REVIEWING RESOURCES FOR ENGLISH 21

Class Blog and MySkillsLab

Online Resources for English 21

• • Our Class Blog • Located at lawson21fall2014.weebly.com

• Here you can access the schedule/homework assignments, all handouts, as well as access to online readings and links to other resources.

MySkillsLab • Located at www.myskillslab.com

• • • • • Class ID: lawson43301 We will be using it mostly for grammar exercises.

You will need the access code that came with the packet you purchased at the bookstore.

A registration guide handout is available on our class blog, in the second post Example – Student Volunteer to Register Live?

My Skills Lab: Frequently Asked Questions

• • • • If you have used MSL before: I’m logged into MySkillsLab, and it’s asking me if I want to work alone or in my professor ’ s class.

• Choose “ Join my professor’s course.

” lawson43301 Our course ID is

I’ve joined the course. What do I do now?

• • The first thing you are required to do is take “Path Builder” test. You must finish the Path Builder before you can go on to the Modules. Your scores will not count against you. All that matters is that you COMPLETE these tests. How do I find the Modules and Sections that are required?

To the left, click “Writing”, then “Learning Path”, then under #2, click “Study By Module”. Select the Module indicated on your Schedule, and then select the section within that Module that you schedule states needs to be done. [SHOW EXAMPLE]

Online Class Resources: TurnItIn.com

Turnitin.com

• We be uploading all our major assignments to turnitin.com for grading. • • Sometimes I will ask you to bring a copy of your rough drafts to work on in class, however the final draft, the version that I grade will always be submitted on turnitin.com. Make sure you look on the schedule to know if you should upload to TurnItIn.com ONLY or if you should bring a printed copy for activities in class. • Class Name: English 21 Fall 2014 • Class ID: 8598367 • Enrollment Password: 21lawson2014

EMAILING YOUR PROFESSOR

A Guide

Put the Reason for Your Email in the Subject Line

• A subject line helps your professor to know what to expect in your email. • A subject line will help your professor to find your email in their already full inboxes. • Make your subject line as specific as possible. • A poor subject line: “Class” • A useful subject line: “Question about the Reading Response due Friday”

Identify Yourself

• Sign your email with the name your professor knows you by, even if your name is in your email address. • This is especially important if your email is not the same as your name. • I once got an email asking, “What did we do in class?” from a student who could only be identified as rockstar85.

Identify the Class You Attend

• Remember, your professor teaches more than one class. • Especially early in the semester, it is important to tell your professor which class you attend. • Mention the course name and dates/times that the class meets. • Many professors teach more than one section of the same course.

• Do not send an email that simply asks “What did we do in class?” without identifying which class you are talking about.

Ask Smart Questions

• Actually, do not ever, under any circumstances, send

your teacher an email asking “What did we do in class?”

• Your professor does not have time to re-teach an entire lesson in response to your email.

• If you miss a day of class, contact a classmate and ask what you missed before contacting your professor for clarification. • Look on your syllabus and at any handouts your professor gave you for clarification before emailing your professor.

Ask Smart Questions: Part 2

• Example of a smart question: Dear Professor Pentecost, I am a student in your English 101 class that meets from 10:30 to 11:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. I was absent on Monday, and I saw that a handout with instructions for the reading response assignment was posted on the website. I read the handout, but I was wondering if we needed to do a new reading response question for each reading assigned on the syllabus.

Sincerely, Mako Mori

Be Respectful of Your Professor’s Time

• Politeness will score you points with your professor. Rudeness will get you nowhere. • Do not make demands of your professor. Grading papers and responding to emails takes time. • Make sure to give your professor enough lead time to respond to your question before the deadline for an assignment. • Emailing your professor at 1 AM the night before an assignment is due at 9 AM is ridiculous.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

And Your Academic Image

Creating Academic Success

• Pages 11-15 in your textbook has 4 sections called “Workshops” that give advice on building up your academic success. • How many people have a textbook today?

• Once you have a textbook, please look over these sections and read the advice paragraphs from students just like you.

• For now, we will go over some of the key concepts together. Follow along in your textbook if you have it.

Time Management

• Develop a weekly study plan • and stick to it!

• Try to set aside about equal homework/study time as hours you spend in class • Believe it or not, I spend that much time or more prepping for class and LOTS more grading! So we are in this together!

• Work on the most difficult assignments FIRST.

• I know its tempting to put things off if you are nervous about them, but you will only stress yourself out. • Include short breaks in your study time • Don’t let them get too long or you will get unfocused, but short, active breaks helps your brain to process information. • I recommend short walks, stretching, or rocking out to music.

