Author Archives: Carrie Hall

Hi (sorry this is late)! Work for Feb 24

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Hi everyone!  I was having some technical difficulties, but everything is up now.  But since I have been remiss, I’m making deadlines much later.

Note: We will not be meeting this Weds, March 17, (though there is asynch work throughout the week.). We will meet synchronously on Weds March 24! 

By Mon, March 22 (6 pm): 

  1. Please read and annotate the Carmen Kynard article on our Perusall site.
  2. I’ve also added an optional article by Nelson Graff, which was the basis of our Unit 2/3 assignment, so it’s certainly worth a read.  Feel free to add some annotations here too.
  3. Write a blog post (here on the Open Lab) about the following:
    • Think about a time when you got really interested in something and researched that thing. How did you get interested? How did you go about the research? What did you DO with that research?
    • With Kynard (and Graff, if you read him) in mind, how might we (or how do you already) expand the definitions of a research paper to more fully contain the curiosity and delight of “real” research?

By our next meeting, March 24: 

  1. Read over your colleagues’ blog posts and comment on one or two
  2. Watch THIS video about the final portfolio. We’ll talk about it, but if you have questions beforehand, feel free to post them in a blog post here on Open Lab (use category 1101 Portfolio)
    • HERE is the slideshow (without my commentary) that you can share with your students.
    • HERE is the final portfolio assignment for the model courses (including reflection).

Incidentally, to make that video, I used screencastomatic and, for the graphics, canva.  Both have both free and paid features.

Screencast-o-matic is a screenshot program that records the screen and your voice (and your face,  if you want.) I often use it for commenting on student writing.

 

For next week!

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Hi everyone!

Just a reminder that Jackie’s great post about breakout rooms, as well as some other resources, are HERE on the FYW website.

So, next week, our meeting will be asynchronous.  It will be a bit of a two-parter.  We will have a reading (on Perusall) and then a blog post, here on this site.  Instructions for joining Perusall and posting on OpenLab are below, should you need a refresher.  The reading and blog post should be done by Thursday, March 4 at 11:59 pm:

The reading, as we discussed in last week’s meeting is “Navigating Genres”  by Kerry Dirk.  This is a reading assigned to students in the 1101 curriculum, and is a seminal text explaining genre theory.  For the reading portion of our assignment, we’ll just comment where we are interested, confused, take umbrage, etc… I’d also like us to converse with each other– that is, you can comment on each other’s comments, either just by commenting below, or by using the @ sign (aka @carriehall)

Then, here on OpenLab, write a blog post (I’m guesstimating about 300 words here, but that’s up to you) in which you reflect upon the Dirk article: How do you feel about it? What did you learn from it?  How do you think your students might feel about it?  How do you feel about teaching genre awareness in 1101?

You will need to check a category to post.  Use category: 1101 Unit 1

Part two: 

Sometime between March 4 and March 10 (apologies– this previously said March 11.  We will meet March 10!), when we meet again on Zoom, please do 2 things:

  1. Read people’s OpenLab blog posts.  You can comment if you want!
  2. Read and annotate the (very short) article from Bad Ideas About Writing on Perusall) entitled “Research Starts with a Thesis Statement.”

To join our Perusall site (if you haven’t already,) go to Perusall.com and join.  It will ask you for a course code to join.  Ours is: HALL-G6ZRH.  You will find the readings under “assignments.” 

To post a blog post on this site, you must first have joined this site. This requires that you are a member of Open Lab and that you have joined this site (click “join this site” under the image on the project profile page).  HERE is some help regarding posting on Open Lab.

Note: I will send you an email with a link to our zoom recording from last week.  I don’t want to post it publicly.

Welcome to Professional Development!

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Hi everyone– and welcome to the professional development.  To take part in the PD this semester, you will need to attend the bulk of our Wednesday 4-5 pm meetings.  If you can’t do that, you can take the PD in a different semester (which is fine!)  Let me know if you won’t be able to make this time slot.

If you want to meet with me, please email me at: chall@citytech.cuny.edu

You will also do a bit of reading, writing and lesson planning for this PD, all of which will take place on this site.  To do this, you’ll need to join– so please do so as soon as you can!  At the end of the semester, you will submit a series of in-class or homework assignments, or a new unit that fits with the pedagogy you’re learning here.  We’ll discuss (and maybe tweak) this more as we go.

