Category: Class Notes

Today, we discussed our next essay assignment, the Open Letter.

We then discussed the two open letters that we read for homework, one by Jennifer Aniston and the other by Philip Roth in connection to the topic of rumors.

Midterm practice essays were returned and reviewed. Please review essays for errors and revise accordingly.

Homework:

1) Read the readings in Unit 4 under the heading of “Ethical Dilemmas” (I have also included direct links below). There are two readings and one worksheet that you must fill out based on the readings. Print and read/annotate both readings and the worksheet and be ready to discuss them on Monday, 10/15.

• A Framework for Ethical Decision Making
• Ronald F. White, Excerpts from Moral Inquiry
• Ethical Dilemmas Worksheet

2) Using your City Tech New York Times subscription, search for 1 article on a current issue civic, social, or political issue that will be the subject of your Open Letter essay. Print and read/annotate the article. On a separate sheet of paper, summarize the issue and the main points of the author regarding the issue, and then discuss your own views on the issue (i.e., which side do you agree with and why?). Please type your response for collection on Monday, 10/15.

3) Grammar Quiz on Topic 3 to be held on Monday 10/15.

4) Prepare for the Midterm Exam to be held on 10/17. Go over the preparation guidelines and review all the practice exams/questions/reponses.

 

The following students handed in essays at the end of class that did not meet the requirements (they were not a minimum of 3 full pages):

• Jennifer
• Kelvin
• Vincent

Please fix this issue and resubmit on Wednesday.

Today, the Personal Narrative Essays were collected.

Then, we had a practice midterm exam based on the article, “The Science of ‘Paying it Forward’.”

Homework:

1) Write a 5-paragraph essay in response to the other prompt that you did not choose for the in-class practice exam. Please allow yourself only 1 hour and 15 minutes to write the essay.

2) Print and read the assignment sheet for the Open Letter Essay.

3) Print and read/annotate the 5 readings from Unit 4, under the heading “Rumors,” including:

• Jennifer Aniston “For the Record”
• Philip Roth “An Open Letter to Wikipedia”
• Gregory Rodriguez, “One Man’s Rumor is Another Man’s Reality” 
• Daniel Goleman, “Anatomy of a Rumor: It Flies on Fear”
• Jesse Singal, “How to Fight a Rumor”

4) Grammar Quiz on Topic 3 to be given next week!

5) Reminder: Monday 10/8, no classes. The next time we will meet is Wednesday, 10/10. See you in a week!

Sample Body Paragraph #1

By interacting with strangers, commuters will have a better commute. One advantage is that they can gain confidence in talking to strangers. For example, one morning my brother was having a bad day. He woke up feeling self-conscious about his appearance. The woman next to him noticed his dismay and engaged in a conversation with him. Normally, my brother would just ignore other people on the train, but this time he listened. The woman ended up lifting his spirits by complimenting him on his outfit. That day, he went to school and delivered a brilliant class presentation. Had he kept to himself on the train, my brother would probably have still felt worried and self-conscious. Therefore, talking to strangers is more beneficial than ignoring them.

 

Sample Body Paragraph #2

In addition, interacting with other commuters benefits us by improving our social skills. Some people have anxiety issues that prevent us from effectively communicating with others. Talking to strangers helps them to practice communicating and get out of their comfort zones. For example, I avoided talking to classmates in high school. However, once I started opening myself up to strangers and finding our common interests, I grew more comfortable interacting with others. It made me more proactive in opening up about personal topics I don’t normally discuss, and more comfortable speaking in public. Interacting with strangers can improve our confidence and help us reach our social goals. Therefore, conversing with those around us yield benefits to our social development.

 

Sample Body Paragraph #3

Finally, in reference to the social experiment performed by Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder, talking to strangers yielded “conversations [that] were consistently pleasant.” For instance, one couple in graduate school noticed when the boyfriend, Benjamin, was forced to speak to a stranger, his previous bad mood was lifted. However, when Benjamin spoke with his girlfriend, Liz, he unleashed his full grumpy mood onto her. This left both of them in a bad mood. Talking to a stranger helps us regulate our emotions in order to give a good first impression as opposed to neglecting the impression you give someone with whom you are already familiar. Therefore, I believe that interacting with others could make other people’s day better.

In class, we reviewed the article, “Hello, Stranger,” and discussed students’ responses to both essay prompts A & B.

Students also had a chance to work in groups and critique sample responses to the essay prompts.

Homework:

1) Continue revising your Personal Narrative essay. Again, I encourage you to make an appointment with a tutor at the Learning Center, or schedule an appointment with me, to help you with the revision process. This will help you earn a higher grade on the final draft due on Wednesday, 10/3. **Again, there a number of things you must hand in, so please review these requirements from the previous post on 9/24. Papers that are missing any of the listed components will not be accepted and incur a late penalty.

2) Read and annotate the article handed out in class, “The Science of Paying It Forward,” as if you were preparing for the midterm exam. See the preparation guidelines under the “Exams” tab. We will have a mock-exam in class on Wednesday. The essay questions will be distributed then. (*Please bring looseleaf paper on which to write your essays.)

3) Prepare for the next grammar quiz on Topic 3: Verb Tense & Who vs. Whom. The next quiz will be on Wednesday, 10/10.

Today we reviewed the expectations for the Midterm Exam, and how to prepare for it.

We went over the basic 5-paragraph essay structure, incorporating sources into your essays, and evaluating/writing effective thesis statements.

