Conferences are optional, of course. But I really like the opportunity to have the interaction. I get to hear your thoughts on your work, and you get to ask questions.

This week, our focus will be on Carr and/or  remediations of Paper 2. Of course, we can also discuss whatever issues interest you.

• Apollo Hangout: Wednesday, 10-10:45 AM (Abby, Maggie, Meghan)
• Dionysius Hangout I: Wednesday, 9-9:45 PM (Sydney, Phi, Jackie)
• Dionysius Hangout II: Thursday, 9-9:45 PM (Sydney, Phi, Jackie)
• Hermes Hangout: Wednesday, 7:15-8 PM (Sarah & Aubrie)

Please make a comment below if you will not attend one of the conferences.

I want to remind everyone that we are going to use just the Dionysus Discussion Board for the discussion board homework from here on out. I think this will help people get more feedback. The homework assignments will clearly indicate this location for discussion, but I’m just reminding everyone.

Conferences are optional, of course. But I really like the opportunity to have the interaction. I get to hear your thoughts on your work, and you get to ask questions.

As we did the last week that first drafts had been handed in, we’ll spend some time talking through parts of your drafts.

• Apollo Hangout: Wednesday, 10-10:45 AM (Abby, Maggie, Meghan)
• Dionysius Hangout I: Wednesday, 9-9:45 PM (Sydney, Phi, Jackie)
• Dionysius Hangout II: Thursday, 9-9:45 PM (Sydney, Phi, Jackie)
• Hermes Hangout: Wednesday, 7:15-8 PM (Sarah & Aubrie)

In preparation for the conference, please be thinking about which part(s) of your draft you’d like us to talk about. These are group conferences, so there a real learning opportunity for everyone involved. By signing on with a clear sense of what you want to get feedback on, we’ll have the best chance of having a productive conference.

NOTE TO DIONYSUS peer group members (Sydney, Phi, Jackie): I’d like for us to move to a single conference time for the group. If I recall, there was a provisional effort to conference in the late afternoon on Wednesday or Thursday.

Kindly post a reply letting me know if you’ll make the conference.

As we enter the second half of the term, I’m making a change to encourage more interaction and student engagement. It’s a minor change, so don’t worry too much.

I’m collapsing us all into the Dionysus Discussion Board for our discussion work.

We’ll maintain the Apollo, Dionysus, and Hermes peer groups for peer review.

You’ll notice that most of the homework due this week will happen in the Dionysus discussion board. My goal is to make it easier for us to see and comment on work. I also want to encourage more back and forth in the commenting, and discussion boards are best for that work.

We started video conferences last week. There were some hiccups, as is typical, but I hope you’ll agree that we did some good work over those meetings.

Our next round of conferences takes place on Wednesday, June 3, and Thursday, June 4:

• Apollo Hangout: Wednesday, May 27, 10-10:45 AM
• Dionysius Hangout I: Wednesday, 9-9:45 PM
• Dionysius Hangout II: Thursday, 9-9:45 PM
• Hermes Hangout: Wednesday, 7:15-8 PM

As before, I’ll run these as Google Hangouts. I’ll open a video hangout a few minutes before the conference start time and invite group members to join it (through your UNE email account).

I have two specific goals for these conferences:

1. Discussion of the Medium project, with particular emphasis on any challenges you’re facing;
2. Discussion of Gladwell and Poe, the texts that form the basis for the next paper.

With the exception of paper grades, I expect to have the gradebook updated before noon on Wednesday. (Papers will likely be graded by Wednesday night.)

Kindly post a comment if you cannot make your group’s scheduled conference!

Three quick reminders: Peer review, writing group video conferences, and gradebook.

Peer Review

By now, you should have access to most/all of your peer group’s first paper drafts. (Find them in your Shared With Me folder in the left sidebar of your Google Drive account.)

If you do not yet have access, please reach out to the relevant peer(s) whose paper(s) you cannot access. Find each peer’s email address on the Students page!

Be sure to complete the Guide to Peer Review Assignment before doing the actual peer review. Also, please use the Peer Review Guidelines to inform your review. (I use those guidelines to grade peer review, so it makes sense for you to use them.)

Writing Group Conferences

We have group video conferences (Google Hangouts) scheduled for Wednesday (and probably Thursday) this week. Here they are:

• Apollo Hangout: Wednesday, May 27, 10-10:45 AM
• Dionysius Hangout I: Wednesday, 9-9:45 PM
• Dionysius Hangout II: Thursday, 9-9:45 PM
• Hermes Hangout: Wednesday, 7:15-8 PM

I’ll run these as Google Hangouts. I’ll open a video hangout a few minutes before the conference start time and invite group members to join it (through your UNE email account).

You will have my feedback on your first draft in advance of the scheduled hangout, and I invite you to come to the hangout with questions, comments, and/or ideas.

Since the drafts are all shared, we’ll all be able to see what we’re looking at.

Gradebook

As of Tuesday afternoon, I believe the Gradebook reflects current grades on the different assignments thus far.

As the syllabus indicates, homework is marked done or not done (100 or 0). The grammar quiz grades come right from Norton. Drafts handed in on time are marked as 100 to signal full credit.

Note: I do sometimes err, and I’m fully capable of admitting and correcting a mistake. If you believe I have missed something here, please bring it to my attention via email.

I think annotations helped me as I read through the article.  It helped me focus on the important points and sort through the information.  It helped me and now I can look back at this when I need to refer to it and it can be used as a tool for organization.

 I found it very helpful to be able to go through and highlight and edit this writing right on my computer. I could easily draw back on previous statements made by the author because it was all right there in front of me.

I find that reading with colored highlighters helps me compartmentalize information. I highlighted all “They Say/I Say” phrases using orange and phrases that interest me in pink. Before, I couldn’t remember how phrases made me feel or think. The entire paper blended together and I found myself skimming through most of it.  I feel like I understand Poe better after going through and annotating for his view on the subject.

I have almost everyone’s conferencing availability, which is great. Based on what I have, I’m creating the following writing groups.

Apollo

• Maggie
• Abby
• Meghan

Dionysus

• Jackie
• Sydney
• Phi
• Elianna

Hermes

• Sarah
• Aubrie
• Desirae

I do need to add at least one more person to the list!

First Step: Post a reply below to confirm that this works for you.

Second Step: Head over to the Students page (top navigation) and check out your peers. Consider this our “introduction” to each other.

The Plan

Your peer writing group is a stable group that will participate in your relevant discussion board (Apollo, Dionysus, or Hermes) to explore ideas, share challenges, answer questions, etc. Find your discussion board right up in the navigation bar, under “Discussion Boards.”

This group will also work together on peer review of paper drafts, so you know the people with whom you’ll be sharing your first draft of Paper 1 (by 11:59 PM on Monday).

And, in a grand experiment for me this summer, we’ll attempt one weekly, 45-minute group video conference via Google Hangouts. (This didn’t work out so well last summer because some people just never joined the conferences. On the upside, the conferences we did have were great!)

Apollo Hangout: Wednesday, May 27, 10-10:45 AM

Dionysus Hangout: Wednesday, 9-9:45 PM (for a couple weeks, then 4-4:45PM)

Hermes Hangout: Wednesday, 7:15-8 PM