We’ll meet again next Wednesday, Feb 24 at 4 pm to go over the 1101 Model Course Syllabus as a whole, and also to talk about engaging ways to use breakout rooms.  To prepare, please:

  • Join this site!
  • Familiarize yourself with the Model Course Hub, and skim through the “1101 Model Course Outline Revised for Spring.”  I will attach the outline below.
  • Sign up for Perusall.com.  To do this, you will go to perusall.com and go to the login page.  Once you are signed in to the site (you will need to set up an account,) it will ask you for a course code.  The code for this course is: HALL-G6ZRH. We will start to use Perusall next week.  

Our tentative schedule for the semester is as follows (note: we will use the same zoom link all semester) :

  • Feb 24 ZOOM Overview of 1101, specific discussion of Unit One. Discussion of effective use of breakout rooms
  • March 3 will be an asynchronous meeting (continued discussion of genre and research– 1101 model course pedagogy )
  • March 10 ZOOM we’ll meet – discussion of Units 2 and 3 1101 curriculum
  • March 17  asynch: discussion of final portfolios and readings about research on Perusall.
  • March 24 asynchronous.  Begin to discuss “Discourse Communities” and 1121 Syllabus.
  • April 7 ZOOM Tentatively: discussion of linguistic diversity
  • April 14 asynch: mentor texts
  • April 21 ZOOM 1121 Unit 2
  • April 28 asynch: teaching multimodal writing
  • May 5 ZOOM 1121 Unit 3
  • May 12 LAST ZOOM
  • units or assignments due by May 28

  1. Download (DOCX, 893KB)

Discourse Communities!

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Hi everyone.  We haven’t been doing much on the website– but now we’re back– after a VERY WILD weekend.  For this week’s virtual meeting, please read “Understanding Discourse Communities”  and then post a response to it on this website.  I believe you are all members of this site, but if you are having trouble posting, do let me know.

Respond to the article in any way you’d like: what did you take away from it, learn from it, find difficult, disagree with, think you could use in your teaching, feel you could do without, have questions about etc… If you like, respond with the units for the 1121 model courses (all of which are designed around discourse communities in mind.) Please write this response by Thursday, Nov 12.

By Sunday, Nov 15, please respond to at least two of your peers’ posts– again, however you’d like.  I just would like us to continue this conversation.  (For the record– I’m making this purposely open-ended for our PD, but if I were teaching, say, Freshman Comp, I would give more rigid guidelines for responding, generally)

On Monday, Nov 16, we will meet again on the Zoom, and will be joined by Robert Leston, who will be talking to us about “mentor texts.”  In order to prepare for this conversation, please take a look at this NYT article on mentor texts.

You may also want to look at this compendium of mentor texts, which is less COVID focused. It is an extremely useful resource!

 

For Monday (10 AM)

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Okay everyone!  This has been kind of a whirlwind!

We have our last meeting on Monday at 10 am.  I’ll resend the link to the meeting on Sunday

For Monday, please

  1. Please read your colleagues’ blog posts on research.  They are delightful.  If you have not posted, please do so now!
  2. Clone the Open Lab Site. I want everyone to try it, even if you decide not to use it.  Just to see what the site is like and what’s on there.  Here is the link to the materials: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fyw-pedagogy/how-do-i-download-my-courses/. This site is “the hub,” meaning the hub for the FYW Model Courses. This is where you will find the model course link and info about cloning, etc…

If you need help: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fyw-pedagogy/how-to-clone-a-course/

(There is also other help here under “technical help!” if you need help with writing a blog or editing a page)

3. Play around on there.  Look at what is on your new site. Much of the material is already uploaded for you.

4.. Decide if you want to use Open Lab or Blackboard as your MAIN site.

