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Reminder: Last Meeting Tomorrow, 11/12

Hey everyone—

Just a reminder that tomorrow will be our last meeting of the semester. I will go over the final portfolio requirements one last time, and we will use class time to discuss and work on the final reflection and unit assignment revisions. Please bring materials to work on your final portfolio, and come to class with any questions you may have about the final portfolio requirements.

Take care and see you tomorrow.

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Homework 3.3 and 3.4

3.3

READ (and comment): Read at least two of your colleagues’ Unit 3 proposals, and comment on them. Comments should be at least 100 words. Please do not simply say “sounds great!” because that is not helpful! Think about the kind of things that might be helpful to you as you embark on this project. Here are some ideas: 

  • A specific publication or website you think the author could write for
  • A question or comment to help narrow down the audience: “You say you want young people to watch this video essay, but there’s no publication that all young people watch. Are you actually trying to reach New Yorkers?”
  • A question or comment to help narrow down the genre: “There are a lot of different kinds of articles in the world. You could be writing for a newspaper like the New York Times or a website like Buzzfeed, and the writing is totally different for both. Can you be more specific?”
  • You can also just talk about things in the proposal you find especially cool or exciting. 

WRITE: Answer the “Know Your Publication” Questions for the publication/site/location where YOU would like to publish your Unit 3 assignment if you could.

Category: Unit 3

_______

3.4

WRITE: Write a plan for Unit 3 – New Genre piece.  What are your goals for working/ thinking/ brainstorming/ gathering material? Write a schedule.

Category: Unit 3

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Homework 3.1 and Unit 3 Proposal

Homework 3.1

Category: Unit 3

READ and ANNOTATE: “Annoying Ways People Use Sources” by Kyle Stedman: 

WRITE:  Just as a little spoiler, you should know that the things that annoy Kyle Stedman are not really particular to him. In general, these are things worth avoiding in your writing, though some conventions may vary, as Stedman himself points out, from genre to genre.  Please respond to the following after reading Stedman’s article:

(150 words) Write a paragraph for your intended audience for Unit 3 using one of your “quotables” from Unit 2 in that paragraph. Keep Stedman’s guidelines in mind while writing this paragraph. Be kind to your audience! Try not to lose them by the side of the road!

Category: Unit 3

Unit 3 Proposal

Category: Unit 3 Proposal

WRITE:  You will need to write a proposal of at least 200 words outlining what you plan to do for Unit 3. Post to website. This proposal should tell us: 

  • A 1-2 sentence statement of what you want to teach your audience (the most important thing you learned in Unit 2) 
  • The audience you are trying to reach
  • The genre you are planning to write in and why you chose it
  • A plan — how do you intend to get started? What will be your FIRST STEP?
  • Anything you might be worried about.  What are your concerns about finishing this project?

Category: Unit 3 Proposal

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Peer Review Tomorrow

Hi everyone–

Just a reminder that tomorrow’s class will be a peer review.

Please come to class prepared, with your annotated bibliography compiled, accessible in some form, and ready to offer feedback to your peers.

Please also bring a tablet or laptop if you have the means to do so, in order to access the peer review worksheets and to more seamlessly offer feedback to your peers . You may also consider printing out the peer review worksheet and/or your annotated bibliographies.

Take care and see you tomorrow!

 

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Conclusion and Compilation

 WRITE: Conclusion (at least 400 words). For your conclusion: 

  • You will summarize what you found in your research
  • You will tell readers what surprised you, or how your understanding of your question deepened or changed. (Spoiler: if the answer is “not at all”, you did not do enough research.) 
  • You will explain why what you learned is important
  • You will explain who you think needs to know about it and why (Another spoiler: be specific!  The answer can not be “everyone.”  That is too big of an audience.  Narrow it down to who needs to hear about it first!)

COMPILE and POST: your bibliography. Put it together into a single document. If you’d like, you can select a report template from Canva and fill it out with the material you’ve written for this assignment. Post rough draft of annotated bibliography on the website.

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Source Entry #3

WRITE: Final Source entry

BEGIN WRITING: Conclusion (at least 400 words). For your conclusion: 

  • You will summarize what you found in your research.
  • You will tell readers what surprised you, or how your understanding of your question deepened or changed. (Spoiler: if the answer is “not at all”, you did not do enough research.) 
  • You will explain why what you learned is important.
  • You will explain who you think needs to know about it and why (Another spoiler: be specific!  The answer can not be “everyone.”  That is too big of an audience.  Narrow it down to who needs to hear about it first!)
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Source Entry #2

READ AND ANNOTATE: Graff & Birkenstein, “Chapter 3: As He Himself Puts It – The Art of Quoting”

WRITE:  Your second “Source Entry” Draft. Post on website. Try to include all five steps of the IQIAA method for at least one quotation.

Review the report templates on www.canva.com and select a couple that you like.

