Monday's reading...

...is at right, under the Rose essay.

Extra Credit Assignment

The following event is an extra credit event. If you attend the event and write up a connection between something you saw at the event and a theme from class discussion, you will receive extra credit. I'm looking for one page, double-spaced, well-organized response, with a 'thesis' in the first sentence and "evidence" coming in the form of content from the event itself and from a class discussion and/or text. If this is done, I will award two points to the final course grade. 
 
The Black Lives Matter Summit is fast approaching on May 8th.  The Committee has assembled an incredible group of speakers, panelists and presenters for this historic day!!

The Panels will include:
Black Minds Matter: Education
The 'Hood Matters: Police Brutality
Who I Am Matters: Race, Violence and Mass Incarceration
Health Matters: Health and Wellness

We would LOVE it if some Professors would bring their classes to the summit.  Please register via the Eventbrite link below and PLEASE HURRY - WE HAVE OVER 100 SLOTS FILLED ALREADY FROM PEOPLE ALL OVER THE CITY, and the remaining slots are filling up quickly!!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-lives-matter-summit-tickets-16347163807

Once again, I thank all of you who have sent words of encouragement, registered early, and those who have been supportive of this incredible event

The Black Lives Matter Summit Committee:

Jeffrey "Kazembe" Batts
Padmini Biswas
Dr. Fay Maureen Butler
Darren Ferguson
Dr. Jason Hendrickson
Dr. Kevin Jordan
Dr. Allia Matta
Karen McKeon
Brian Miller
Deborah Nibot
Rosslyn Peiters
Shayla Pruitt
Dr. Joan Schwartz
Christendath Singh

Class Agenda 4.27

1. In-class blog. Visualize the session you're about to have. Focus on just tutoring one student, even though you might have two. What are you going to do first? Next? What strategies do you plan to use? What kinds of things do you imagine are going to happen? How will the session end? What challenges might arise? (Perhaps use your notes from last week.)

2. Problem Posing-Exercise.

3. Letter to Bert.

4. Tutor!

Updated Schedule

Updated Course Schedule ENG 220

M 4.27 Group Presentations: Problem Posing

In-class tutoring          

NC:  Rose

 W 4.29            Discuss Rose / midterm review

Group Presentations: Problem Posing

                         Video: The Secrets of ALEC

NC: Read Kozol “Savage Inequalities”

Peer Review:   2 copies of  “Letter to Bert Eisenstadt”   

M 5.4   Peer Review Bert Eisenstadt

                Discuss Kozol

            Chomsky on the Purpose of Education

W 5.6     MIDTERM 

NC: Read “Cultural Divides in Writing Tutoring”

M 5.11      Discuss “Cultural Divides”

Video: ALEC/Education

Video: Diane Ravitch on Corporate Education Reform

NC: DUE: “Letter to Bert Eisenstadt: Evaluation of Tutoring in the Writing Center”   

            Letter to Professor: Writing Process

W 5.13 DUE: “Letter to Bert Eisenstadt: Evaluation of Tutoring in the Writing Center”

    The Case Study

NC:  Pedagogy of the Oppressed (chapter two)

 Text (to print)

M 5.18      Discussion of Pedagogy of the Oppressed      

Group Activity: Pedagogy of the Oppressed and your philosophy of pedagogy   

NC: Read “Psychology of Social Class”

W 5.20            “Psychology of Social Class”

M 5.25             Case Study: Peer Review 

W 5.27          Podcast on Case Studies       

M 6.1         Podcast on Case Studies       

 W 6.3           Final Exam

Monday Peer Review Syllabus

ENG101.0745 Introduction to Composition

Spring 2015

Professor Jesse Schwartz

ENG 101: Mondays, rm. E-336 and Thursdays, rm. E-144,10:30-12:45

Contact Info:

Office Hours—M-109B, Monday 12:30-1:30, and by appointment

E-mail: jesseschwartz@lagcc.cuny.edu

Class Blog: Spring2015ENA101.wordpress.com

Course Description (from the Course Catalog)

English 101 is a required writing course at LaGuardia Community College. LaGuardia’s English Department requires students to write 600-word, thesis-driven essays. These essays will prepare students to be successful in future college courses. Students will have opportunities to write papers in stages – they will take a few weeks to write two or three versions of a draft before turning it in. They will also have opportunities to write under time constraints, such as the diagnostic and midterm essays.

Section Description:

The first step toward college-level writing is college-level thinking.  Together we will read challenging essays that encourage us to dive into the kinds of ideas that make college an exciting intellectual experience. This class will focus on the theme of labor. Or, if you prefer, “work.” As most of you are in college to get a “better life”—which usually means a “better job”—we’ll explore what that might mean by reading about people in various kinds of employment. 

