Author Archives: JSylvor

This week is focused on completing your second major writing assignment of the semester. If you have misplaced the instructions, you can find them under the “Essays” tab at the top of the blog.

Drafts Submitted: Drafts were due on Monday and were to be placed in a shared folder where we could all access them. The link to the folder is HERE. If your draft is not yet in the folder, you cannot continue with this assignment without completing a draft, so your first priority needs to be adding a draft to the folder.

Peer Review: Peer Review was assigned as your work for Monday, March 18th. You can find group assignments and instructions in my previous post. Like submitting a draft, completing peer review is required. You cannot pass the course without completing a draft and participating in peer review. If you have not yet reviewed your partners’ drafts, please follow the instructions in my previous post and get that done ASAP.

Essays Due; Your finished reviews or essays are due by midnight on Sunday, March 24th. Please submit your work by placing it in your personal English 2150 folder – the same folder in which you submitted your Personal Narrative.

Thank you to those of you who attended our Zoom meeting and who uploaded your drafts to the designated Google Docs Folder. As a reminder, your drafts were due TODAY (no exceptions, no excuses) and completing your PEER REVIEW is your work for today, regardless of whether you attended the Zoom meeting or submitted your draft. I am sharing the peer review groups here. You can find your partners’ drafts in the folder I linked to in yesterday’s post. In that folder, you can also find a file titled “Peer Review Instructions”. This file contains the form you will be using for the Peer Review and instructions on how to manage it electronically. Please reach out to me ASAP if you have any questions about this. On Wednesday in class we will be working with your drafts, so be sure to either have an updated printout of your draft or a laptop or tablet that. you can work with in class.

Group 1: Alex, Helen, Angel

Group 2: Argenise, Kimberly, Zihao

Group 3: Ayah, Brandon, Samin

Group 4: Steven, Arlene, Kevin G.

Group 5: Kevin X., Ramon, Christopher

Group 6: Gabriel, Jeff, Marcus

Group 7: David, Matthew, Stephanie

Hi Everyone,

I hope your drafts are coming along and that you have enjoyed some down time this weekend.  Unfortunately, I am sick and will not be able to hold our regular class tomorrow (Monday).  Instead, we will be meeting via Zoom at 12:30.  I am attaching the link the link below.  

Instead of working with hard copies of your drafts as planned, you will be submitting the drafts electronically.    Once your draft is completed, please give your a title that includes YOUR NAME and upload it to this shared google doc folder:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cnYBWZHa4k3o-tD89Ddlb_iNsSknXWV9?usp=drive_link 

Whether your draft is complete or not, you MUST have something to submit tomorow, so do your best.  If you can’t figure out how to get your file into the folder, either ask a friend for help or send it to me as an email attachment, and I can do it for you.  

Tomorrow’s class will not run our full 100 minutes, but it is MANDATORY, so please be sure to log on at 12:30 using this link:

https://baruch.zoom.us/j/7078160027?omn=83500264001

I am expecting to be back on campus on Wednesday, so it will be back to business as usual, but in the meantime, I am grateful that we can use technology in this way.

Really looking forward to reading your work!!!

Take care,

Professor Sylvor

• Monday, March 11th – Come to class with a hard copy of the article you selected for homework for today. Your article should also be posted to the blog.
• For Wednesday, March 13th – Read Pete Wells, “As Not Seen on TV” and Adina Steiman, “The Best Grocery Store in America is Kalustyan’s”. You can find both articles in the “Texts” section of the blog. You will need to either have hard copies of the articles with you in class on Wednesday or have the ability to access them on a laptop or tablet in class.
• For Wednesday, March 13th – Come to class with a tentative idea of what you will be doing for your Formal Writing Assignment #2. This will mean knowing which option you will be pursuing and having given some thought to what your more specific subject will be. (If you missed class on Monday, you can find the prompt for this assignment under the “Essays” tab above.)
• Monday, March 18th – Drafts Due – Everyone will be coming to class with three copies of your draft to share. Even if you are absent, you must submit a draft on Monday. No excuses.

• Monday, March 4th: Come to class with your hard copy of Michael Pollan’s “Power Steer and with the three quotations that you have identified as being particularly interesting, important, or worthy of discussion.
• Homework for Wednesday, March 6th: Read your classmates’ “I Recommend….” posts. Leave comments on three different posts. In your comment, be sure to identify something specific that you noticed or admired about the post.
• Wednesday, March 6th: Bring the Pollan article with you to class, and be prepared to do an in-class writing assignment, either by hand or on a laptop/tablet.
• Homework for Sunday, March 10th: Find a recent (less than one year old) article that is food related and that interests you and share it to the blog. The article should be fairly short (not a long form piece like the Michael Pollan article) and should be something that appeared either online or in print and has an identified author. Think broadly about food-related subjects of interest to you – whether they are related to business and economics, health and nutrition, ethics and social justice, culture and identity, etc… In addition to sharing your article on the blog, please bring a hard copy of your article with you to class on Monday.

• For Wednesday, February 28th, read Michael Pollan’s article “Power Steer”. Mark three passages (one or two sentences) in the text that seem to you to be interesting, important, or worthy of discussion. Have a hard copy of the article with you in class on Monday, with the quotes you’ve selected identified.

• Using Sam Anderson’s “I Recommend Eating Chips”, create your own “I Recommend…” post and share it to the blog before Wednesday’s class. Your post should be 400- 500 words and should be shared as a new post, not as a comment on this post.  Remember that this piece is an opportunity to be playful and exploratory.   Let curiosity be your guide.  What’s in your chosen food? Where does it come from? Who invented it? How did it find its way to you? What does it look like?  How/where/when did you first encounter it?  What’s it like to eat this food? How does it make you feel? How does it figure into your story, your life, your identity, your routine???  Be creative! If you feel stuck, I suggest doing some Googling to see what interesting things you might learn about your chosen food.  Please share your post on the blog together with an accompanying image (again, feel free to select whatever seems right to you!) by Sunday, March 3rd.

• Revised Drafts are due on Monday, February 19th. Submit your draft by placing it in a Google Docs folder that you have shared with me at [email protected]. The folder should have the name: Your Name English 2150. Your revised draft should be in a file that is named “Personal Narrative – Revised Draft”. I must have a revised draft of your essay to review in advance of your scheduled conference. Your revised draft should be substantially different from the draft you brought with you to class on February 14th.
• No Class on February 19th. College is closed for Presidents’ Day.
• Wednesday 2/21 and Thursday 2/22 – Conferences. You will be meeting with me in your small peer review groups to discuss your Personal Narratives. The purpose of these conferences is to get feedback on your revised draft. You need to have a revised draft in order to attend your conference. These conferences will take place in our regular classroom instead of our regular class. I have posted the schedule below. As you can see, we have a very tight schedule, so please be prompt. Bring a hard copy of your Revised Draft with you to the conference.
• Sunday, February 25th – Finished essays are due! Please follow the instructions on the assignment sheet for naming your file and submitting the essay.
• Please reach out to me via email if you have any questions about any of this or if you want to get any additional feedback or advice about your essays. I am looking forward to our conferences and to reading your essays!

Schedule

Wednesday, February 21st

12:25 – 12:50: Jeff, Arlene, Christopher

12:50 – 1:15: Kimberly, David, Steven

1:15 – 1:40: Zihao, Ramon, Gabriel

1:40 – 2:05: Stephanie, Brandon, Argenise

Thursday, February 22nd

12:25 – 12:55: Alexander, Ayah, Kevin X., Marcus

12:55 – 1:20: Matthew, Kevin G., Helen

1:20 – 1:45: Samin, Angel

• Baruch is closed on Monday, February 12th – NO CLASS
• Wednesday, Feb. 14th – Drafts Due! Please come to class with 3 hard copies of your Personal Narrative. It is ok if your draft is unfinished, but it is essential that you come to class prepared to share your work.
• If you have any questions about this assignment, feel free to reach out via email. You can also find a copy of the assignment at the top of the blog, under the “essays” tab.
• Use this long weekend to catch up on any assignments you may not have completed from our first two weeks.

• Read “Memories of Meals Past” (You can find the link under the “Texts” tab.) In response to your reading, create a blog post in which you share a “memory of a meal past” of your own. Use the examples you read as your inspiration as you flesh out your memory. What was the context of the meal? What was its significance? What sensory details can you provide to bring your memory to life for your reader? Feel free to add a photo to your post. Your memory should be shared on the blog no later than noon on Monday, February 5th.
• Read Gabrielle Hamilton, “Killing Dinner”. Please bring a hard copy of the essay with you to class on Monday.
• Read your classmates’ posts about “Memories of Meals Past”. Choose three posts that piqued your interest and respond to them. (Look for posts that do not already have many comments. We want to be sure that every post is commented upon!!) Make your comments as specific as you can. What did you particularly like about the writer’s post? What questions do you have about the experience the author is describing? What else would you like to know about it? How does this post connect to your own identity and memories? Please make sure that you have shared your comments by 12 pm on Wednesday, February 7th.
• In preparation for Wednesday’s class, please read “Coming Home Again” by Chang Rae Lee and ” How Ramen Got Me through Adolescence” by Veronique Greenwood. You can find them under the “texts” tab above. Be prepared to discuss the two texts in class.

It was wonderful to meet all of you and to begin our work together. Here are your assignments for this week. Reach out to me if you have any questions.

• For Wednesday’s class, please read Toni Morrison’s “The Day and Its Splendid Parts”. You can find the essay under the “Texts” tab at the top of the blog. Please print out the essay and bring your hard copy with you to class on Wednesday. In a comment on this post, please share one line or one detail from Morrison’s essay that made a strong impression on you and explain its significance.
• Create an introductory post on our class blog. In approximately 300-400 words, describe yourself.   It’s up to you to decide what you’d like to share; please also let us know what name you’d like us to use to address you in the classroom and on the blog and what pronouns you’d prefer.   Include an image that represents or captures you in some way, and explain why you chose it.  This could be a photograph of you, or it could be an image of something else that speak to you and reflects some aspect of your identity.  Remember that our theme this semester is FOOD, so you might want to tell us about your likes, dislikes, and other food habits! In order to create a new post, look for the button “Add New” under the “Posts” option.  Please share your introduction no later than Friday, February 2nd.
•  If you haven’t already done so, please replace your “Bearcat” icon with a picture of yourself in your blogs@baruch account.