Responsibilities of Course Chairpersons
French 1010, 1020, 1050, 2010, 2020 & 2320
(In addition to the information below, a detailed checklist will be distributed to Course Chairs prior to the beginning of the semester.)
1. Revise current syllabus and percentage breakdown of the final grade for the current semester. (The course policies are departmental and will be revised as necessary.) The Course Chairperson will consult with the staff teaching the course for reactions and suggestions about the proposed syllabus. Consult the LPD with any questions.
2. Send your complete syllabus to the Language Program Director. Send a copy of the syllabus to each TA teaching the course, and send a copy to the Departmental Administator to be kept on file in Cabell 302. The LPD will forward a copy of the completed course syllabus to the staff in the Arts and Sciences Center for Instructional Technology (ASCIT), with the information on what textbook(s) and listening comprehension programs will be used. If you will be using additional materials, be sure to inform the Director of the ASCIT and the LPD.
3. Chair the pre-semester course meeting where the syllabus is finally defined and where questions about how to teach the course are discussed.
4. Designate committees to create chapter quizzes, the oral exam, and the final exam. The Course Chairperson may assign or organize the sign-up for teams of two to three instructors to prepare each chapter quiz. The Course Chairperson will normally compose or co-compose the first quiz to give a model for exam preparation. All quiz teams and exam committees will draft their tests and make them available for comment/correction to the entire course teaching staff. This will typically be done with the “Discussions” feature on the Collab Instuctor’s Site for the course you are chairing. When setting up test-writing teams, attempt to pair new TAs with more experienced TAs. The administrative assistant must have one week's notice to copy the final version of the quiz or exam.
5. Dictées will either be given separately or incorporated in the chapter quizzes. When dictées comprise a section of the quiz, the word count should hover at the lower end of the scale. If dictées will be given separately, the Course Chairperson will write the first dictée and assign individual staff members to write or edit the other dictées and submit them by a given date. Dictées are to be based on the on the grammar and vocabulary studied before the date they are given. The dictées must be checked by a native speaker for authenticity and by the Course Chairperson for appropriateness. Dictées will be kept to the following lengths (counting every word, just as a word processor does):
FREN 1010 15-30 words
FREN 1020 15-30 words
FREN 1050 15-30 words
FREN 2010 30-45 words
FREN 2020 30-50 words
FREN 2320 35-50 words
Count 1 point/word, 1/2 point/accent; subtract number wrong from total and divide by total. Do not double-count mistakes such as "Elle porte une chemisier bleue." In this case the "e" on bleue does not change the pronunciation of "bleue", and is consistent with the misheard "une." In the example "Elle porte une chemisier verte," both "une" and "verte" should be marked wrong, since both were misheard.
6. Alert the Language Program Director to problems or concerns of the staff members as they arise.
7. Alert the Language Program Director to the unexplained or unexcused absence of any staff members from any required meetings or of failure of any staff members to perform required work satisfactorily.
8. Copy the Language Program Director on all messages to staff, i.e., meeting announcements, announcements of availability of test drafts, reminders and reprimands of any kind. If you use the e-mail feature of the Collab Instructors’ Site for communication with staff (highly recommended), the Language Program Director will automatically be included as a member and receive your communications.
9. Act as an assistant(e) pédagogique to staff teaching the course. Most help should be offered to the instructors who have not previously taught the course. The Course Chairperson will share previously used dictées, quizzes, exercises, etc. When possible, the Course Chair will distribute to all staff members possible exercises (e.g., video preview and follow-up materials, in-class writing exercises, small-group activities, global activities). The Cource Chair will make these materials available in the “Resources” section of the Collab Instructors’ Site for the Course. The Course Chairperson will be happy to talk with staff members about ways to teach specific points or problems with students, as will the Language Program Director.
10. Archive files of all course materials (syllabus, quiz, useful exercises) in the “Resources” section on the Collab Instructors’ Site for the course. Be sure to post all files along the way, during the semester, and verify at the end of the semester that all materials, including the final exam, have been archived and in the appropriate order and place. Feel free to annotate documents if you feel that additional information will be helpful to the next chair. (This might include, for example, a note that a test ran too long, or that students were confused by instructions for a particular test section, etc.)
(Updated May 2009)
