FALL 2024 ENGLISH 1101 – LC96

Professor: Jody R. Rosen (she/her/hers)

Email: jrrosen@citytech.cuny.edu

Course Site: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/rosen-eng1101-lc96-f2024

Course meetings: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:00-1:40pm, Namm 704

Weekly student support hours (also called office hours): Mondays 1:40-2:40 (N520); Wednesdays, 11:00-12:00 (N520); and by appointment

First Year Learning Community partner course: Prof. Jessica DeCoux’s CT101-LC05

Welcome:

Welcome to City Tech and English 1101. Being a college student is exciting but stressful, as is starting at a new school. I am sharing with you my intention to conduct this semester with humanity, compassion, flexibility, grace, and a little bit of humor, and I hope you will, too. I invite you to challenge yourself, to explore, to learn and grow, to establish yourselves as college students with futures in your chosen fields–or to explore what field to choose!–but also to know when you need to step back, or step away, and to know when you’re ready to come back. I’m here to talk, to listen, to work with you, to accommodate and support, not to penalize or judge. 

Course Description:

A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing. See the ENG 1101 Learning Outcomes below.

Every City Tech (and CUNY) student takes ENG 1101: Composition I, which features reading and writing assignments that will help prepare you for college and beyond. Together we will work on communicating effectively, writing expressively and persuasively, adapting your writing for different needs and situations, interpreting and responding to texts, and incorporating and citing secondary source material. We will read pieces both for their inherent literary and informational value and also as models for our own writing projects. Sharing your own ideas and experiences and adding your voice (spoken, written, or otherwise) to our discussions will enrich our class community.

Prerequisite: 

To enroll in ENG 1101, students must already have CUNY proficiency in reading and writing.

Teaching and Learning Methods:

This course is discussion-based. Students share their writing, both informal and formal, and use instructor’s and classmates’ feedback to revise work. Each week, I post an agenda that outlines that week’s work, including instructions for you and links to readings, discussion questions, and other work. We will work on developing community both in our classroom and in our online written community. We will use a portfolio system, meaning you will compile and revise all work when it is initially due and again at the end of the semester, so that you can reflect on what you have learned throughout the semester to revise your work.

Since this course relies on students’ collaboration with and feedback for each other, it is important that everyone shares ideas in the spirit of helping and learning from classmates. I provide feedback, both written and spoken, on your work in the spirit of supporting your writing development. Respect, consideration, and shared responsibility are central to this approach: individually, between students, and between instructor and students.

Course Website: 

This course will use our OpenLab site extensively. It’s where you will find course documents, weekly agendas, announcements, discussion questions, and project instructions, as well as where you will respond, share ideas, and communicate with other members of this course, and post your final work and reflections. Please take some time to explore the site, and ask questions or make suggestions so the site works well for you. Check the site often so you can stay up-to-date with our course. As content gets added to this site, you will get a daily notification email to your City Tech email account, so also check your City Tech email regularly. Please ask for help if you have any concerns!

Course Tools and Required Materials:

  • All readings for our course are Open Educational Resources/Zero Textbook Costs (OER/ZTC), which means instead of buying a textbook, you will use materials that are freely or openly available–at no cost to students.
  • Recommended: The New York Times (create a free Academic Pass account).
  • A notebook or other system to take notes in class.
  • A system to record, store, and organize your work, both digitally and on paper. It is very important that you save all of your work for this class. Devise a filing system that allows you to maintain prior drafts and final copies of all major assignments, as well as your research notes, outlines, and evaluations. 

