Keene - Pick an Excel Function

Each student will pick one of the following (to get to functions, hit insert, functions, and choose statistical) functions (in the case that there are several functions listed together, if you pick that line, you must do all the functions on that line):

Mean, Median, Mode
Stdev, Avedev
Var, Varsq
Percentile, quartile
Poisson
Normsdist, Normdist
ZTest
Binomdist
Skew
Forecast
Expondist

By _______ each student will blog their choice. Note that only one student will be allowed to choose a topic. In the case that two students pick the same topic, the earliest post will dictate who will do the topic.
Your assignment:
1. As the Leader, for the topic you choose, explain the topic, and how to use, such that each student can use it. Show an example (you can use actual data or create your own fictitious data set), using the link icon. Be sure to explain why someone would want the statistic you've developed. *** This must be posted by _______ *** If you use excel 2007, you must save the file as excel 2003.
2. each student must respond to 3 (no more and no less) other posts by showing an example (use the link icon) of their choice (use actual data set or create your own). Again, save the file as excel 2003 or earlier version. This is due no later than _______
3. the leader will check the postings of all who post to their topic, responding with agreement or disagreement.
4. If you have questions on how to use a tool, post a comment to the leader.

NOTE: all posting must be completed by _______

Why College Writing?

This exercise will allow me to serve several purposes.

1. When the students answer the question themselves they will understand the rationale for the course in a concrete way.

2. As I watch them work I can pick up strengths and weaknesses quickly.

3. As I work with them they will understand who I am and how I work quickly.

4. By reading the 5 sentences I can pick up writing problems immediately and alert all of them to common problems.

5. By working together, they will get over some of their own computer phobia - which kicks in in the early days of the semester. They can teach themselves shortcuts and how to solve problems just as I have been taught today.

6. They will have to cope with WebCT without whining all semester about how they can't find it and therefore it becomes usleless to me.

7. This will be a very lively way to start the semester and get everyone to work together.

Wiki Notes

Here are some quick and dirty notes I took on the Wiki mini-lecture
Wiki
A webpage that anyone can edit
ie wikipedia
Different frameworks
Can install your own, or go to ones hosted elsewhere
Can limit the authors, or make it open to all

MediaWiki
Has its own syntax
[[Media Wiki]] will create a link

Zoho.com
Alternative to Microsoft office

Zoho Wiki
Free Wiki- Hosted
MediaWiki (camel case- no spaces) will create a link
Can create your own Wiki
Only text- no uplink

Jotspot
Free Wiki with Google
Hosted

LibraryWiki- at FPU- only to library staff
A large procedure manual

RSS reader (really simple syndication)
www.bloglines.com
Google has one

Watch page- links to me

Minghua’s Pedagogical and Economic Rationale

1.Expectation: Students are expected to write understandable economic analysis. They need to convey their ideas well to professionals as well as lay men in writing.
2. Learning by doing: Learning is a process and “Write to learn” is a good approach to make the students more active in this process. As Confucius said: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. In economics, it is very important for students to go beyond lecture and do something on their own. Writing can aid this process. When they write they have to understand the concepts first and then put those concepts and theories into their own words. In particular this project gives them hands-on experience of securities and financial markets.
3. Scarcity: a society have limited resourced with respect to our unlimited wants. Writing in paper will consume paper and ink while writing online involves no additional costs as long as a computer is ready (marginal cost is zero).
4. Technology: “ a class without an online component would do them no favor” (Hawisher, Moran 1997). Asking the students to write online helps them stay current with the technology.
5 Atmosphere: I envision the atmosphere in cyberspace is more relaxed. For students who are not feeling comfortable speaking up in class, this gives them equal opportunity to get their voice heard.

Why Do I need to learn excel functions ? ? ?

Excel is a basic program that all business leaders should be able to use. Students find the functions themselves intimidating. Last term, I had a group of graduate students who added two numbers in different, nonadjacent cells, use the sum function just to add the two cells. It truly amazes me how many (graduate) students strictly type answers into excel, not even using the simple calculations. The instructions in functions are sometimes confusing. This assignment will require each student to become “an expert” at one function (from a given list of statistical functions) and require them to teach the rest of the class through a blog, including an example. Each other student will be required to use an example to show they understand 3 functions done by other students. The person who originally posted will be required to field questions.

