End of Year Evaluation and Dpt Meeting

Evaluation
As we approach term finals week, I wanted to remind everyone of what we agreed at the beginning of the year regarding our students assessment:

At the end of the last term (trimestral o cuatrimestral), i.e. NOW:
Language: is not comprehensive (no-integral), i.e. contents should be evaluated by means of unit tests.
Global Studies: is comprehensive, i.e. the final exam should include all of the contents covered in the last term (trimestre/cuatrimestre)

December:
Language is comprehensive, i.e. the test should be a holistic assessment of the level students should have reached by the end of the year.
Global Studies: Students sit for term tests, i.e. they should be evaluated based on the contents of the term(s) they failed.

February:
Both Language and Global Studies exams are comprehensive, i.e. they include the contents of the whole year.

If for any reason, you gave the wrong message to your students, please make sure you clarify and set the record straight when you see them for the term final exam this coming week. Thank you!

Department Meeting
On Tuesday December 2nd at 11am, we'll be having one of our last Dept meetings, if not 'the' last one. So far, this is the agenda:

0. Announcements

1. Wrap-up of this academic year: Assessment of achievements by level

2. Provide book list 2009

2. Plans and projects for 2009

3. Summer reading

4. Election of a 3rd Polimodal student for the 2008 English Program Excellence Award

5. Toast!!

If you see there's some important point missing in our agenda, please let me know! :)

Exams: What to submit

After consultation with some Department members, we agreed that all you'd have to submit to me in the next few days is the November Comprehensive Exam (Integral) of Global Studies. It should be submitted to me a week before the exam date. Also, at a later date in November, you'll be asked to prepare and submit the December and February final exams of both Language and Global Studies. Let me know if you have any doubts.

The reading passage packet of each level still needs to be presented at the due date already specified - November 17. Thank you! :)

Final Exams and Sample Reading Passages

Pursuant to our meeting with Andrea, Filomena and Diana, let's take the following action pertaining the administration of final exams of both Global Studies (comprehensive) and Language (supposedly not comprehensive):

1. Please, agree among team members on the preparation of the different parts of the final for both GS and Language, and make the usual three (3) different sets for the November, December, and February instances. Turn them in to me for proofreading a week in advance to the set date of the exam. If there's no need for correction, I'll place the order for xeroxing at school. Please, indicate the number of copies you need. That being the case, once you turn in the exam to me, you're practically done. If no corrections are necessary, all you have to do is show up to administer it on the date of the exam itself.

2. Please, prepare a set of six sample reading passages from your Global Studies / Literature class for the purposes of prospective students taking the oral section of the entrance examination. The passages could be full articles from any of your units, section of longer articles, extracts from a novel, short story, or play you've read this year, or one long or two/three shorter poems. In general the length of the text should be about a page of text (longer if pics are included). If you have any doubt, please leave a comment - the clarification for you may be useful for everyone. These sample texts should be submitted to me by Monday November 17. Thank you.