Technology

  • For our course, you will need an OpenLab account (and membership in our course site), as well as your City Tech email account and CUNYfirst login. And your passwords!
  • To complete your coursework, you will need a reliable internet connection and a device to access our shared spaces (OpenLab site, Google docs, college library site, etc) to share your work.
  • Although a printer is not required, you should consider how you read and compose best and decide if you would benefit from printing your materials, either by visiting one of the computer labs at City Tech or by investing in a printer (plus ink and paper).
  • You may complete some of your work using your phone, such as shorter readings and writing assignments, but you will likely find it difficult to conduct all of your work on your phone. If your phone is the only device you have regular access to, please inquire about borrowing a laptop or other technology. Also, consider using computer labs at City Tech. Your local public library will also have time-slots for using computers that you can reserve using your (free) public library card. Even if you’re not a Brooklyn resident, you can get a Brooklyn Public Library card–and there’s a branch near City Tech.
  • You’ll need storage space for your work. I strongly recommend cloud storage, such as a Dropbox or Google Drive account. You can get an unlimited-storage CUNY Dropbox account for free.
  • Even with all of this digital technology, you may still want to use pen or pencil on paper–they’re technology, too! I recommend having a notebook to keep ideas, freewrites, sketches, mind maps, etc, together throughout the semester–it can be the same as the required notebook for class notes or similar.
  • The camera on your phone or tablet can be very useful for quickly digitizing non-digital materials, such as work in your notebook, or written comments on drafts, that you can then share on the OpenLab. You can also download a free program that lets you use your phone’s camera to create PDFs, such as Adobe Scan or CamScanner.
  • A word-processing program can be helpful if you don’t exclusively write in OpenLab posts. You might use Google Docs or, if you’re interested, Microsoft Office: CUNY provides Microsoft Office 365 for Education to students at participating colleges, including City Tech via the Microsoft Office in Education program. You sign in using your CUNYFirst login and have online access to MS Word and other programs in the MS Office Suite. You may also be eligible to download the Suite to your computer. Read more about and download Microsoft Office 365.
  • A digital folder on your computer and (if using) in Google Docs and Dropbox for each course you take this semester to store files.

Grading Breakdown:

Project 1: Education Narrative: 20%

Project 2: Reflective Annotated Bibliography: 20%

Project 3: Composing in a New Genre: 20%

Project 4: Final Reflection and Portfolio: 10%

Informal Writing & Participation (in-class, on our OpenLab site, and outside-of-class): 30%

Participation

In this class, your class and online participation—written, spoken, etc—are essential, and count for more than any one project in your grade. I’m interested in your engagement with our course activities, meaning that your work shows that you are present and participating. In this class, you are learning about the process of writing (and reading—and researching) and developing discipline and routine, and informal writing is part of the writing process.

If I see that you aren’t present and active in our shared spaces (eg classroom, OpenLab, student support hours, etc), that tells me that something is keeping you from attending to and participating in our class. I will take note of your presence or absence to help you stay on track, and to make sure you get the support and feedback you need to succeed in this course. Completing the course becomes more difficult if you don’t complete the work; we can develop a plan for time management if this is helpful. If you need to step away from our course for any reason—health, family, work, etc—and you are able to be in touch with me, please keep in contact (jrrosen@citytech.cuny.edu). It is much easier for me to help you if I know your intentions for completing the course, or if I can help you develop a plan for completing the course. You are welcome to talk to me about anything, but please know that you can reach out and get my help to make a plan even without disclosing what you’re going through.

Late Work Policy:

Each project and informal assignment has a due date to give you a guideline to stay on track. There is no grade penalty for late work, but there’s a functional penalty as it becomes harder for you to complete projects when you haven’t completed the informal work building to the project, and it is harder for me and your classmates to give you feedback on late work, and harder for you to complete all of the work for the course in a shorter time frame. If you are having difficulty completing any of your work, please know that I am a resource for you and am available to talk to plan a personalized work schedule.

Revision Policy

In this course, you can—and will!—revise all projects for your final portfolio (see Project 4: Final Reflection and Portfolio). Your new grade on a revised project entirely replaces your old grade. You can also revise your projects sooner than the end of the semester so you can get more feedback. Please come to student support hours if you want to talk about about your work, learn more about my comments, or get additional feedback.

College and University Policies: 

Accessibility

Your success in this class is important to me. We all need different accommodations because we all come to this class with different experiences and needs. If there are aspects of this course that prevent you from learning or exclude you, please let me know as soon as possible. Together we’ll develop strategies to meet both your needs and the requirements of the course. Additionally, if you need official accommodations, you can contact the Center for Student Accessibility. The college has an official accessibility statement:

City Tech is committed to supporting the educational goals of enrolled students with disabilities in the areas of enrollment, academic advisement, tutoring, assistive technologies, and testing accommodations. If you have or think you may have a disability, you may be eligible for reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments as provided under applicable federal, state and city laws. You may also request services for temporary conditions or medical issues under certain circumstances. If you have questions about your eligibility or would like to seek accommodation services or academic adjustments, you can leave a voicemail at 718-260-5143, send an email to:  Accessibility@citytech.cuny.edu, or visit the Center’s website at  http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/accessibility/ for more information.

Academic Integrity

Our goal this semester is for you to develop your writing according to the ENG 1101 Learning Outcomes. I expect you will do this with integrity, and will meet with me when you need support to do so. The college has an official statement about academic integrity:

Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music, inventions, and other intellectual property owe their audience and sources accuracy and honesty in using, crediting, and citing sources. As a community of intellectual and professional workers, the College recognizes its responsibility for providing instruction in information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity. Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and at New York City College of Technology and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion. The complete text of the College policy on Academic Integrity may be found in the catalog.

