Open Lab HW 7:  Due Tomorrow Tuesday

You are revising your Source Entry 1, using my comments.  With my comments you will understand better how to write the Source Entries, and you will use this knowledge to write your Source Entry 2.  Post your Source Entry 2 into the Open Lab for HW 7.

Post your RAB Source Entry 2 (for your opinion piece Source 1) ALL FOUR PARTS properly labeled.

• TItle: RAB Source Entry 2
• Category RAB Source Entry 2

ALSO in the last few sessions we used handouts for:

• How to write a Summary
• Graphic organizer with boxes for MI and SD for preparing to write a Summary
• Rhetorical Analysis worksheet by Prof. Blaine

Today I handed out another important handout on Rhetorical Analysis.  Again if you missed any of these handouts, you will have to look on Research Project Resources page and print out for yourself.

Wednesday we meet in the computer center.  You will work on your Source Entry 1 and it will be due Thursday 3/28 (giving you a few more days).

You are also searching for your Source 2 — printing out, annotating, and preparing for Source Entry 2 writing.

I considered Unit One Ed Narrative, attendance, class participation, HWs done (remember LATE HWs get no credit/no comment), peer review participation, tutor attendance, ability to follow instructions.  Some of you did well on Ed Narrative Unit One.  But you are not following through on Unit Two RAB work.  There is still time to do better!  

Remember that ALL MAJOR UNIT ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE SUBMITTED ON TIME AS WRITTEN ON THE SYLLABUS AND EXPLAINED IN CLASS.  You must turn in major unit assignments ON TIME in order to pass the class.  As written in the syllabus, you cannot fail any major unit assignments.  NOT submitting a major unit assignments means you cannot pass the class.

Reminder:  By Saturday, you should comment on TWO student peers HW 1 RAB Proposal.  I am letting you off the hook for the comment on Summary HW 2 of "Schools Killing Curiosity."

Commenting is part of your overall HW grade, so those of you not participating in the peer commenting need to get started!

You are working on TWO HWs:  THE RAB PROPOSAL and THE SUMMARY (and citation) of "Schools" practice article.

We are now in Unit TWO:  As you work on finding a RQ (research question) I want to share Library Professor Lasky’s presentation on how to come up with a good RQ:  How to Narrow Down a Research Question.

You can also find this video on our Research Project Resources page.  Check it out!  This is a page with which you will become very familiar in the weeks to come.

SATURDAY MARCH 9

1. Kudos to everyone who turned their Unit One Education Narratives on time!  Being on time is one of the goals of this class.  I am looking forward to reading your stories.

2. We are now in UNIT TWO RAB:  Reflective Annotated Bibliography.

• It’s reflective because at the end you will write a Reflection as your Conclusion to the entire RAB.
• It’s annotated because you will be annotating, writing notes about each of your sources (three sources), and keeping track of what you are learning on your Research Question (RQ).
• It’s a bibliography because you are creating a LIST of sources for your research.

The RAB is a very difficult assignment with many moving parts.  Missing class or falling behind will result in falling into the quicksand.  You may not be able to pull yourself out!  I am using figurative language here, but you get the picture!

3. We had an introduction to the research process on Wednesday with Professor Lasky in the library.  Now you should be:

• Deciding on and — Narrowing down an RQ (Research Question) for Unit TWO. We started this in the Library class.
• Studying the Unit TWO assignment. I have just revised the Assignment and you should print it out.  (Yes, I revise too!)
• CHANGE-UP: I am not asking for the Proposal yet, but you should be studying how you will write the Proposal.  Scroll down in the Assignment to “Getting Started.”
• Looking around on Google and Research sites from the Library website for possible sources. Do some reading to get ideas of what your RQ could be!  Eventually, you will need THREE sources.  (Read the Unit TWO Assignment; it’s all explained there!
• 1. One source must be a feature or news article.
• 2. A second source must be an opinion-editorial.
• 3. A third source will be a non-print source such as a podcast or tedtalk or video news clip.)
• Explore the Unit TWO side bar where I am starting a list of possible RQs from class members. As I walked around the room, I gathered ideas from all of you and I share them here in the Unit Two side bar.

