Hi all,

As I was grading the last blog post assignment, I noticed many of you are behind in the work for the course. This has been a trying semester, and it has likely gotten more challenging for you as the coronavirus numbers creep up and New York has faced and continues to face more cancelations and closures, most notably the closure of public schools.

You can finish the course despite these challenges, and as we enter the end of the semester, I want to make the workload lighter to help you do this.

In the final weeks of the semester, I would like you to focus on four areas:

1. Finish any incomplete work
2. Complete Paper 2 by 12/04
3. Short response to the DuBois reading. For this assignment, I would like you to revise and expand your response to question #1 on Blog Post 8.You should expand your response to this question to about 400-500 words. The new due date for this assignment is 12/07. Upload your response to Blackboard.
4. Optional: revise Paper 1  for a better grade. (Upload your new draft to Blackboard in Assignments “Optional Paper Revision.”)

Finally, I would like to schedule a meeting with each of you individually. Please go to this Google Doc and sign up for one 15-minute time slot. (If you cannot find a time to fit your schedule please email me and we can work something out.)

Let me know if you have any questions.

All best,

PF

Hi all,

Many of you have likely heard that cases of the virus are growing rapidly and people are discussing various kinds of closures including the possibility that the school system will close again. I know that many of you are greatly impacted by these measures because they affect your jobs and your family members.

I want you to know that I am here to work with you. We are very close to the end of the semester, and I would really hate to see you not complete the course because of new coronavirus measures. Please let me know if there is any way I can help if you are struggling. We should be heartened that there has been progress made with vaccines, and I would love it if you emerged from this crisis well on your way to completing your degree despite the challenges we’ve been presented with this year.

Please contact me if you need to catch up on assignments or if you are confused about the upcoming work. I’ve also scaled back the reading a bit to help with the work load.

Don’t forget to review the second paper assignment.

Completed Work

• Part 1:
  • Read: They Say/I Say, “Chapter 6: Planting a Naysayer in Your Text”
  • Watch: Screencast
• Part 2:
  • Listen: Ways of Hearing, “Episode 5: Power”
  • Respond: Blog post #7

Upcoming Work

• Read: The Souls of Black Folk, “The Sorrow Songs,” by W.E.B. DuBois
• Listen: Du Bois “Sorrow Songs” playlist
• Respond: Blog Post #8

Hi all,

I have started grading your papers, and you should be seeing your grades in Blackboard soon. You can find a video that shows you how to check your feedback in Blackboard in the tutorial videos section of the site. You do have the opportunity to revise your paper, but this is not required. Keep in mind that the course syllabus​ contains a revision policy. Please follow these steps if you would like to revise your paper.

General Announcements and Events

• Registration for Fall II and Spring I is open!
• You will find information about an upcoming film event on the Events & Opportunities section of the site. Writing about this event could be a possible opportunity to earn bonus points. Contact me if you’re interested.

Completed Work

• • Part 1:
    • Read: They Say/I Say, “Chapter 3: ‘As He Himself Puts It’: The Art of Quoting”
    • Watch: Screencast
  • Part 2:
    • Listen: Ways of Hearing, “Episode 2: Space” (This link will take you to the homepage for the entire show. For this week, you only need to listen to “Episode 2: Space.” You can also find this podcast on other platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.)
    • Read: “The Soundscape” by R. Murray Schafer
    • Watch: Screencast
    • Respond: Blog post #5
  • Optional Listening: 
    • Below you will find a list of some clips and one essay that deal with the ways the coronavirus pandemic has changed the soundscape of NYC. These are optional.
    • The sounds of pandemic New York:
      • “We clap because we care: New Yorkers applaud coronavirus frontline workers”
      • “Jimi Hendrix tribute during NYC’s 7 o’clock cheer”
      • “Alone in the City of Sirens,” The New Republic, April 10, 2020
      • “Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flyover New York City to Honor Frontline Workers”
      • “Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers,” New York Public Library

Upcoming work

• Listen:
  • Ways of Hearing, “Episode 3: Love”
• Read:
  • “How A.S.M.R. Became a Sensation” New York Times April 4 2019 by Jamie Lauren Keiles
• Watch:
  • A.S.M.R. on YouTube
• Respond:
  • Blog post #6

Hi all,

This week we begin the “Ways of Hearing” unit of the course. This unit is primarily organized around Damon Krukowski’s podcast Ways of Hearing, but there is also other short essays to read and listen to.

General Announcements & Events

• Registration for Spring I and II is now open!!

• Two announcements came across my email that I think some of you might be interested in: a list of opportunities and events sponsored by the Center for Career and Professional Development and a paid internship opportunity I will continue to post events and opportunities as I receive them on the website so keep an eye on this space.

Completed (or nearly completed) Work

• Last week you focused on your first papers.

