PAST DAILY ASSIGNMENTS


For Monday, February 1:

  • 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 noon EST!
    *If you have any trouble connecting, you can text me at 615.509.7448.


Before coming to class on Wednesday, 2/3:
*The items below look more time-consuming than they actually are—you should be able to do all this in about 3 hours.
>>REMINDER: If you CAN’T finish in 3 hours, feel free to just stop and come as you are!<<
This is also more piecemeal than assignments will typically be, just to give us some common foundational material to work from.

  • If you haven’t already, please complete this brief incoming survey.

  • Please post a brief introductory bio (150-200 words), with a photo (of you or your preferred avatar) to this Drive folder. (These will become a gallery here on the website, so your audience is your classmates.)

  • 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 be available among the class unless you request otherwise), 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 Monday’s class (slide 21), 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 Friday, 2/5:

For Monday, 2/8:

  • Gather your Play Doh materials and have them available—we’ll either be doing our modeling exercise on Monday or Wednesday.

    • The model we’re using includes 15 parts of the brain. You’re welcome to get 15 colors, but you can also re-use colors. We’re just building these to help us get a little more familiar with the anatomy, which can get overwhelming to read about, especially if you have no background in neurology. You can get an 8-color pack at Walmart for about $5 or a 20-color pack for about $12. The specific colors do not matter. You could even make cheap homemade play dough in a pinch.

    • Do get a cheap pack of toothpicks. You’ll need them to get the parts of the brain to hold together.

  • Notebook assignment: As you’re reading the Wolf chapters, just list every part of the brain you see Wolf mention—the name and function, if you can identify both, and the page number where you found this in the book. (For example: the angular gyrus, the “association area of the association areas,” pp. 30, 183.) Note any places where you’re confused or find information missing.
    *Optional for now: Sketch a “blank” brain (right and left hemispheres) and label the parts for yourself, to help you start to build a mental map.

    • Note: While it’s tempting to depend on simple 1-to-1 correspondences for brain functionality, and we can certainly connect many specific functions to specialized areas of the brain, that all gets complex very quickly. We’re trying to establish a basic understanding of major components and functions, with the understanding that we’re necessarily oversimplifying some of this for practical purposes.

  • Go ahead and read through the questions your peers posted in the Collab Forum in lieu of Friday’s class. We’ll be launching into some of these during Monday’s class.

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For Wednesday, 2/10:

*Note for those watching Monday’s class asynchronously! This is the URL for the model brain video we used.

  1. Bring your Play Doh back (along with a sheet of paper or two; we’ll be building model synapses, and these will lay flat).

  2. Take about 1.5 hours total to read through the following and sketch out relevant parts in your journals. I DO recommend actually drawing a brain twice over (one for the right half; one for the left), then loosely sketching/labeling parts as you encounter them. The sketching/labeling really helps in creating your own mental model.

    • So—I’m just going to link you to a large bank of these articles, loosely organized by theme. I recommend scrolling through the titles, maybe clicking on 5-10 to what interests you, and then actually READING 2-3 of them in detail. [I want to provide breadth for your varied interests, and also to avoid just having the same paper over and over, but I certainly do not mean to suggest you should attempt to engage ALL of these ideas/this data.]

  3. Write a working thesis statement for Essay #1; post to Collab.

    • As a reminder, the Essay #1 prompt is here.

    • On that same page, I’ve posted a few sample essays from the Fall 2020 students, so you can get a feel for some approaches others have taken to this assignment.


For Friday, 2/10:

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How do neurons communicate? Past assignments have laid the foundation for this function, but it still might help you to watch this very short video (1:26) prior to your reading.