Course Goals

This course will instruct students in the key modes of academic writing and professional communication: summary, comparison and contrast, analysis, close reading, resource citation, introductions, conclusions, bibliographies, arguments, supporting claims, audience awareness, and research techniques.

This course will instruct students to accomplish short writing assignments by approaching writing as a process. This process includes annotated reading, note-taking, drafting, revision, and peer review.

This course will help students become fluent with academic writing through various digital communication tools, such as blogs and discussion groups.

Required Materials:

• Course Pack.  You’re in luck: Nearly all of our readings will be compiled in a course pack that I distribute to you. It is your job to keep this pack and bring it to class.  If you lose it, you must print it out again on your own.

Grading:

• Participation, 15%.  Participation means consistent contributions to the classroom experience.  On a basic level this means coming to class ON TIME (consistent lateness and absences will be reflected in this portion of the grade), turning in assignments, etc.  This also means asking questions, sharing thoughts, and respectfully and critically engaging with the ideas and work of your fellow students.  I don’t expect anyone to say the “right thing” or talk all the time in order to participate—but I do expect you to bring your ideas to the classroom conversation. 
• Discussion Board/In-Class Work, 15%.  In order to facilitate classroom discussion, students will be expected to post comments about the readings on our class blog.  Our class discussion will be facilitated by one student who starts off the session (something you’ll each do once).  Everyone else may be expected to respond in turn before the next class meeting.  Think of this as a web conversation that will lay the foundation for the classroom discussion.  There is no firm word-count expectation, but comments must be productive. Simply writing “I agree with the above post” does not count as a response.
• 2 Short Essays 15% each (30% total)
• Research Paper (Paper #3) 25%
• Midterm (annotated bibliography) and Final In-Class Essays (10% and 5%)

Classroom Rules:

• Attendance and lateness: As with any college course, it is essential to be in class, to be on time, and to complete all assigned work.  To this end, more than four missed classroom hours (for ANY reason) can result in failure for the entire course. Lateness counts as well: every three latenesses will count as one missed class. Anyone arriving more than thirty minutes after the beginning of class will be marked as absent for the day.  If you miss a class for any reason, make sure you contact a classmate or look at the class blog in order to get the assignments and cover the missed material. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL WORK REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE LATE. Either email it to me or post it to the blog.
• Cell phones, iPods, laptops, and all other electronic devices need to be INVISIBLE and SILENT while you are in the classroom.  It is disrespectful to your fellow students to interrupt them by allowing your phone to ring, to text message, to leave the class in order to chat on the phone, or to listen to music/watch videos while class is in session.  Doing so in class will result in a lowered grade.  Exception: if a family member is ill or expecting to give birth, you should keep your phone on vibrate (but still out of sight) and leave quietly if called – you should NEVER answer the phone in class under any circumstance. I expect you to be professional and respectful regarding the use of electronic devices. 
• PLAGIARISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.  We will talk about plagiarism in class in great detail, but please note: Any paper exhibiting plagiarized work will fail immediately, thereby lowering your overall final grade.  If the case is severe (more than one or two sentences), you will also fail the course, and your work will be reported to the college via an Academic Integrity Complaint.  The LaGuardia Community College Policy on Academic Integrity can be found here:

http://library.laguardia.edu/files/pdf/academicintegritypolicy.pdf.

Students with Disabilities: The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) provides services for students with disabilities to ensure access to College programs. They offer personal, academic, career, and accommodations counseling, evaluation referrals, testing for learning disabilities, and adaptive/assistive technology. 

They are located in M 102, and can be reached at (718) 482-5279 (TTY x6057). http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/osd/default.htm#

 

Day-to-Day Class Schedule

**All the readings below are to be read for the day listed. All readings are from our course pack or the book They Say, I Say (Graff)

March

Th/5     Welcomes and Introductions.

            HW: Set up a Wordpress account and send me the address

M/9     Zitkala-sa, “The School Days of an Indian Girl”

            In-Class Diagnostic Essay

Th/12   Freire, “The Banking Concept of Education” and Graff, Chapter 1

           

M/16   Graff, Chapter 2

            Paper #1 Assigned

Th/19   In-Class student workshop—producing introductions and thesis statements

            Graff, Chapter 3

M/23   Rough Draft #1 Workshop

Th/26   ***

M/30   In-Class Viewing The Harvest/La Cosecha

Paper #1 Due

April

Th/2     Film discussion

            Graff, Chapter 4

M/6     No Classes—Spring Break

Th/9     No Classes—Spring Break

M/13   Fast Food Nation, chapter 3

Th/16   Fast Food Nation, chapter 8

In-Class Writing: Thesis Statement Workshop

M/20   Rough Draft Workshop Paper #2

            Graff, Chapter 7

Th/23   ***

Paper #2 Due

M/27   Research Paper Topic Workshop

            Research paper assigned

Th/30   Graeber, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs”

