Past Daily Assignments

For Wednesday, August 26:

  • You do not need to do anything prior to your arrival on the first day; just come ready to jump in!

  • See you in our Zoom classroom at 11 am EST!
    *If you have any trouble connecting, you can text me at 615.509.7448.


For Friday, 8/28:

  • Submit to Drive (folder linked here):

    • Brief memoir

      • No particular rules—we want to capture your current sense of your self and your story of how you became the “you” of today.

      • Things that might help you:

        • Aim for just about 500-1000 words.

        • If you want to include more but are “writing away,” try listing things in bullets rather than writing them out long-form.

        • Your audience is primarily just you. You will submit these, and I will read them (they will NOT be shared among the class), but you’re mostly writing for yourself.

        • You will revisit these memoir exercises later in the term.

        • Keep in mind that a “memoir” is different than a “biography”—a biography typically starts around your birth and follows the important parts of your life in a linear way; a memoir tells a story about your life, usually focusing on one particular theme and therefore drawing on related threads throughout that story. One person may thus easily write multiple memoirs, though “competing” autobiographies would be odd. So just think about something you’d like to capture about yourself and write about how that thing has surfaced/developed through some key memories.

  • Read (or read through!):

    • excerpts from Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy*This is a LONG excerpt. I recommend setting a time limit for yourself (probably an hour) and (a) reading the intros to each of the 2 chapters—the first is on oral thinking; the second is on literate thinking—then skimming the chapters for main points. Choose a couple of points from each chapter that you find interesting. You can also refer to Slide 15 from Wednesday’s class for a quick summary.

  • Listen to “Who Am I?” from RadioLab

  • Watch “After watching this, your brain will not be the same,” Lara Boyd

  • Watch "How language shapes the way we think,” Lera Boroditsky

  • Be ready to discuss:

    • Key differences between oral and literate thinking, per Ong (again, you’re welcome to refer to the summary slide from Wednesday’s class (slide 15), but also to go beyond those summary points, as you have time)

    • Key ways in LANGUAGE shapes our minds/perceptions (per Boroditsky)

    • Bringing it together: what overlaps are you seeing in terms of identity, literacy, and cognition so far? What are the 2-3 biggest questions YOU have currently about literacy and cognition?

  • Recommended NOT required:

For Monday, 8/31:

  • Read Proust and the Squid, Part I (Chs. 1-3) + Ch. 7 in Part III
    *Again, this is a lot of reading. It’s pretty read-able, but some of you will be able to read it more thoroughly than others. Aim to spend at least 90 minutes on it, more if you have time. It’s good stuff! But as a minimum, aim to (a) read the intros/conclusions of each chapter, and choose (b) 1-3 points of interest to you in each chapter.

  • Read these much shorter pieces:

  • Add at least 1 discussion question on which you’d like to hear others’ thoughts to this Google Doc.

  • Be prepared to discuss:

    • What is literacy? (Let’s come up with more precise definitions to work from through the term.)

    • Whatever else you and your classmates found interesting, per the Google Doc linked above.


For Wednesday, 9/2:

Note: Several people have reported not being able to open the embedded links below, so I’ve added the direct URLs for each, as well. They’re all working for me (it’s Tuesday evening, 8 pm EST), but please send word if you continue to have access issues!


For Friday, 9/4:

  1. Read Proust and the Squid, Part II. Recommended strategy:

    • Skim Ch. 4.

    • Read Ch. 5 pretty carefully.

    • Read Ch. 6 as carefully as you have time left for.

    • DO read the intros & conclusions in all chapters, and study the diagrams a bit.

  2. Read The Midnight Disease, as noted below. Recommended strategy:

    • Skim the Introduction.

    • Skim Chs. 1-4 as desired.

    • Read Ch. 5—

      • Skim pgs. 149-161.

      • Focus on reading from “Reading and Writing” on p. 162-182.

  3. Bring your brain modeling materials again, for synapses and follow-up on the major structures.


For Monday, 9/7:

  1. Take about 10-30 minutes to review your Play Doh models. Review the major structures of the brain and neuron and name one key function for each structure. You can write this out if it’s helpful, or just speak out loud, but test yourself and see where you’re still getting confused. I’m itemizing below the structures we built in the models, but I’m not putting in all the other areas we’ve discussed (e.g., Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, etc.), so feel free to add those as well in your notes, again as you find it helpful. The point in trying to make these terms familiar/automatic is to help us in future class discussions and to help you get a natural control of the vocabulary and functionality for when you write your papers next week.