We also read and discussed responding to a sample midterm article, titled “Hello, Stranger.”

Homework:

1) Complete your 5-paragraph essay response to “Hello, Stranger” that you started in class. Due 10/1.

2) Continue to revise your Personal Narrative essay. Due in class on 10/3. Please see previous post from 9/24 on what you need to hand in. Papers that are missing any of the listed components will not be accepted and incur a late penalty.

3) REMINDER: Summary and reading response for New York Times article is due on Monday, 10/1. (See post from 9/17 for full instructions.)

4) Do the readings for Topic 3. Verb Tense & Who vs. Whom in our Grammar Guide. The next quiz will be during Week 7. Please ensure you do the readings and the practice examples, especially if you’ve been getting low quiz marks. Bring any questions you have to class prior to the quiz.

Today’s class was devoted to the peer review workshop for the Personal Narrative essay. Students must complete the Peer Review worksheet started in class and return it back to his/her partner by Wednesday, 9/26. Please let me know if you do not receive this worksheet back by then.

Homework

1) Revise Personal Narrative essay based on Peer Review workshop. Essays are due in class on Wednesday, 10/3 at the beginning of class.

I strongly recommend that everyone make an appointment with a tutor at the Learning Center as you go about revising your essays. This will help you to earn a higher grade. Bring the assignment sheet and your draft to your tutoring session.

Note, on 10/3, you must turn in the following, paper clipped together in the order stated below (do not hand them in loose):
a) a paragraph that briefly states what your story is about, how you characterized your neighborhood, the role of your neighborhood in the story in changing/shaping you, and the lesson/insight you want readers to get from reading your story
b) final draft
c) the inspiration photo
d) the feedback sheet filled out by your group member during the workshop (if you participated)
e) a signed slip from your Learning Center tutor that you attended a session (if applicable)

Also, make sure you follow the directions for properly formatting your paper (see the syllabus). Your paper will not be accepted if you are missing any of the above materials or if you do not follow the appropriate guidelines for formatting papers (margins, heading, spacing, font, etc.).

2) Print and read all of the readings in Unit 3 for 9/26. (**NOTE: The third reading on “Thesis Statements” is a one-page PDF with links to 5 additional readings (which you must also print and read).

3) REMINDER: Summary and reading response for New York Times article is due on Monday, 10/1.

4) Do the readings for Topic 3. Verb Tense & Who vs. Whom in our Grammar Guide. The next quiz will be during Week 7. Please ensure you do the readings and the practice examples, especially if you’ve been getting low quiz marks. Bring any questions you have to class prior to the quiz.

Today, we discussed the three sample personal narratives by Sherman Alexie, Anna Quindlen, and Colson Whitehead.

Homework:

1) No classes on Wednesday, 9/19. Our next class is Monday, 9/24.

2) Complete the first full draft of your personal narrative AND print 3 copies for class on Monday, 9/24. You must bring 3 copies of your Personal Narrative draft in order to participate and received credit for the peer review workshop. If you arrive more than 15 minutes late, or do not have 3 printed copies of your essay with you, then you will be marked absent and not be able to participate.

3) Complete the readings for Topic 2: Subject-Verb Agreement & Comma Usage in the Grammar Guide. Be prepared for our next in-class quiz on 9/24.

4) DUE DATE: Monday, October 1

Using your NY Times subscription, select any article published in September 2018, print out the article, and read it. Afterwards, you will need to type a summary of the article and a reading response. The typed summary and reading response AND the article must be turned in on Oct. 1.

Summary Paragraph:

1. Begin by stating the author’s name, the title of the article, and the article’s main point: a. In “Latinos in Santa Cruz County” Juan Mendoza describes the range of jobs Latinos work at in Santa Cruz county.

We began by going over the assignment sheet for the Personal Narrative Essay. Then students began filling out the Personal Narrative Pre-Writing Worksheet using their neighborhood photos as inspiration.

We also discussed “A Coney Island of the Mind” by Katie Roiphe as a great example of: (1) using present tense to slow down and put us in the moments of her story; (2) making the setting of Coney Island an individual character – we could feel exactly what the historic Brooklyn neighborhood looks, sounds, and feels like!; and (3) character development (showing us how a character changes through a particular turning point in her life).

Homework:

(1) Using the Personal Narrative Pre-Writing Worksheet that you completed in class, write your personal narrative introduction. This introduction will need to be posted online before 12pm on Sunday, September 16. Details can be found by clicking the “Discussion” tab, then clicking “Personal Narrative Introductions.”

(2) Print, read and annotate “The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found” by Colson Whitehead. Create: (1) a vocabulary list; (2) a 1-2 paragraph summary of the reading; and (3) at least 2 critical thinking questions for us to discuss.

(3) Review the following stories we already read:
Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie
“Hers; The Ignominy of Being Pregnant in New York City” by Anna Quindlen
“A Coney Island of the Mind” by Katie Roiphe (handout)

Note all of the elements of what makes a great story. Pay particular attention to how the stories unfold, how the authors develop characters, the incorporation of vivid detail and imagery to “show” us moments rather than just “tell” us about them, plot development, the “so what?”, and so on!

 

Thank you to all the students who posted their Labor Day Stories on time. I look forward to reading them! Constructive comments on these stories can be made up until class on Wednesday, 9/12. Remember to give specific feedback on what works well and what needs revising.

For those who didn’t post, please note that every assignment (or lack of assignment) counts towards your grade. Remember to complete all assignments by the deadlines as outlined on the “Class Notes/Homework” page.