We’ve made it to the end of another semester! Yay! I was going to have you do some reading this week about the role of reflection and portfolios in the writing classroom, but since our class has one of the earliest “exam” periods (which is what I use to determine the portfolio due date), let’s not do extra reading.

In addition to working on your portfolios/late work, I just have one more assignment for you this semester, and it’s a throwback to our very first assignment: the imaginary resume. This time, though, I’m going to ask you to be creative in a different way. More on that in the instructions. 🙂

Optional Zoom Class Monday (12/7) at 10:50! While this is technically our last class period, I’ll also be available on the morning of 12/14.

Due Dates

• Writer’s Resume, Due by the end of the day on Sunday, 12/13, but probably you’ll want to do this sooner than that.
• Portfolio, Due by the end of the day on Monday, 12/14
• All Late Work, Due by the end of the day on Monday, 12/14

Goals for This Week

• Reflect on your skills and learning as a writer
• Showcase your work in a portfolio
• Catch up on late/missing work to the extent that you want to/are able to

Overview of Tasks

1. Using the genre of the resume, create a “writer’s resume” where instead of jobs, you list writing skills or genres you feel proficient in! I’ll write an example for you.
2. Finish the last steps of your final mini-project.
3. Complete your portfolio! If you haven’t created a site yet, go here.
4. Analyze your missing work/grades in Blackboard to determine a plan of action
5. Complete any missing assignments/late work
6. When you’re finished, share your portfolio with me.

Grading

Writer’s Resume– 2 pts, completion + thoroughness (goes in the “Beginning/End of Semester” part of your grade)
Mini-Project– graded as part of your portfolio
Portfolio— Worth 20% of your final grade

Detailed Instructions

Step 1: Create a Writer’s Resume

On a normal resume, you list your educational qualifications, job experience, and any other experience (for example, volunteering or special skills) that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. The purpose of a regular resume is to show your qualifications in an easy-to-skim format.

For this resume, instead of listing job experience, you’ll list writing experience, from this class and from past classes/other aspects of your life where you do writing. Click here to see an example I made. I used the Comments feature on Word to add additional commentary/annotations to my example, so you may have to download the file to view those. If you can’t see them, let me know and I can send it to you another way!

I formatted mine as a list of genres I have experience writing (and there are many more I could have included, but didn’t). But maybe a list of genres doesn’t feel right to you. Maybe you want to include a list of writing skills, with examples of things you’ve written that used or built those skills. Maybe you want to do something else!

What I’ll be looking for:

• It is formatted/designed like a resume (follows the genre, except about you as a writer instead of you as an employee)
• It is detailed + thorough, stays focused on yourself as a writer

Aside from that, the guidelines are flexible! Mine emphasizes academic writing, but I’m an English teacher! I’ve done a lot of that! Yours doesn’t have to.

Step 2: Finish Your Final Mini-Project

Last week, you should have completed Steps 1-3 of your project. Now, it’s time to take the last step and make your own piece of writing/creation in the genre you chose. Whatever form that takes for you, please include it (or a link to it) in your portfolio!

Reminder: This project is following the SAME STEPS we’ve done for every single unit all semester:

1. Read a bunch of examples of a genre
2. Ask yourself, “What are the rules/patterns of this genre?”
3. Write your own thing within that genre

Step 3: Complete Your Portfolio!

If you haven’t created a site for your portfolio yet, go here.

Make sure you include each required component, or as many as you can/have written. Almost half of the portfolio grade is just based on having all of the things!

WordPress Help Videos

If you have questions on how to use a particular feature of WordPress/how to make certain changes to your portfolio, check out my videos below, or look up instructions on YouTube.

Intro to the WordPress Dashboard
Posts and Pages, Block and Classic Editor
Themes, Customizing, and Home Page Settings
Menus
Uploading/Embedding Files
Privacy Settings/Sharing
How WordPress Is Different On Your Phone

Steps 4 and 5: Analyze Your Missing Work in Blackboard and Complete Late Work

It may not be possible for you to complete all of your missing work. This section is to help you determine how to boost your grade in the most mathematically efficient way possible.

