1. Analytical Research Paper – Deadline Extended to Monday, May 3rd:  I am giving you an extra day to complete your research paper.   Place your completed paper in your personal Google Doc folder by midnight.  Please use the extra time wisely.  Be sure to:

• Proofread carefully
• Read your paper aloud to catch any mistakes
• Revise your introduction to be sure that it includes your research question and a “road map” to the rest of the essay.
• Check to be sure that you have punctuated your quotations correctly and included parenthetical citations
• Create a Works Cited page that conforms to the MLA 8 guidelines
• Anticipate a reader who asks “so what?” and build an answer into your paper.  What is the significance of the information you are exploring in your essay? What do we learn from it?
• Give your essay a title

2.No Zoom on Monday – In light of this extension, we will NOT be having our regular Zoom call on Monday.  Use that time to work on the checklist posted above.  You might want to connect with your Writing Group and set up a group proofreading session to read one another’s work one last time.  I will be holding  drop-in Office Hours during our regular class time.

3. Dear Reader Letter – Please compose a “Dear Reader” letter reflecting on your experience of writing the “Analytical Research Paper”.  Please add your letter to your Google Doc folder no later than Wed., May 5th.  You might want to consider the following:

• How did this process go for you?
• What was the smoothest part of the process?
• What caused the most difficulty?
• How did you arrive at your topic?
• How do you feel about the work you submitted?  What are its strengths and weaknesses?
• What’s the most important thing you learned about your topic?
• What’s the most important thing you learned about yourself?
• What did you learn from reviewing your peers’ work?
• What skills did you work on through the process of completing this assignment
• What is on your mind as you turn to the Creative Re-Mix? How will it further develop the ideas of your essay?  What challenges are you anticipating?
• What else would you like your reader to know?

4. Creative Re-Mix – On Wednesday, we will be sharing an update on our Creative Re-Mix projects.  In a comment on this post, share one step that you are committed to taking on that project between now and Wednesday.  It can be something very small and manageable!  During Wednesday’s Zoom call, we will be determining the schedule for your Creative Re-Mix presentations that will take place on May 12th and 17th.

5. Food Media Reviews – Your second round of reviews have been posted!  You have chosen some great items to review.  For this week, please choose one of your peer’s reviews, check out the text being reviewed, and then add your thoughts in the form of a comment on the review.  You can choose from anything that was shared in the first two sets of reviews.  Please complete this by Sunday, May 9th.  Your third and final review should be posted by May 12th.

This week we are continuing to move forward with our Analytical Research Papers and Creative Re-Mix Projects:

1. Peer Review – Please complete your review of your partners’ drafts by Saturday, April 24th. You can find the Peer Review Worksheet in our class Google Docs Folder or use this LINK to access it.   Please copy and paste it to the bottom of the document that you are reviewing.  Read the note the author wrote in class on Wednesday and be sure to take it into consideration in giving feedback.  Each of you must complete two reviews by Saturday to earn full credit for this assignment.  Please let me know if you do not have two drafts to review.

2. Individual Conferences – Instead of our regular Monday Zoom, you will each be meeting with me individually to discuss your draft.  The sign-up sheet for those conferences is HERE.  These sessions are mandatory.  Please read over all the feedback on your drafts carefully, make sure you’ve shared the latest version of your work with me, and come to the conference prepared with specific ideas and questions about how to develop and revise your paper.  These conferences will also be an opportunity to discuss your Creative Re-Mix, so come prepared to share your ideas.

3. Creative Re-Mix – Before our class on Wednesday, please settle on a plan for your Creative Re-Mix.  We will be sharing these plans during our Zoom Call.  Please post your “plan” in a blog post before Wednesday’s class.  Your “plan” does not need to be elaborate.  Please do the following:

• Describe what you are planning to do
• Explain how it connects to your research question
• Map out the steps you would need to undertake to execute your plan
• Anticipate any obstacles or pitfalls that you are concerned about
• Request any specific problem solving help or advice that might assist you with thinking through and executing this project.

4. Media Review – Continue to offer feedback on your classmates’ reviews.  Your second review should be posted by April 28th.  Remember to use this as an opportunity to explore and share things that you genuinely enjoy and are interested in!