    • Brain:

      • brain stem

      • medulla

      • pons

      • midbrain

      • thalami (thalamusx2)

      • cerebellum

      • hypothalamus (includes pituitary)

      • hippocampus

      • amygdala

      • corpus callosum

      • cerebrum (a.k.a., cerebral cortex)

        • frontal lobe

        • temporal lobe

        • occipital lobe

        • parietal lobe

    • Neuron (start from 1:08):

      • dendrites

      • cell body

      • nucleus

      • axon

      • myelin sheath

      • axon terminals

      • synapse

  2. In your field notebooks, take 10-30 minutes to reflect on all the readings we’ve done so far. What do you understand NOW about literacy and cognition that you didn’t a couple of weeks ago? How are the sources you’ve read supporting and diverging from one another? How are you putting the readings together as a puzzle, in other words, with your own driving interests helping you focus on one particular puzzle?

  3. Read through The Midnight Disease, Chapter 6 (“Why We Write”). Spend about 20-30 minutes with it; you’ll be able to go back and re-read later, but it will help us to get the emotional side of literacy a bit more “on the table".”

  4. Look through the “Additional Sources” now posted to our website. Open all of them and get a sense of what they are (i.e., read the titles, the journal names, the dates, the abstracts), then choose a couple to read in more depth (at least one of these “deeper” reads should also be one of the more technical publications—i.e., don’t just read the news articles and call it a day). Spend about an hour on these readings. The goal is to start seeing (a) how researchers design and publish the primary work that lets us have more meta/synthetic works like Proust and the Squid and The Midnight Disease and (b) other related topics that might interest you or spark further interests that you’d like to chase down later in the term.

  5. Return to your field notebooks for just 5-10 minutes of quick-sketch notes. How has looking at those additional sources started to shift or intensify your thinking on literacy and cognition? What 2-4 additional questions most interest you right now?


For Wednesday, 9/9:

  • Reread the upcoming essay assignment, along with the grading rubric.

  • Brainstorm for possible topics and directions.

  • Put together a working outline—about 1 page, with a working thesis (very drafty is fine!) and major sections + some support for each section. DO include some specific page numbers (or timestamps, w/audio or video sources) to get yourself anchored in the source material.

  • Drop your outline here. We’ll workshop these in peer groups on Wednesday.


For Friday, 9/11:

  • Write up a draft of your first paper—and remember, keep it really drafty; save some of your writing energy for heavy revision and polishing before the final draft is due.

    • I usually recommend you aim for at least 2/3 to 3/4 of the final word count, enough that your peer readers can see what you’re doing and that YOU can see where gaps are/what’s not working. I do recommend you go ahead and put together your Works Cited or Reference page if you’re able, but do what you’re able to do given time constraints. These are guidelines; you’re only being graded on whether you submit a draft at all.

    • If you have specific areas where you’re wanting help or feedback, make note of that on your draft somehow (in a comment bubble or a bracketed/highlighted section, or whatever works), so your peers will know where to put their attention on Friday.

  • Submit your draft to this folder.

  • I did post more articles on the “Additional Sources" page, and I tried to group them by topic so you can kind of skim through and find what you need.

  • Come to class ready to peer review others’ work.


For Monday, 9/14:

  • Final drafts of your first essays are due—any time before midnight is fine. Please upload your submissions to this folder.

  • BRING TO CLASS your copy of I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. That will be our first “read-in” book of Unit 2. I’ll post some further information prior to Monday’s class, just for context of what we’re doing and how, but mostly, just show up with the book in hand; we’ll mostly spend the class period reading together.


*Notes that have come up re: your first papers:

  1. You should cite references when you define parts of the brain, but of course there are multiple choices for sources to cite there. You may find these three (from a previous class) most helpful in pulling and citing semi-quick definitions:

2. Here is the Helen Keller citation in MLA format:

Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905. Available online at https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html.


For Wednesday, 9/16:

  • Continue reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the memoir. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

  • Bring your notebooks to class on Wednesday for writing exercises.


For Friday, 9/18:

  • Finish reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.

  • Continue noting your observations in your field notebooks. Those directions again:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the memoir. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

  • Read through (as in, take 1-2 hours; don’t feel like you have to read every bit of these) the new articles “On memory (and memoir).”

  • Come to class ready to discuss! See you then.