We have a lot of reading again, but it’s our last big burst before essay drafts are due, and I want you to have foundational content in your minds as you develop those. DO use the headings/subheadings to help you read efficiently, and pay attention to the items below as threads to help you move through the content:

  • Skim Proust and the Squid, Chs. 4

  • Read Chs. 5-6. What she’s covering in this section is the most practical “how the brain learns to read” material, and I especially want you to pay attention to

    • the “components” of reading skill: (a) phonological, (b) orthographic, (c) semantic and pragmatic, (d) syntactic, (e) morphological [112-114]

    • the “stages” of reading development, as a person moves from (a) emerging pre-reader to (b) novice reader to (c) decoding reader to (d) fluent, comprehending reader [114-155]

    • how reading changes us [155-162]

  • Skim The Midnight Disease Introduction+Chs. 5 and 6, but

    • Dive in and read:

      • pages 149-153

      • 162-166

      • 170-172

      • 183-184

      • 195-200

      • 213-217

      • 223

  • Given the above material, consider for Friday:

    • How do you want to change your essay directions/thesis statements?

    • What do you think of the cognitive relationship between reading // writing?

      • Consider both the overlaps and distinctions you’re seeing in the books (Wolf // Flaherty), and

      • your own experiences—how do reading and writing work for you? What’s similar and what’s different?

    • What do you think about the why questions (WHY do we read? WHY do we write?)

    • And finally, what does literacy DO to us?


For Monday, 2/15:

  • First essay drafts are due. These can be VERY drafty, but I’d recommend having at least 2/3 of the paper completed. Focus on ideas, overall structure, and pacing, not on making the sentences beautiful yet. You’ll probably want to revisit your thesis statements and tighten those up—make them more specific, and hinting toward a “so what?” question (which you’ll pick up and run with in your conclusion).

    • If it helps, this is a handout I used sometimes on how to use source material (quoting, paraphrasing, and citing, etc.)—there’s some specific language you can use to introduce/incorporate others’ ideas into your own.

    • Note: I recommend outlines, but you can choose whether to use them or not. Still, as a rough guideline, you want your essay to do this:

    I. Introduction (sets up the problem or topic, gets the reader’s interest, states the thesis, or main claim)
    II. Body (develops and proves your thesis<—typically with this length of essay, you’ll have 2-4 subsections; this does not need to be a “cookie cutter” template)

    1. Subclaim 1
    a) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    b) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    c) synthesis/reflection (ties back to thesis/looks toward conclusion)
    2. Subclaim 2
    a) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    b) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    c) synthesis/reflection (ties back to thesis/looks toward conclusion)
    3. Subclaim 3
    a) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    b) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    c) synthesis/reflection (ties back to thesis/looks toward conclusion)
    4. Subclaim 4
    a) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    b) Evidence (with sources/citations)
    c) synthesis/reflection (ties back to thesis/looks toward conclusion)

    III. Conclusion (so what???)


  • Upload your complete first draft to this Drive folder. You’ll be workshopping these with peers on Monday, so make sure your sharing settings will let others read them.



In class on Friday, we’ll be doing writing exercises to prime us for next week’s read-in theme. Looking forward to your thoughts!

This week:

  • Finish adding all comments to your peers’ papers before midnight EST on Tuesday, 2/16.

  • Thanks to Caleb for setting up this GroupMe for you to talk easily outside of class! Here’s the link: https://app.groupme.com/join_group/66452035/05hrjEtE

  • Revise and complete your papers:

    • Please COPY your documents prior to making revisions, so you’ll have an original AND a final draft.

    • Do remember to include your cover memo. This item can be very casual! The details are on the assignment sheet.

    • Submit your FINAL drafts to this Drive folder by midnight on Friday, 2/19.


For Monday, 2/22:

  • Bring your copy of I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Hard copy preferred; digital acceptable in a pinch.

  • Do NOT read in advance.

  • Bring comfort food or drink; set up wherever you would be most comfortable reading for an hour. We’re just going to read together.

For Wednesday, 2/24:

  • Alternate meeting! Instead of meeting in our usual room, we’ll attend the Medical Center Hour, on “Why Doctors Write: In Their Own Words”—This meeting takes place from 12-1, during our regular class period.

    • Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87684988960; passcode is: 763749

    • I will scroll through the participants list and take attendance. Please take notes in your field notebooks. For example, you might reflect on the following:

      • What do the speakers bring up that connects to the course content? (Are there any ties to memory? What about to processing information/experiences? Communicating research or experiences to others? Etc.)

      • What do they bring up that makes you curious about other directions you haven’t yet considered?

    • FYI, as of 12:18 p.m. on 2/24—As I sit watching/listening to the doctors today, I’m also reminded of the last pages from Oliver Sacks’s memoir, On the Move. (Sacks was a beloved neurologist and writer; he passed away just a couple of years ago.) You might enjoy these—just about 2 pages long.)

  • 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?

In Class on Friday, 2/28:

  • Revisiting neurons and synaptic connections—

Physical Growth—>Communication—>Pruning—>Neuroplasticity

For Monday, 3/1:

  • Write one final reflection in your reading notebooks, bringing together the reading, writing, and viewing you’ve done this week. What has most stood out to you regarding literacy, memory, memoir, and identity? What else would you like to write down now, so you’re more likely to remember it/keep thinking about it?

  • Take the Week 1 post-survey.

    • Note: Throughout Unit 2, we will take a series of pre- and post-surveys for data collection purposes. All data is anonymous unless you choose to identify yourself. I will make all survey data available to the class at the end of the unit, for use in your second papers; i.e., your responses will be readable by your peers.

  • Take the Week 2 pre-survey.

  • Bring The Vanishing Half to class on Monday. Do NOT read in advance.

For Wednesday, 3/3:

  • Continue reading The Vanishing Half. We will discuss the book up to page 141 [so, Parts I and II (of IV)], and the rest of the book on Friday.

    • 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.

  • Optional: Feel free to go ahead and read the research articles for this week; we’ll talk about them some on Wednesday and more on Friday:

    1. “How learning shapes the empathic brain” (2015)

    2. “This is Your Brain on Communication” (2016)<—TED talk by Uri Hasson, lot of fun graphics to watch (16 minutes-ish)

    3. “How Reading Fiction Increases Empathy and Encourages Understanding” (2020)

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

  • Optional, but if you’re willing, my other class would appreciate your completing this survey: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3PFpQkTxDCEKK7c

In-class on Wednesday, 3/3:

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 you 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, 3/5:

  • 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?

  • Just FYI—You can’t possibly have time to read any more before Friday, but I have posted additional additional articles under “On reading, writing, and empathy.” If this is an area that interests you, you might end up checking out more of those in this unit or the next.

  • Optional (and reposted from Wednesday), but if you’re willing, my other class would appreciate your completing this survey: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3PFpQkTxDCEKK7c

For Monday, 3/8:

For Wednesday, 3/10:

  • 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.

  • Optional—we’ll have 4 additional articles to look at for Friday. Feel free to go ahead and look at these two:

In-Class, Wednesday, 3/10:

Start with a body scan.

  • 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.

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.

    .

  1. *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. 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, 3/12:

  • Finish reading The Hidden Life of Trees.

For Monday, 3/15:

  • Take the last of our Unit 2 pre-surveys.

  • Bring Joy Harjo’s An American Sunrise to class for our read-in. Do not read ahead.
    *Reminder that I’ll be running from the Lawn to my office for our class time on Monday. I will do my very best to be on time, but if I’m a few minutes late, please don’t leave. :) I will give you a few pieces of advice on reading poetry at the beginning of class, but then of course, we’ll spend the rest of the period reading.

For Wednesday, 3/17:

  • 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.

  • Optional:

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

      • Consider choosing 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 achieve 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. (She’s so good.)

      • 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/.


In-Class on Wednesday, 3/17:

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, 3/19:

  • Finish reading An American Sunrise and documenting your reading experience in your field notebooks.

    • 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?

  • As a follow-up to Wednesday’s 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.

  • Read through (spend about 30 minutes total?):

  • At least preview the post-survey in Qualtrics. You can complete it over the weekend if you need to, but you will have other writing to do before Monday, too.

