R. Dollieslager's English 112-22W Weekly Schedule Spring 2017 Thomas Nelson Community College Mr. D's email address: dollier@tncc.edu

 

I am an Equal Opportunity Educator: I refuse to discriminate against, condone discrimination against, or participate in, or support, or tolerate discrimination against any person based on ethnicity, religion--or lack thereof, age, gender, national origin, political affiliation, sexual identity, or sexual orientation.

Office Hours: 9:00-11:00 M & W (4 hours);T & Th 9:00-9:30 (1 hour); and 12:45-2:00 M-Th (5 hours)
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Email me at dollier@tncc.edu

Page last Updated: 25 April 2017, 2:15 p.m.

Week One

Thursday 1/12/17

In-class activities: 1] Identifying main ideas and supporting details in researched writing. 2] Process: First, highlight and copy the title, author's name and text of an article into an M.S. Word document. Then skim through the article to get an impression of what it is about and to get an overview of what sort of support is included and where the supporting details tend to be located. Next, background highlight the main ideas/topic sentences in light blue, and in yellow highlight all the details that support THAT main idea before moving on to the next. When finished highlight the conclusion in light grey, and then--after having read the whole article--go back and highlight the thesis statement in pink. 3] The readings:

• "Research: College Students More Distracted Than Ever" Campus Technology, 1/20/16
• "The Age of Distraction: Getting Students to Put Away Their Phones and Focus on Learning" Faculty Focus, 1/8/14
• "Why Phones Don't Belong in School" Huffington Post, 4/12/16
• "Texting and Tweeting in the Classroom: How Do They Impact Student Learning?" Science Daily, 4/6/15

Homework assignment for Thursday, 1/17/17:

• Finish marking main ideas, supporting details, theses, and conclusions in the articles about cell phone use.
• Diagnostic Writing Assignment: Fake News. I will post this assignment in BlackBoard along with the grading rubric for uploading before or during class on 1/17/17. Because this is a "diagnostic" assignment, it will not be graded as formally as subsequent essays will be, and not for as many points (worth 2 points rather than 6).
  Respond to the following writing prompt: 
  In an era when fake news is prevalent and misinformation can be quickly conveyed via social and mainstream media, does truth really matter? Should it? 
  Before you complete this writing assignment, read The New York Times essay, "As Fake News Spreads Lies, More Readers Shrug at the Truth." Remember that if you use any information from the article you must cite it both in the essay and on a "Works Cited" page.  
  Responses should be:
  1. typed in .doc or .docx format and posted to BBd
  2. carefully spell checked and proofread
  3. well written in MLA format, and 
     
  4. a minimum of 500 words (has a beginning, middle and end).

Week Two

Tuesday 1/17/17

In-class activities: 1] Group activity: compare mark ups of four readings on cell phone use. 2] Discuss cell phone readings. 3] Discuss and begin annotated bibliographies, re: section W-12 in Little Seagull Handbook. 4] Upload diagnostic essays to BBd Assignments

Homework assignment for Thursday, 1/19/17:

• Begin "Annotated Bibliography of Resources used in English 112" by annotating and documenting the cell phone readings, four to six descriptive sentences for each source annotation, conveying the topic and most important points made in each article, listed alphabetically per MLA conventions. This semester-long project will be categorized by content area subheadings, the first two being "Cell Phones in the Classroom" and "Tracking the Truth"

Thursday 1/19/17

In-class activities: 1] Discuss the "Fake News" article. 2] Explore class resources: "Tracking the Truth" 3] Discuss the course syllabus.

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 1/24/17:

• Add the "Tracking the Truth" resources and the abstract of the fake news article from Time agazine to your "Annotated Bibliography of Resources used in English 112"
• Make a list for discussion: If we are to have a cell phone use policy, there will need to be results or consequences for use during class. The articles we read listed numerous consequences to discourage in-class use. List those consequences or policies, and in addition, come up with at least three ideas of your own, which can include "no consequences for in-class use," but you will need to prepare to defend that position in class discussion.

Week Three

Tuesday 1/24/17

In-class activities: 1] Group activity: Discuss cell phone policies (or none) and codify outcomes into the syllabus. 2] Review the annotated bibliographies. 3] Listen to Orwell at 100 Years. 4] Preview "Politics and the English Language."

Homework assignment for Thursday, 1/26/17:

• Read and take notes on "Politics and the English Language"
• Read this article on "double speak" in the news.

Thursday 1/26/17

In-class activities: 1] Discuss the readings 2] View "How D. Trump answers a question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFo_BV-UzI 3] Begin the assignment for Tuesday:

• Read this article from ABC News, "White House Press Secretary: 'Our Intention is never to lie'." 
• Answer the following questions in complete, grammatically correct sentences. Your answers should be typed double-spaced, and the assignment is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, 1/31.

1. Who first published this article? Is this entity a reliable source? Explain why or why not.
2. List three facts from the article.
3. Verify each of these facts and explain how you verified each fact.
4. Is the article written in a neutral or biased tone? Explain why it is or is not. List specific words, sentences, or phrases that demonstrate its tone.
5. Summarize it--write a brief summary of the article.
6. Provide a separate example of fake news. Explain how it is fake. Explain how you verified that the article was not true.

