Curriculum:
Chronology
Excellence and Coherence in the
German Curriculum
January 2005
The German
Section of MCL completed a curricular Self Study as part of
departmental review. Keith Anderson, Professor Emeritus of
Saint Olaf College (German Department) served as consultant
and program evaluator. His report covered many aspects of
our German curriculum, co-curricular programs and study
abroad opportunities. His final report urges us strongly to
convene as a German faculty to clarify our curricular vision
and goals for the future so as to establish a basis for
sound curricular enhancement and a renewed sense of common
purpose within the faculty.
February
2005 To
carry out the recommendations made by our program evaluator
and by our Provost, we submitted a proposal for August
faculty workshops titled, "Excellence
and Coherence in the German Curriculum"
to the CSB/SJU Faculty
Committee on
Curriculum & Program Development.
April, 2005
Recommendation
of the project by the Faculty Committee and approval by
Provost Henry Smorynski.
May 2005 Notice of
additional funding received from Modern Classical Languages
Department for a two-day workshop in June.
June 2005 German
Faculty workshop with facilitator Linda Marrin focusing on
1) developing the elements of a new vision for German
Studies at CSB/SJU, 2) the fundamentals of working together
as an effective, vibrant faculty team, and 3) a prioritizing
of major goals for our new German Studies Program. See the
documents which emerged from these workshop days.
July 2005 Extensive research on new
developments in German curricula at American Colleges and
Universities. We receive news of additional foundation
funding for the 2005-2006 academic year.
August 2005
Four workshop days in which we
examine the research and map out the specifics of our
philosophy for the new German Studies curriculum. We
made a decision to move away from
a traditional language-and-then-literature curriculum to a
German Studies curriculum, which will emphasize 1) a
greater variety of cultural texts and contexts (e.g.,
political, historical, economic, musical and artistic) and
2) deeper integration of cultural, literary and linguistic
learning in every course of the undergraduate curriculum.
We created several new courses and new approaches to
traditional courses to fit with our new philosophy. We
developed specific course descriptions and goals for each of
the thirteen courses above GERM 211 These new goals
cover both cultural and literary competencies as well as
goals for speaking, reading, listening and writing . We also
created and prioritized a list of about a dozen German
section activities for the 2005-2006 academic year which are
made possible by foundation funding, the chief of which will
be our ongoing work in curricular and teaching excellence.
January 2006
Two days of
Workshops for revision of upper-division courses
May 2006
Two days of
Workshops with Heidi Byrnes
of Georgetown University.
January 2007
Two
days of workshops for strategic planning
and further work on new upper-division courses.
August 2007
Two
days of workshops to complete our new German Studies
Curriculum and presentation of new curriculum to the
Curriculum Committee. The new German Studies Curriculum
passed with minor revisions, Fall 2007.
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