4. For Monday please read this feature article “Schools Kill Curiosity” from The Guardian, a United Kingdom newspaper.

• A feature article reports on a topic — but unlike a news report which relies heavily on straightforward facts — a feature article is written in an interesting human way that might make you laugh or cry. It often uses pictures and captions as visual elements.
• We will start Unit TWO by practicing how to write a Source Entry (all four parts). Our practice source is the feature article: “How Schools are Killing Curiosity.”

Friday March 8, 2024

1. I have opened the Final Draft folder in the Google Drive.

• Go to Unit One Education Narrative / Final Draft (there are NO group folders this time)
• Title your file:  Your First Name Last Name, FD
• Please use the Checklist to check your work!
• NO PDFs.  Microsoft Word file only.
• No late papers accepted for Major Unit Assignments!  It is due this Friday.

2. See you in front of the library for class today. Be there on time.  We meet with Prof. Lasky for our library orientation and introduction to Unit Two research project.

Tuesday March 5

1. Remember that Wednesday we meet in front of the Library on the 4th floor Atrium Building.

2. The Final Draft of the Education Narrative is due on Friday.

Please review the Education Narrative Checklist. 

3. We are moving on to Unit Two. Start previewing the Assignment Reflective Annotated Bibliography.  It is a research project.

Sunday March 3, 2024

1. Bring TWO hard copies of your latest draft to class tomorrow.
2. I have been checking in with the Writing Center Tutors. Please have your tutor email me to confirm that you worked together.  If you have not worked with a tutor, do this ASAP.
3. Some groups did very well on the peer reviewing assignment. Other groups need to complete this ASAP.  Please review the instructions below.  You must do TWO peer reviews on the Google Drive.
4. Now we are continuing to REVISE and move toward the Final Draft due this Friday.

THINK – ARMS. Are there places you can…?

Add words or sentences or parts where information is missing or lacking development.  Add a scene or dialogue.

Remove words or sentences or parts that do not fit or are repetitive

Move words or sentences or parts around to help the flow of the essay

Substitute weak words and/or sentences with more specific vocabulary

You will receive advice and feedback from your peer reviewers, from your professor, and from your tutor.  Do consider these various pieces of advice.  However, remember that ultimately you are the writer; you are the boss, and you will make the writerly decisions in the end.

5. REVISION and PROOFREADING are not the same thing!

True Revision takes place over days and weeks and is about RE-THINKING your ideas.  RE-vison is to re-think, re-see, re-organize, re-order, RE-Structure —- RE-WRITING

• Does not mean just fixing up the verbs, punctuation, sentence errors TMI
• Does not mean adding just one sentence or adding one paragraph at the end.
• DOES MEAN to consider feedback you are getting.
• DOES MEAN to consider our workshop activities on Scene Building and Dialogue and to make sure you have two scenes (one with dialogue) in your essay.
• DOES MEAN to study the Education Narrative Checklist.

Proofreading (“fixing” mistakes) comes at the end stages of writing. Fixing errors in grammar, spelling, sentence structure, verb forms/tenses is the very last stage.

Wednesday Feb 27 post-class

1.  Good job to everyone who has been working hard on the Rough Draft.  I hope you are realizing that writing is a process, and not a one-off.

2.  Two peer-reviews are due by this Friday March 1. 

Now let’s help each other to revise these Rough Drafts.  In the Google Drive, go to your group’s folder for the Rough Draft.  You will each peer review TWO student group members.  Please make sure that in your group, each student Rough Draft receives two peer reviews.  Use the Checklist to come up with your comments and to write an end letter to the student writer.

Here are the instructions:

Peer Review Feedback to be completed by Friday night, March 1:

1. Comment fully on two group members’ Rough Drafts #1 (RD#2 for some student papers, latest version). Spend at least 30 minutes on each paper. 
2. In the Google Drive, use comment bubbles on the side to comment. At least FIVE thoughtful comments.  Use the Checklist to come up with your comments.
3. In the Google Drive of student paper you are reviewing, you will also write end comments to the writer in the form of a letter.