For Monday, 9/21:


For Wednesday, 9/23:

  • Continue reading The Vanishing Half.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the novel. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? Which characters are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain characters? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

    • I’ll ask you on Wednesday especially about the “things you’re not understanding” part, so I can pull some articles and resources for more context before Friday’s class. Feel free to email me or come to office hours if you’d like to discuss anything, too.

    • Also, there are certainly a lot of intense themes and scenes in the novel. Please feel free to raise points of discomfort and tension, as those are part of engaged reading and you know, being human.

  • Bring your notebooks to class on Wednesday for writing exercises.


In-class on Wednesday, 9/23:

Round 1:

Choose a character from one of our books so far. You can choose anyone from I Am Nujood or The Vanishing Half. You can choose a major character or a minor character; the minor characters are sometimes interesting because you haven’t been given as much detail already. So people like Adele Vignes (the twins’ mother) or Lonnie Goudeau or Sam Winston or Blake Sanders can offer a chance to write more “new” material. But taking on the main characters can give you a chance to explore parts of them you’re not understanding.

Try to make the character fully developed and believable. (I.e., we certainly don’t have to love Sam, but we don’t have to hate him, either—what kinds of things “explain” Sam, make him make sense as a person?

Choose a “time” in the character’s life. You might want to write about them before the book ever begins, or after they’ve left the story, or give us a different perspective on a scene we’ve already read.

Write a journal entry or inner monologue from this character’s perspective. What do imagine them thinking about? Worrying over? Being afraid of? Wanting? Plotting for? What do you think they might have done the day you’re writing for them?

(Take 15 minutes.)


Round 2:

Make rough notes:

What else would you need to know about your character to keep writing? What biographical or character information, etc.? How would you go about gathering/constructing this information for a fictional character?

(~5 minutes)


Round 3:

Discuss:

How have you been experiencing the “empathy” element of reading so far this week?

How does it seem different to experience empathy in writing v. reading?


For Friday, 9/25:

  • Continue noting your observations in your field notebooks. Those directions again:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the novel. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? Which characters are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain characters? What are you not understanding? What is unsettling for you? What do you do to make sense of the intense or traumatic material? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

  • Read through (as in, take an hour at most; don’t feel like you have to read every bit of these) the articles under “On reading, writing, and empathy.” Most of these were previously posted; you may have read some of them before, but we haven’t discussed them in class yet. A few are new as of Wed., 9/23.

  • Optional: If you want to, feel free to scan and upload your writing exercises from either last week or this week. I’d be curious to read them, but completion is on the honor system; you have credit either way.

  • Come to class ready to discuss! See you then.


In-class on Friday:


For Monday, 9/28:

  • Complete this Qualtrics pre-survey.

  • Spend another hour or so reading through the material from last week (the articles under “On reading, writing, and empathy” and the various articles, etc., on race and identity, under the Friday, 9/25 assignment—I’ve also left those below for easier reference). I’m sure there was more than you had time to read, so take time and read a few more things that you had to skip before.

  • Come on Monday ready to read The Hidden Life of Trees.


For Wednesday, 9/30:

  • Continue reading The Hidden Life of Trees.

    • If possible, take your book outside and read for at least an hour among trees.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the book. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) Are you feeling more attentive, meditative, etc., or more agitated, etc., than when you weren’t reading? What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away? How do you notice yourself engaging the information in this book (versus the more narrative forms of our earlier books)?

    • Above, I bolded the sentences that are different this week, for quicker reference.

    • Also, if you’re having trouble with any of the concepts (whether factual or the way the author is presenting the information), please let’s talk about those on Wednesday, so I can pull material to help us figure things out.

  • Bring your notebooks to class on Wednesday for writing exercises.

  • Watch for your papers, coming by email later today. (This evening; so sorry; I got pulled into a surprise meeting this afternoon.) Read through the comments and set up meetings/come to office hours if you want to discuss anything!


In-Class Wednesday, 9/30:


Writing Exercise 1

  1. Go outside if you’re able, near a tree or if possible, a larger group of trees. Take your journal, a pen/pencil, and a blanket or something so you can sit down to write.