Find a place to read and write

• Try to find a dedicated place to read and write • Avoiding places that are used heavily for other purposes, like the kitchen table (if your family always eats there) or your bed (it could hurt your quality of sleep) • Use a table or desk whenever possible • Turning yourself awkwardly on a couch can really mess up your neck/back. Trust me I know. You also want somewhere you can sit comfortably and spread out your papers. • Try to pick a place with good light • Eye strain is no joke.

• Organize your notes and class materials.

• I like using an accordion folder

Minimizing distractions

• Try to choose a place with as few distractions as possible.

• Control noise levels • • How much background noise do you need, and how much is too much? Music doesn’t work for everyone. Be honest about what KIND of background noise you need—some people need birds chirping and cars driving by. Some people need dubstep. • Consider investing in noise cancelling headphones. • Write down distracting thoughts • Like errands you need to run or a call you need to make, or something you want to do. Once you jot it down you can stop thinking about it. • Ask the people around you to help you by protecting your study time. You have a right to ask for this.

Build up Your Academic Image

• Answer the questions on page 15

WHAT ACADEMIC WRITING IS

and what it is NOT

What is Academic Writing?

• • Academic Writing is NOT about… • Being perfect the first time • • • Always having “original” ideas that are not influenced by anyone else Showing off a big vocabulary, using complicated words and constructing long and complicated sentences Being better than others around you Academic Writing IS about… • A process—planning, drafting, revising • • • Developing your ideas in connection with other ideas Using specific and accurate words, and constructing clear and understandable sentences. Being part of a community of writers and engaging in the ongoing academic conversation.

GIMME A BREAK

• Take a break! 10-15 Minutes

THE READING – WRITING CONNECTION

The Connection Between Reading and Writing

• Reading and Writing are two sides of the same coin. They are both part of a circuit of communication. • The writer communicates a message gathered from different parts of their knowledge and experience .

• The reader tries to understand the message by connecting it to their own knowledge and experience. • By learning to read more effectively and fluently, you will learn to write more effectively. • Similarly, the more you learn about writing—organization, argument, sentence structure—the easier you will find it to read and understand.

Active Reading Strategies

• Reading material for school that you will need to retain (remember), discuss, and react to requires more than a quick, once-over reading for most people. • Strategies that will help you to retain and discuss material you read for school: • • Preview the Reading.

Highlight Main Points • Take Notes—your reactions, connections to your own experiences and knowledge.

How to Preview a Reading:

• • • • Read the title. What do you expect from the essay because of what it is called? Ask yourself what you already know about the topic and the author.

• Have you had any experiences that relate to this topic? If the material has bold headings, look at those. • In some textbooks, you are given a “ what you should learn from this chapter ” preview. Read this if it is available. Look up unfamiliar words as you read.

• If you don’t understand the dictionary definition, try to figure out the possible meaning from context (the other words around it). Usually this will give a enough of a general idea that you can keep reading.

Highlighting the Main Points

• In a textbook, it is a good idea to highlight the topic sentence of every paragraph. • Highlight definitions that are important for understanding main points. • Highlight any other information that you think you will need to remember, but be careful not to highlight excessively (too much). • If everything on a page is highlighted, nothing stands out!

• • •

Taking Notes on the Reading (also known as: Annotating)

Define unfamiliar words Interact with the author • • • Ask questions Make connections between different parts of the text Add your own examples of points being made • • Challenge the author ’ s ideas Record your opinions/reactions See pages 44-45 of your Pathways book for suggestions about annotating and handling difficult readings.

Share reading responses

• Let’s discuss the reading for today: “The Beautiful Laughing Sisters-An Arrival Story” p. 522— 527

Discussion Questions:

1.

2.

What is the point of this narrative? Why is the author telling it? What are some of the details that help you to understand the narrative? 3.

Find a place where she has a lot of detail and tell me why you think she decided to focus there •

You can turn in your homework questions now.

“Beautiful Laughing Sisters” and the Idea of a “Cultural Broker”

• A “ broker ” is like a middle-man. This word is often used for people with lots of knowledge about a complicated subject who help “ normal ” people to understand it. • • • • A real estate broker can help people hunting for a home to navigate complex property laws.

A stock broker buys and sells stocks for clients who do not have as much knowledge of the stock market. We use the phrase “ broker a deal ” when a third party convinces two opposing sides to compromise. So, a “ cultural broker ” is a person who has knowledge about his or her culture who shares that information with someone who is new to that culture.