Diversity and Inclusive Education Statement 

The college has an official Diversity and Inclusive Education statement: 

This course welcomes students from all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. In accordance with the City Tech and CUNY missions, this course intends to provide an atmosphere of inclusion, respect, and the mutual appreciation of differences so that together we can create an environment in which all students can flourish. It is the instructor’s goal to provide materials and activities that are welcoming and accommodating of diversity in all of its forms, including race, gender identity and presentation, ethnicity, national origin, religion, cultural identity, socioeconomic background, sexuality and sexual orientation, ability, neurodivergence, age, and etc. Your instructor is committed to equity and actively seeks ways to challenge institutional racism, sexism, ableism and other forms of prejudice. Your input is encouraged and appreciated. If a dynamic that you observe or experience in the course concerns you, you may respectfully inform your instructor without fear of how your concerns will affect your grade.  Let your instructor know how to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally, or for other students or student groups. We acknowledge that NYCCT is located on the traditional homelands of the Canarsie and Lenape peoples. 

Support Resources:

City Tech has many other resources to support you. Check out the Resources section of our course site in general, and the College Resources specifically to learn more.

College Writing Center: 

In-person and online writing tutoring is available through the Writing Center at City Tech. I encourage you to utilize their services. Keep in mind you’ll need to make an appointment ahead of time. It’s unlikely they’ll be able to squeeze you in at the last minute, especially during busy times, so plan ahead!

Advising: 

The transition to college is challenging for everyone. It is helpful to periodically reflect on how you are doing in your classes, and how your anticipated area of study (major) is progressing, as well as to plan next steps. Once advisement begins, you will be assigned a faculty advisor. During this period, if you have not been emailed and/or you do not see your advisor/appointment on CUNYFirst, go to your intended major’s homepage; there, you will find advisement details that will include contact information, as well as dates and times.

English 1101 Learning Outcomes  

Departmental Learning Outcomes: 

It is expected that at a minimum, students in ENG 1101 will:

Read and listen critically and analytically in a variety of genres and rhetorical situations: Identify and evaluate exigencies, purposes, claims, supporting evidence, and underlying assumptions in a variety of texts, genres, and media.

Adapt to and compose in a variety of genres: Adapt writing conventions in ways that are suitable to different exigencies and purposes in a variety of contexts, including academic, workplace, and civic audiences. When appropriate, repurpose prior work to new genres, audiences, and media by adjusting delivery, design, tone, organization, and language.

Use research as a process of inquiry and engagement with multiple perspectives: Learn to focus on a topic and develop research questions that lead to propositions and claims that can be supported with well-reasoned arguments. Persuasively communicate and repurpose research projects across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media. Demonstrate research skills through attribution and citation gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing both primary and secondary sources. Learn how to use appropriate citation styles depending on disciplinary and situational requirements (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).

Use reflection and other metacognitive processes to revise prior assumptions about reading and writing and transfer acquired knowledge into new writing situations. Students write reflections of their own reading and writing process from the beginning and throughout the semester with the intention to transfer their acquired knowledge about genre and composing practices into new writing situations.

Demonstrate the social and ethical responsibilities and consequences of writing: Recognize that first-year writing includes academic, workplace, and civic contexts, all of which require careful deliberation concerning the ethical and social ramifications concerning fairness, inclusivity, and respect for diversity. Write and revise for academic and broader, public audiences accordingly.

Compose in 21st– Century Environments: Learn to choose among the most current and effective delivery methods for different composing situations. Students learn to compose in new media environments, including alphabetic texts, still and moving images, sonic, and mixed media compositions. Use digital media platforms appropriate to audience and purpose.

CUNY Pathways Learning Outcomes: 

A course in this area must meet all of the following learning outcomes. A student will:

  • Read and listen critically and analytically, including identifying an argument’s major assumptions and assertions and evaluating its supporting evidence.
  • Write clearly and coherently in varied, academic formats (such as formal essays, research papers, and reports) using standard English and appropriate technology to critique and improve one’s own and others’ texts.
  • Demonstrate research skills using appropriate technology, including gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources.
  • Support a thesis with well-reasoned arguments, and communicate persuasively across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media.
  • Formulate original ideas and relate them to the ideas of others by employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation.

Schedule

Refer to the Course Schedule on our OpenLab site for an overview of the semester’s schedule.

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