    • If you can’t leave your room, here’s a virtual option (choose any of Scenes 1 or 3-5 and spend 5 minutes or so exploring the forest, then leave an image of the forest on your computer to look at throughout the next 2 exercises:

    • Writing Exercise 1:

      • Take a few minutes to closely observe the trees (and/or tree system) around you. When you’re ready, write down observations in as much detail as possible. What do you see, touch, smell, hear? Notice as many details as possible—the color and texture of the bark, any knots or interesting growths, the shape and patterns of the branches, the shape and colors and patterns of the leaves. Do you see any moss? Lichen? What else? Just pay attention, and write down what you observe with as much vivid detail as you can. Feel free to write long-form, or make bulleted notes, sketch things, whatever. Set a timer; take about 15-20 minutes to write, and try to really get sucked in to the task.


    *Note: If you have another class to attend and need to pick up the other exercises later, just take a few minutes now to repeat the body scan exercise from earlier:

    • Take a few deep “belly” breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

    • Close your eyes. Now just take a few minutes to pay attention to your body from top to bottom—start with your head, your face, your neck, your shoulders . . . Pause at each location and just sort of check in—where are you relaxed and comfortable? What’s feeling tight? What’s aching? What’s heavy? What’s loose? Don’t try to change anything; just note what’s going on with your body. (2 minutes)

    • When you’re ready, open your eyes. Take a couple of minutes to jot down your observations in your journals.including the journaling part. Has anything changed? What do you make of what has or hasn’t changed, in the context of your location/writing activities in these 2 exercises?

When you’re ready for Writing Exercise #2, scroll down:





Writing Exercise 2
(should be completed outside or “virtually outside”):

  • Repeat the body scan exercise.

  • Freewrite on anything you want—it can be something academic, but also you might want to write about something personal that’s important to you right now. Whatever you like. Take about 15 minutes.

  • Repeat the body scan exercise, including the journaling part. Has anything changed? What do you make of what has or hasn’t changed, in the context of your location/writing activities in these 2 exercises?


For Friday, 10/2:

  • Finish reading The Hidden Life of Trees.
    *I hesitate to interfere with how you’re reading, but if it helps those of you who aren’t finding it as compelling, do remember that you’re NOT being tested on the material; you DON’T have to prove that you memorized all the details. You can try to just read it for pleasure.

  • Skim through the newly added sources “On literacy and nature.”

  • Complete this post-Week 3 survey: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5Bgv6bjKo3f7GNn


For Monday, 10/5:

  • Complete this Qualtrics pre-survey.

  • If you did NOT complete last week’s post-survey, please do. I’ll be referencing all of these surveys’ data next week in preparation for our upcoming group project.

  • Bring An American Sunrise to class and be ready to read. :)

  • *If you didn’t quite get through The Hidden Life of Trees, spend at least another 1-2 hours on it over the weekend.

  • Have a great weekend!


For Wednesday, 10/7:

  • Read this explanation on “How to Read a Poem” from literary scholar E.D. Hirsch

    • And as noted in class, maybe choose say, 2 things from this essay about “how to read a poem” that you’d like to focus on as you go back and read or re-read a few of the poems. No need to master everything he’s saying here, but it could be helpful to expand your reading experience with a couple of these ideas.

  • Watch this interpretive video with Curtia Torbert, an actress reading Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” verse 38, in different modes.

    • The point of watching the video is to help you “hear” poetry in different ways, so you can then go back to some of Harjo’s poems and similarly try to sort of turn them around, read them from different angles, see if you can discover more meaning(s) in them.

    • This video is part of a larger project inviting “regular people” to read verses from Whitman’s poem on camera. If you want to read more about the project (and additional videos), see https://whitmanalabama.com/about/.

    • I was wrong about Ms. Torbert’s age during Monday’s class—she was 25 and already had a significant acting portfolio at the time of this filming.

  • Continue reading An American Sunrise. Read slowly; reread often; read out loud sometimes.

  • As per usual, in your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the poetry collection. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the individual poems? In the collection? Do you find yourself analyzing things like structure, form, function (e.g., how is this poem working?)? Do you find yourself focusing more on meaning? What do you notice upon reading a poem the first time through? The second? The third? The fourth . . .? Do you notice any patterns in your own attention or recognition, etc.? What are you feeling as you read? Which lines or images are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain poems or features? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

    • Above, I bolded the wording that is different this week, for quicker reference.

  • Bring your field notebooks to class on Wednesday for writing exercises.


In-Class on Wednesday, 10/7:

Round One: Choose any ONE of the words below. Freewrite about whatever comes to mind in relation to that word. You can write in any style, but you might have the best luck with a sort of prose-poem (think about the prose passages in Joy Harjo’s collection that interleave with the poems—they still read with a lot of poetics, but they’re prose-y). Think lyrical, but don’t stress too much if that’s not coming together for you. Just get down thoughts in relation to your chosen word.