Here is a chart, that, in truth, is quite accurate, which depicts the reliability of news media. It is in an article about how the chart itself has gone viral and has elicited hotly contested rhetoric as to the accuracy of any ranking of reliable sources. So, where IS truth and objectivity in a polarized era driven by opinions, rhetoric, and personal agendas rather than informed by facts? These are our times, folks.

Week Four

• Read and take notes on "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" to prepare for discussion. Focus question: How does Roberts' advice compare to Orwell's advice to writers, and how is it different?

Thursday 2/2/17

In-class activities: 1] Discuss your fake news assignments. 2] Discuss revising the two parts of your "fake news" assignments (posted above on 1/12/17 and the second on 1/26/17) into a unified researched essay on this topic. 3] Discuss Speechnotes voice-to-text tool--it only works on Chrome on the computer, but it works on Safari on a cell phone and there is also an app for cell phones.

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 2/7/17:

• Topic: Does fake news have real consequences and, if so, how do we determine what is real and what is fake?
• Refer to the Standards of Credibility of Just Facts: A Resource for Independent Thinkers
• Revise, edit, unify, and correctly document the researched fake news essay
• Editing/style: Follow the Advice of Roberts and Orwell while editing and polishing the essay
• Proofreading: [A] "Aurally" edit your final draft by listening to it using M.S. Word's "Speak" text-to-voice editing tool. [B] Run it through Grammarly for spelling errors and editing advice, and through PaperRater for somewhat helpful style and plagiarism feedback. Consider all advice.

Week Five

Tuesday 2/7/17

In-class activities: 1] Discuss the Roberts essay and his advice to (college) writers, and compare it to Orwell's advice to writers. 2] Dissect Roberts' sample "student essay."

Homework assignment for Thursday, 2/9/17:

• Revise and "pump up" your essay--Does fake news have real consequences and, if so, how do we determine what is real and what is fake?--following the advice of (Orwell and) Paul Roberts about writing with style, expressing concrete meaning, keeping readers interested, cutting out the dead weight in our writing.

Thursday 2/9/17

In-class activities: 1] Peer review the "fake news" essay; then revise, edit and print it out. 2] Begin drafting an annotated bibliography of resources used in Eng. 112 so far, which will be useful to you this semester and in the future. You will title it "Annotated Bibliography of Writing Resources," and you will continue to develop it throughout the semester. I will review and re-evaluate it periodically as the resource grows. Sections will begin with the following, and more categories will be added as the semester progresses. List the Sub-headings alphabetically (as they are below); and list the resources in each section alphabetically under their sub-headings.

• Cell Phone Use
• Tracking the Truth (from my links in the resources box at the top of the page). You may use the descriptions from my annotations, but add the works cited entries for each, and annotate the Just Facts site.
• Writing with Style (Orwell--2 sources, the Roberts essay, and the Editing Checklist from the Guide to Grammar and Writing--so far)
• Writing with Technology (Speechnotes, Gammarly, PaperRater, and the Youtube video instructions for activating "Speak" in M.S. Word)

Week Six

Tuesday 2/14/17

In-class activities: Discuss making revisions to the essays submitted last week. Please run them through Safe Assign in BBd for plagiarisim detection help, and use Paper Rater as well for some feedback on possible plagiarism but also for its feedback on "style," readability, academic level, and good stuff like that.

Homework assignment for Thursday, 2/16/17:

• Finish and submit (in paper copy, at the start of class) the revision of the essay on the consequences of and detection of fake news.
• Using Cornell format lecture notes for test preparation
• Video about Cornell note taking from readings 4:52 min
• Video about Cornell note-taking from lecture 7:52 min.
• What to write when taking notes from lectures; a video lesson on lecture notes 4:35 min.
• Various note-taking methods (video) 6:39 min.
• Take pre-lecture notes about the Natural Human Learning Process from Dr. Rita Smilkstein's P.Pts. or .pdf files. In-class, I will do a lecture lesson on the NHLP and brain development during learning, and there will be a test on this material next week. Come to class with preliminary notes from reading Dr. Smilkstein's presentation materials..

Thursday, 2/16/17 Learning Unit: The NHLP and Brain Development During Learning.

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 2/21/17:

• Complete your Cornell notes from class by writing the summary section at the bottom and corresponding questions in the "Cues" column.

Week Seven

Tuesday 2/21/17

In-class activities: Complete the learning unit on The NHLP and Brain Development During Learning. Take good notes for the test on Thursday.

Homework and resources for Thursday.