Your final grade is calculated in the following way:

Unit 1 (News Reporting): 15% (30 possible points)
Unit 2 (Humanities Criticism): 15% (30 possible points)
Unit 3 (Natural Science): 20% (30 possible points)
Unit 4 (Social Science): 20% (25 possible points)
Beginning/End of Semester Assignments: 10% (8 possible points)
Portfolio: 20%

I’ve created columns in your Grade Center to show you the points in each of those individual categories. When planning your work, look at these columns to determine which category you’re missing the most points in. This is where you should start when completing your missing assignments.

**The exception is for the assignments I’ve nullified 0s in (see Blackboard announcement from last night). This means your total possible points for a unit may be different than those listed above.**

To find instructions for each activity + supplementary materials, go to the Home Page of this site. On the Home Page, I’ve listed links to each week’s instructions, sorted by Unit.

If you’re not sure which unit to work on, or you’re missing a similar number of points in each one, mathematically, Units 3 and 4 are worth the most, and because Unit 4 has fewer possible points, each point is worth more.

Late work is due December 14, by the end of the day. If you need additional time on a particular assignment, please email me. 

Step 6: Share Your Portfolio With Me

How to do this depends on the privacy settings for your portfolio site.

If your site is viewable to the public or viewable to logged in members of the Commons: Just email me the link to your site when you’re ready for me to look at it!

If your site is private to members or admins only: you’ll need to invite me to become a member of your site by going to the Users tab on your Site Dashboard and clicking Add New. My Commons username is oawood, or you can add me via my email address.

Hopefully, you followed the directions last week and have read the instructions for the portfolio and final mini-project and have created your portfolio websites. If not, please do that this week. In case you missed it, here’s a link to an overview of the rest of the semester.

This week, you’ll be beginning your final mini-project and developing a plan for your portfolio.

If you have questions or stuff you’d like to chat about, please come to Optional Zoom Class on Monday, at 10:50 am.

Due Dates

There are two assignments due this week. Both are due by the end of the day on Sunday, December 6, but it may be beneficial for you to do them sooner than that.

1. Web Genre Analysis for final mini-project (approximately 2 pages, instructions below)
2. Plan for portfolio (email to me or submission on Blackboard, instructions below)

Goals for This Week

• Apply the skills you’ve been practicing this semester to select a genre, find examples (both good and bad), and conduct a genre analysis on your own
• Make decisions about the new writing you will need to include in your portfolio
• Learn some best practices for writing online

Overview of Tasks

1. Review the instructions and rubric for the final mini-project
2. Complete steps 1-3 of the final mini-project (choose a genre, find examples, analyze examples)
3. Write your Web Genre Analysis
4. Review the instructions and rubric for the portfolio.
5. Create a plan for your portfolio
6. Email me the plan
7. Recommended: Begin working on your portfolio website and adding materials to your portfolio

Detailed Instructions

Steps 1 and 2: Review Instructions And Complete Steps 1-3 of Mini-Project

I’ve provided some examples of internet genres in the instructions for the project. Other scholars of the internet have identified the following as some other examples of internet genres:

• The home page
• The hotlist (hotlists are often but not always automatically-generated. examples of hotlists are your bookmarks bar, or the “frequently accessed” menu when you open a new web browser window or open Google Docs)
• The FAQ page
• The About page
• The Contact Us page
• The business email
• The academic email
• The blog post (subtypes include journal blog, travel blog, food blog, etc.)
• The spam email
• The advertising email
• The sidebar ad
• The Wiki page (both on Wikipedia and on other kinds of wikis, pages are constructed in a similar manner)

You could choose any of these, any of the examples I gave on the assignment sheet, or another genre of your choosing. (Here’s a tweet about the “genre” of “ads for bedding” — like the ads for Brooklinen, Casper, Parachute, etc. you used to see on the MTA).

