Featured videos: language, literacy, writing

Reading Together

Perusall logoWe’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. Link here to Perusall. Instructions for joining on the Assignments page.

Calendar: link here

Weeks 1 & 2

Weeks 1 & 2

Please let me know if you get stuck on any of these tasks: I am happy to help! kjaxon@csuchico.edu

 

Week 1: Aug 24-30

Week 1 to-do list:

  • First:
    • Join two accounts: Perusall and Currents Community. See instructions below
    • Choose an internship time. See survey link below.
  • By Thursday, Aug 27: Write an introduction and respond to prompts in Currents Community (see prompts below)
  • By Sunday, Aug 30: Read and Annotate in Perusall “Epic Learning in a “Jumbo” Writing Course” by Kim Jaxon (me), Laura Sparks, and Chris Fosen. Also, review Dr. Sparks course website (the course you’ll be interning in)
    • Bonus: read the syllabus and assignments from our class; check out our course website and bookmark the site so you can find easily this semester.

Longer description:

First up: join two platforms:

  1. Perusall (where we’ll read together)perusall logo
    • Go to perusall.com, click Login, and then either log in using your Facebook, Twitter, or Google account, or create an account using your email address and password.
    • Select I am a student and enter our course code JAXON-WJS9Q.
    • We’ll annotate our first reading together in Perusall by Sunday (“Epic Learning in a “Jumbo” Writing Course”)
  2. Currents Community (where we’ll write together)

*IMPORTANT: you must be logged into your Chico State portal/google drive to join our community. Our Currents Community is only open to people in the Chico State domain.Currents logo

image of Chico State webpage

screen shot of our Currents Community

      • Look for Join button on the left and join.

Trouble shooting: If for some reason you do not see the community, and instead, the link goes to a start page for Currents, it might be that your browser is still recognizing another/different account (even though you think you’ve logged in with Chico State). Try a different browser (like Firefox instead of Chrome, or Safari, etc). Or, restart your computer so it clears the login and try again. Let me know if that doesn’t work: kjaxon@csuchico.edu. Don’t stress. I’ll help. ;-) And thank you!

We’ll do most of our writing and sharing here this semester. You’ll notice that I’ve created a category for each person, so you have your own area in our community to gather your fieldnotes and other writing (see quick walkthrough video below). *NOTE: You can set your preferences for receiving updates from Currents by clicking on the three small dots in the upper left corner. You can tell Currents not to send you an email every time someone posts (this is great as the instructor, but could be annoying as a student). Here is a 20 sec video to show you how to set notifications.


Next: If you haven’t already, choose your Internship (I emailed y’all previously so you may have already completed this survey; thank you!)

Choose a first and second choice that works best with your schedule by completing the survey here.


Then, by Thursday, Aug 27: write (or record) an introduction for our Currents Community. Two prompts here:

    1. Tell us a bit about yourself: interests? future plans? how you’re doing in the now times?
    2. Then, think about writing rules you’ve been taught in school (rules about number of sentences, thesis, paragraphs, outlines?). Tell us about some of these rules: which ones do you follow? Which rules to you ignore? Which are helpful and which ones get you stuck when you’re writing? What does your writing process look like for school stuff: do you have a certain place where you need to write from, certain snacks, certain times of day?
      • Would love to also have you upload a picture (of you or your favorite place or pet or all those things). If you decide to record a video to answer these prompt, you can upload the video to Google Drive or YouTube and share the link in your Currents’ post. Would be a cool way to do this btw.

Quick walkthrough video to help you post in our Currents Community


Finally, by Sunday, Aug 30: Read and Annotate in Perusall “Epic Learning in a “Jumbo” Writing Course” by Kim Jaxon (me), Laura Sparks, and Chris Fosen. Also, review Dr. Sparks course website (the course you’ll be interning in). The reading and Dr. Sparks English 130P syllabus should give you some context for your internships. The article explains the design of the jumbo writing course, including the role of mentors and workshops. Hoping you’ll ask questions or highlight interesting or puzzling ideas in your comments on the article in Perusall.

To support our work in Perusall, here’s an overview of what we are doing (from my literacies class, but same idea):

*Note that week 1 does not really follow what will become our regular routine. Once we join internships in week 2, we’ll follow a routine that has us sharing fieldnotes by Sundays and reading/commenting on Thursdays. Repeat.


Week 2: Aug 31-Sept 7 (labor day)

Week 2 to-do list:

  • Monday, Aug 31, 5:00pm: informal Zoom meeting to talk about internships. Kim emailed link to Zoom session.
  • Thursday (Sept 3) or Friday (Sept 4): attend the 130P workshop you are joining (your internship). Keep detailed fieldnotes (see assignments page).
  • By Thursday, Sept 3: Read and Annotate two short chapters from Bad Ideas About Writing in Perusall
    • “You Can Learn to Write in General” by Elizabeth Wardle (p. 30-33) and
    • “Good Writers Always Follow My Rules” by Monique Dufour and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson (p. 121-125)
  • By Sunday, Sept 6: share fieldnotes in our Currents Community (choose your name when prompted for the category). (see assignments page).

Longer description:

Your internships (Thursday or Friday):

Early in week 2, I would say by Tuesday, Sept 1, make sure you email the workshop leader that you’ll be joining. Introduce yourself. Make sure the mentor shares the Zoom link with you so you can join them. Ask if they’d like you to join Zoom a few minutes early, before students arrive in Zoom. You’ll want to mostly stay muted so that you can type or write your notes. Keep detailed notes: notice the time, what students are asked to do, who talks, etc. You’ll write up your notes with some reflections (what is puzzling, what was interesting, what questions do you have about the session) and share in Currents by Sunday. If possible, it’s best to write the fieldnotes up right after the session when it’s fresh. I would also review Dr. Sparks’ syllabus and website so you’re prepared for the context.

Interns: Workshops + Leaders


By Thursday, Sept 3: Read and Annotate in Perusall

    • “You Can Learn to Write in General” by Elizabeth Wardle from Bad Ideas About Writing (p. 30-33)
    • “Good Writers Always Follow My Rules” by Monique Dufour and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson from Bad Ideas About Writing (p. 121-125)
      • Comment on interesting ideas, rules you were reminded of from your post last week, questions, etc.
      • If it’s easier for you to read in this pdf and then go comment in Perusall, here’s the link to the book. Perusall also lets you download the readings.

 


By Sunday, Sept 6: share fieldnotes and reflections in Currents (remember you’ll need to be logged in to your Wildcat/portal/Chico State google account (whatever you call it: your Chico State persona) to see our Currents Community.

If you kept fieldnotes in a hand written notebook, upload a photo of your notes (make sure we can read them). Or copy and paste in Currents from your ongoing Google doc or whatever you’ve decided to use to keep track of the weekly fieldnotes. Write a few sentence reflection on your experience. Ask questions. Next week, you’ll have two partners who will comment on your fieldnotes throughout the semester.