"Imagine there's no countries; it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for . . ." John Lennon

 "From a distance, you look like my friend, even though we are at war." Julie Gold

Tuesday, 1/13 In class: 1). Set up an email account you can access from anywhere; 2). Geocities registration and workshop
a.) Instructions for registering with Geocities for web page building.
b.) Instructions for uploading a document file to Geocities Web Page Builder.
c.) Instructions for uploading a picture or other .jpg image to Geocities Web Page Builder.

Homework assignment for Thursday, 1/15: First, take this link to the Guide to Grammar and Writing and read about how to identify thesis statements. Then press the back key to return here.
Second, read this essay about succeeding as a student, and write out the thesis or identify the paragraph in which the thesis is located.
Third, read about "webfolio" projects, and identify or paraphrase the thesis of the article.

Thursday, 1/15 In class: Discuss readings
Homework for Tuesday, 1/20: Read these two on-line essays and turn in the readings quiz at the start of class.

For your own reference print out these objectives of English 111 at TNCC. You will demonstrate mastery of each of these objectives at least three times in the assignments I make this semester. They will not all be met on any one assignment. To aid your self-evaluation of the critical reading exercise, print out this guide to evaluation of the exercise. You will turn in that evaluation sheet with your assignment on Tuesday.

Tuesday, 1/20 In class: 1). group discussion of readings quiz. 2). Make a home page on Geocities.

Thursday, 1/22 In class group assignment: Close reading and editing of Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 1/27: Read the three paper handouts and the essays at the links below. When we discuss the Orwell and Hughes essays, as well as those below and in the handouts, we will focus on the ways in which these incidents are defining moments in the writers' lives. What are "defining moments" you ask. Everyone experiences incidents in his or her life which have major significance as milestones or turning points. Such incidents become a part of our personal history and help us to understand who we are; they reveal something important to us about ourselves, about other people, or about life in general. These are defining moments in our lives.

Essays for further reading and discussion:
"Throwing it all Away" by Josh West
"From NCO to Civilian" by Betty Damico
"From the Ashes of One Career" by Kerry S. Johnson
"A Pilgrimage to Mount Kailash" by Sandy Li

Additionally: If you did not complete the in-class group exercise on Thursday, finish it individually; we'll get back to it next week. If you weren't in class, do the exercise individually. I have placed copies of the printed handout in an envelope on the door of my office (room 874) for anyone who was not in class today (1/22).

Thursday, 1/29 Return readings quiz on Orwell and Hughes. Discuss the quiz and the other readings to prepare for the first essay.

Assignment for Thursday, 1/29: Make a timeline of significant events in your life.

Tuesday, 2/3 In class: 1) Discuss "Icarus" exercise. 2) Discuss defining moments essays. 3) Approve topic for defining moment essay.

Thursday, 2/5
Due today: Revisions of critical readings exercise (Orwell & Hughes).
Workshop: Draft of defining moment essay due by end of class today.

Homework for Tuesday 2/10: Do self evaluation of the draft of your defining moment paper. Apply the criteria outlined in my prompt and evaluation sheet for the assignment (linked above). Additionally, read these suggestions for revision and editing and use the revision checklist from the Guide to Grammar and Writing at Capital Community and Technical College in Hartford, Connecticut.
In Writing Essentials, read chapter five (pages 22-29) on revising and peer review. Apply those criteria to your own essay. In class on Tuesday, you will peer review each other's essays using the criteria in W.E. and the G.G.W. Essays will be turned in after peer review at the end of class next Tuesday, 2/10.

Tuesday, 2/10
Due today: Revisions of critical reading/editing exercise (Icarus). Place these (and the revisions of the Orwell & Hughes readings quiz, if you have not already given it to me) in my mailbox in the Communications and Humanities Division office, room 852 of Templin Hall.
In-class assignment: 1) exchange papers with one other person for peer review (40 minutes). 2) edit and print out the essays (35 minutes). Turn in the paper along with a clean evaluation sheet at the start of class on Thursday, 2/12.