Step 3: Write Your Web Genre Analysis

After you’ve collected and examined many different examples of your chosen genre, please write approximately 2 (or more) pages analyzing the rules and norms of that genre. Please write this in paragraph form.

Here are some questions to guide you:

1. How would you describe this genre to someone who has never used the internet before?
2. What kind(s) of content is included?
3. How is that content typically presented or arranged?
4. What design/formatting choices are typical of this genre?
5. What observations have you made about the style of writing in this genre?
6. If you were to instruct someone about how to write in this genre from scratch, what is the step-by-step process?
7. What is the purpose of this genre?
8. Who is the intended audience of this genre?
9. How is the genre well-suited (or not well-suited) to that purpose and audience?

You can post your analysis here on the site, submit it on Blackboard, or email it to me. This is due December 6.

Step 4: Review the Portfolio Instructions and Rubric

Step 5: Create a Plan for Your Portfolio

This plan should include the following:

1. Which unit project do you plan on revising? What do you plan on doing/changing in your revision?
2. What do you plan on doing/making for your final mini project? How long do you expect that to take?
3. Do you plan on using the Portfolio Template, or creating your own portfolio site? What steps have you taken toward creating your site already, and what are the next steps you need to complete?
4. An approximate timeline of when you plan on completing each part of the portfolio process (this includes writing the different required pieces of new writing, collecting the pieces you’ve already done, designing your portfolio site, uploading everything, etc.) Remember, the portfolio is due December 14.

If you have missing/late work you still plan on completing, you can also include your plan for completing those assignments.

This plan is also due December 6. 

Step 6: Email me the Plan

Or upload it to Blackboard. My email address is [email protected].

Step 7: Begin Working on Your Portfolio

Even though you have already written many elements of your portfolio, it will likely take longer to create than you expect. I strongly recommend you start working on it sooner rather than later.

Some Tips:

1. Keep the style of your text simple– use the default font, use colors that are easy to read (dark colors on light backgrounds, light colors on dark backgrounds)
2. On web pages and in blog posts, paragraphs are typically shorter than paragraphs in academic writing.
3. Use bold text and headers to emphasize important things and break up the text/make it easier on the eye! I use headers and bold in all of my posts for you.
4. If you choose to upload all of your assignments using the Add Document feature, I recommend you write a little blurb introducing the document: “This is the first draft of my Unit 1 Project,” for example. This makes the portfolio look more like an intentionally-designed presentation of your work, rather than just a repository for files.
5. There are LOTS of tutorial videos out there for WordPress. I’ll paste the links to my own videos below, but for any WordPress question you have, there’s probably a YouTube video out there explaining exactly what to do.

My videos:

Intro to the WordPress Dashboard
Posts and Pages, Block and Classic Editor
Themes, Customizing, and Home Page Settings
Menus
Uploading/Embedding Files
Privacy Settings/Sharing
How WordPress Is Different On Your Phone

Since this is a holiday week (even if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving), my goal is for you to have to do minimal work this week, while still wrapping up Unit 4 and getting ready for the Portfolio and Final Mini-Project. Here’s a link to an overview of the rest of the semester.

Optional Zoom Class: Monday, November 23 at 10:50 am. This might be an important one to attend, since I’ll be going over the portfolio + mini-project instructions, and you can ask questions.

Due Dates

Reflection on Unit 4 (Social Science) due by the end of the day on Wednesday, November 25. This is the last day of class before Thanksgiving break.

I won’t be checking/grading you on whether or not you complete the other things, but you’re going to have to do them anyway in order to complete your portfolio, so I recommend that you also complete them by the same day/time, so that you can enjoy the time off without having to worry about it.

Goals For This Week

• Reflect on your learning from Unit 4
• Learn what to expect from the last couple weeks of this class
• Learn some new WordPress skills
• Create your portfolio skeleton, so that it’s ready for you to start filling in over the next couple weeks.