Dear Jessica,

THEN one full paragraph, 7-9 sentences.

Sincerely,

Your Name

• If your peer comments are mindfully and well done, I will give you extra credit. Penalty if peer comments are underdeveloped, late, or missing (at least one-half letter grade on your Final Draft)
• If you are missing a paper in your group, reach out to your group member and request he/she expedite submission.
• If your group does not have enough papers, you may go to another group folder that similarly has not enough papers, and you may peer-review a Rough Draft that has received only one or no peer reviews.

3.  Then over the weekend you will start working on revising your own Rough Draft and taking it to the final stage, the Final Draft.

On Monday bring your working Final Draft — at whatever stage you are at — as a hard copy (printed out) to class.  TWO copies.

We will spend one more day in class working on our Ed Narratives at the Proofreading stage.

4.  I announced today that I am extending the due date for the Final Draft to Friday March 8. 

This is to give you ample time to work with the Writing Tutors and to do your best work. Remember you have the power to write your own story!  I have seen good progress as I circulate around the room to sit with each group during this week’s workshop sessions.  I am looking forward to reading your final essay.

Monday Feb 25 pos-class

Everyone did good work today on the peer reviewing activity!  I hope you feel that you are able to move your story forward.

A couple of points:

You should have some ideas on what to do with your Rough Draft after today’s class.  You should be reviewing the Checklist and thinking critically on your own work, as you start revising to move your RDraft forward to a Final Draft.

DO NOT disturb the Rough Draft you submitted on Google Drive.  This is so I have a record of the original Rough Draft and I will be able to see the difference between the Rough Draft and the Final Draft which you will submit on Sunday night.

As you revise, you should be working on your own MS Word File – OR — your own Google doc in your own private Google Drive.

If –- only if — you do substantial revising work between now and Wednesday’s class, you may upload a second file to Your Group Folder and title this RD #2.  This is not required, but it is an option.

For Wednesday, will continue to work in class using the Checklist I handed out today and continue to do peer review helping your group members.  You may also work on the actual writing and revising in class on Wednesday, so bring your computers, if you wish.

Please continue to bring your hard copies to class again on Wednesday.  If you did not bring hard copy today, then do so for Wednesday.  If you have done substantial revising, you may bring your latest hard copy RD #2 to class.

SUNDAY FEB 24

BIG QUESTION:  WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF YOUR ED NARRATIVE?  Can you put it into one sentence?  What is your hero’s journey?  (We will watch a video on the hero’s journey in class.) For example:

• My story focuses on dropping out of medical school and finding my way to Literature Studies.
• My story focuses on the struggles I faced being a Black student in an Arabic private school.
• My story focuses on dropping out of CalTech and finding my way back to college at CUNY.
• My story focuses on my struggle with depression and smoking marijuana in high school.
• My story focuses on my negative reception from the online computer modeling community.

Then you should have events that move your story forward.  Did you do the Outline?  You may change the outline as you work, but you need a few events planned in your head as you write.

TONIGHT Sunday Feb 25:  Rough Drafts due to the Google Drive.  [NOTE: Your RD Rough Draft does not need to be perfect, but it must be submitted on time!].  Go to Unit One Folder.  Go to Rough Draft Folder.  Go to your Group and find your name.  

BRING TWO HARD COPIES TO CLASS.

SEE THE ASSIGNMENT for instructions on how to submit to the Google Drive.

ROUGH DRAFT DUE:  Sunday February 25 by midnight, two full pages, typed, double spaced, 12-point font, Times, one-inch margins.

Two full pages (top to bottom) is minimum.  You can write more.