Homework for Thursday 2/12 Readings on electronic research and learning: 1). The new text. Is it new?
2). Learning at a distance, then and now.
Try to access the above readings on a computer which has speakers so that you can listen to "The Lord's Prayer" in Old English and in Middle English.
Readings on anaylzing Internet resourses: 1) Advice from educational technologist Alan November.
2). Guidelines from technology research librarians Esther Grassian (UCLA) and
3). Elizabeth Kirk (Johns Hopkins)

Thursday, 2/12
In-class group analysis of Internet sources, based on Esther Grassian's criteria. (This will be fun. No kidding!)

Homework for Tuesday 2/17 Applying the evalution criteria suggested by November, Grassian and Kirk, take notes in re: the validity and usefullness of the sites listed in this exercise: Evaluating Internet Resources. We will do a paired or small-group exercise based on this assignment (for a grade) in-class on Tuesday, so be certain that you are well prepared.

Tuesday, 2/17
In-class (collaborative) analysis of sample Internet sites.

Homework for Thursday 2/19 If you did not make it to class to pair up with a partner, select and do a written analysis of one of the following sites (or collection of sites): "Rodent Performance Evaluation," "Brain Gym," or the four online periodical publications listed at the end of the assignment index.
Be ready to make an oral presentation in class on Thursday and turn in the written evaluation. Use Grassian's evaluation criteria in determining the viability of these sites for your academic (class-related) uses.

Thursday, 2/19 In class:
I. Finish oral presentations evaluating the Internet sources from the assignment above.
II. Geocities workshop.
III. Reading assignments for Tuesday, 2/24: 1.) Make yourself thoroughly familiar with Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory).
2.) Read this information on writing summaries and take all of the relevant links.

Thursday, 2/26 In class:
For your next assignment you will follow my summary writing instructions to write a 150-word summary of the "M.I." article about Howard Gardner's theories of how people think and learn. Your summary should give an overview of the article touching on the most important points. It should answer the following questions. First, who is the target audience for this article? Who is Gardner (i.e., what authority does he carry in regard to the subject matter?) If you could state it in one sentence, how would you describe MI theory? How does Gardner define intelligence? What are the different intelligences according to Gardner? (Don't capitalize them in your summary.) How does Gardner's definition differ from the traditional (i.e., 20th Century) definition of intelligence? Why is Gardner's MI theory controversial in the fields of psychology and education? How is this information useful to teachers? To students?

Consider these questions and those posted at the start of the article. When you write the summary, however, do not simply list your answers to these questions (that's a short answer quiz, not a summary.) Organize the summary following the pattern of organization in the original article, and stay true to the source; in other words, don't add your own thoughts, comments or responses. Additionally, the summary will include a one-sentence direct quote. (Identify what you rgard to be the most important sentence in the article, and quote it verbatim.) Both the direct quote and the entire summary will be documented with parenthetical citations following MLA conventions.

Tuesday, 3/2
Begin errors analysis and revisions of defining moment essays

Thursday, 3/4
1.) Work on errors analyses
2.) Geocities workshop. Be sure that you have the revised copy of your defining moment essay with you!

Tuesday, 3/16 In class:
1.) Finish the errors analysis and turn it in. We will spend no more than 15 minutes of class time on this.
2.) Save the revised, perfected defining moment essay in web page format, load it into your Geocities directory, and make it into a nifty-looking web page.

Reading Assignment for Thursday, 3/18: Read sections 9, 10 & 11 of Writing Essentials (pages 44-73).
Also, read a similar section from the Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/online.shtml
Writing Assignment for Thursday, 3/18: Following my instructions (posted above) draft a summary of about 150 words of the M.I. reading selection. Compile all of the pertinent information for a works cited (bibliography) entry for the M.I. reading.

Reading Assignment for Thursday, 4/1: Read all about the VARK learning styles questionnaire and do the VARK (i.e., complete the VARK questionnaire).

Assignment for Tuesday 4/6: Draft a summary of about 150 words of the VARK reading from the site posted above. For this summary, stay true to the source, keeping your opinions or responses to yourself for the purposes of this summary writing exercise. The summary will include a significant one-sentence direct quote (correctly attributed and documented) and a correct works cited entry.

