Labor Details (SU/WI)

This is what we’ll be doing in our summer/winter course sections —

• Blog Postings — All of your blog postings will be composed in your Medium account; I will be giving you precise directions for setting up your personal blog. These blog postings will be in response to questions or topics from our class curriculum; you will be given specific instructions for each posting. Postings should be developed responses (if you need a target, shoot for 500–800 words) and may contain text, video, images, links, etc. You are considered the composer of your blog, so there is no limit to the creativity you may use!
• Peer Assessments — You will be asked to respond to and assess a number of your peers’ Blog Postings. The goal of these assessments is NOT to evaluate or comment on “correctness”; instead, you will be describing how you experienced your peers’ writing, how it engaged your thinking or feelings (or, conversely, failed to engage you). These assessments will be made in the form of Responses made directly under the peers’ Blog Postings in Medium, so they’ll act as a live conversation about the rhetorical effectiveness of the writing. Each peer assessment should reflect thoughtful, compassionate comments.
• Labor Journal Reflections — This course will consistently lean on the power of reflection and your self-assessment practice. This is often called metacognition, and the proven benefits of “thinking about one’s thinking” are multiple. In short, you will be reflecting on the intensity, engagement, and meaning of your labor. I’ll be asking you to rate your levels of these three characteristics in each journal reflection. All of our Labor Reflection Journal entries will be submitted via a Google Form (the link is located in the Canvas Module)—you’ll receive a receipt of your responses sent to the email address that you enter on the form. Each Labor Journal Reflection should meet the specific labor expectations detailed in the directions.
• Labor Support Group Engagements — Our course is considered one collective labor support group. The purpose of this group is defined through its title — to provide support to each other as you labor in the course. I will be creating a space for our group to communicate and get to know one another; it will be your responsibility to be an engaged, contributing member of your group. This contribution will be in response to my discussion board prompts. As we labor through our learning, it is essential that we benefit from support and collaboration — our writing community will hopefully provide this benefit.
• Final Self-Assessment — At the end of the semester, I’ll be asking you to submit a 🏁 Final Self-Assessment Google form that will contain questions/prompts regarding your labor and learning growth. In this form, you will be establishing the rationale for your final letter grade in the course. In short, you will describe what final grade and mastery level that you feel best reflects your learning growth in the course while detailing the evidence and reflections that prove this self-assessment. Once I receive your self-graded assessment, I will respond with my thoughts on your final grade in the course. Together, we will arrive at the final grade that best reflects your mastery of the course learning aims!

• Tracking Your Labor — As you progress with your writing labor and complete your assignments, Checkmarks will be placed in the Canvas Gradebook. You will be able to track your labor completion by accessing your “Grades” in Canvas (again, there will be no points or grades associated with your labor). I will also check your completion record periodically and will contact you if you are falling behind in the required labor outlined in the course. Please remember, though, that it is your primary responsibility to maintain and track your labor in the course!

Attribution

Image at top of page: “2017.11.17 DC People and Places 0527” by Ted Eytan is licensed under CC BY-SA. See: Massive new mural in D.C. pays tribute to the men who built the Lincoln Memorial statue — The Washington Post.