1. Analytical Research Papers – As we discussed this week, after writing and revising your Research Proposals, your next steps include Creating an Outline, Gathering Sources, Note-Taking, and Writing a First Draft.  By Sunday, April 18th,  please compile all your work together in a single file and share it with me as a Google Doc.  The goal of this is to give me all the information I’ll need to help you when we meet on Monday.  In this file, please include a brief update on how the work is going, the outline or written plan that you are working with, a list of the sources you’ve gathered thus far, and the three things that you are most concerned about as you move forward with this project.    It’s ok for this to be a messy or disorganized  file.  Think of it as a kind of “Brain Dump” that will allow us to maximize our time on Monday and that will give you a chance to take stock of how much you have already accomplished!

2. Group Conferences – Monday, April 19th – Based on the feedback I got from your Mid-Semester Reflections, we will be building more opportunities to meet in small groups into our schedule.  Instead of our regular class Zoom, please plan on meeting with me according to the schedule below.

11:30    Lorraine, Danna, Brian

12:00    Melanie, Mokhitobon, Sydney

12:30    Destiny, Lelani, Mindy

1:00       Geselle, Kaylen, Abdu

1:30       Samantha, Gianni, Nicole

3. Drafts Due – Wednesday, April 21st – Please upload your draft to our shared Google Doc folder before our Zoom call on Wednesday.  Give your file the name “Your Name – Research Draft”.  Your draft should include:   1) all the writing that you have completed by Wednesday (which may or may not be a complete version of your paper – consider saving the introduction and conclusion for later and beginning with your body paragraphs) 2) the outline or plan that you are working from.

4. Food Media Reviews – I am looking forward to diving more deeply into your reviews over the weekend.  If you haven’t yet shared your first post, please do it ASAP.  Please take a look at your classmates’ reviews and post comments on three of them by Sunday, April 25th.  If someone has reviewed something that really piques your interest, you may want to consider reviewing that same “text” for one of your upcoming reviews.

1. Research Proposals Due:  Before our class on Monday, April 12th – Please upload your proposal to our shared Google Doc folder, and give your file the title “Your Name – Research Proposal”.  Your proposal can be written in paragraph form or presented as an outline or bulleted list, but it must include the following:

• Articulation of the central question you are seeking to answer.
• Detailed description of the problem your paper will address.
• List of “sub-questions” that you anticipate will be part of your research.
• Explanation of why you think this topic is important and interesting.

2. Creative-Remix Ideas Due:  Before our class on Wednesday, April 14th – This is a brainstorming assignment, not a commitment.  Before class on Wednesday, please share three possible ideas for the shape your Creative Remix might take.  You can share your ideas in the form of a comment on this post.  In your comment, tell us the focus of your Analytical Research Paper and then offer three ideas for the Creative Remix.  Be sure that your ideas are do-able, align with your interests and abilities, and have some connection to your research topic.  Keep in mind that this is an opportunity for creativity.

3. Research Methodologies – Our class on Wednesday will focus on Research Methodologies, in particular on how to find useful sources and then what to do with them once we find them.  Please come to class on Wednesday  prepared with a question you want to ask about this process.

Welcome back from Spring Break!  Hope you have returned rested, energized, and enthusiastic about the second half of the semester.  Here is the plan for this week:

• I have shared a description of your Final Project in a separate post.  You can also find the description of the assignment in a file in our Google Doc Folder- Setting the Table, which I am linking to HERE.  Please read the document carefully, and in a comment on this post, please share one takeaway from the assignment and one question you have about it.  Please do this by Monday, April 5th.  We will be discussing both parts of the final project (the Analytical Research Paper and the Creative Re-Mix during our Zoom call on Monday.
• In a separate blog post, please share three ideas for your research topic.  Your ideas must be posted before our Zoom call on Wednesday, April 7th.  Reach out to me via email or Slack if you have questions about the guidelines for choosing a topic.
• Between now and the end of the semester, each of you must post three “Food Media Reviews” to the blog.  For this assignment, you will choose a food-related text that is of interest to you and create a blog post in which you link to the text, describe it, and offer a thoughtful review.  Your text could be something from print media (a newspaper or magazine article or a blog post), film or video, or audio.  Each of your selections must be drawn from a different genre.  Your posts should be 450-500 words in length.  Please post your first review by Wednesday, April 14th, your second by April 28th, and your third by May 12th.  When you create your post, please include your name and the number of the review (1,2, or 3) in the title of your post.
• If you have not yet completed your Mid-Semester Reflection or your Dear Reader letter for the Textual Analysis essay, they are OVERDUE.  Please complete them immediately, and send me a message via slack or email, so that I know they’ve been submitted.
• I have read and commented on your essays.  Please reach out to me with any questions, and let me know if you would like to schedule an appointment to discuss the essay.  Do NOT make any changes to the essay in response to my comments unless we have already discussed the essay.