Shelf

Truck

Rough

Blue

Tropical

Shiver

Beige

Sprint

Grief

Tone

Fir

Kiwi

Cozy

Orbit

Tangible

Round Two: Now go back to the word list. Choose a different word, unrelated to the first. Repeat the writing exercise, but this time if you can, lean more into a poetic form—you can try an actual (short) poem, or still prose but more abstract, implicit meaning, or whatever works for you. 5 minutes.

Round Three: Re-read the two items you've just written. What common thread can you find between them? It might be an emotion, a certain vocabulary word or phrase that you repeated, a color or image, a hint of an idea. You're going to use that to write a third passage, in the genre of your choice, that sort of brings them together and hopefully reveals something new.

Example collage poem

For Friday, 10/9:

  • Finish reading An American Sunrise and documenting your reading experience in your field notebooks. I’m leaving the Wednesday assignment below so you have quick access to the guiding questions for your notebooks.

  • Optional: If you’re comfortable sharing, you can upload your writing exercises from Wednesday to this Drive folder.

    • As a follow-up to those exercises, read Joy Harjo’s “Grace” on your own and pay attention to how it “sounds” in your mind. Then watch her read it herself, and take note of where the performance coalesces and diverges for you.

  • Complete this post-survey in Qualtrics (never mind; will be posted sometime after Friday’s class—sorry about the delay!)

  • Read through (spend about 30-60 minutes total) the Additional Sources “On (mostly reading) poetry and cognition.”

  • Come to class ready to discuss!


For Monday, 10/12:

  • You do NOT need to attend class on Monday. I’ve sent a Collab announcement—so sorry; I’ve had a scheduling conflict this morning. I will post Wednesday’s assignment later today, which will mostly be (a) a draft for you to edit, with instructions, and (b) a series of questions for you to consider, for discussion on Wednesday. Enjoy the morning off!

  • Take the Week 4 Post-Survey on Qualtrics

  • So—next week is our “group project.” We’re going to compile our notes from the past month, look for shared patterns, consider these in light of previously published research, and draft a shared semi-formal report that entails a broad lit review + description of our cognitive experiences + discussion. We’ll have that draft completed by next weekend, so you can move on to your individual projects. Toward that end, before Monday:

    • Take 60-90 minutes to review your field notebooks from the past month.

    • “Code” recurring or significant things you notice. Some people assign symbols or colors to specific items; you can do whatever works, so long as you can quickly retrieve passages to then contribute to our shared document next week. For example, put a star in the margin every time you see a reference to “memory,” or highlight in yellow every time you notice yourself drifting off and writing about seemingly unrelated things, etc.) Please especially watch for the following:

      • Memory (any time you discuss memory; any time you write about a memory; whatever you’ve written is mostly related to memory)

      • Empathy (when you see yourself empathizing; when you’re reflecting on what empathy is or isn’t; even places where you’d expect to see material on empathy but don’t)

      • Association (when you see yourself explicitly or indirectly trying to make sense of content by relating it to things you already find familiar; also if you actually talk about the idea of association)

      • Expanded emotion (when you see yourself reacting/responding to the literary material with emotions that surprise you or seem “new” in some way—when you see evidence that the readings made your world or self a little “bigger”)

      • “Aha” or “chills” moments (places where you see yourself recording or reflecting on moments where you suddenly recognized, understood, “got” something, to great personal satisfaction—I’m thinking esp. of that “goose cam” study here)

      • Any other patterns or important moments you see that speak to the ways in which the reading affected you cognitively (and which we ought to consider as data points in exploring the relationships between literacy and “the self”)

    • Complete the “Group Project Data Collection) Qualtrics survey to capture your notes. (You should have received an email with an individual link to your survey. If you didn’t, please text me, and I can send it to you.)
      *Important: The pre- and post-surveys this month have been anonymous, to encourage greater freedom of expression. THIS survey and other work completed between now and next weekend are NOT anonymous and ARE graded—failing to complete them will make a difference in your project grade. Be sure to complete them!


For Wednesday, 10/14:

  • Please visit this draft, the still-in-progress opening of our group report on/proposal toward further cognitive writing research. Your job between now and Wednesday is to edit the document, and yes, you’ll all be editing the same document, so you’ll see each others’ notes/comments. It’s still quite drafty, so there should be plenty of room for everyone to have things to say!