Tracy's Rationale for "Phoning in Your Topic" Assignment

I have two main reasons for asking students to phone in their essay topics.
1. Capitalizing on their oral/auditory skills before they start writing. Many people can articulate things more comfortably in the spoken word before they're ready to commit them to paper.
2. Time factor. Our 8-week GPS terms fly by. They can do this from home on Saturday, and those that have internet access on Sunday can listen to the audio recordings after I post them to the blog on Sunday.

Rationale for an Online Drawing II Critique

I believe I covered much of the rationale for the assignment on my initial blog posting, but to reiterate (perhaps with more clarity?):

My experience in teaching in the studio art field is that students, particularly Freshmen, dislike discussing and defending their art work in class. Much of that dislike is no doubt due to being at a new school, taking new classes and talking in front of people they don't know well. Artwork to a student is a very personal thing and to put it out in the public domain for the purpose of criticism by others, whether positive or negative, is a scary thing.

By putting them out of eyesight/earshot of each other in a place where they can contemplate the imagery before them without other interference, they should (in theory, anyway)be more open to being themselves and communicating more of what they actually feel, believe, and understand(or don't understand)about the piece of art they're examining. In addition, the dialogue generated on the blogsite, by myself as well as the students, is very likely to ellicit a response, whereas in class there may be many comments that students won't respond to orally unless prompted to by me. After the assignment has been completed, we would then have an in-class discussion regarding the comments made on the Critique blogsite.

The goal of the exercise is to increase student dialogue regarding artwork, by having them "break the ice" via online comments and then using the printout of the blog posts as a follow up or to generate conversation in a later class.

rationale for BA 417-01 blog

The course expectations assignment I have designed is a good fit with blogging because the technology provides a timely public discourse for students to share questions and concerns they have about the course prior to our first meeting. I am hoping it results in students arriving in class more ready to learn. It will inform the teaching of my first class by providing me with a baseline of my students' writing and thinking as well as a glimpse into what is of import to this particular class of students.

Raison d'etre for Mark's Blog

PT students (at least at the FPU program) spend most of the first year (of three) in the 'basic sciences'- anatomy, kinesiology, neurology, physiology, pathology, and some others I'm forgetting. Second year finishes these, and begins the 'practice courses' where they learn the basic techniques of PT with regards to specific disease processes. The third year is spent at three 11 week long affiliations, where they work under a PT treating patients- an internship if you will.

Many beginning students think that they need to memorize lists of treatments for any possibility, when it is much more effective to analyze the problem and design a treatment based on the analysis. But to do this, they need to understand the underlying anatomy and mechanics of the joint.

For instance, they learn the muscular anatomy of the shoulder and rotator cuff, and need to learn how to examine the shoulder, figure out the pathology, and then figure out how to treat that pathology, and then perform that treatment (hopefully effectively).

The purpose of my blog is to give them a space to go to that begins to correlate the basic science with clinical examples. I will encourage the more senior students (who are actually involved with patient care) to expound on their experiences- what they learned, mistakes they made, interesting cases, etc.

I am hopeful that this will get the students involved in the clinical side while they are still learning the nuts and bolts. Interesting cases may also make learning the boring anatomy easier.

Rationale

This assignment will provide students the ability to successfully challenge themselves to reach within themselves for the strength to take a risk to solve a problem in a manner that may sit outside their comfort zone. This assignment is constructed of a series of increasingly more difficult steps that will lead to the objective of the student’s increasing their ability to integrate and build their current knowledge base with new knowledge attained though the use of tools that are readily available to them but may have to be utilized in a manner that is not traditional in nature. It is this resolution of this challenge that will ultimately lead to a successful learning experience that will hopefully subsequently lead students to the next challenge of this course.