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Reminder: Observation Today

Hey everyone —

Just a reminder that we will be observed today. Please come to class prepared (ideally with a tablet or laptop) and ready to participate.

Also, I realize I never posted a homework assignment for today — this was intentional. Hopefully it gave you some time to catch up / work on your research question. You will have some time at the end of class today to work on your first source entries.

And lastly, please check your email for information regarding graded Unit 1 assignments.

Take care and see you soon.

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Research Question Proposal

Category: Unit 2

WRITE: Write a blog post (at least 350 words) in which you introduce your research question. You may find your topic anywhere– from Unit One to the blog posts we wrote last week, to your peers’ blog posts! (It’s really okay if two people write about the same topic– I promise you.) 

What is important here– and I can’t stress this enough– is that you research something you want to know more about, not something you think you already know the answer to.  You may be curious to know why there are so few African American ballerinas in major companies, or you may want to know how much “housing projects” have changed in New York since James Baldwin wrote “A Talk to Teachers” in 1963, or you may want to know what we really learn from playing computer games.  Just be curious. REMEMBER YOU MUST GET YOUR TOPIC APPROVED BY ME! 

Write it in question form (it can’t be a yes-or-no question, though) You must cover all of the questions in bold:

  • Why are you interested in this question?  (Feel free to talk about your own personal experience with the topic, or to tell an anecdote about your experience with this subject matter) 
  • What do you expect to find in your research? (Why do you expect to find this?) Remember that it’s okay to be wrong– you might find a completely different answer than the one you intended to find. You won’t get marked down for that! 

Spend some time on this– because this will serve as the first draft of the introduction for your annotated bibliography!

Category: Unit 2

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Homework 2.2

Category: Unit 2

Part 1

READ AND ANNOTATE: “Research Starts with a Thesis Statement” from Bad Ideas about Writing

READ AND ANNOTATE: “Schools are Killing Curiosity” from The Guardian 

WRITE: Blog Post (200 words): 

What is something you were interested in when you were a kid? Are you still interested in that topic? How did asking questions help you learn more about that topic?

If so, how has your curiosity changed and grown over the years? And what role did the educational system play in your curiosity (good or bad)? 

If you are not interested in this topic anymore, what do you think happened to that interest? Do you remember the specific time you LOST interest?  What did you become interested in instead (and why?) 

THINK: Start thinking about a topic you are interested in, something you might want to know more about.  This can be something heavy, like police brutality, or it can be something that seems on the surface more light-hearted, like ballet.  The only criteria is that you are actually curious about it.  

This may seem like strange advice, but it can be helpful to go for a walk and think about topics you’d like to write about. Come home and jot down a few notes. I would recommend maybe making a list of a few potential questions.

By our next class, you will be expected to have some idea of a topic you’d like to research, even if it’s a bit vague. 

Category: Unit 2

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Homework 2.1

READ AND ANNOTATE: “A Talk to Teachers” by James Baldwin. 

 WRITE:  Blog Post (at least 300 words) In “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin writes:  

“I would try to make [the student] know that just as American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it, so is the world larger, more daring, more beautiful and more terrible, but principally larger – and that it belongs to him. I would teach him that he doesn’t have to be bound by the expediencies of any given administration, any given policy, any given morality; that he has the right and the necessity to examine everything. “

First of all, what do you think of what James Baldwin was saying? What do you think he means when he says “the world is larger?”

Secondly, what do you think you have the “necessity” to examine, or the obligation to learn more about? To put it another way: what do you wish had been taught to you in school that wasn’t? Why do you want to know about these topics?



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HW d.2 (Difficulty Paper)

REREAD and ANNOTATE: “Later”

WRITE: Using your plan for re-reading as a guide, re-read (and annotate in a different color than the first time) “Later.” When you’re done, write another 300 words about what you learned from rereading. Again, be specific, quoting from the text! You don’t need to submit this as a post. Instead, follow the instructions below and include in your difficulty paper.

The difficulty paper is 3 parts:

1. 300 words on what you found difficult or confusing (HW d.1)

2. Plan for rereading, which you did today during class, and

3. 300-word reflection after rereading (the prompt above).

Remember the difficulty paper is worth 5% of your grade. You just have to turn all three parts in (by the start of our next meeting) to get those points. Please put all 3 parts together in one document and submit them as a google doc or PDF to the difficulty paper submission folder in the shared Google Drive folder.

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Homework d.1

Category: Difficulty Paper

READ and ANNOTATE: “Later”  (in the Later Library on the Procrastination Station– www.yourprocrastinationstation.com).

WRITE: After reading and annotating “Later,” write an Open Lab post of approximately 300 words in which you reflect upon the article. What, particularly, did you find confusing, irritating, boring or otherwise difficult?

Please note: I want you to BE SPECIFIC. Quote from the text directly. That is, if you were particularly dumbfounded by a particular passage—quote that passage, and explain WHY you found it confusing. If the vocabulary was difficult, quote a particularly difficult passage, and try to figure out what the author might have been trying to say. Explain WHY you found their particular word choices difficult. Dig deeply!

My point in asking you to do this is that usually the places you struggle the most are the places you are doing your best thinking. I want you to stay there a while, even if it’s to explain to me why you don’t understand!

Category: Difficulty Paper

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HW 1.7 (sort of)

Your only assignment for Friday is to continue work on your Unit 1 assignment! No post necessary for this HW assignment.

It’s not officially due until October 3rd (10/3) by the start of class, but you will probably want to get your narratives in pretty good shape before we start the next mini-unit on Friday.

When you’re ready to submit your Unit 1 assignments, go to the Google Drive tab on the Openlab menu bar, and select Unit 1 Assignment Submission Folder. I’ll remind you of how to submit over the next couple of weeks as well.

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HW 1.6: Unit 1 SFD

READ AND ANNOTATE: Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott 

WRITE: A Less Shitty First Draft of your UNIT ONE essay. At least 800 words. Pay attention to your paragraphs! Remember that you can use anything we have already written in this unit if you want. All low-stakes assignments are to help you write the major papers!

PRINT: Print your draft and bring to class for Peer Review.

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HW 1.5

Many times, students don’t know the rules when it comes to writing emails to professors. This isn’t their fault! There are so many rules, how could a person keep track? That’s why I want you to practice this extremely important genre of writing. First, watch this slide show about emailing a professor, and then write me an email either: 

  1. Asking me a question about Unit 1. This can be a question you have about the assignment or about your essay in particular or
  2. Explaining to me how your essay is going. 

Don’t use Chat GPT!!

If you have something else you want to talk about, feel free to write about that. These topics are really just there to give you ideas. Do your best to follow all the guidelines given in the handout! If you don’t get it right, that’s okay, but give it a shot. 



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Homework 1.4

  1. READ/REVIEW: Unit 1 Assignment Sheet
  2. THINK: Think of one specific incident that changed your views on education. Picture the scene.
  3. REVIEW : Please review the slideshow we watched in class about what paragraphs are. You can find it HERE .
  4. WRITE: a blog post of at least two distinct paragraphs describing one specific incident that changed your views on education using Concrete, Significant detail. The incident you described in class will be a great place to start.
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Homework 1.3

Category: Unit 1

READ AND ANNOTATE : “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” 

READ AND ANNOTATE: “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde 

WRITE: (250 Words)  So far in this unit, we have read three examples from the genre of the “education narrative.”  Your first essay assignment in this class will be to write in this genre yourself.  So in this discussion forum, I’d like us to have a conversation about what the features of this genre are. Please discuss some of the following:

  • What, from what you’ve seen so far, are the “ingredients” (also known as “conventions”) of the education narrative genre?
  • What do you think might be a place to get started with your own education narrative?
  • What are your questions or concerns about writing an education narrative of your own?
  • If you like, you can also feel free to share an educational experience you had and ask for feedback from your colleagues (and me) to see if we think that might be a solid place to begin writing.

Category: Unit 1

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Homework 1.2

Category: Unit 1

READ: “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn

WRITE:  On the website, write a post of at least 300 words discussing the following questions. You can also post the picture of your notes from the reading in this same post: 

  • In his article, Mike Bunn writes “You are already an author.” He’s talking to you.  What do you think he means by this? What are some of the things you write already?  (Hint: “Nothing” is not an acceptable answer.) Think of all of the ways you already use words in your everyday life. That’s authorship! How will that existing expertise help you in your college reading and writing career?
  • Was there anything you noticed in Bunn’s article that you would like to try to do in your own writing? What, in particular? Please be specific!

Category: Unit 1

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Homework 1.1

Being a student can be intimidating, confusing, and just plain difficult! 

So for these first few days, you get to vent about it! No kidding. Share your concerns with each other. Maybe give each other some advice or just a good old bit of support. Believe me — instructors have many of the same worries you do, even if we’ve been teaching for a while. I also promise not to hijack the conversations, either! 

Here’s what you’ll do:

    1. PLAY with the website. You can’t break it. Honestly. I’ve tried. Click around on all the tabs. See what’s there! We’ll be doing a great deal of work here this semester, so make yourself familiar with the sit
    2. READ/ WATCH:
    3. WRITE A NEW POST: Start with one word that describes how you’re feeling about this course and college in general as we get started. No need to explain, but you can if you want to. 
      • Talk about your study skills. What works for you and what doesn’t? What do you need to learn how to do better?
      • Talk about your worries, concerns, reactions to the readings and/or to being a college student… whatever you want to. No censoring… except keep it kind of clean, please ;-). And
      • Add a picture that means something to you, and explain why you chose it — why does it mean something to you?
      • Make sure the post category is INTRO
    4.  Check back in and comment on your peers’ work!

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