ENG 1101 Week 7 Agenda

Class Info

• Date: 10/7-10/13
• Meeting Info: This course is asynchronous. But last week we had 1-on-1 sessions for Project #1, and they were a valuable way to connect.
• This week, I will also hold an optional writing lab session, Thursday, 10/8, 10:20am-11:20am. This uses the same Zoom link I shared via email–please let me know if you need me to resend.
• Monday is a holiday and Wednesday follows a Monday schedule throughout CUNY. That means office hours will be on Tuesday as scheduled (1:30-2:30), and on Wednesday (pretending it’s a Monday), 10:20-11:20. Again, this uses that Zoom link I shared.

To-Do Before Class

For the start of Week 7, congratulate yourselves for finishing Project #1, or, if you are still working, keep working so you can congratulate yourself soon! I am happy to meet with anyone who needs help to finish. The Week 6 agenda can help you catch up.

Topic

Project #2: reflection, and research

Objectives

• To explore further the questions about reflection and the space around us
• To begin to consider how we research a topic

To-Do This Week

Actions

• As you’ll see in the writing section, you’ll be taking a walk, or a virtual walk
• If you’re having trouble navigating our OpenLab site, especially as we accumulate more content, spend some time reviewing the site, reach out to me for help, read OpenLab Help, ask Evelyn (our peer mentor) for help!

Reading

• Read about place-based experience and primary research! If you have not done so already, read Lex Berko’s “What If You Could Choose Between the Fastest Route and the Most Beautiful?” and Patrick Sisson’s “How better photos can help you document, and shape, your neighborhood”
• Read about research! Skim Alison C. Witte’s “Research Starts with Answers” in Bad Ideas About Writing, pp 226-230 (that’s the page numbers within the book–the page numbers in the actual file are a little different), paying attention to 228-229. (note that the title of the book, Bad Ideas About Writing, tells us that each of the chapter titles are themselves bad ideas about writing! But the content includes great ideas about writing!)
• Read what your classmates and I have written in Project #2 posts and in our most recent discussions.

Writing

• Keep freewriting! 10 minutes. 10 minutes again. Write about what’s on your mind, or focus on the topic of spaces for reflection, or urban diary writing. Or something in your coursework, in the news, in your life, in your alternate reality. Write.
• If you have not already, join our discussion about our place-based readings.
• In that discussion we thought about a detoured walk. In a new post:
  • put the ideas from that discussion into practice. One of the important themes that connects ENG 1101 and ARCH 1101 is reflection. What would a walk look like if your short detour from your ordinary travels to maximize reflection? We spent some time thinking about the term in general, but what about in the context of being outside in your suroundings–what then do we even mean by reflection? Then think about what Chuck Wolfe says in the interview by Patrick Sisson, “How better photos can help you document, and shape, your neighborhood” about overlaps and juxtapositions. What are the places where you sense a shift into a place for reflection? Be an urban diarist and take a short walk where you are comfortable. Choose a route that maximizes reflection in some way. Pay particular attention to those transitions into our away from your reflective experience. What’s there? How does it feel? What signals it as a transition? Use Wolf’s LENS method: look, explore, narrate, and summarize, for two points along your walk, at least one of which is a point of juxtaposition, overlap, transition. In your post, explain where you went, your 2 sets of LENS notes, and photographs or other media to accompany your notes.
  • I say walk, mainly because other transportation methods are too fast to let you really explore. But if you want to make a case for an alternate way of getting around while detouring (jogging, skateboarding, etc), be sure to include that in your post.
  • *If you’re not comfortable with walking outside or able to walk outside, what alternate experience can simulate what we’re doing? One option is to use Google Maps street view or similar for a location you already know to find those points of juxtapositions, overlaps, transitions, and use screen shots instead of photographs, or find openly licensed photographs of that location, being sure to give credit to the photographer if the license requires. Another alternative–perhaps a video of a walk could substitute for the experience of walking outside? A car ride in which you’re a passenger (but only with someone in your pod in the driver’s seat!). If you have other suggestions for virtual ways to take a walk, please share them as comments to this post.
• Finally, our discussion for the week. The reading about research, “Research Starts with Answers,” tells us not to start our research with answers, but to explore and learn to come up with questions. Witte’s article offers us a chance to start talking about what kind of research we will do–both primary research and secondary research. You will have started your primary research when you took your a walk, (or virtual walk), to think about reflection, using Chuck Wolfe’s ideas about writing an urban diary. Here are the questions for us to discuss: what aspects about spaces for reflection do we want to learn more about? As an architecture student, what are ways that reflection is an important consideration in built spaces? What are some places you would consult for your research?