    Instructions—In this “first pass edit,” please read through once, then go back and comments in the margins regarding:

    1. Any sources/concepts you feel are inadequately or inaccurately represented

    2. Any sources/concepts you feel are overrepresented/given too much weight

    3. Any interpretations you feel are inappropriate in some way, or interpretations that are missing and you’d like taken into account

    4. Finally, edits to the language—feel free to use the comments here or the Suggesting feature (top right corner, switch Editing to Suggesting; it just makes it easier to see where there’s been a change in the document)—

    • Where are sentences/phrases unclear?

    • Where has syntax, etc., made claims inaccurate?

  • *Each of you should add at least 3 substantive comments (i.e., comments on Items 1-3, above) and 2 style comments (i.e., comments on Item 4, above).

  • Be prepared to discuss the following:

    • Obviously, any notes you’ve made in the document; we’ll discuss these together to see what you think we should be sure to highlight, how to position things, etc.

    • What is your sense of what we’re doing with this group project? What do feel we’ve added to your understanding of literacy/cognition in the past month, on top of the previously published source material?

    • Considering prior research, possible gaps you see, and our collective experiences with literacy activities this past month, what questions would you like to others’ pursue in future experimentation? I’ll bring some possibilities to discuss, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, as well. What, in other words, are questions you still have that you’d like to see future versions of this course be able to actively test?


    For Friday, 10/16:

    • Contribute to our “proposal draft reboot,” based on Wednesday’s class discussion. Each of you should add at least 2-3 substantive notes, either as direct additions to the outline or as comments recommending revisions to others’ notes.

    • Propose 1-4 empirical studies (in brief—you can take 1-10 sentences to describe in as much detail as you prefer within that range) that you’d like to see future versions of this class undertake, using this Qualtrics survey. (I did take the easy way out this time and just asked for your names. The individual links worked fine, but the process was a little tedious.)

    • We’ll discuss both the outline and possible empirical work on Friday. Thanks in advance for what I know will be interesting and valuable notes—you are all lovely to work with!


For Monday, 10/19:

  • Have fun, rest, and regroup over the weekend.

  • We’ll launch into your individual research projects on Monday.


For Wednesday, 10/21-Friday, 10/23:

  • Sign up for and attend a conference time

  • Before your conference:

  • If you are considering designing/conducting experiments of your own, please:

    • complete this brief module on research ethics

    • consult these two charts, designed to help you understand what IRB oversight you may or may not require:

      • IRB chart 1 (helps you determine whether your work would fall under the Medical or Social Science IRB here at UVA—yes; we have 2 separate boards here)

      • IRB chart 2 (helps you determine whether your project is exempt from IRB supervision, per national standards—try to adjust your project so that you are exempt :) )


For Monday, 10/26:

  • It has been SO nice conferencing with you all this week. I believe each of you walked away with clear action steps of what you should be doing next, so that’s your currrent homework—work on your projects, and come to class on Monday ready to keep working together.

  • If you have any questions or roadblocks, etc., that are coming up, please bring those.

  • For Monday, I’m planning to set up a few breakout room options—so there’ll be a main room with me, plus a couple of rooms for (a) a quiet room, for working together but not really chatting and (b) a loud room, for talking together with peers about work in progress. In the main room, I’ll be doing 1-2 writing exercises; on Monday, I may walk through some sample files that seem helpful to a lot of you, but I’ll also try to do something that’s just for fun. (I think we’ll probably do a build-a-story exercise, with a non-narrative run-on. For whatever it’s worth to know that. :-D)

  • Please sign up for your Workshop date here.


For Friday, 10/30:



For Wednesday, 10/28:

  • Continue working on your projects. We’ll have the same Zoom format on Wednesday (a loud room, a quiet room, and a writing exercise room).

  • If you have not yet signed up for your workshop date, be sure to do that now! First drafts begin coming due on 11/2!

  • If you’re still planning to revise Essay 1 for a regrade, now is a good time to set up a calendar for that and to go ahead and get a regrade meeting set up with me. :)


*In Wednesday’s “writing exercises” room, we’ll play a little with creative nonfiction/collage pieces. Here are some resources you can consult if you’re interested, esp. for those of you working with lyrical/nonfiction elements in your Unit 3 projects:

*Also, I thought someone might find this book useful, on how the idea of “self” has evolved over millenia—The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self: An Intellectual History of Personal Identity by Martin and Barresi—
-read about it here: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Soul-Self-Intellectual/dp/0231137451
-get it at the library here: https://v4.lib.virginia.edu/sources/books/items/u4386390


For Monday, 11/2:

  • Grant and Jack, please submit your workshop drafts to this folder by 9 a.m.
    *Heads up—if you submit in PDF, I’ll convert the file to a Google docs format so people can comment more easily. Please send word if you have any questions!