5. On your MAIN Site– the one students will go to to find homework, syllabus, course schedule, etc…, upload:

  • your personalized syllabus,
  • the announcement for the first week, and
  • the major essay assignments

please note: these are all already entered into the Model Course– and will be entered into your cloned course.  You will just need to personalize them if you want to make changes.  (For help editing a page, please see: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fyw-pedagogy/how-to-edit-a-page/)

6. Send me a link to your Open Lab site at Chall@citytech.cuny.edu.  For Blackboard, you will need to invite me to be a TA (I am getting instructions about how to do this.).  EVEN IF YOU ARE USING BLACKBOARD, please email me the link to your cloned OpenLab site (See Step 2!)

Edit: For Blackboard, I can’t actually figure out how to add TA’s and BB support is not getting back to me (I recall this was pretty glitchy in the spring) so for now, if you are planning on using BB, please just email me the bullet pointed documents above.

See you Monday!

 

For Thursday Aug 6th

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Hi everyone– thanks for the Zoom today.  It was nice to see you all.  For tomorrow, I’d like you to do the following:

  1. Respond to at least two people’s introduction posts. You can do this simply  by posting a comment.
  2. Familiarize yourself with the curriculum and the model site hub. This is the link to the site: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fyw-pedagogy/ .  I think it is quite clear now where the materials for 1101 are (and I have relabeled them) but if it is not, they are here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fyw-pedagogy/how-do-i-download-my-courses/. You may find it easiest to look at the “entire semester weekly plan”. Also, and I’m sorry to say this, because I do really like the core curriculum syllabus, but as I think of it, I think it will be easiest for this semester if we all use the mainstream units, since all of the support materials are written for this curriculum and I think it is best if we’re on the same page.  If you really want to argue with me on this, I’m open to the debate!
  3. Personalize your syllabus. There is a syllabus for you in the documents, which is mostly finished, but there are some things you need to fill out yourself (your course times, for example.)  By “syllabus,” by the way, I am not referring to the course schedule.*  We have also planned this out for you, but these are separate documents. The syllabus is just the rules and regulations!  That said, you will need to personalize your details, including the class meeting times and you’ll have to see how you feel about the grading policy.  We will discuss it tomorrow. 
  4. Reflections on Research: If you have not done so yet, read the Summer Institute Day 2 readings. Watch my BRILLIANT 🙂 slideshow on “Research as a Process of Discovery” on the Hub and write a blog post by noon tomorrow answering the following questions (categories: Summer Institute, 1101 Unit 2)
    • When was a time when you got really interested in something and researched that thing. How did you get interested? How did you go about the research? What did you DO with that research?
    • Using what we’ve read in Kynard and Graff, how might we expand the definitions of a research project to more fully contain the curiosity and delight of research?

I will send you an email with the new Zoom link for tomorrow.  We meet at 1:30.

* We can talk tomorrow about the weekly schedule that goes out to students.  I didn’t make one for you because everybody does this differently, but I am willing to make one to go with the curriculum materials.

Getting ready for Weds, Aug 5

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Hi everyone!  Remember that our first meeting is Weds Aug 5 at 10 AM– I sent you a zoom link, but prefer not to post it publicly, so if you’ve misplaced the email (look, we’ve all done it!) you can email me at: chall@citytech.cuny.edu, and I will send it again no problem.

We will also meet Thursday, Aug 6 at 1:30 PM and Monday Aug 10 at 10 AM.

If you haven’t already, please do the blog post assignment described below, in my previous post.  If you don’t know how to post a blog on Open Lab, you will first need to be signed in to this site (you will have to accept my invitation to join) and then follow these directions: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/blog/help/writing-a-post/.

You will be asked to choose a category. Please choose “summer institute.”

Lastly, it seems we have finally finished our Model Site!  We’ll be going over this together on Weds, but you may want to take a look around the “hub” : https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fyw-pedagogy/, which explains how the project works.

  • Under the 1101 dropdown menu, in “materials and site links” you will see a link to a Google Drive folder.  Please download this file, which has all the curricular materials for the course. Again, we will be going over this on Weds, but if you want to look over them, go ahead!

