Monthly Archives: October 2019

Weds, November 6

Hi everyone! We’ll be meeting next Wednesday, November 6.  In preparation, please review 1121 (yes 21!) UNIT ONE from the packet I handed out last session and write a draft of an assignment that unit– we’ll be workshopping these. Please print out three copies. *

If you are having problems with the copier, (I know this is an ongoing issue) please email them to me at least an hour before the PD. I have recently been absolutely inundated with emails, so please send this as its own email (not as a reply to something else)  write something in the subject line like PLEASE PRINT in all caps. Don’t worry about offending me with curtness. 

Also, we will be going over commenting strategies. If you have a student paper you’d like help commenting on, please bring in three copies. Please remove the student’s name and all identifying information. I can make copies for you if this is an issue.

We will have some time at the beginning of the session to talk about how teaching Unit Two (of 1101) is going in your current classes. If you are feeling pressed for time with the deadlines we gave you this summer, don’t sweat it–needing an extra day or two is okay; I trust you as professors. But do make sure that you leave yourself enough time for Unit 3 and the portfolio.

Handouts: 

Download (PDF, 118KB)

Download (PDF, 193KB)

  (I had to do it in two parts)

Wednesday, Oct 23

Hi Everyone! We will reconvene on Wednesday, Oct 23 to talk about grading/ commenting on student essays. In preparation, there will be two readings: the classic (if you’re a Comp geek like me) “Responding to Student Writing” by Nancy Sommers and the very thought-provoking “Beyond Translingual Writing” by Jerry Won Lee.

We’ll be visited by Lubie Alatriste, the head of our ELL department, who will be talking with us about various linguistic and language issues. And we’ll talk about “minimal marking” strategies and other strategies that have worked for us when commenting on student papers. I’ll also be asking you about your commenting persona, if that makes sense: who are you trying to be in your comments? A coach, a buddy, a judge, etc… So think about that a little bit throughout the week.

We’ll be back in the President’s Conference Room, where we met last time– because we’re fancy. 4 pm as always.

Research Question and Reflection Assignment

Here is an assignment I found on the Arizona State University website.  I have modified it for my classes as we have been stumbling over the creation of our research/curiosity questions (in part because we have had so many holidays and missed classes….no complaints about that though)  Hopefully, this will help.  I plan on using this assignment this week.  

Download (DOCX, 10KB)

Vocabulary assignment

I give students a list of relevant vocabulary words important to our work.  We are doing a unit on the environment and New York City now.  I ask the students to get into pairs or triads and write dialogues or trialogues if the word exists and then present them to the class.  Below is the list of words they have already encountered in their readings and should have looked up.  A  few I have already gone over with them, such as sustainablity since it has a specific environmental meaning.  This is the list of words.

  1.  sustainability
  2. resilience
  3. estuary
  4. current
  5. mitigate
  6. berm
  7. dune
  8. levee
  9. equity
  10. evacuation
  11. reservoir