Rational for the Group Project - IC 260

Rationale

For Group Project

IC 260 Twentieth Century

1. To develop the concept of team work within a collaborative setting.

2. To develop better communication skills were using the Web CT mail – proof reading e-mail
before sending to other group members.

3. When this project is completed the students will improve both written and verbal skills.

a. The students will present both written and group project to the entire class.

Recreation Management/Into The Wild Write-To-Learn Online Assignment Rationale

Rationale for the assignment: The purpose of this assignment will be twofold.
1) You’ve heard of the cliché: “You need to look at both sides of the coin to get the real picture;” this assignment will help you review/assess/develop your own view on leisure management by looking at the views of another. This is a critical thinking exercise that challenges you to apply what you will be learning/discussing throughout the semester into a self and societal reflective writing piece.
2) You’ve also heard of the cliché: “Practice makes perfect;” this assignment is designed to introduce you to common technology that is used by many people in everyday life for things like jobs, communication, enjoyment, etc. We will be using this blog assignment as a write-to-learn online tool. By the end of the assignment you will have gained knowledge into a new online environment, as well as critical and reflective thinking of leisure lifestyle planning and choice making.

Kilcrease- WTL Rationale

Goals: to use writing to solve a problem and to critique ideas from others. To allow students to implement terms specific to the discipline business and the ecology. To fill comfortable in expressing ideas and and critiquing others.

Rationale: the goals expressed above are all important for students to be successful in the business programs. Further, these goals prepare student for future business activities upon graduation. This course, for it to be successful, needs student comments and discussion about controversial aspects of business to be successful. By expressing ideas in a on-line environment, it is hypothesized that students will be more comfortable and confident to express their point of view.

Assignments: Assignment: Read the following case: http://www.bridgespangroup.org/PDF/NRDCCaseStudy.pdfI. Answer the following for discussion on your WebCT account for this class.1. Will NRDC be effective in the long run? Will they make a significant impact? Why or why not?2. Will manufactures support this organization? Why or why not?3. Critique NRDC's strategy toward reducing global warming. What would you recommend that they differently?II. Please respond to at least two other student comments. You have three days to complete this assignment and we will discuss your comments in large group during the next class session.

Assessment: A quality post will answer the three questions above and will have significant reference to the case study (feel free to quote directly) . Further, when answering the questions, give your personal opinion but be sure to justify or give the reasons for your opinion. In terms of responding to others, this should be done in a respectful and quality manner. However, if you read something you do not agree with express that point and give a reason into why you do not agree. Last, please make sure that all of your postings are grammatically correct.

20th Century - Group Project

Instructions

Group Project

IC 260 Twentieth Century

Spring 2008

Instructions for students

1. You will be in a group of three to four students.
2. You will have access to group members through e-mail within Web CT.

3. Select a topic from the list provided and select individual will select an
area to focus their research. The final project will be presented as a group
and each individual will be expected to contribute a minimum of five
pages in the project.

a. A minimum of three sources per individual in the group is required –
NOTE – encyclopedias and your textbook are considered legitimate
resources for this project.


Prospective Topics


North American Free Trade Agreement United Nations
European Union Terrorist Group in the US
Environmental Groups in the US International Terrorism
Religious Cults Monarchies of the 20th Century
Dictators of the 20th Century Globalization

The Drog's Online Rationale

My assignment uses WebCT as a platform. For this particular assignment, WebCT provides a repository for students Thought Letters and a method for students to respond to each other's ideas on the meaning of a short story, and the textual features that conveyed those ideas. Also, having the students put their work in a discussion area on WebCT allows me (and them) to compile the essays and their comments. This may help students in writing their formal short literary analysis essay.
This process also allows me to assess their papers, either online, or after printing out hard copies. Perhaps most importantly, this protocol allows me to monitor student work by checking to see whether or not they have posted their essay, or responded to others. I can also reply to students who may be having difficulties. Also, they may email me or post a cry for help, or if we are in room with computers, they can call for help, or sidle up to me. I have used this process in the past and it is a very effective workshop method.