May

M/4     Ehrenreich, “Scrubbing In Maine,” from Nickel and Dimed

Th/7     Research day

            MLA formatting workshop

F/8      Last Day To Withdraw From Course

M/11   Annotated Bibliography due

Th/14   Ehrenreich, “Selling in Minnesota”

M/18   Graff, Chapter 11

Th/21   Rough Draft Workshop

M/25   No Classes—College Closed

Th/28   Research Paper Due

            Final exam preparation

June

M/1     In-class exam. LAST DAY OF CLASSES

***We will meet one last time during finals week in order for you to receive your final grade and discuss how this affects your future coursework.

Monday Peer Review Assignment

Spring 2015 English 101

Professor Schwartz  

Paper #2: Labor and Work!

Due Dates:  Rough Draft, Monday, 4/27

                          Final Draft, Thursday, 4/30

Assignment: In the chapters we read from Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser discusses the ways in which fast-food companies avoid hiring skilled workers and rely instead upon vulnerable employees who are usually young people of color. We also read about the dangerous conditions endured by the laborers (often undocumented workers) who make up the vast majority of employees in slaughterhouses and elsewhere across the food-supply chain. In the documentary film we watched, Food Chains, we saw once again how mostly poor people of color (also often undocumented) are exploited to fill our supermarket shelves with food while they themselves often cannot feed their families. And finally, Mac McClelland informed us that the so-called “new economy” of online shopping still sources its workers from the same vulnerable pools of people.

Through our classroom discussions, we discussed the similarities and differences between these forms of labor and exploitation. We’ve also discovered that many of the tactics used in the industries listed above can be found in our own working lives.  For this assignment, you will write an essay in which you compare and contrast the various forms of exploitation we’ve covered across several readings, and also suggest possible solution for lessening the negative effects of these practices. You will use evidence from your own life as well as ideas from the readings to make your case.

READINGS TO REVIEW: Chapters 3 and 8 from Fast Food Nation, “I Was A Warehouse Wage Slave,” and Food Chains. Please also look back at They Say, I Say as you format your thesis statement, summary, and quotations.

DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE ESSAY:

Thesis: A clear thesis statement, focusing on the labor issues presented in the readings should be early in your essay.  Look at chapter 4 from They Say, I Say for help formatting that thesis.

Evidence: Evidence in support of your thesis should come from our readings from Fast Food Nation, “Wage Slave”, and from your own work experiences. Even if you have not worked in any of the industries from the readings, you may have experienced many of the practices criticized in these readings and can use them to support your argument. You must use at least TWO different sources in your final draft.

Quotation:  This falls under evidence, but now that we have practiced quoting several times, I will expect all quotes and evidence to be properly formatted, as we saw in They Say, I Say chapter 3.

Audience: You can assume your audience has some familiarity with the book and movie, but you will still need to summarize them where necessary and place quotes and examples in context so that readers will understand them.  Any evidence and support you give from outside the readings will also need context and explanation.

Formal Expectations:

§  600+ words (around 3 pages AT LEAST)

§  Typed, double-spaced, 12pt font

§  All work (first and final drafts) must be on time or will be graded down. ***Late final drafts are penalized a half grade for each day late.  For example, an A paper one day late will be an A-.***

Class Agenda 4.22

1. Rose (30m)
2. Prep for Tutoring (30m)
3. Individual conferences (30m)

Letter to Bert Assignment

Assignment: Letter to Bert Eisenstadt Evaluating Tutoring at the Writing Center
Peer Review:
Due:

Assignment Goal: To create an argumentative memo explaining what effective and ineffective strategies you saw in your Writing Center observations, using our course texts to support your claims and for context.

Assignment Description: For this assignment, you will turn the problem-posing assignment into a formal letter that you may send to the Manager of the LaGuardia Writing Center. The Manager, Mr. Bert Eisenstadt, knows about this assignment and is looking forward to reading what you have to say.

The letter should be two full single-spaced pages, and should address the three steps from the problem-posing exercise you worked with to produce your group presentation. While what you presented in groups was excerpts from the observations of particular individuals in your group, the primary evidence in your letter should be based on your own personal observations.

