Today is going to be more of an overview day where we look at what is upcoming for the rest of the semester and we make plans to accomplish those things.
Agenda – What’s left???
- Draft 2 of the Phase 3 Research Essay
- Website: Student Portfolio
- Student One-on-One Conferences
- Phase 4 Assignment: The Self-Assessment Essay
Draft 2 of the Phase 3 Research Essay
Let’s discuss due dates….
- For those who still owe a first draft – your first draft is due Friday, November 13 at 11:59 P.M.
- ALL draft 2 of the Research Essay: Monday, November 16 at 2:00 P.M.
Some things you should check:
- Do you have the required number of sources? (4 to 7 sources as per the Phase 3 Assignment Prompt)
- Are your sources properly formatted and cited?
- Is your “Works Cited” page complete and properly formatted? The “Works Cited” list should be in alphabetical order by the last name of the author listed.
Website: Student Portfolio
As you are all aware, we are to make Digital Portfolios (websites) of our work throughout the semester. It is my intention to walk you carefully through this process in order to help you build your portfolio in a manageable way.
One specific strategy that I will be offering is a pre-built template that can be copied (or “cloned” in the language of CUNY Academic Commons). I am already working on this, and I am continuing to refine the template so that each of you have a ready template in which you can place your work.
YOUR PART is to make sure you have gathered the materials that you have produced this semester into one place for easy access and reference. I recommend creating a special folder on your computer just for this. Of course, if your work is already organized – or at least accessible in your email – you need not do this, but I highly recommend it.
AT MINIMUM you should have —
- Literacy Narrative: Drafts 1 and 2
- Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Drafts 1 and 2
- Research Essay: Drafts 1 and 2
- Self-Assessment Essay (your final paper)
- Your Cover Letters for each essay (Literacy Narrative, Rhetorical Analysis Essay, Research Essay).
Other things you might consider —
- Any feedback from peers that you might want to show so that you can reflect on them, and show how they may have aided you in your writing.
- Self-Assessments that we did in class. At least one we did as an email to me, and others we did online in a Discussion page. NOTE: You may want to refer to these early self-assessments as a starting point, or at least include them, in your self-assessment essay.
We will proceed with building the website in the following way: in the next few days, I will send out some VERY EASY “homework” (it’s barely homework, so don’t worry!!) about how to get started on the website. It will first involve you accepting an invitation to the the website/template that I have created. Then, after that is done and everyone is onboard, I will move us onto the next step of how to create a website of your own by “cloning” that website template. Instructions will be coming soon, so be on the alert for emails regarding this.
Finally, in order to move this forward in an efficient way, I am proposing that we do some outside of class time workshops. I will think of a schedule of a few different times and send you a schedule. Of course, if I can find some time to do this in class, I will – but we should anticipate that the workshops might be a good solution as well.
Student One-on-One Conferences
It is expected by the department that instructors have one-on-one conferences with each student. Each conference must necessarily be limited to no more than 10 minutes due to the number of students. However, even with this limited time, I cannot see every student during the appointed class time (8-9:15 AM). I think the most I can see in the allotted class time is 10 students. Thus, some students will have to make appointments outside of class time. Is there anyone now that would like to volunteer to meet me outside of the usual class time?
As a starting point, we will split the class in two by alphabetical order. Those in the first half will see me on Tuesday, and the other half will see me on Thursday. Thus, if you are on the Tuesday list, you need not come to class on Thursday, and vice-versa. And if you meet me outside of classtime, you would not need to “come to class” at all that week.
Phase 4 Assignment: The Self-Assessment Essay
Let’s look at the Phase 4 Assignment Prompt together and discuss and questions you might have about what is required and what you might want to consider reflecting on in your final assignment.
You will also note that a first draft of the Self-Assessment Essay is due on Tuesday, November 17th. I’m going to adjust this so we have a LITTLE bit of breathing space between the draft 2 of the Research Essay and the first draft of the Self-Assessment Essay. But we will aim to have a first draft done in the upcoming week, AND share them for peer review. I will send out an email with adjusted dates.
A few suggestions…
- How has being online this semester impacted you? You are welcome to explore any positives or negatives as you see them.
- Re-read the “Learning Outcomes” from our syllabus and which one, or ones, might you want to reflect on? How can you connect these to your learning and writing this semester?
- Remember, as I said above, we already did some self-assessment writing, so feel free to revisit those and incorporate those into your writing if you want.