Tuesday, 4/6

Your in-class assignment today is to cheat. That's right, I want you to compare notes with your colleagues on the VARK summaries you have drafted. Make sure that you agree on the main points from the readings, that you have a correctly cited one-sentence verbatim quote from the source, that the summary itself has a parenthetical citation, and that the works cited entry is correct in content and format.

To make your works cited entry, I'd like us to experiment with this resource, which claims that it will correctly format a works cited entry from any source. I don't know how well it works, so let's give it a try and see for ourselves:
Landmark's Citation Machine

Thursday, 4/6

Discuss the documentation for the VARK summaries, and then do a pre-registration/advising workshop. Registration for summer and fall '04 semesters begins at midnight Sunday (actually Monday 4/12). If you want to access your PeopleSoft (student information systems) account on Nelson OnLine (http://www.tncc.vccs.edu), there are instructions on how to ascertain your EMPL I.D. number and password (if you don't have that information with you). With that, you can access your records, including an outline of the courses you need to take for your curriculum. Look it over, and use the online schedule of classes to plan out your spring and fall semesters if you wish to. I have placed some photocopied scheduling worksheets for summer and fall on the top shelf of the teacher's podium, and you may use these if you would like to. At the start of class next Tuesday, I will help you to get logged in and to register for your summer and fall classes if you have not already done that from your home computer or if you have run into any problems in trying to get yourself registered.

Tuesday, 4/13 & Thursday 4/15 Workshop: Registering for classes (if you wish to), summarizing VARK readings, and Geocities web page building.

Due Thursday: VARK summaries.

Tuesday, 4/20

Begin drafting a researched essay on the topic of MI and learning styles theory and practice. In this essay you will use the two summaries you have already written as two of the body paragraphs. Your essay will have at least one paragraph discussing the results of your MI inventory and VARK questionnaire, and whether you think they are on mark as the results apply to you. The essay will also include a paragraph in which you discuss how you will use this information on MI and the VARK to optimize your learning potential in college. Finally, I want you to consider how you might use this information for other purposes (not just as it relates to schooling), and write a paragraph about that. The essay will also, of course, have an introductory and a concluding paragraph, a clear and direct thesis statement, and the appropriate parenthetical citations and works cited entries.

Thursday, 4/22

In-class writing workshop.
Due at the end of class: Researched essay.

Reading Assignments for Tuesday, 4/27: Read the following links about metaphor to prepare for writing the final essay.
Metaphor explained
Poetic metaphor
An example of one way that metaphor is expressed in pop culture
Read some samples of extended metaphors. Your final paper will be an extended metaphor, but not exactly like these samples; the topic will be a bit different.

Tuesday, 4/27

In class: 1.) Discuss metaphor; 2.) either prepare web folios for evaluation or view video about metaphor, as time permits.

Linked here are the evaluation criteria and some considerations regarding the web folio.

Reading Assignment for Thursday, 4/29: Extended metaphors for the writing process.

Writing Assignment for Thursday, 4/29: Describing your writing process in an extended metaphor.

Please access each other's web folios and critique your colleagues' projects or steal cool ideas from them to use in your own.

Thursday, 4/29

Assignments due:
1.) Final essay. Hard copy turned in, electronic copy posted in web folio.
2.) Web folios

On the day we meet for your final class, you will make corrections to your last two projects (due 4/29) and we will reconcile your marks so that you know what grade you have earned for the semester.

Tuesday, 5/4

Section 14 (11:00-12:15 class) meets from 12:00-1:45 to make corrections to final essay and web folios.

Thursday, 5/6

Section 11 (9:30-10:45 class) meets from 10:00-11:45 to make corrections to final essay and web folios.

And for gosh sakes, quit asking me, "How can I overlap text onto graphics to make clickable buttons?" Here are the instructions on how to use layer controls.

Still have questions about how to do something on the Page Builder? So do thousands of other people, and just as many have answers, so try a keyword search on your favorite search engine, and I'm just betting you will get your answers. So just go on out there and make yourselves some web sites. You can do it!

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