  • Come to class ready to discuss!

For Fun:

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.
Part One: Life

CXXVI

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

*Reproduced from https://www.bartleby.com/113/1126.html.

Next Up:

Please be sure to complete your post-survey in Qualtrics before midnight on Saturday, 3/20! I’ll pull all the pre/post reports and post them on Sunday so you have access to them in formulating your thoughts for Monday.

For Monday, 3/22:

  • NOTE: Delayed start time on Monday! Class will begin at 12:15!

  • Re-read the notes YOU have been taking all month in response to the various reading and writing activities. What trends stand out to you? What do you make of your notes in light of the research articles we’ve read each week? What are you interested in digging into for your next paper, as you choose one particular theme or thread to articulate? Come with those notes in-hand, so you can use them as you begin to formulate thesis statements/early outlines during Monday’s class.

  • Once the survey results are posted on Sunday (UPDATED—now posted above!), review those and see how they inform the theme/thread you’re hoping to explore in this upcoming paper.

  • FYI—The Amanda Gorman poems I referenced in Friday’s class—worth watching if you haven’t yet:

For Wednesday, 3/24:

  • Read the rubric and color coding on your first essay draft, along with the head notes in response to your drafts. Consider what is working well and where/how you want to revise, as well as how you might approach Essay #2 in terms of form/style.

  • Read through these pages from Williams’ and Bizup’s Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. (I’ve highlighted items to help you quickly identify main points.) Don’t feel like you have to achieve mastery of every technique here, but try choosing one or two to work on in your revision and upcoming paper.

  • Read the Essay #2 assignment carefully and come with notes ready to discuss with your peers regarding your topic, audience, purpose, and approach.

  • Draft a thesis and bring to class for peer feedback.

For Friday, 3/26:

  • Continue refining your thesis statements. Collaborate with your peers and/or the Writing Center as you’re able/find that input helpful.

  • Bring a working outline/draft of your second essay—how drafty is up to you; I’d recommend at the minimum having a decent outline (3 levels deep, with source material indicated where you plan to include it), and a few paragraphs written.

    • We’ll spend most of the class period workshopping papers, and this will be all the feedback you get on your paper prior to final submission (unless you share outside of class and/or visit the Writing Center, etc., both of which I encourage).

  • FYI, here are the Style slides I shared in Wednesday’s class, for your reference. I generally recommend you deal with style issues as a “last step” in your process—no sense in laboring over sentences you’ll need to cut later if you decide to change directions, etc.

For Wednesday, 3/31:

  • Drop your final essays to this folder before midnight on Wednesday, 3/31.

  • Plus, lots of short tasks for Wednesday!

  1. Please complete the library’s pre-survey to help our librarian plan her time with us.

    • About the survey, from the library: “Ahead of our library instruction next week, the librarians we will be working with have a short, 5-minute survey they are asking you to complete. Your survey responses will help the librarians tailor their instruction to your specific questions and needs. It is also part of a research study the librarians are conducting, and you will find more information about that at the survey link. You are not required to take the survey, but our librarians would really appreciate it!”

  2. Read the assignment guidelines for Unit 3.

  3. Complete this training module on research ethics, in preparation for Unit 3.

  4. Complete this survey giving feedback on the training module.

  5. Sign up for a conference time with me on either 4/5 or 4/7.

  6. Sign up for a DRAFT due date during Unit 3.

For Friday, 4/2:

  • Continue brainstorming project ideas for your Unit 3 project, and come to class ready to use the library time as practically as possible in investigating published research related to your topic.

For Monday, 4/5, and Wednesday, 4/7:

  • We do NOT meet for class on these days. Instead, come to your scheduled conference with me.
    *We’ll be back together on Zoom on Friday, 4/9.

  • Bring your project proposal to that meeting.

    • Don’t feel you must submit in advance, but plan to drop it into this folder when we begin.