• Finish your Cornell notes by writing the cues and the summaries. Study your notes to prepare for the 20-question test. Write good summaries because you will be writing paragraphs from your notes about this topic
• View the videos and read the web pages about The NHLP and Brain Development During Learning, which I have pasted in below, and take notes from those sources.
  • Brain videos/audios for "flipping" the classroom:
    • Anatomy of a Neuron (note, "synaptic cleft" = "synaptic gap") 2:11 min.
    • Neurons: How They Work 4:56 min.
    • How the Brain Works (during learning) 9:05 min.
    • "Struggle for Smarts? How Eastern and Western Cultures Tackle Learning" (audio file from NPR) 8:37 min.
  • Spark plug firing
  • How spark plugs work (1:10 video)
  • Dr. C. George Boeree's webpage description of synaptic firing
  • Graphic description and animations of synaptic firing from the Neuroscience for Kids web site

Thursday 2/23/17

In-class activities: 1] Test on brain development during learning. 2] Begin drafting two paragraphs about the NHLP and brain development during learning.

• Using the key words for the six stages of learning from Dr. Smilkstein's research on the NHLP, write a paragraph describing how you learned a higher order skill or body of knowledge outside of a formal classroom situation.
• Write a second paragraph discussing how emotions affect (control) learning, and exemplify it by describing a specific learning situation in which stress interfered with your ability to learn, recall, or achieve successful learning outcomes.

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 2/28/17:

• Complete two paragraphs about the NHLP and brain development during learning. We will discuss and print them in class or post them to BBd on Tuesday
• Midterm Review Project: Submit annotated bibliographies which include the following resources which we have used so far this semester. Alphabetize them under the following subheadings:
  • I. Academic Impact of Cell Phones
    • Four articles posted in Week One
  • II. Advice to Academic Writers
    • Orwell's and Roberts' essays
  • III. Technological Support for Academic Writing (four entries)
    • Grammarly, Paper Rater, "Speak" text-to-speech video, Speechnotes
  • IV. Tracking the Truth
    • Six websites in the class resources box. You may use my annotations--except for Just Facts, which I did not annotate; however, supply the correct works cited entry for each site, and list them alphabetically.
  • *Use the correct models from the Little Seagull Handbook. Let's find them together first.

Week Eight

Week Nine

Tuesday 3/14/17
Group activity--identifying and using the main rhetorical "appeals"

Homework assignment for Thursday, 3/16/17: Now that we have done the Ethos/Pathos/Logos workheet activity, the assignment below should be easier to do.

• Outline and parse the article "Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds: New Discoveries about the Human Mind Show the Limitations of Reason." which is posted in the Course Documents folder in BBd.
  • To produce your paraphrased outline, use SpeechNotes and follow this procedure. Read each paragraph individually, and then turn away from the document and state aloud what that pararaph said. Do this for each paragraph of the article, so that you have a rough topic sentence outline of the article, stated in your own words.
  • Parsing the rhetoric: Note and type up at least two examples each of the use of ethos, pathos and logos in the article. Is mythos evident? If so, give an example.
  • State what you take the writer's purpose to be in this article.
  • Analyzing the audience: Discuss whom you think the primary audience for this article may be, and provide evidence to support your assertion.

Thursday 3/16/17

In-class activities: Discuss the boilerplate comments for revising.

Week Ten

• Preview the Comparative Governments Research Project page, getting familiar with the five "Resources" links, and read and take notes on the four "Articles"
• Review the "Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds" article for class discussion

Week Eleven

Tuesday 3/28/17
1] Discuss the Comparative Governments articles and research project. 2] Fake News essays evaluation conferences.

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 4/4/17:

• Prepare assignments 1. 2 and 3 of the Comparative Governments Research Project

Thursday 3/30/17
No f2f class today: I have an English Professors conference to go to at Kingsmill

Homework assignment for Tuesday, 4/4/17:

• Prepare assignments 1. 2 and 3 of the Comparative Governments Research Project

Week Twelve

• Prepare assignments 1. 2 and 3 of the Comparative Governments Research Project for sharing with the rest of the class on 4/11. Folks, this is not a difficult assignment. Re-read the lesson page for revisions I have made to it.
• Read the anouncement I posted in BlackBoard about the links to read and browse before class on Tuesday in order to participate in our discussion of the influence of money on governments.

Week Thirteen

Week Fourteen

Tuesday 4/18/17 Writing Workshop: Discuss and begin researching and note-taking for your Comparative Governments Research Project essay. Here is the compilation of the presentation paragraphs from your colleagues.

Thursday 4/20/17 Writing/revising Workshop: 1] Discuss and begin drafting your Comparative Governments Research Project essay. 2] Mini-conference on revisions to the "Fake News" researched essay.

Week Fifteen

Tuesday 4/25/17 Writing Workshop: 1] Mini-conference on the draft of your Comparative Governments Research Project essay. 2] Mini-conference on final revisions to the "Fake News" researched essay.3] Mini-conference on the annotated bibliography of research writing resources if your instructions were "R&R," i.e., Revise and Resubmit.

Homework assignment for Thursday, 4/27/17:

• Read and view how to make a Google Sites web site.
• Finish the final two essays

Thursday 4/27/17 Writing Workshop: 1] Complete and post the Comparative Governments Research Project essay, "The U.S, Form of Government". 2] Complete and post the final revisions to the "Fake News" researched essay.

Finals Week

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