Summer 2020 PD Participants

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Hi everyone!  So, for our Zoom meeting on Aug 5, please do the following by 6 pm on August 4. Please note I prefer not to post the Zoom link publicly, so please email me (chall@citytech.cuny.edu) if you need the zoom link:

  1. Read Day One Readings  (RESOURCES: INSTITUTE MATERIALS: SUMMER INSTITUTE REQUIRED READINGS)
  2. Watch THIS video of me talking you through the intro to the curriculum.  Link to the pictured slideshow is HERE
  3. Write a blog post on this site in which you:
    • Introduce yourself! Who are you, what is your teaching experience, how do you feel about teaching online?
    • Tell us one thing you do in the first weeks of online class to create a sense of engagement and community.  If you have not taught online, please let us know something that has worked for you in F2F classes
    • Respond to the following questions from Kerry Dirk (approx 300 words): What is a genre of writing you know well? What are the rules of that genre? How did you learn them?

You will need to be signed in to the FYW PD site to post!

I will send you information about the model site ASAP.

HELLO SUMMER 2020

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Hello Summer/ Fall 2020 PD Participants!  And what a year this is!

If you haven’t already, please accept my invitation to join this site.  You’ll need to do that in order to post here.

And keep an eye on the site.  After our “template site” goes live (that is, the course we’ll be teaching next semester,) I will post a link to it here, along with some info about our first writing task for August.

If you’re teaching in a Learning Community (I am!) don’t worry, it won’t be hard to make this curriculum work with your course.  You and I can chat about that.

My email is chall@citytech.cuny.edu, if you should have any questions.  And I look forward to seeing you soon!

FINAL DATES, DEADLINES, INFO AND ETC.

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And so, we draw to a close.  It has been so great working with all of you.  I said it before, and I’ll say it again, but I have been truly impressed with your work this semester.  You really came through, especially during the pandemic, which goes beyond anything I have literally ever seen (of course). I’m excited to see those final assignments and portfolios.

I will eventually be sending you a little survey in which I ask you to do your own (brief, 1-2 paragraph) reflection on the semester.  This will help us plan next semester’s PD, which will be entirely online! I also want to let you guys know that, though the PD is done,  I am here as a resource for you whenever you need me.  I’ll be continuing Zoom office hours next semester (and a couple of times in August) and also will be around for one-on-one meetings if you need help, have some cool assignments to share or just want to talk!

Here are the amended dates:

May 29th: Final student portfolios to be uploaded to Google Drive.  I’ve sent you this link.  If you did not get it, email me and I’ll resend.

  • Please use the folder “’20 Current PD Portfolios.”
  • Please make a folder with your own name in this format: (HallCarrie_20)
  • Within THAT folder, make subfolders for each class you are teaching with course and section number. (HallCarrie_1101_351).
  • In that folder, you will have either a file or a folder, as you see fit, for each of your students.  Make sure these are also titled clearly by the students’ names (Blair_Ruben) so they can easily be accessed.

June 5th: All of your final drafts of assignments for 1101 and 1121 will be uploaded to the Open Lab.  This is a HARD DEADLINE– as in this is honestly the last possible day! The “deliverables” include: Syllabus (front matter only, you don’t need the full schedule), Assignment Sheets for Units 1,2, and 3 and the handout for the final portfolio: this would include info on the reflection and what the final portfolio should include.

I will attach a copy a template for the 1101 syllabus if you’d like to use it (it’s optional). The 1121 syllabus template is under “Readings: 2020 Winter Institute”

For each of your final assignments, I know this is annoying, but… you will have to post them separately under their correct category.  This will help the next PD be able to look up examples of each assignment.  So, please use the following  format:

  • Categories: FINAL and the unit you are uploading, such as: 1101 Unit 1-Lit Narrative
  • Subject line: (YOUR NAME) FINAL 1101 UNIT 1 ASSIGNMENT

Please don’t forget the category “final” OR the word “Final” in the subject line.  Believe me, it matters in the long run!  Also, you can select two assignment categories, in case you have an assignment sheet that includes, say, 1101 Units 2 and 3, as some of us do.  It’s fine to combine those two.  Please don’t combine all of your materials onto one sheet, though!

Download (PDF, 127KB)

Here is an example of my final portfolio assignment sheet– I gave this to you a MILLION YEARS AGO in the winter, before “the troubles”.  I don’t expect you to be a graphics dork like myself. I also think the reflection Christine and I wrote this semester was much (MUCH) better than this one. However, I include this because it shows what I had my students include in their portfolios:

Download (PDF, 3.41MB)