  • If you need to refresh yourself on the assignment itself, revisit the Unit 3 page.
    *I’ll updated the assignment sheet, but as noted in Friday’s class, you should plan to draw on/cite 6-8 sources in this project. (Some of you may need more; you shouldn’t use fewer.)

  • Bring questions as needed!

For Friday, 4/9:

  • Great seeing everybody this week! Your projects are looking so interesting; workshop is going to be fun.

  • Before class on Friday, just make any revisions needed to your proposal (you can just update your file in the folder, so I’ll see the latest version when I log in) to reflect your own updated plans.

  • Come to class ready to do more online research—we’ll use Google Scholar to supplement the library databases, and also practice a little with the WorldCat/ArticleFirst databases.

  • If you’re doing a survey, hold off on sending out until I share the UVA-preferred survey site with you; I’ll drop a link to the chat on Friday and answer any questions you have about set-up.

In-Class on Friday, 4/9:

  • Useful links/resources:

    • UVA Qualtrics<—for those of you conducting surveys

      • Click on “Central UVA”; the system will prompt you to create an account using your UVA credentials.

      • “Create New Project”—>Create Survey from scratch

    • Google Scholar<—for quickly finding sources and following paths (via citations, related articles); you may need to go back to the library to actually GET the articles
      *If you’re really into citation mapping, the Web of Science database through the UVA library has some interesting analysis tools in place.

    • WorldCat<—to identify the free-to-you locations of basically any typical book currently in existence):

      • Go to: https://www.library.virginia.edu/

      • Under “Research,” select “Databases A-Z”

      • Manually find “Worldcat”<—there are trade-offs between the 2 options, but you probably want the Worldcat.org version; you could try both

    • Interlibrary Loan<—for ordering BOTH physical copies AND digital scans (of articles/book chapters, usually), if we don’t have it in our immediate library collection at UVA
      *Alert: This page is temporarily malfunctioning. I’ve submitted a tech report, so here’s hoping we have a repair very shortly. I’ll remove this message when I see the page working correctly again.

    • Zotero (for managing your sources/citations<—a good option for either managing your research over all of your time in academia OR for a specific, larger project where your bibliographic work is extensive)

For Monday, 4/12:

  • Continue working on your projects; be attentive to your own calendars!

  • In your field notebooks, please respond to the following prompt:

    • Since submitting your proposal, you’ve met with me and presumably conducted additional research, done some further thinking. What’s changed most in your own thinking over the past week or so? What have you already figured out about your project, what new questions do you have, and what are you most excited about as you continue working?

  • FYI—we’ll talk next week about “notebook checks” for grading those; we have a few options for submission—I want to get a sense of what you’ve done, but I don’t want to create a burdensome requirement (i.e., I’m not asking you to scan/upload every page). But in case you’ve been wondering—we’ll talk next week.

For Wednesday, 4/14:

  • Continue working on your projects; be attentive to your own calendars!

  • Review this presentation on coding v. prose and cognition. We’ll discuss for the first 15 minutes of class.

  • After our discussion, we will again have 2 rooms: a free-form “working” room and a structured room for writing exercises. You can opt in to whatever you find useful.

For Friday, 4/16:

  • Wyley, please be sure to drop your draft to the Drive folder linked above.

  • Alex and James, remember that your drafts will be due on Monday.

  • Everyone else, continue working on your projects; be attentive to your own calendars!

  • Friday will be our last day with the 2-room model (a free-form “working” room and a structured room for writing exercises). Again, you can opt in to whatever you find useful.

For Monday, 4/19:

  • Alex and James, please drop your draft to the Drive folder before class time on Monday.

  • Akaash and Ryan, remember that your drafts will be due on Wednesday.

  • Everyone:

    • Sign up for a “notebook check” meeting with me.

    • Access Wyley’s draft in the Drive folder.
      *Draft will be posted on Friday by midnight.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.


For Wednesday, 4/21:

  • Akaash and Ryan, please drop your draft to the Drive folder before class time on Wednesday.

