No, not It: The Terror From Beyond Space! or some reference to Cousin It, but Clara Bow's 1927 romantic comedy that helped popularize the phrase, "the 'it' girl." Today, students will turn in their first assignment, the scene description from One Week, and do a little reflective writing on the project, before moving on to …
One Week
Composition 102 students today will be introduced to the first major assignment of the term, the scene description; I really like this project as an introduction to the class because it is not argument based but it does require close, precise description, concision, and a few other key elements designed to introduce students to writing …
Day One…
What's on the agenda for EN102 and EN200 today? Well, I'd like to start thinking about the coursework right off the bat--it's always best, in my book, to begin challenging the class so as to set a productive tone. Especially in composition 2, where students generally need practice with managing time and approaching tasks effectively. …
New Classes, Old Classes, Reimagined Classes
Classes resume on the 11th of January for us here at Marymount, and I have to admit, last term was a bit of a supersonic blur--and the holiday "break" was anything but, given our trip to Philadelphia for a serious several days of interviews. Syllabi are due on the 4th (er, that would be today!), …
Continue reading "New Classes, Old Classes, Reimagined Classes"
Library Refresher
Thursday, I took my composition students to the library for a refresher on using Aladin for research, and I was left with some confusions about their comprehension, level of comfort, and intuitive/creative/logical ability to use the catalog to browse effectively. At the end of the class, instead of looking at the books we'd pulled and …
Composition 2: After the Break
Returning the exams is one of the first things I want to do, and I say "first" because I'd like to use them as a starting point for a discussion of choosing sources and ideas that make logical sense for your overall topic; many essays seemed to draw from the background information without much regard …
…and Midterms and Essays, O My!
Finally having gotten miterm grades in, I took a bit of a breather, relaxed, and contemplated the last month and a half of classes. It seems to have gone so much more quickly than I thought at all possible, but there you have it! I'm immensely enjoying my world lit survey course, and the class …
Workshopping Essay 2
We workshopped essay 2 today in composition, and I was a bit less than enthused about the level of participation. I think I spent a bit too much time on the first portion of the workshop, in which I asked students to read their drafts to their peer reviewer, who was to mark out with …
Conferencing!
Almost all day today I spent with students in 15-minute individual conferences about essay 2--what a long, exhausting day! But I know the conferences were necessary, and I definitely hope they were helpful. We'll see, won't we?
Two Comp Classes
My comp students have been a little lackluster in discussion this past week, despite having seen the magnificent Chaplin's Gold Rush (1925). Last Monday, we went over Project 2, which is a film analysis essay; in discussion, I sought to tie a few prefatory clips from the film to our background reading in order to …
Tonya Howe 