Unit 1 Weekly Work Options

Unit 1 runs from Wednesday, February 14th until Monday, March 16th. The draft cycle for Assignment 1 begins on Wednesday, March 9th and ends on March 16th.

Some of these weekly work options will no longer exist once the draft cycle starts: others are possible throughout the entire unit. Please make note of the deadlines before submitting an assignment.

The weekly deadline for weekly work is 11:59pm every Wednesday night. You are allowed to submit work earlier than this, and you are also allowed to submit more than one assignment during the same week.

What do you want to work on this week?

Option 1: Write a Recap for Absent Students

Everyone should do this option one time during Unit 1. In it, you will help a student who missed a particular class session for which you were present to catch up with the work by summarizing what we did, what your key takeaways were, and anything else that the student needs to know.

Requirements:

1. At the end of every class session, I will tag absent students in the #whatyoumissed channel and post the date of the class along with a link to the exit ticket that they need to fill out. I will also tag whoever has signed up on the class recapper sign-up sheet to recap for that day (if you need to change the day that you signed up, you can just do that automatically in the channel: the recap sign-up sheet will be pinned there). Go to the #whatyoumissed channel and find the post for a class that you are going to recap for us.
2. Make sure that no more than 3 students have already recapped the class that you want to recap.
3. Reminder: learning how to thread was part of Step 4 on the instructions that you used at the beginning of the semester to set up your Slack account. Here’s the link. In a threaded comment, write a short description of what we did in class that might include any of the following things: 
   • How did we spend class time today? (i.e. We spent the first 15 minutes doing some independent work on our weekly work, and then we discussed the reading for today.)
   • Were there any important takeaways for you or things that you’re still thinking about from this session?
   • Were there any questions that you had that maybe came up after the session or that weren’t answered in class?
   • How did you think that this class connected to a weekly work assignment or an end-of-unit assignment? In other words, how did this class help you to make progress on your end-of-unit assignment, the course learning goals, thinking about Writing about Writing, or any of your learning goals?
   • Were there any important announcements at the beginning or end of class that an absent person needs to keep in mind? 
   • Is there anything else that your classmates who couldn’t make it should know?

4. If someone already recapped the session that you are also recapping, please do not repeat anything that they’ve already said about it.

5. You can submit this assignment up until the final day of this unit on March 16th. You do not need to submit an Assignment Submission form: your post on the channel will be enough.

Option 2: Personal reflection:

This is a short reflection that helps you to prepare for Assignment 1: the Personal Essay. It can also help you to develop your ideas about any chapter of the book that we read. Here is a sample personal reflection. The requirements are: 

• Briefly summarize a chapter of Bad Ideas About Writing 
• Make one connection between this chapter and a personal experience you’ve had in the past
• Say how / whether this chapter confirmed something you believed, changed your mind, or failed to convince you of its argument 
• Write at least 400 words
• Submit this assignment by the weekly deadline using the assignment submission form. It is ideal to turn this in on the week that we are reading the chapter you’re writing about, but it is not a requirement.
• Submit this by no later than March 7th.

Option 3: Personal reflection REVISION:

To help yourself make progress on your Assignment 1 draft before it is due, you have the option to revise a previously-submitted personal reflection that has met requirements and to apply the feedback that you’ve received. The requirements are:

• Ensure that you have met requirements on the personal reflection you are revising (this means you have a ✅ beside this assignment in Slack, and I have given you feedback on it.) You cannot attempt this option and have it count as weekly work if you have not met requirements on a personal reflection first.
• Make revisions to your reflection based on the feedback that you have received from me, from peers (if you’ve gotten any of this), and / or from the Writing Center (if you’ve gone).
• Submit this assignment by the weekly deadline using the assignment submission form. Fill out all boxes on the assignment submission form.
• Submit this by no later than March 7th.
• You could also / alternatively submit this revision as your Assignment 1 first draft on March 9th as long as the reflection is at least 750 words long.

Option 4: Reading guide:

This is a form that you fill out on the website that helps you to develop and demonstrate your comprehension of a chapter from Bad Ideas About Writing that we read together as a class, or that you read on your own. It can help you to work through a particularly difficult chapter, but it can also give you a structure for approaching other chapters that we read in the future. The requirements are: 

• Fill out each box on this form
• Meet all word requirements on the form
• Submit by the weekly deadline. You do not need to use the assignment submission form to submit this, because it’s already a form.
• Submit this by no later than March 7th.

Option 5: Discussion Leader

This option will allow you to help me shape a future class discussion about one of the text that we’re going to read together. This will help you to understand the material in greater depth, which will help you to better summarize and respond to it. You will also help your classmates to consider perspectives that they might not have been able to think about on their own. The requirements are:

• Choose a Bad Ideas About Writing chapter from a future class session. Do not choose something that we’ve already read and discussed. Read it.
• Read this post on creating good annotations and discussion questions.
• Fill out each box on this form.
• Submit this by no later than March 7. Note that if you submit this for the final deadline, you will need to choose a text from Unit 2, but that’s OK.

Option 6: Writing Center visit:  

This option allows you to take a piece of writing that you do for this class or any other class to the Writing Center and to receive weekly work credit for doing this. You can also take the assignment prompt before you’ve done any writing to brainstorm with a consultant. The requirements are: 

• Click here to make an appointment at the Writing Center
• Read “How To Prepare For Your Writing Center Consultation” and generate a list of at least 3-4 questions that you have for your Writing Center consultant. 
• Once you’ve finished your appointment, fill out each of the boxes on this form to receive credit. You do not need to use the assignment submission form to submit anything else. You can do this assignment up to four times this semester. 
• You may complete a Writing Center visit up until the end of the draft cycle for Assignment 1 on Wednesday, March 16th.

Option 7: Share a draft and give feedback:

This option allows you to share your work (for this class, or any writing that you’re doing) with your classmates to get some additional feedback from them. The requirements are: 

• Post your Assignment 1 draft and a request for feedback on the #feedback channel on Slack. Say what the assignment is and give any relevant information about it. Say what stage of the writing process you’re currently in (e.g. Is this a final draft? A first draft? Something in between?) Say what kind of feedback you’re looking for (you can check out the feedback menu if you need ideas) 
• Choose a draft that appears on the #feedback channel on Slack, or if none appear there, choose one the Sample Student Essay that we read for class.
• Fill out all of the boxes on this form 
• This must be submitted by Wednesday, March 16th.