Investment Learning Curve Project from Minghua's "Money and Banking" class

This project is designed for you to learn the basics about securities and financial markets through doing it online (without the risk of suffering any real loss). The project is divided into three parts. For the first part you make your decision without any solid economic theories but only based on your intuition or perhaps some knowledge you learned from your ET101. For the second part, you have already been equipped with various financial concepts and theories, you should put your knowledge into action and make better decisions. Regarding to the third part (after one month you made you informed decision) you have mulled over what you learned and you have observed the financial market for a while, you are an investment expert, so will your decision be different?



Part One: Being an Intuitive Investor
Due on Sep 7, 2007
1. If you have some extra money and plan to invest in securities (i.e. bonds and stocks) for a period of Sep 5-Sep 28, which one would you like to buy, bonds or stocks? Why? Please list at least two reasons to justify your decision.








2. Now assuming you have decided to choose bonds as your investment, which bonds are you going to buy? Pick up 2 bonds as your investment vehicle and for each bond list all the factors that you took into account when you made your decision.











3. Now suppose you considering investing in stocks instead, which stocks are you going to buy? Pick up 3 stocks as your investment option and for each stock explain why you pick it up.
.







Part Two: Performance Report One
Due: Nov1, 2007

Now it is Sep 28 and you have learned some concrete economic theories about securities and the financial market in general. Can you make better choices? Please repeat Part One and apply what you have learned from class to explain your investment decisions. You are required to turn in a report tracking the prices of bonds and stocks that you selected between Sep 28 and Oct 26.The report is due on Nov 1st, 2007. Your report should at least cover the following:
1) Track and input the daily yields/prices of the bonds and stocks into a spreadsheet and draw graphs to show the yield/price fluctuation of the bonds and stocks respectively over the period of Sep 29-Oct 29 (one graph for the bonds and one for the stocks).
2) Explain why the bonds and stocks yields/prices changed the way they did during this period.
3) Calculate the rate of return during this period (Sep 28-Oct 26) given the yields/prices as of Oct 26 (ignoring issues like broker commissions, taxes, etc.).
4) Suppose on Oct 26 you can change your investment portfolio, would you like to keep the bonds and stocks you purchased? Why? Why not?




Part Three: Performance Report Two.
Due: Dec 1, 2007

Repeat Part Two for the period of Oct 30 –Nov 30.

If by the end of last period (Sep28- Oct26), you decide to change your portfolio, you should repeat Part Two for your new stocks and bonds instead of the old combination.

Submitting: You should submit your report in the folder of “Investment Guru Forum” via WebCt in the.

Grading:
You will get 10% extra credit for your final grade if you turn in your assignment on time.
If you lose money by Dec 1, there is no punishment in terms of your grade. But if your yield is greater than 5% you will earn at least 5% additional extra credit for your final grade depending on your actual rate of return. Higher return rate will result in higher extra credit.

Keith's Directions

Assignment: Online Journal of Into The Wild
Class: Sports & Recreation Management

You will be creating a blog that will be used throughout the semester as an online journal. You will be writing the blog (journal) from the point of view of Chris McCandless, the main character in the book, Into The Wild. You will be required to post 6 total blog postings. Four will be in response to questions that I have given you. Again, you will write these posts as if you are Chris McCandless. You will write the last 2 as yourself: one will be a blog post comparing/contrasting your views on leisure versus Chris’ and one will be a blog post comparing/contrasting the book and the movie.

1) Go to www.blogger.com and click on the arrow labeled “Create your blog now.” It is located under “Create a blog in 3 easy steps.”
2) The first step asks you to create an account. You may set up this account using any valid email address (fpu account) or you can use an existing Google account (gmail).
3) The second step asks you to name your blog. Here you will create a title for your blog and an address (url) for your blog. You can input anything you want; later on in the semester as you read further into the book you will be editing this information. This will make more sense later.
4) The third step asks you to choose a template for your blog. Choose any template you want for now because you will be editing this later in the semester.
5) Once your blog is created, email me the url. detjenk@fpc.edu
6) Because the goal of this assignment is to create an online journal as Chris Mccandless, as you read more of the book and get a better understanding of who Chris is you can edit the blog as you wish. You can edit the title of the blog, description of the blog, template of the blog, etc. Your final edited blog is due December X.