“Cultural Broker” Activity

• Briefly, think about the city you live in. What would you tell someone who was new to that city if you were acting as a “ cultural broker ” ?

• Where to go, where not to go • Best places to eat and shop • Customs and “what to do” and “what not to do” • Interesting local attractions • Other information you think a new person should know

Pass out Essay 1 Prompt

Essay 1 is a Narrative based on the idea of “cultural brokers” • Let’s read the full prompt together carefully. • Highlight things you need to remember, and take notes of any ideas you have. • This essay is a narrative essay and a descriptive essay. • This means it will use both narrative and description to get its point across.

• We will discuss Narrative Essays and this Essay Prompt more next week. Bring your Essay Prompt back to class with you!

Why study grammar?

• Knowing the basics of grammar will help you be a better writer because you will understand how the words are working together. • Knowing grammar gives us the words we need to talk to each other about needed improvements in our writing. • Knowing the rules helps you to know when to use them to gain the respect of your audience.

• Knowing the rules helps you to know when to break them for a reason and a purpose, not just from ignorance.

The Parts of Speech

• • • Every single word serves a specific function (job). Some words do double duty – they have more than one function. These functions are called “ parts of speech.

” It is important to know the parts of speech because there are many situations where you must choose which part of speech to use. Two basic parts of speech are nouns and verbs.

Nouns

• NOUN: Names a person, place, thing or idea. • Capitalize proper nouns (nouns that refer to specific people, places, things, or ideas), but do not capitalize common nouns (nouns that refer to general, non-specific things). • • • Proper: George Washington Proper: Ventura Proper: Oreo Common: man Common: city Common: cookie

Other Ways to Categorize Nouns

• • •

Nouns are concrete

• •

or abstract

Concrete nouns have real, physical existence. They can be experienced with the five senses. Abstract nouns cannot be seen, touched, etc. They are ideas. For example: honesty, bravery, sadness, etc.

Nouns are singular (only one) or plural (more than one.

• Some nouns are “ Jury ” collective , which means that they refer to a group of people that are acting as one. For example:

Nouns are count (able to be counted) or non count. (Not able to be counted)

• For example, we say “ three dollars, ” but not “ three money.

” The word “ dollars ” is a non-count noun.

is a count noun, but “ money ”

Verbs (p. 101 in Pathways)

• VERB : Expresses an action or a state of being. (It is something you can do or be.) • Three different types of verbs: • Action Verb : expresses physical or mental activity. (Run, jump, think, sing, etc.) • Linking verb : Expresses a state of being. (She is There is a list of linking verbs on p. 578. pretty.) • Helping verb : helps another verb (the main verb) to tell when an action occurred. (She was talking on the phone when the doorbell rang.)

Identifying the Subject in a Sentence

For More on Subjects and Verbs, see page 95-105 in Pathways

• It is important to be able to tell which noun in the sentence (and there are probably several) is the subject and to identify the whole verb. • SUBJECT • • • • = Who or what the sentence is about. Sentences usually only have one subject, UNLESS… The subject can be compound (have two or more parts) Example: Joseph arrived ten minutes late. (The subject is “ Joseph.

” Example 2: Joseph and Mark arrived late. (This sentence has a compound subject , and both “ Joseph ” and “ Mark ” are subjects of the sentence.)

Identifying the Verb

•

The MAIN VERB Performs the action of the subject, including any helping verbs.

•

Verbs can be single words or verb phrases.

• Example: The brown

cat

ran

up the tree. • Subject = cat Verb = ran • The

car

should have stopped

more quickly. • Subject = car Verb = should have stopped • “ should ” and “ have ” are helping verbs, “ stopped ” the main verb. They are all part of the verb of the sentence.

is

Grammar Homework for Next Week

• In addition to some other homework I will discuss later, you should complete the Path Builder Exercise on MySkillsLab, which will quiz you on your current grammar knowledge. • Please do not stress out about this! Just do it calmly, and resist the temptation look up something if you don’t know it. It’s not a test, and it won’t affect your grade. • • It is just going to use the information to evaluate what you need to review or work on and what you already have solid skills in. It’s how MySkillsLab customizes itself to YOU and what YOU need.

Homework for next week

• • Read Pathways p.19-29 •

Know your topic for the Narrative Essay and bring your notes/draft/ideas to class.

 Delete. You no longer have to do this. • Email/Handout Reading: ―”The Secret Latina” by Veronica Chambers. Print, read, and bring to class.