Upcoming Work

• Part 1:
  • Read: They Say/I Say, “Chapter 3: ‘As He Himself Puts It’: The Art of Quoting”
  • Watch: Screencast

• Part 2:
  • Listen: Ways of Hearing, “Episode 2: Space” (This link will take you to the homepage for the entire show. For this week, you only need to listen to “Episode 2: Space.” You can also find this podcast on other platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.)
  • Read: “The Soundscape” by R. Murray Schafer
  • Watch: Screencast
  • Respond: Blog post #5

• Optional Listening: 
  • Below you will find a list of some clips and one essay that deal with the ways the coronavirus pandemic has changed the soundscape of NYC. These are optional.
  • The sounds of pandemic New York:
    • “We clap because we care: New Yorkers applaud coronavirus frontline workers”
    • “Jimi Hendrix tribute during NYC’s 7 o’clock cheer”
    • “Alone in the City of Sirens,” The New Republic, April 10, 2020
    • “Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flyover New York City to Honor Frontline Workers”
    • “Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers,” New York Public Library

Hi all,

General Announcements & Reminders

• ​The big item coming up for you this week is Paper #1.

• In order to help your prepare this paper I will be holding a live session. I will take questions and talk through aspects of the paper. The session will take place on Blackboard Collaborate, which you can access through our Blackboard course site. It will be recorded in case you can’t make it. I will also be available for appointments next week. We can chat over video through blackboard, or if this doesn’t work for you we can figure out an alternative.

• I have graded all of your blogs through Blog Post # 3. You can find your grade under “my grades” in Blackboard and find comments on the CUNY Commons course site. If I have made a mistake and you don’t see a grade for your submission please let me know. Also let me know if you are behind.

• There are also new posts in the “Events & Opportunities” category on the course site. I would like to highlight one: the English Department’s National Day on Writing event. This will be a great opportunity for you to connect with fellow students and faculty and I highly encourage you to participate.

Completed Work

Here’s what you should have completed this week:

• ​Part 1:
  • Read: They Say/I Say, “Chapter 4: ‘Yes/No/OK, But’: Three Ways to Respond”
  • Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine
  • Watch: Screencast
• Part 2:
  • Read: Seeing Through Race: a Reinterpretation of Civil Rights Photography, “Introduction: The Iconic Photographs of Civil Rights” by Martin A. Berger
  • Respond: Blog post #4

Upcoming Work

Here’s what you should complete next week:

• Paper #1 Due 10/16 on Blackboard

Hi All,

I moved this week, so I am a little behind. Many apologies for this getting to you so late. I will be finishing up your blog post grades by Wednesday. This week we will focus on writing thesis statements, which will be an important part of your first paper assignment

General Reminders and Announcements

• Paper 1 is due October 16^th via Blackboard
• I will be including links to opportunities and events taking place at LaGuardia here so you have an idea of what’s going on at the College and how to get involved.
  • The LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative will be holding several events this semester, including one this week. This initiative focuses on ways to perform and foster humanitarian work.
  • The Grace Leadership Program will hold an event over Zoom on Thursday.

Completed Work

Week 3 (09/28-10/02)

• Part 1:
  • Read: They Say/I Say, “Chapter 2: ‘Her Point Is’: The Art of Summarizing”
  • Watch: Screencast
• Part 2: 
  • Watch: Ways of Seeing, “Episode 4” 
  • Respond: Blog post #3

Upcoming Work

Week 4 (10/05-10/09)

• Part 1:
  • Read:          They Say/I Say, “Chapter 4: ‘Yes/No/OK, But’: Three Ways to Respond” & Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine 
    • “The Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine” is a single page worksheet that will hopefully be helpful for you in writing your thesis statements.
    • Watch:        Screencast: This screencast covers both Chapter 4 of They Say/I Say and the Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine.
• Part 2:
  • Read:          Seeing Through Race: a Reinterpretation of Civil Rights Photography,“Introduction: The Iconic Photographs of Civil Rights” by Martin A. Berger
  • Respond:     Blog post #4

Week 1

This is the first of the weekly newsletters I will send out this semester. I am sending this out on a Sunday, but in general I will send them on Fridays. For the most part, they will be divided into three sections: “General Reminders & Announcements” (these will concern our class as well as any opportunities, etc. that come up college-wide), “Completed Work” (this will discuss what we have done and will usually focus on the week that the newsletter is sent), and “Upcoming Work.” Please read the entire newsletter each week. I will post them as announcements on Blackboard and the course site, and I will email them to you. These will supplement what on the course syllabus, but also check the syllabus once or twice each week.

General Reminders & Announcements

• It is very important that you keep in touch with your professors, especially while we are holding classes online. All of us want you to succeed in our courses and learn things that will interest and benefit you throughout your lives. Communication—in the case of this class, by email—is very important. Please reach out to me if you are confused, want to schedule a meeting, wish to discuss late work, etc.
• I have taken one pass at grading Blog Post #1, and I will take another one tonight. If you haven’t done so already, please post yours by the end of today. As I’ve told some of you already, I would like the work for each week to be completed by Friday, but if you get behind on a given week reach out to me and we will work something out.
• As I read through the posts, I noticed that some of you have not “published” yours yet. I didn’t grade these because I assume you are still editing the post. Please click the “Publish” button once you are done. I also didn’t give you a grade if you posted your blog response as a comment on someone else’s post. Please post all blog responses as stand-alone posts.
• I have decided to post tutorial videos to the course site here. As of now, you will find two, one that offers a shorter guide for how to post to the blog and one that covers hypothesis, which is a tool I will be using to comment on your blog posts and one you will use later to annotate (mark up, post questions, etc.) readings for the class.

• And, last thing about blog posts, I want you to think of these as informal opportunities to try out ideas from course material. The questions are open-ended, and my hope is that help you to think through ideas from this material. It’s not as important for you to get a question “correct” as it is for you to address it specifically and as fully as you can.
• Paper 1: the assignment for this paper will be out on Monday. Look for an announcement on that day.

Completed Work

• The big, important task of Week 1 was getting started. You learned to navigate how each of your professors have interpreted this online learning environment. This is a big challenge that you should all congratulate yourselves for seeing through. We have all made different choices, and we have different skills: some of us are very good at digital learning and some of us have never touched a computer. Good job!

• You also introduced yourselves using the course blog, and I enjoyed reading about all of your interests and what brought you to the College. I won’t get the chance to meet you in person until we go back to campus, and even then, you will have completed this course and gone on to bigger and better things. So, it was really nice to get a chance to learn about you in your posts. 

• In the second half of the week you encountered the first bit of the materials you will encounter throughout the semester. These were the “Introduction” to Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say/I Sayand two videos from the Smart History project: “The Power to Look” and “How Art Can Help You Analyze.” These two materials represent the genres of course material: most weeks you will encounter something about the writing process and something else about visual or aural perception.

• In the “Introduction” to They Say/I Say, Graff and Birkenstein lay out these key points:
  • Writing consists of using established moves and conventions to express ideas.
  • Writing only holds meaning if it is done within the context of what others are saying. In other words, your writing only makes sense if it is stated in response to what others are saying.
  • It is possible for one to practice these moves and become a better writer.
  • One useful way of practicing is to use template models of these moves that convey the structure of academic/argumentative sentences.
  • All of these points are in service to the overall definition of writing the book lays out: that writing is only meaningful when it is in dialogue with what others are saying, when it is thought of as “entering the conversation” about its subject.

• You also watched the two videos from the Smart History project. These videos frame how I want us to deal with visual art in this first unit. This is not an art history class; it’s a writing class. But, carefully analyzing a piece of visual artwork is a great exercise in close analysis, and close analysis, well-organized, is probably one of the top two skills a writer should have. (The other one I would put on that list is the ability to develop a central argument over the course of an essay.)

• Many of you rightly pointed out in your blog posts that one of the major points the videos make is that looking at art helps us focus on details and this spills into other facets of life and careers. The other point I would like you to consider from these videos, as well as the other material in the course, is that every artwork is about perception itself; every artwork tries to get us to think about how we perceive the world: how we put visual information in logical order, what we pay attention to, what we should pay attention to, how do changes in angles change our perception etc. In this way, works of art ask us to think about how we analyze and use visual information as well as how visual information is structured. 

Upcoming Work:

• This week you will read the first chapter of They Say/I Say, “’They Say’: Starting with What Others Say” and watch episode two from John Berger’s 1972 BBC television project Ways of Seeing. After doing this, you will respond on to blog post #2.

• I will be posting a screencast on this chapter on Monday, but here are some key things to keep in mind from the chapter:
  • Start with what others say
  • “…summarize what ‘they say’ as soon as you can in your text, and remind readers of it at strategic points as your text unfolds.”
  • “…to keep an audience engaged, a writer needs to explain what he or she is responding to–either before offering that response or, at least, very early in the discussion.”
  • Say what “they say” and what you are saying together and as quickly as possible.
  • Keep what “they say” in view throughout your text

• You will also watch episode two from John Berger’s 1972 BBC television project Ways of Seeing. In this project, Berger tries to get us to see how power dynamics are involved in the production and control of images by asking us to think about how the artist controls and shapes the viewer’s gaze, how he or she treats the subject, how viewers move their eyes around the frame of the image.

• • In the case of this episode, he focuses on representations of women. Berger defines a distinction between the female nude and nakedness. According to him, the female nude is a constructed image of female sexuality meant to satisfy the desires of the male viewer; whereas, actual nakedness is not constructed. It occurs on the fly, when we are least conscious about it. Berger ties this distinction to the objectification of women.

• • In thinking about this further you might ask yourselves if the same thing takes place with depictions of women nowadays. For instance, when Beyonce creates a sexualized image of herself does the same problem Berger identifies arise? Or, is something different going on? You might also think about the role of social media and the “selfie” in this regard. If an Instagram user creates a “sexy” post of herself is she objectifying herself or is she controlling her own image?

As always let me know if you have questions