Mark's Instructions- definitely Beta version

FPUFunctionalAnatomy Blog
Student Instructions

This Blog is designed to be an interactive online adjunct to the Basic Science and Practice Curriculum at the DPT program at Franklin Pierce University. The core blog presentations will be from the faculty, and will highlight various clinical aspects relating to the PYI course of instruction.

The presentations will correspond to the curriculum in the Anatomy I and Kinesiology I. They are not designed to replace the classroom instruction, but to augment it with clinical experiences and “pearls” from your instructors and peers.

The linked Blogs will be organized into subsections, corresponding to the presentations in the main blog thread that anyone can contribute to.

You will receive an email directing you to the Blog. You are free to contribute via the comment section to the linked Blogs in each subsection.

We are interested in any pertinent questions or experiences. Of special interest is comments from PYIIs and PYIIIs based on their clinical experiences in these topics.

The Drog's Rationale for the Thought Letter on the "Ice Storm"

How the directions for the reading of, and Thought Letter response to, "What Happened During the Ice Storm," demonstrates Write-to-Learn principles, as described in Wini Wood's "Roadmap to a Good Write-to-Learn Assignment."

1. Preparation: the students will have the book, Writing about Literature, and the short story in the form of a handout, and a separate notebook to use as a Reading/Writing journal.

2. Clear Purpose and Outcomes: the purpose of the assignment is that it is a lead-up to doing a formal analysis and interpretation of a short story, self-selected from The Best American Short Stories, 1997-2006. This is one of their major essays for College Writing I. This writing project also leads to the next major writing project -- a creative personal narrative.
3. An interesting assignment: "What Happened During the Ice Storm," is an excellent model for students to analyze to see how a short story uses descriptive and narrative techniques in creating a memorable fictional event in just 600 words of text. The assignment requires the students to apply principles of literary analysis to a model text. It also requires the students to follow directions for a written assignment, post their work on WebCT, and read and respond to the ideas of their peers. Thus, there are a variety of logical, manageable tasks, that require critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, and interpretation.

4. Clear directions for submission: directions for each of the subtasks are clear; reading, annotating, drafting, posting, and reflecting on peer's Thought Letters.

5. Follow-up: A way for students to share and/or present their work: the written work will be posted in under a discussion topic on WebCT, and responses will posted similarly.

6. Assessment: students will have forehand knowledge of the assessment of
Thought Letters, individually, and as a factor in their overall course grade.

Student Directions: Phoning It In

Phoning in Your Topic

The purpose of this assignment is to:
Give you practice identifying received ideas
Give you practice describing a received idea and your reaction to it
Give you access to your fellow students' similar projects

Your formal essay assignment, which is due next week and for which you have a separate handout, asks you to "respond to a received idea."

This short homework assignment, which you will complete by phone, asks you identify a common saying and your reaction to it.

I will collect phone messages and post them on our class blog at http://biggerclassroom.blogspot.com.

First, choose a received idea, something that people often say. Choose something that interests you, either because you think it's right, or you think it's wrong, or because you like the saying, or hate it, or because you have an understanding of it that might be different from other people's. Take a few minutes to jot down some notes saying what the idea or saying is, and what your personal reaction or understanding of it is. You might want to practice saying your response out loud once or twice before you call.

Then, from a touchtone phone,

• call our Gabcast message center at 1-800-749-0632 anytime before midnight on Saturday, September 8th.
• When you are asked for the channel number, type in 12483.
• When you are asked for the password, type in 3848. (It requires that they be entered rather quickly, if you have trouble, just stay on the phone until you're asked again for the channel number and password.)
• After the tone, leave your message.
  Remember to say your first name or initials as part of your message so I can tell who has completed the assignment.
  

This recording will be publicly accessible once I've posted it to the blog, so please don't reveal anything that is too private for people outside the class to hear.

