Time to Go on a Scavenger Hunt

Date August 27, 2008

Are you ready? Assignment #1 is a scavenger hunt. The hunt will guide you through all the parts of this hybrid/online course, and there are prizes for the WINNER! Yep!

To get started, log into Blackboard and click the Modules tab. Choose Module I. Listen to Professor Sam’s podcast about Module I. I posted it here as well. Then click on the Week 1 folder and get started.

Here is a list of what you’ll need to complete for Week 1:

  • You have some reading to do in your textbook, and
  • a journal you will post on your blog in the network.
  • There is also a group discussion to participate in on the network-Network Discussion Forum
  • And Assignment #1: Scavenger Hunt.

Don’t worry. You’ll be surprised to see that you’ve already done most of the stuff on the list! Only do them once, however.

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Logging into Sakai (Blackboard Replacement)

Date January 11, 2008

I mentioned in the first announcement that we are part of a pilot study testing out a new course management system (CMS). Blackboard is the current CMS at South Mountain, so you will probably use that in all of your other courses. If so, I hope you will be able to tell us which one you like best. Sakai or Blackboard. I will shut off Blackboard at the end of next week, so you will not have to worry about using that at all.

Now let’s get started with Sakai. You will find all of your assignment information in Sakai, as well as your grades, reading assignments, quizzes and more. Remember, it’s just like Blackboard. You will have a different username however, but it will be easier to remember. I will send your username and password to you via email, as soon as I get an email from you.

I created a screencast to help you learn how to Sign into Sakai and change your password. Please watch the screencast and follow the directions to get yourself all set up.

  1. Go to: http://sakai.freshmancomp.com
  2. Type in the Username and Password I provided you in email
  3. You will land in the My Workspace area.
  4. On the left side menu, scroll to the bottom and click Account
  5. You will see your Account Details. Scroll to the bottom and click Modify Details
  6. Type in your Email Address and create a new password. Type the same password twice.
  7. Click Update Details at the bottom.

That’s all you need to change for now. Next you need to get into the class so you can see all the course materials. There is a Green tab at the top of the page called My Courses. Click that tab. You will see:
SM_ENG101_2192_20082 — Welcome to Dr. Cooper’s Freshman Composition course at South Mountain CC.

Click on the courses title to get in. Wala! That’s it. You’re in. Have a look around, and watch the two screencast I created showing you an overview of the MyWorkspace and the ENG101 course Sakai. This will help you understand it better. Coming soon.

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Start Up: List of Things to Do to Get Started

Date January 11, 2008

1. Send Dr. Cooper an email or reply to this message (if you receive this in an email). Reply only to me. In the message, include your name, home phone, cell phone, and any alternate email addresses you may use. Send your email to dr.coop at freshmancomp dot com. Be sure to send the email from the email program/address you own and plan to use all semester long in this course (not Blackboard). DO NOT send it from a friend’s email address.

2. Register for the course social network: ENG101 at http://eng101.ning.com. You can sign yourself up by visiting the site, or you can wait for an invitation from Dr. Cooper after you’ve replied to this email or sent her an email. Watch the orientation in Blackboard to learn how or Watch how to sign up here –> http://www.freshmancomp.com/screencasts/NingSU/NingSU.html

3. Set up your profile by answering the profile questions and adding a photo of yourself. Don’t worry. This will be a private network. Only your classmates can see your information. Then introduce yourself in the discussion forum: Journal #1: Class Introductions - http://eng101.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1727550%3ATopic%3A69

4. That’s it for now. I will send you all an email later about how to log into our course management system. Our class is doing a pilot study of a new course management system, Sakai. So we will not be using Blackboard this semester. Don’t worry. Sakai if very similar to Blackboard and there will lots of help along the way.

NOTE: We will not be using Blackboard. I will send you information about the new course management system we will be using when you send me an email.

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Welcome to the ENG101 Social Network

Date January 11, 2008

If you’re reading this elsewhere, click here to visit the social network.

This class will be like no other you’ve had before. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how comfortable you are with using technology. There’s really only three places you’ll need to worry about: here (social network), Sakai, and MyCompLab. The network will be the most fun. We will use this space for our group discussions, which will take place in the Forum. And you each will have your own personal blog here in the network where you will post your journals. Those are the only two things that are required here, but as you will discover, this will also be a great place to get help and make friends in the class. So don’t be afraid to share with each other.

The social network site will be private, so the only people who will see you photo, profile, journal or anything else you post there will be you classmates. Just like if we were in a class, you would all see each other and work together. Well, this is our class.

There are lots of opportunities to ask questions on the network. There is a Questions Forum just for you all, and you can ask Dr. Cooper or Professor Sam questions anytime, anywhere on the network. There will be instructions on how to do that posted soon.

So have a look around, explore, introduce yourself, and make a few friends. You never know when you’ll need a little help and it will be great to be able to ask someone in the class, right? Have fun, and I’ll see you all in class.

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Final Exam Instructions

Date December 7, 2007

This final exam will go from Monday-Wednesday(3 days). You are responsible for completing the following:

Final Self Assessment (reflective writing) Assn. #5 50 points
Final Exam: Writing Portfolio Assessment (Wordpress Blog) FA 100 points
Total Points:   150 points

All work in this unit must be completed by midnight Wednesday, December 12th.