Overview of Tasks

1. Write your reflection for Unit 4 (due Wednesday)
2. Read the instructions and rubric for the Portfolio and for the Final Mini-Project
3. Watch the WordPress training videos
4. Create your portfolio website on the CUNY Commons. You only have to create the website, not do anything to it.

Detailed Instructions

Step 1: Unit 4 Reflection

Please respond to the following questions in your reflection.

1. What do you feel like you learned this unit that you didn’t know before?
2. What did you already know , but now understand better or learned more about?
3. What (if anything) do you feel like I wanted you to learn, but you still aren’t sure about?
4. What are the strengths of your final project article? What are you most proud of?
5. If you were to revise your final project article, what would you want to do differently?
6. How would you describe or rate your participation/engagement in this unit?
7. What did you do this unit that helped make you successful?
8. What skills or habits do you want to bring with you to next semester, and what habits do you want to leave behind?
9. What was your favorite unit this semester and why?
10. Do you have any suggestions for what I should change when I revise this class for next semester?

Step 2: Instructions and Rubrics

Please read the instructions and rubric for the Final Portfolio, as well as the instructions for the Final Mini-Project (which will be graded as part of your portfolio).

Final Portfolio Instructions and Rubric

Final Mini-Project Instructions

Steps 3 and 4: Create Your Portfolio Site and Watch WordPress Training Videos

I have invited everyone to become administrators of a Portfolio Template site. If you choose to use the template instead of creating your own portfolio site, please watch the video below to learn how to clone it to make your own site.

Cloning the Portfolio Template

If you want to create your own site, follow the first couple steps of the video, but then instead of clicking “Clone Existing Site,” select “Create New Site.”

Whether you are using the Template or making your own site, you can also refer to the videos below as you’re setting up your site. You may want to watch these now, or watch them later on as you’re making changes to your portfolio.

Please only watch the ones that you feel will be useful to you.

Intro to the WordPress Dashboard
Posts and Pages, Block and Classic Editor
Themes, Customizing, and Home Page Settings
Menus
Uploading/Embedding Files
Privacy Settings/Sharing
How WordPress Is Different On Your Phone

Last stretch! Last unit overview! We’re almost there!

We only have 3 weeks of class left in the regular semester, and then 1 week of “finals.” In this class, we don’t have a final exam. Instead, you’ll be creating a digital portfolio showcasing your work this semester. Part of that portfolio will be a final mini-project, where you get to show off your genre analysis skills.

Week 14: Wrapping Up Unit 4/Portfolio Overview (Also, Thanksgiving)
Week 15: Writing on the Web
Week 16: Reflection Writing
“Finals” Week: Portfolio and Late Work Due

Writing for the End of the Semester

1. A short analysis of an online genre
2. A plan for your portfolio (this can just be an email to me)
3. A writer’s resume
4. Mini-project (what form this takes is up to you)
5. Reflective cover letter for your portfolio

Grading/Checklist for the End of the Semester

Some of the items listed above will fall under the “Other Short Assignments” grading category (10% of the final grade) along with the beginning of the semester activities. The others are part of the portfolio grading category (20%).

Short Assignments

1. Analysis of an online genre — 2 points, completion + thoroughness
2. Plan for your portfolio — 2 points, completion
3. Writer’s resume — 2 points, completion + thoroughness

Combined with the activities from the beginning of the semester, this grading category becomes out of 10 points total. Therefore, each point is 1% of your final grade. 

Portfolio

The mini-project will be a part of your portfolio, and both will be graded as part of the same rubric. Here are the instructions for the mini project and here are the instructions for the portfolio.

Extra Credit

You can still attend a writing center workshop for extra credit, or sign up for a 1:1 writing center session. There are several workshops between now and the end of the semester. I will receive a log of all attendance at the end of the semester, and I will input these points then.

Late Work

Please be aware that we are getting close to the late work deadline. All late work is due by the end of the day on Monday, December 14.