Greetings! This week is an oddball week. Tuesday is technically on a Monday schedule, but it is not on a Monday schedule at LaGuardia, where I teach a class at the same time as our class. The LaGuardia semester only just started, and if you remember how “fun” it was to start the semester online you can imagine how much they need a live presence answering their questions right now. Do not worry, though. We have a productive week ahead of us. This week, I’m asking you to do at least one of the following video lessons and activities. Each short video has an activity meant to help you revise your last draft of Essay 1 before submitting it. If you turned it in already, I hope you kept a copy! I will go into the TURN IN folder and make sure it is shared with you. You will get credit for each lesson and activity deliverable you do, but you are only required to do one, which means extra credit for you is available. Choose this option if you think you have fallen behind or have shown up to workshops without drafts to workshop.

A note about workshop: I set that time aside to give feedback on your writing. Feedback is the most useful part of this class, so I want you to have it, but if you show up to workshop without something to share I cannot give you feedback. This means it is a waste of my time. If you find yourself needing guidance, clarity, or reassurance on your writing but you have not shown up with your writing at the workshop, we have a problem. I may need to change the organization of the class and workshops to set aside time for students who have not been showing up with drafts. This would likely mean that all groups meet at the same time but only include those who have drafts, and that the length of each session would be shorter.

A note about the assignment schedule: I’m going to change things to adjust for the way things have been going. Based on how things are going so far, I believe there need to be more options for approaching the reading, more structured and purposeful instruction on the assignments, and opportunities to write-to-think in free-writes. This week, I will revise the upcoming assignment schedule to integrate these findings, and I will start requesting feedback so that you can help me teach you more effectively and usefully. A writing class is meant to be challenging, but the platform is not the challenge goal of the class!

See the lessons posted below, but first read the following announcement:

If you have not done so already, please fill out or encourage your household to fill out Census 2020.

The population numbers from the Census determine resource allocations for billions of dollars in federal funding (which New York State contributes a high amount to!) and the numbers of New York reps there are in Congress.

Here’s a link to New York’s portal to the Census: https://www.ny.gov/programs/2020-census#
And here’s more information: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/2020-census/about.html
Even if you are not a US citizen, you should fill out the Census. There are no questions about citizenship and documentation on the general Census. The information is confidential and by law cannot be shared with any other governmental agencies. The census is simply to count people so every person living here should be accounted for. Right now the estimated count in Queens is about 60%.

The deadline for Census 2020 has been extended to October 31st but please fill it out as soon as possible.

Lessons

This week, especially Tuesday, the focus is really on quoting authors effectively. There is a lot to quoting, so we will take it step by step. Complete at least one of the following lessons and its activities for credit. These lessons are essential for your Essay 1 Last Draft revisions. Each video starts with the same title introduction but they contain different, vital information about quoting effectively. Complete the lesson activities by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. to receive credit. Credit is for participation (engagement) and for process writing, so it really counts!

Here are a couple of things to make sure to include in your revised quotations no matter which lesson you choose:

1. Introduce authors with first and last names, and follow using only the relevant author’s last name. If you are not personally friends with the author you have no business writing about them on a first name basis.
2. Cite your sources in MLA style as much as possible. In Essay 1, this means introducing the title of the presentation you quote or paraphrase. If it is not immediately clear which presentation you’re quoting, you can include a parenthetical title citation at the end of a sentence. If you quote the article, include the page number in a parenthesis after the quotation marks.
3. For further details about MLA citation style, both in-text and in the Works Cited area, consult the Purdue OWL site here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_in_text_citations_the_basics.html

Link to activity:To get credit for watching this assignment, click this link to the Google Slide presentation and follow the instructions.

Link to activity: Open the Google Slides Presentation linked here and follow the instructions for the companion activity for Quoting Authors.