Information on Portfolio Assessment (Final Exam = 10%)
Your Writing Portfolio on you WordPress blog is your final exam in this course and will be worth 100 points (10% of your grade). Any one item missing from the portfolio will cause the portfolio to be incomplete and will be docked 20 points for each missing or incomplete assessment. Your portfolio must be complete in order for you to receive an accurate grade of your compentency in this course.Below is a list of the MCCCD official course competencies for the ENG101 First Year Composition course. Our goal this semester is to satisfy these seven competencies. In order to show that you have reached this goal, you will keep an electronic portfolio where you will provide examples of your work that demonstrate your competence. You will also be required to write several personal reflections on your work. What follows are the guidelines for the electronic portfolios. MCCCD Official Course Competencies:
ENG101 20056-99999 First-Year Composition

1. Analyze specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and writer, as well as the writing’s ethical, political, and cultural implications.
2. Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context.
3. Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.
4. Summarize, paraphrase and quote from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop and support one’s own ideas.
5. Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise writing.
6. Assess one’s own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods.
7. Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies.

Assignments for Assessment:

Assessment #1:

  • Analyze specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and writer, as well as the writing’s ethical, political, and cultural implications.
  • HOW? Doing a Rhetorical Analysis of a Text (Use Essay #3)

 

Assessment #2:

  • Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context.
  • HOW? Writing an expository essay, either illustration/reflection, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, definition or argumentative. ( Use Essay #1 or #2)
  • Self reflection piece (Use Assignments 2 or 3)

 

Asssessment #3:

  • Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.
  • HOW? Writing an expository essay, either illustration/reflection, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, definition or argumentative. (Use Essay #1 or #2).
  • Self Reflection piece. (Use Assignments 2 or 3)

 

Assessment #4:

  • Summarize, paraphrase and quote from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop and support one’s own ideas.
  • HOW? Write an argumentative position paper on an issue from the unit theme. Essay is an extended documented essay using either MLA or APA style of documentation. (Use Essay #4)

 

Assessment #5:

  • Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise writing.
  • HOW? Peer Review Essay #1 and #2. Rewrite your Essay #1 and #2 after your group members have reviewed the essay and you have met with me for your conference. (Use Essay #1 or #2)
  • Personal Reflection on the peer review process and rewrite process for your essay. (Use Assignment 2 or 3)

Assessment #6:

  • Assess one’s own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods.
  • HOW? Final Exam Personal Reflection/Assessment written after all portfolio assessments have been submitted to the WordPress blog. Part of the final exam. Will be assigned and completed in the last week of the semester.
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Assessment #7:

  • Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies.
  • Completion of the WordPress Portfolio and peer reviews using MS Word, Blackboard, WordPress blogs, and Grouptivity.

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Final Exam: Assignment #5

Date December 7, 2007

This final self assessment is Assignment #5 AND Assessment #6. This assessment is similar to Assignment #2 & #4 except this time you will focus on the overall assessment of your work as a whole. You must include a mentioning of all 7 competencies for the course in your overall assessment, but it will follow the same format listed below:

  1. The assessment will have an introductory paragraph that delivers an overall assessment of the completed essay. Introduce the fact that you will discuss your success, areas where improvement is needed and what you have learned.
  2. Body Paragraph 1 will discuss those factors in this essay which were successful. Praise yourself for what you have done well. (Focus on the competencies listed above ONLY).
  3. Body Paragraph 2 will discuss those factors/skills in certain essays which are still in need of improvement. What still needs work? What would you have improved had you had more time? (Focus on the competencies listed above ONLY)
  4. Body Paragraph 3 will detail any learning that occurred for you as you wrote the assigned essays. This can be learning about writing, about yourself as a writer, about yourself as a person, about the world around you. Any learning is eligible. Be specific.
  5. The assessment will close with a brief summary of your findings for the fifth paragraph of this assessment.

The entire assessment writing will follow standard MLA format for essay assignments (double spaced, 12 point font, formal heading, etc.)

In order for the assessment to meet the requirements, you will need to mention all 7 of the compentencies listed in Bb at least once at some point in the assessment. The more the better.

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Module IV Research Assignments

Date November 25, 2007

Your fourth and final essay requires doing a little research, but it is not a research report, so you only need a little. It is an argumentative position or proposal paper inwhich you back up your arguments by using research to support your claims. You will need to use a minimum of three sources in the paper and you will need to properly cite those sources. Here are three quick assignments to help you get sources for your paper.

  •  Book Source
    This assignment must be completed for the argumentative research paper (Essay #4). Locate one book from the library with information about personal freedoms.

  • Periodical Sources
    This assignment must be completed for the argumentative research paper (Essay #4).

    1. Locate two periodicals using a database in the library or MyCompLab on personal freedoms.

    2. Locate 3-4 short pieces (1-3 sentences) of information that would be helpful in strengthening your arguments. Remember you are looking for expert opinion, facts/statistics and anecdotes.

    3. Paraphrase the short sections using your own words and place a parenthetical notation at the end of each. Remember the parenthetical notation includes the author’s last name and the page number of the source in parentheses. Example: (Cooper 78).

  • Primary Source
    This assignment must be completed for the argumentative research paper (Essay #4).
    1. Conduct primary research by either creating a survey or doing a personal interview.

Use the outline in the Week 15 folder to help write your final paper. This outline is for a position paper. Remember you can also write a proposal paper if you wish.

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