Here are some resources for your students that you can post to your course in OpenLab or Blackboard, review in class together, or assign students to view:

Library Orientation web comic: https://library.citytech.cuny.edu/orientation/welcome

ENG 1101 research guide: https://libguides.citytech.cuny.edu/eng1101

ENG 1121 research guide: https://libguides.citytech.cuny.edu/eng1121

Citation and Formatting guide: https://libguides.citytech.cuny.edu/citations

Library tutorials: https://library.citytech.cuny.edu/orientation/tutorials

Ask a librarian 24/7 chat for help with research: https://library.citytech.cuny.edu/ or http://cityte.ch/askus

Help us improve the online tools we use for library instruction and share your thoughts with us. There are still a few spaces left in our FYW Faculty Focus Group, taking place on Thursday, November 12 at 10 am. For more information and the link to participate, please contact Anne Leonard at aleonard@citytech.cuny.edu

Most students love multimodal assignments. Most instructors freak out because they don’t feel like they “know enough tech” to teach them. Well, actually, if you know MS Word, you know enough tech. I’m attaching a Word brochure that an 1121 student did to help calm patients down who were scheduled for an MRI; her research had been on the psychology of health care during the pandemic. Jiang_MRI Brochure (1)

The thing is, the students often know a lot about the technology. So when I scaffold multimodal projects, I have them write a proposal and build into the proposal a requirement that: 1) every student ask for tech help if they need it and say what kind of tech, and: 2) every student look at all of the proposals.  If they have expertise with something (like video editing software), they let the student who needs help know. It’s a simple thing, but the first time I did it, I felt much more confident about turning students loose, and the students got very involved in each other’s projects in a very significant way. (I will say, however, that Canva.com is probably your best friend because it’s free and has copyright cleared images for posters, brochures, photo essays, infographics, you name it! I’m attaching another 1121 brochure a student did on financial literacy for kids that she did in Canva.) Martinez_financial brochure

I also have the students read Melanie Gagich’s piece in Writing Spaces, vol 3 “An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing.(”https://writingspaces.org/sites/default/files/1gagich-introduction-strategies-multimodal-composing.pdf) It’s very student (and instructor) friendly – it not only talks about the modes, it also explains how to approach a project rhetorically. And since getting students to focus on specific audiences is often the hardest part of this assignment, it helps everybody to have something to refer to.  It is very important, though, that students understand the importance of audience in multimodal assignments– that they’re not just doing a random thing with a random technology– but that they are using a specific technology BECAUSE it will reach a particular audience for whom their topic is pertinent.  This article is useful for this!

Bottom line: these are often the best things students do all term because it’s the kind of writing that they do in the “real world.” So relax, hammer them on audience, and enjoy what they produce.

For more by Jackie, see her personal website at: adjunctwritingprof.com 

Hi everyone– HERE is the article I sent out with tips for teaching online.  Next week, our own Jackie Blain will guest blog with some more handy ideas about online teaching and student engagement.  We’re lucky to have her.

I don’t know about you all, but I’m a real chalkboard teacher.  I write EVERYTHING down, so being online is a bit awkward for me.  One of the things that has helped me a lot is using Canva to make slideshows (you can also use other programs like Google Slides or Power Point.) I happen to find making slideshows kind of fun, but I know it can be quite time consuming, so here are three I made  that you may find useful:

1. What is Research? This slideshow talks about credible sources and primary and secondary sources.  Just gets students thinking about what “counts” as research.
2. Thinking about Genre. This slideshow is pretty particular to Unit Two of the 1101 model courses (all of the model courses) but can be used to discuss Genre Awareness across the board.
3. What’s a Paragraph? This slideshow talks about PIE (point information explanation) paragraphing, as a way to get students to look at organization, evidence and analysis.

Feel free to use any of these in your classes with attribution! Also, Canva is free, but as with most of these programs, you do get more features if you pay.

Also– we are looking for “guest bloggers!”  If you have some ideas of teaching tips pertinent to 2020 you can write about (or make a video about, etc) for the blog, that would be great– or things you’d like to see!  We’d love to hear from you.

Here is a video of me walking through the slideshow on commenting on student papers:

HERE is the link to the slideshow (without narration)

If you have questions or suggestions, please add them in the comments and/or come to the FYW Zoom office hours at 1 pm on Thursday, Oct 15.  I sent out a link, but if you’d like me to send it again, please email me at: chall@citytech.cuny.edu