This assigment is for credit, and will be assigned the same amount of credit as a reading reponse journal assignment.

Excerpt from Essay Assignment on Examining Received Ideas
Essay 1: Examining Received Ideas
Topic: In this essay,
you're asked to examine “the standard view” on a topic of your choice, question
it, analyze
it, and persuasively express your own view on it.
Here are
some prompts to get you started on identifying standard views:
“Americans
today believe that...”
“Conventional wisdom has it that..”
“Common sense
seems to dictate that...”
“The standard way of thinking about ___ is...”
“It is often said that...”
“My whole life I have heard it said that...”
“You would think that...”
“Many people assume that...”
“I've always
believed that...”
“When I was a child, I used to think that...”
“Although I should know better by now, I cannot help
thinking that...”
“At the same time that I believe _____, I cannot help
thinking that...”
“Everybody knows that...”
“My mother always told me...”

Student Directions for BA471-01

1) Go to http://fpuba471-01.blogspot.com/
2) Sign up for a Google account, if you do not already have one. This is easy and free. Your username will be your Franklin Pierce email address, and you'll need to select your own password.
3) Once you have created an account and signed in, you'll be automatically directed to a page that is called your "dashboard." It will list any blogs that you are a member of. Go to our blog (http://fpuba471-01.blogspot.com/)and select "view blog."
4) Once you are in the blog look for a message from me entitled Senior Business Seminar -Assignment #1. This message contains the assignment. The assignment asks you to create a new post sharing questions and concerns you have about the course with me and your fellow students. Please do this no later than 9:00 AM on the day of our first class meeting (Thursday, September 6th).

Why College Writing?

Computer Lab Session: Lower Level Library
Day 2
Research and Chat:

Part I:
15 minutes: Look up rhetoric on www.wikipedia.
Read through the entries making note of new vocabulary; persuasion, trivium, discourse, Aristotle.

15 minutes: Chat: discuss any questions you may have about the material.


Part II:
15 minutes: Look up essay on www.wikipedia.

15minutes: Chat: discuss any questions about the material.

Part III:

Compile the information you have gathered. Use this to write the first 5 lines of your introductory paragraph of Assignment I. I will read this in class.

Assignment I: For Day 3: please write a 2 page essay answering the question"Why College Writing."

Post on "post" on WebCT by Thursday morning at 7 am.

Donna's Rationale for Creative Nonfiction Assignment

What I want my students to learn is to incorporate theory into their understanding of writing. That is, I want them to understand that while memory seems immaterial and natural, it is really so much more. I consider this particular assignment the first of several -- but what I want them to end up with is an understanding that memory is always infused with meaning making. People don't remember events without having told a story (in their minds) about those events. "While the experience represented in an autobiographical narative seems simply personal, it is anything but merely personal. Mediated through memory and language, 'experience' is already an interpretation of the past and of our place in a culturally and historically specific present" (Smith and Watson 24).
I am trying to create a disciplinary context into which their reading of published memoirs and their writing of their own memoirs can fit. My aim is to get them to understand that the function of memoir is to tell a personal story that has signficance for a greater audience. That simple "navel gazing," a term applied to memoir by skeptics, is not our goal. We must see our experiences in terms of their connection to a greater audience.

Donna's Rationale for Creative Nonfiction Assignment

Class Assignment Re-visited

Student Directions(On-line/hybrid course)

The assignment for this unit in Child Abuse and Neglect has been structured to challenge your inner powers to empathize and interpret the feelings of a victim of abuse. These skills are necessary for all of us that are working in this field. I would like for you and your partner to travel the Internet to the following site;

http://www.geocities.com/afterthestorm1/therearesecrets.htm.

Please open this site, read and reflect on this poem. Upon completion of this step, draft a general blueprint on how your team would propose to represent to others the feelings expressed in this poem without the use of words. Upon completion of this task, the next step in this assignment is to formulate a strategy for the implementation of this proposal. Once you have formulated the strategy, your next task is to create a workable plan of action to fulfill this assignment. The final steps of this assignment are to present your portrayal and then present your team’s descriptive picture of the victim for all to review and reflect. Successful completion of this assignment will be evaluated upon how well the final product meets the standards that have been set within the text of this assignment. Good luck and enjoy.