• Submit your Rough Draft to Google drive
• Title your Word Doc/file: Jessica Castro, RD #1    NO PDFiles

ALSO:

• You should have your ASSIGNMENT PRINTED OUT and be studying it!
• We will discuss how to make a connection to the readings.
• You should continue to study the example student essays.
• Look at the Ed Narrative side bar for Writing Resources on this Assignment.
• You should be incorporating my teacher comments and use your tutor feedback to complete your Rough Draft and Final Draft.
• DO the handout exercises on Sentence Structure.
• GET TO THE TUTORS —  IT IS A REQUIREMENT!

Bring your laptops to class if you want to write on computer during class time.

BRING YOUR OBAMA PRINTOUT TO CLASS.  We have studied his opening scene. We will also look at a few other scenes to study how he creates scenes with good description and good dialogue.  We are RLW — Reading Like a Writer.Remember your Ed Narrative must have TWO scenes and one must use dialogue.

FINAL DRAFT DUE: Sunday March 3.  THREE full pages (top to bottom) minimum. 

STUDY THE ASSIGNMENT FOR FULL DETAILS.

Finally, you must get to class on time.  We will be reviewing the grading rubric for this assignment.  If you are not in class on time with your hard copies you cannot participate in this important lesson.  Plan your arrival accordingly.  In fact, many of you have been absent or late consistently.  This must change if you expect to pass this course.

Friday Feb 23

Everyone made an appointment with the Writing Center Tutors in class yesterday.  If you did not do this, you must do this now.  Get an appointment for next week at the latest.  This tutoring work is REQUIRED!  The Final Draft Ed Narrative is due the following week Sunday night March 3.

1. By Sunday night you will submit your Rough Draft and Monday you will bring TWO hard copies to class.  Instructions will be given in the next Announcement.  Look for it on Sunday morning. 

2.  For TODAY: Read the student example Ed Narrative by Fan Zhou (on Assignments page go to left hard sidebar next to Assignment Unit One).

Notice how Fan’s story is an in-depth description of TWO scenes and how his story is in TWO parts.

• Part One is a dramatic scene of being teased and tagged with sticky notes when he was in his 6^th grade ESOL class in middle school.
• Part Two is a dramatic scene 10 years later when he is in a Language Immersion program and failing the final exam.

IN each part, notice how he focuses on one specific event and SHOWS CSD.

Notice how he DOES NOT tell me boring items.  Without boring-telling-words, I understand from his dramatic scenes that he was lost in his English school environment.  He was friendless and bullied.  He does not need to tell me this; instead he SHOWS me all this and more.  Fan writes with CSD; he uses vivid description; and he creates Theatre of the Mind for his reader.

HW 5:  Due TONIGHT FRIDAY in OPENLAB:   SHOW me one scene that you have written for your Ed Narrative.  This can be from any place in your story.  You can show me a scene with or without dialogue. 

• Title: One Scene – Your Name
• Category: One Scene

If you are writing dialogue, try to format the quotes properly.

• Indent and start a new paragraph for new speaker.
• And using the five points:

1. Comma
2. Opening quotation mark
3. Capital letter starts the quoted words
4. Ending Punctuation goes inside
5. Closing quotation mark

Here is a quoted line from Fan’s paper with these FIVE points:

Uncle Li said,(1) “(2) I(3)f you can’t totally understand the language of a country that you are living in, what is the difference between people who are deaf, blind, and you?(4) “(5)

Thursday Feb 22

Thx to Moziah, Yue, Jonathan, and Ron who joined me at the Mother Language Celebration Day.  They got to see me perform a Chinese nursery song!

Today WE HAVE CLASS.

We will continue to read the Obama text.

Be ready to work on your Education Narrative.  Your rough draft will be due next week on Monday in class.  So you should be visiting with the Writing Center Tutors and working hard.

Study the Assignment and the student example Education Narratives.

Sunday Feb 18

Kudos to those who got their HW 4 in on time!

1. No class tomorrow Monday — but get started reading the Obama!  Be ready to discuss Wednesday.

Barack Obama, Chapter 4 Dreams from My Father. Obama, Chapter Four   (20 pages—long read, get started early).

·      Printout, Read, Annotate, and Vocabulary (look up new words).

·      Group FOUR: Prepare Master Vocabulary for the Obama reading pages 72-85.

