Turning Toward the Outside

We begin in earnest to look at how to incorporate the information you have gathered from our library databases into your own writing. In today's class we will work on better understanding the writing and research process.

The following slides will use an article from The New York Times to better help us see the process at work a bit more.




Group Activity

Each group will read and digest "Quoting and Paraphrasing" in order to present it to the rest of the class. Each group will have five minutes to present at the start of next class.

Research Legs

Today we broke up into our small groups and shared what we learned from performing the roles we assumed last class. Don't underestimate these activities as they are helpful in allowing you to gain your research legs.

For Next Class

1-Watch the research clips in the Research portion of MyWritingLab.
2-Select one article from the library databases to be used for your collaborative essay. Each person should have one article, with annotations, and notes pointing to how the information connects to the overall theme of the essay.
3-Read the next three chapters of Three Cups of Tea.

Today's Class

We are weavers of context a friend of mine told me once, and your research is all about weaving, finding connections in order to deepen your understanding. In today's class we saw how a primary source such as a speech or an interview can be used in a research essay if we think carefully and ask fruitful questions.

Work to Do
The groups need to post the outline, thesis, and work plan by no later than tomorrow morning, January 20. I want to see these in order to provide more specific feedback.

For Next Class
Make sure to follow through with your assigned roles regarding Three Cups of Tea. If you were not in class, make sure to contact one of your group members.

For Tuesday

Make sure to have completed the following:

1-Working outline for the essay
2-Thesis
3-Work load assignment
4-Begin research
5-First three chapters of Three Cups of Tea

Service-Learning Opportunity

We will have our first garden day this Saturday in celebration of Dr. King's work and vision. The event will run from 9 to 12 noon. If you are planning on attending, come dressed to work outside; bring a water bottle and a hat. Here's the address:

ROOTS IN THE CITY: EcoUrban Gardening
3rd Ave. & NW 9th St. (Plots are in front of Mt. Zion Baptist Church)


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Accelerate Your Learning

Please know that you can come in to Rm. 1217-17 (small room in the Computer Courtyard) from 9 to 12 noon on Wednesdays to get help with your writing. Bring a question, a paragraph, or an essay and you will get help!

Moving Along

This week we should get into a good work rhythm. The groups should be set up; everyone should have posted to the team blog over the weekend. Here's what I have planned:

1-Stroll through the team blogs and provide feedback. I want to pay close attention to the need of keeping an audience in mind as we write and also edit.

2-I'd like to go over the library resources. I know that there are a number of you who already know how to access these. Maybe you can help me show the rest of the class what's available.

3-We need to continue working on the first essay. By the end of the week, the group should have a working outline and assigned tasks for each of the members. This should be posted in the team blog.

4-Our first service-learning opportunities will take place this week. The writing/reading circles will start on Thursday; Saturday we will have our first garden day which will be part of our effort to honor the work and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Motivation

Starting on our first essay on the second day of class suggests the pace of the semester. Intense! I look forward to the weekend posts in each of your team blogs. Remember to take a photograph of something that illustrates the brainstorming you did in class today. Include a couple of sentences of text to accompany the image.

Next week I want to start the service-learning work for the reading/writing circles. I will need facilitators for 8:25 and 9:50am.

Welcome

Welcome to a new semester. I hope that your holidays were full of blessings and love. I enjoyed my time with family and friends, and I'm ready for the start of a great new year and decade. Let's make the next 16 weeks be the best ever. I look forward to sharing a rich and meaningful learning space with you.

As usual, I'm trying something different and new. For those of you who had me last semester, you may see some familiar brush strokes in the way I'm approaching the class, but you are in for a surprise as we move ahead.

Our semester will focus on three major themes: passion, connections,and well being. These three thematic pillars will help create a learning container for the whole of the semester. If you're wondering how the themes came about, they came to me in one of my training runs for the upcoming ING marathon. The three can be seen as holons, welcoming insights that can stand alone and that build to a greater understanding of who we are are as human beings.

There will be a number of writing assignments. Most but not all will have a research component. Each will stand on its own but will also build on its successor to create body of work at the end of the semester that addresses the course competencies and objectives, the College's learning outcomes, and hopefully, your own personal pride in creating something of value.

Writing Assignments
Expect to write three three-page documented collaborative essays. Each essay will need at least two sources--a primary and secondary source. The secondary source will need to come from the library data base. The essays will need to be worked on in a team of five. Final copies of the essays will be published in the group blog.

Toward the end of the term each learner will need to compose one at home reflective individual essay of at least three pages long. This text will synthesize or bring together the knowledge gained from the three essays in an insightful and practical paper with at least three sources--two of which need to be primary and one secondary.

There will also be three in-class essay assignments that will focus on themes generated from the readings, class discussions, and service-learning activities.

Teams will maintain a public blog where they publish work for an on-line audience. The blog will include collaborative and individual texts; short and long pieces, original photographs and videos, and poems around the three themes of passion, connections, and well being; the team will receive a grade for the quality of the blog.

Action Learning
There is a 15 hour service-learning requirement which can be met in five ways:

1. Nicaragua Awareness Project
2. College Prep Reading/Writing Circles
3. Nautilus Dreamers
4. Roots in the City Garden Project

I will go over the service-learning options in class.

Collaborative Essay Dates:
Essay 1: What gets us going?
Due: Tuesday, February 2
Essay 2: Who are our relations?
Due: Tuesday, March 2
Essay 3: What makes us whole?
Due: Tuesday, March 30

Final Reflective Paper (Individual)
Due: Tuesday, April 13

Finished Blog
Due: Tuesday, April 20