    • Aryan, if you haven’t found anyone to switch, your workshop draft will be due on Wednesday by 9 a.m.

  • Everyone else, keep working on your projects. We’re not meeting for class on Monday, but I’ll post instructions around class time to help you to prepare for Wednesday’s workshop.


For Wednesday, 11/4:

  • Colleen and Matthew, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Friday by 9 a.m.

  • EVERYONE:

  • Also, an extra credit option (for a 1-point bump toward one of the 3 major assignments—I’ll apply it to whatever assignment most raises your course grade):

    • Tuesday is election day. You may or may not be stressed. Regardless, I’d love for you to tune into this Democracy Doodle event and submit your Doodles to this folder. (Doodling is part of the creative process, too. :) Think of Oliver Sacks!)

      • The event is Tuesday, 11/3, at 7 p.m.


For Friday, 11/6:

  • Colleen and Matthew, please submit your workshop drafts to this folder by 9 a.m.

    • Gabby and Casey, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Monday by 9 a.m.

  • We won’t be workshopping anyone on Friday, but that gives us a chance to step back and talk about some style and advanced style issues.

  • Read these items:

  • Write in your notebooks:

    • Identify a passage or section of your own writing where you think the style needs “stepping up.” Ideally, you’ll be able to pull material (half a page to a page, say) from your Unit 3 project. If you don’t have that much written yet, you could pull from your Unit 1 essay or writing for another class.

    • Reflect on what you can tell is/isn’t working about the style in this section of your work. (If it helps, by “style” here, I mean especially mechanics and syntax, which are closely related to what you probably think of as grammar.) If you can, bring in material from the Sword pieces and Style, as linked above. What do those pieces help you identify in terms of style issues in your writing? Where are you still finding yourself a little flummoxed?


For Monday, 11/9:


For Wednesday, 11/11:

  • Eliza and Jessica, please submit your workshop drafts to this folder by 9 a.m.

    • Brooke and Kristabel, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Wednesday by 9 a.m.

  • EVERYONE:

    • Read Casey’s draft here.

    • *Gabby’s workshop date has moved out, so you can wait on hers! [That was the last “emergency backup” spot we had available, so we’ll need everyone else to keep their spots. I don’t think anyone else has the need/desire to switch, but just letting you know. :)]


For Friday, 11/13:

  • Brooke and Kristabel, please submit your workshop drafts to this folder by 9 a.m.

  • Vivian and Julia, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Monday by 9 a.m.


Extra Credit (and you know, just life-enriching) Opportunity:

On Monday, November 16, at 6 p.m. Joy Harjo, of An American Sunrise, will be giving a poetry reading, followed by a Q&A, for our UVA community (taking place online, of course). The event is free, but registration is required.

*There are also 2 student-led discussions with Harjo next week—on Monday, 11/16, from 2-3; and on Tuesday, 11/17, from 1-3. If you’re interested in one of these instead of the reading, you can find the registration links on this flyer.

I’m happy to give anyone who attends any of these session a 1 point bonus on whatever assignment most raises your course grade. For credit, attend and take some notes (fun, reflective notes; nothing boring for you to write) and upload a copy to this folder.


For Monday, 11/17:

  • Vivian and Julia, please submit your workshop drafts to this folder by 9 a.m.

    • Aaria and Cole, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Wednesday by 9 a.m.


For Wednesday, 11/18:


For Friday, 11/20:


For Monday, 11/23:

  • Please be sure to attend your “journal review” meeting. Details of what to expect are available on the sign-up sheet.

  • EVERYONE:
    It’s our last day of class, and of workshop. Please:


Final Project drafts due Tuesday, 11/24, before midnight.


Final Exam details are up.
*For your planning purposes, please allow 90 minutes during our scheduled exam period—so, Thursday, 12/3, from 9-10:30 a.m.
*If you’re having trouble finding the final exam schedule for your other classes, you can find it here: https://www.virginia.edu/registrar/exams.html


Our Democracy Doodles!