  • Victor and Anirudh, remember that your drafts will be due on Friday.

  • Everyone: Read Alex’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

  • Everyone: Read James’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

For Friday, 4/23:

  • Victor and Anirudh, please drop your draft to the Drive folder before class time on Friday.

  • Aditya and Caleb, remember that your drafts will be due on Monday.

  • Everyone: Read Akaash’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

  • Everyone: Read Ryan’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

For Monday, 4/26:

  • Aditya and Caleb, please drop your draft to the Drive folder before class time on Monday.

  • Kendall and Leo, remember that your drafts will be due on Wednesday.

  • Everyone: Final notebook prompt—before your “notebook check” meeting with me next Thursday, take time to review the 3 sources linked below (hint: aim to take 20-30 minutes total with these), and then respond to the following prompt:

    (Part I) Consider what research tells us regarding the cognitive functions of “write to learn” activities [e.g., notebook entries, as well as drafts, doodles/sketches, freewriting/brainstorming, class notes, etc.]—how does writing support/advance our thinking?, then

    (Part II) review your own field notebook from the term—what do you notice about how your own writing there is/isn’t working in connection with the research sources linked here? what do you want to do with your own write-to-learn activity in the future based on what you're observing about yourself here?

  • Everyone: Read Victor’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

  • Everyone: Read Anirudh’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

For Wednesday, 4/28:

  • Kendall and Leo, please drop your draft to the Drive folder before class time.

  • Everyone: Read Aditya’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

  • Everyone: Read Caleb’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

For Friday, 4/30:

Everyone: Read Kendall’s draft.

  • Fill out this Google form.

  • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

    • Respond to big-picture items—

      • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

      • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

      • suggest areas to add more

    • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

  • Everyone: Read Leo’s draft.

    • Fill out this Google form.

    • Add TWO comments to the Google doc. Don’t copy edit—instead, use the comment feature to:

      • Respond to big-picture items—

        • “write back” to the author about ideas you find engaging, or places you’d want to debate (where applicable), etc.

        • explain where you’re getting confused in terms of arrangement

        • suggest areas to add more

      • Respond to line or paragraph level items that are confusing or not working somehow—explain what’s not working for you and suggest alternative possibilities.

Repeating in case you haven’t done this yet:

  • Everyone: Final notebook prompt—before your “notebook check” meeting with me next Thursday, take time to review the 3 sources linked below (hint: aim to take 20-30 minutes total with these), and then respond to the following prompt:

    (Part I) Consider what research tells us regarding the cognitive functions of “write to learn” activities [e.g., notebook entries, as well as drafts, doodles/sketches, freewriting/brainstorming, class notes, etc.]—how does writing support/advance our thinking?, then

    (Part II) review your own field notebook from the term—what do you notice about how your own writing there is/isn’t working in connection with the research sources linked here? what do you want to do with your own write-to-learn activity in the future based on what you're observing about yourself here?

For Monday, 5/3:

  • Be working on your final project drafts, which are due on Wednesday, 5/5, by 5 p.m.

  • Bring questions and your work in progress to class on Monday.

  • Please complete this simple form to let me know if you have additional regrade requests, or if you’re all clear.

For Wednesday, 5/3:

  • Come to class! We have end-of-term things to wrap up!

  • Your final project is due to this folder before 5 p.m.

    • If you have multiple files, please create a subfolder with your name on it.

    • Please also complete this form to let me know if you’re comfortable with my posting your project to a shared gallery for all of your classmates to see.

    • If you want to keep your work private, you may of course share the files only with me, using this email address: heidi.nobles@gmail.com.

In-Class on Wednesday, 5/3:

Please complete the following surveys/forms:

  1. University Course Evaluation: https://in.virginia.edu/CourseXperience
    *The link above takes you to a list of ALL your courses. Select our course from your list.

  2. Dept.-equivalent Evaluation: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8e70VS7as2VxoGO

  3. Permissions Preferences Form: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b7XWyFiW7g1ISA6