Student Directions: Kelly Kilcrease

Format: WebCT
Student Audience: Rindge, Junior/Senior Level Standing
Course: Government and Business

Assignment: Read the following case: http://www.bridgespangroup.org/PDF/NRDCCaseStudy.pdf

I. Answer the following for discussion on your WebCT account for this class.

1. Will NRDC be effective in the long run? Will they make a significant impact? Why or why not?
2. Will manufactures support this organization? Why or why not?
3. Critique NRDC's strategy toward reducing global warming. What would you recommend that they differently?

II. Please respond to at least two other student comments. You have three days to complete this assignment and we will discuss your comments in large group during the next class session.

III. A quality post will answer the three questions above and will have significant reference to the case study (feel free to quote directly) . Further, when answering the questions, give your personal opinion but be sure to justify or give the reasons for your opinion. In terms of responding to others, this should be done in a respectful and quality manner. However, if you read something you do not agree with express that point and give a reason into why you do not agree. Last, please make sure that all of your postings are grammatically correct.

What Happened During the Ice Storm; by Jim Heynen

1. Read, highlight, annotate, and take notes (in your Read/
Write Journal) on "What Happened During the Ice Storm," a short story by Jim Heynen.
2. Using your knowledge of analysing and interpretation, derived from our reading and discussion of Gardner's Writing About Literature, Chapter I: "The Role of Good Reading," write a Thought Letter discussing the implied main idea or thesis of the story. Make this draft at least 300 words in length. Post the thought letter in the WebCT discussion section, under the topic titled "Ice Storm TL." Don't summarize the story (we have all read it!!!) Support your idea for the thesis, or main idea, with textual evidence...quotes from the short story.
3. After posting your thought letter, read and respond to the letters posted by the other members of your discussion group.
4. We will follow this assignment with a class discussion, focusing on the the main ideas and text features, and the writer's tehniques, that conveyed those ideas.

Drawing II Critique Blog

Online Drawing II Critique Blog

Date due: October 1st, 12:00 a.m.(latest you may make your posts)


Hello, Everyone:

By know you should be well-versed in the idea of an art critique (review of someone's creative work with comments on its good or bad qualities)having been through several in class already. Experience has shown that students generally dislike having their work critiqued in a public forum such as the classroom, and also dislike critiquing others works, perhaps for fear of generating an uncomfortable argument. Though that can (and is) be a valid part of art criticism, I believe that having a critique where you are not sitting in the same room with each other that you will be more open to expressing real feelings and ideas about the work. Again: the idea of a critque is constructive, yet sincere criticism of the work (not the student!).


That being said, I'm going to try an experimental exercise. This is why I had you take pictures of the pieces you were submitting beforehand. Using these photos (that each of you have copies of) and working from numbers 1-15 chronologically, we will post our comments about each work. I will provide the intitial post for each work. Then each of you are expected to provide one post for each students work and to read your colleagues' posts (as well as mine, of course). To reiterate; you are required to have a comment posted for each of one your fellow students artworks. Now, can you post more than one comment(for instance, can you respond to someone else's comment on your work)? Sure, and indeed, I would expect you will.

You will be assessed (P/F)on your level of participation in this project. I would expect, as aforementioned, that you will have commented on each person's work at the very least. You should address the formal aspects of the work, and concept or narrative aspects of the work if evident.

Since you don't have a lot of time to post your comments, I would suggest that you not procrastinate. Good luck and I'll "talk" to you in cyberspace!