·      Group FIVE: Prepare Master Vocabulary for the Obama reading pages 85 – 92.

Look at how he makes his story interesting with scenes, dialogue, and CSD.  He is a really a good writer.  THINK how you might make your story come alive!  How does he SHOW us the TWO different worlds in which he lives?  The story is also about his search for identity as a young black man in America.

2. We will also be writing in class on Wednesday, so bring what you need to work on your Education Narrative in the classroom.

As I read your HW4 I have this comment to everyone: Remember that in your outline, you need one or two specific EVENTS that move your story forward.  Many of you have outlines that have NO events.  THINK about Colin Powell’s narrative events:

1. first day at City College
2. joining ROTC
3. (other events we did not discuss in class… ending with…)
4. graduation day
5. overall message is that public college education can take you as far as private college.

Examine what you wrote for HW 4.  Ask yourself:  Do I have specific important events that move my story forward?  If not, RE-THINK! and RE-DO your outline!

Please study the student example papers on the left hand sidebar of the Unit One Assignment.  You will be able to see what other students did with this same assignment!

Wednesday Feb 14 post-class

Happy Valentine’s Day!

HW 4 Outline and Opening Due Friday Feb 16

Use the title:  Outline and Opening – Your Name

Use the category:  Outline and Opening

By Saturday, please comment on TWO student peers.  MEANINGFUL COMMENTS ONLY! 

Study and printout the Unit One Education Narrative Assignment on the Assignment page.  CAREFULLY READ the choices of different writing prompts.  Then, choose one.

1. Tell me what your chosen writing prompt will be.
2. In one sentence, try your best to articulate what the main idea (MI) or the focus of your essay will be.
3. Write an outline for your essay, include events that will move your story forward.
4. Then TWO paragraphs of your opening for the essay.

So you might write:

HW 4 Outline and Opening Paragraph – Lisa

1. I will use the Mentor Quote prompt. I might also use Between Two Worlds.
2. The Main Idea of my education narrative will be showing that I was always an obedient Chinese daughter and followed my father’s wishes to become a doctor until I dropped out of medical school.
3. OUTLINE:

I.     Intro: (opening) Mentor Quote from my father telling me that I am a good student and can study anything.

II.   Event 1. In college, I majored in Chemistry/Pre-med.

III. Event 2. In medical school, I lasted only one semester before dropping out.

IV.  Event 3. I came to NYC and got a job in the magazine publishing world. I discovered I liked writing and went to graduate school for literature.  I became a teacher.

V.  Conclusion:  Conversation/Dialogue with my dad always asking me, “When are you going back?” — every year for about 10 years!  He had a hard time accepting my educational journey.

VI.  Overall Message: I have discovered the importance of finding what you really want to do and not to allow others to determine your path/your journey.

4. Opening for my essay (TWO paragraphs):

“Lisa, you are a very good student. You can study anything–even if you don’t like it.”

I will always remember these words spoken to me by my father.  We were sitting at the dining room table. Just my dad and me, no one else. My mom was in the kitchen and I can smell the cha sha pork, but it wasn’t making me feel better. This was supposed to be an important conversation because I was 17, a junior in high school, and I knew we were talking about my college future.

I knew my dad’s words were meant as a compliment but I felt the impact of his compliment as a mixture of insult and motivation.  In my mind what I thought was:  My dad thinks my brothers are smarter than me. He thinks the only thing I do well is study. Well, true, I was kind of a nerdy kid. I took all the AP classes.  I always did my homework on time, even ahead of time.  I spent my lunch time in the library.  I belonged to the smart-but-definitely-not-popular group.

• Look on the Weekly Schedule.
• Remember that Monday Feb 19 is a no-school day.
• For Wednesday Feb 21 the reading will be Barack Obama, Chapter 4 Dreams from My Father. Obama, Chapter Four   (20 pages—long read, get started early). PRINTOUT NOW!
• Groups 4 and 5 will do the Master Vocabulary Lists for Obama reading.  See Weekly Schedule for exact pages.