection of my teaching practices. I served as Writing Center Director and helped with the institutionalization of this important student resource. Part of the institutionalization process was to create better data tracking by ensuring the log in process and working with our Research department for more effective data. I also implemented student surveys and feedback opportunities to help reflect on our services. I researched and visited other writing centers. Allan Hancock College’s Writing Center was a huge inspiration as well as Santa Barbara’s online information. Furthermore, I took student tutors to the Northern California Writing Center’s Association (NCWCA) Conference hosted at Fresno State. All of these practices and activities have since become regular COS Writing Center protocol. I served in the Puente Program and worked with the program for three years teaching English, providing mentorship, co-advising to the Puente Club, and coordinating with the Puente team to help students succeed. For two consecutive summers, I also served as faculty at the Puente Leadership Program hosted at UC Riverside. I served for several years as faculty advisor to The Quill, COS’s creative writing club and published four volumes of The Working Title, a literary arts magazine featuring literature and art. I worked with the art department to encourage art submissions in an effort to reach other students. During this time, I also worked with our department to create a composition contest that many other composition departments across the nation have. I published the winners in one

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volume of The Working Title, but due to lack of faculty participation, I abandoned the project the next year. We currently have a number of faculty members interested in seeing this composition return, and I hope to work with others to see that become a reality. The potential for a sabbatical couldn’t have come at a better time in my own tenure. I am coming up on ten years, and this is a perfect time to reflect on past practices and where I would like to improve for the future. Conferences and Workshop Attendance: • Acceleration Training, Porterville College, Porterville, CA. 2017. • Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (AWP), Los Angeles, CA. 2016 • Northern California Writing Centers Association Conference, Fresno, CA. 2015 • Online Teaching Certificate Program (OTCP), College of the Sequoias, Visalia. 2013 • San Joaquin Valley Writing Project Conference: “Demystifying the Common Core:

Writing, Reading, and Discussing Complex Texts,” sponsored by Fresno Area Council of English Teachers and The Tulare County Association of Teachers of English, Yosemite. 2014

• On Course I, Visalia, CA. 2014 • COS Application Workshop, Coordinator and Co-Lead with retired colleague Valerie Ehrlich

to support our adjunct. • CalADE Conference: “Possibilities: The Schools that Developmental Students Deserve.” San

Mateo, CA. 2013 • Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Las Vegas, NV. 2013 • International Writing Center Association Collaborative (IWCA). Las Vegas, NV. 2013 • CalADE Conference. Visalia, CA. 2012 • “Expository Reading and Writing.” CSU, Fresno. Instructors: Dr. Rick Hansen, CSUF

professor and Shirley Hargis, FCOE, literacy consultant. 2012 • “Sandra Cisneros Symposium.” San Joaquin Valley Writing Project. A symposium on new

directions for teaching Sandra Cisneros. 2012 • “Safe Zone” training. College of the Sequoias. • Eli Hinkel ESL Workshop, Visalia, CA. 2009 • Puente Conference: Instructor Summits, Berkeley, CA. 2009-2012 • Puente Summer Institute, Berkeley, CA. 2008 • UC Riverside Puente Leadership Conference, Riverside, CA. 2011 and 2012 • Modern Language Association Conference: “The Way We Teach Now.” San Francisco, CA.

2008