Donna's Directions for Students

Here are the instructions for your first short assignment in Introduction to Creative Nonfiction:

Look up the word "mnemonic" on http://www.wikipedia.com/

1. Post your interpretation of the definition on our class blog. Do not copy the definition from the website. Rather, exit out of the site, and write the definition in your own words.
2. After you have posted your definition, compare yours to two of your classmates' definitions. Respond to the writers of those definitions, noting any differences or similarities or nuances. The purpose of this step is to understand how definitions have both a denotation (a dictionary definition) and a connotation (....). Do steps 1, 2, and 3 by Wednesday at noon.
3. Next, read the paragraph on "Memory and Materiality" I have posted here: "Memory, apparently so immaterial and personal and elusive, is always implicated in materiality, whether it be the materiality of sound, stone, text, garment, integrated circuits and circuit boards, or the the materiality of our very bodies -- the synapses and electrons of our brains and our nervous systems. Memory is evoked by the senses -- smell, taste, touch, sound -- and encoded in objects or events with particular meaning for the narrator. In the Confessions, Augustine's memory of stealing pears from a tree is imbued with the sense-awakening qualities of the pears that momentarily overcome him in writing that moment. In the early twentieth century, the aroma of the madeleine stirs Marcel Proust's narrator as a physiological conduit imaginatively returning him to a scene of his past. And later in the century Vladimir Nabokov exercises a fiercely aestheticized mode of visualizing memory in mnemonic images of the past of his childhood in Russia. In Speak, Memory: A Memoir, Nabokov associates his fascination with entomology and butterflies with his art of remembering in pictures and words" (Smith and Watson 21).
4. Recalling the examples in the paragraph, make a list of five material things that evoke memories for you (your personal mnemonics). For example, when I smell/taste raspberries, I am immediately reminded of my grandmother making raspberry pie, rolling out the dough she has made with lard, which makes the flakiest crust...When I hear the song "Stairway to Heaven" or "Color My World," I am returned to my high school gymnasium with its crepe paper flowers and wrist corsages and nuns looming in a chaperoning frenzy. Post your list of five mnemonics on the blog.
5. Using one of the mnemonics from your list as a prompt, write a draft of a story in the blog. That is, tell us about a story/memory that is triggered by your mnemonic. Though the writing you post to the blog for this part of the assignment will be short and will be true, remember to use some of the elements of fiction, including scenes, characters, dialogue, imagery, concrete details. Post by Friday at noon.
6. After you have read all of the posts for this assignment, write a one-paragraph thought letter to the class explaining your understanding of the connection of memory and materiality. Bring this letter to class on Monday. Be prepared to present your letter to the class.
7. You will be graded on the quality of your engagement with the steps listed above and on the clarity of thought and grammatical correctness of your thought letter.

Class Assignments Thursday 16 August 2007

Our class today is a working workshop in parts, parts which we will visit recursively.

Part One: Organizing
Please gather all the information you’ve received over the past three days and organize it to your advantage—I’ve got a hole-punch available.
Please gather your email for notes I sent yesterday and this morning.
Place the following documents prominently:
Wini Wood’s Welcome and directions (hand out on your desk and in your email)
Donna Reiss’ Student Directions (WAC Online FP)
Roadmap to a Good Write-to-Learn Assignment
Tips for Working with Technology
Write-to-Learn v. Writing-in-the-Disciplines

Part Two: Student Directions
Craft your own student directions for your assignment keeping in mind a particular student audience in a particular class in which you hope to use your assignment.

Please post on our BLOG

Part Three: Crafting the Writing-to-Learn Rationale
Reflect on the assignment you hope to showcase for us tomorrow and describe for yourself and one other workshop member, how this assignment exemplifies WTL principles—peer tinker.

Please post your final peer-tinkered WTL rationale on our BLOG

Part Four: Crafting the Online Rationale
Reflect on the assignment you how to showcase for us tomorrow and describe for yourself and one other workshop member, how this assignment is a good fit for the particular online platform you have chosen—peer tinker.

Please post your final peer-tinkered online rationale on our BLOG

Part Five: Peer Test/Review the Student Directions etc.
Rope in one or two colleagues to act as your student and test what you have so far.

Tomorrow: The Really Big Show
Plan to use five minutes to showcase your assignment for us and perhaps a few visitors.

Post on our BLOG

Post comments peer reviewing each assignment posted discussing how the assignment exemplifies or doesn’t best practices in WTL online theory and do make suggestions!