As in your problem-posing exercise, name strategies, cite sources for strategies named, and describe observations in detail. It is especially important that whenever you identify a strategy or diagnose a problem, you provide support for your ideas by quoting from the course reading materials, citing all sources, and providing a works cited page at the end of the letter. You will want to take certain moments and link them your overall teaching philosophy.

Mr. Eisenstadt will be much more likely to follow your advice if you seem like you’re basing your assessments on up-to-date tutoring theory. He may also want to read for himself certain sections of a text to which you refer.

In establishing the voice you will use in this letter, try to use the tutoring skills you have learned this semester. Remember that while it is often important and useful to be critical, it is also important that you be constructive. Remember that tutors can have bad days just like anyone else; don’t make your criticisms personal, but instead try phrasing things as problems that may need for the overall improvement of the center. Think of the Writing Center, like an essay draft, as a work in progress. Imagine your audience, Mr. Eisenstadt, as someone who will continue with his practice of managing the center long after you give him this feedback. There is a future for the Writing Center, and by writing this letter you can become a part of it.

Problem Posing Exercise

Problem Posing Exercise: Evaluation of Tutoring at the Writing Center

Now that we have observed tutoring at the Writing Center, we will write an evaluation of what we saw in the form of a letter to Bert Eisenstadt, who manages the Writing Center. This exercise will be our preparation for writing that letter.

Part A: What Seems Good at the Writing Center

Step 1: Identify and describe the best tutoring experience you witnessed over the last four weeks of observing tutoring at the Writing Center.

Step 2: Which strategy from our course readings best describes what you witnessed? Explain the strategy and cite the source. If what you witnessed does not resemble anything we read about, then describe the tutor’s strategy as best you can. 

Step 3: How did you know the strategy worked? In other words, what evidence from the tutoring session makes you sure it worked? What learning outcomes did you observe?

Part B: What Seems Not To Work at the Writing Center

Step 1: Briefly identify and describe a problem you witnessed during a tutoring session you observed at the Writing Center.

Step 2: Which “tutoring don’t” from our course readings best describes what you witnessed? Present a quotation (identify the source and page number) that describes the problem, then continue the description in your own words, emphasizing what this “tutoring don’t” means to you in a way that will set the reader up for step 3.

Step 3: Describe what you saw in detail when you observed the problem. Describe how it relates to your definition of the problem in steps 1 & 2.

Step 4: Propose a solution to the problem based on strategies and “tutoring dos” from the course reading. Describe what strategy the Writing Center Manager might present in a tutor training session to remedy this problem.

Class Agenda 4.20

1. Quiz on Tutoring Writing 42-69

2. Perl reading, in groups

3. Problem Posing Exercise

4. Letter to Bert Assignment

5. Tutoring Writing coverage

Class Agenda 4.15

1. Quiz 4

2. Writing Center Observations.

3. Looking ahead to Dialogue.

4. The Perl Essay.

5. The Ken Robinson Ted Talk.

Advisement Event for You?

When: Wednesday, April 22, 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Where: B-220

Hear Education Faculty discuss requirements for various education concentrations including Childhood, Secondary, and Bilingual Education. This session will also provide information regarding fieldwork requirements, prerequisites, transfer to four-year colleges, career opportunities, teacher certification requirements, and volunteer opportunities.

Please come meet the faculty, get to know current and graduating education major students, and enjoy free cookies and coffee!

Class Agenda 4.13

1. Dialogue Workshop. Read your dialogue out loud in groups of three. Indicate to your classmates where you have footnoted research. Have your classmates assess your dialogue according to the Grading Grid posted here.

2. Blog: Please blog your notes from your most recent Writing Center Observation. Please indicate whether it is your 3 and/or 4th visit you're describing in the title.

Please see these instructions as a reminder for what a successful blog sounds like.

3. Videos. See syllabus. We will watch at least the Ken Robinson Ted Talk.

Dialogue Grading Grid

Grading Grid: Dialogue of Ideas

Name:

1. Multiple Perspectives: Dialogue makes major arguments from multiple perspectives; goes beyond right/wrong moral dialectic; major arguments have evidence and secondary claims supporting them; arguments are original in character: they don't resemble cliched points of view; (30%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

2. Evidence: Dialogue contains research incorporated as supporting claims for all sides of major arguments; evidence is coherent with arguments; at least 25-33% of sources are academic, peer-reviewed sources; footnotes contain basic citation information (MLA data, if not in MLA order); (30%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

3. Performance/Length: Dialogue (as) performed is 5-7 minutes in length (approximately 3-5 pages) unless otherwise permitted; (20%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

4. Style/Revision: Dialogue went through peer review drafting process; displays toward authentic voices, positions, and characterization; is free of casual errors; (20%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Grade:

Comments: