Schedule

Welcome to the website for Professor Libertz’s Writing 1 (ENG 2100) class! This website mostly houses the schedule along with links to some resources you might find useful. Each date on the schedule contains: work due that day, topics for that lesson, and a link to the lesson plan (see below “Lesson Plans”).

Lesson Plans

To view the lesson plan for the day (and to access possible activities/links/etc. for that day’s lesson), click the date in the schedule to navigate to the lesson plan webpage (e.g., click “Wednesday, August 28”). Lesson plans will be live by a few minutes before the beginning of class–though they may sometimes be live a few hours or a day earlier. Lesson plans are useful so you can see what is happening that day.

Devices in Class

Nearly every lesson will require you to interact with an electronic device. Therefore, please have one available for each lesson. If you do not have a laptop or tablet, or do not feel comfortable bringing one to class, you can rent one from the library prior to each class meeting (go here for more information: Technology Loan Service – Newman Library | Baruch College (cuny.edu)).

Missing Class

If you are absent you should review the lesson plan you missed below. You can also make up the absence if you contact Prof. Libertz and coordinate with him about how to fill out this survey.

Wednesday, August 28

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read the syllabus and write down any questions for class.

Topic(s): intro to class, writing activity, syllabus, grading contract, Perusall setup, journal setup

Monday, September 2 (Labor Day, no class)

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • None

Wednesday, September 4

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “Reading and Writing” by Daniel Libertz in Join the Conversation
  • Create at least 4 annotations following these annotation guidelines
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Prompt: Why are you here at Baruch College? What do you want out of this experience beyond simply gaining a credential that says “I earned a college degree”? What goals can you come up with and why those goals? Keep writing for at least 10 minutes; do not pick up your pencil or pen. Just keep going and write nonsense words or “I don’t know” until you have new ideas. Let this writing do something for you at this early stage of the semester.

Topic(s): Learning Needs, Grading Contract, Names!, Annotation, Language Difference, Literacy Narrative

Monday, September 9

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Wednesday, September 11

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “Defining My Identity Through Language: What I Learned about Literacy Narratives” by Kim Liao
  • Create at least 4 annotations
  • Schedule a time to meet with Prof. Libertz
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Respond to this prompt: You belong at this college. You deserve to be here, to receive the education you’ll get. We know this is true. Why is it true? Why do you deserve it? Remember: you do deserve it. But why? Keep writing, keep putting things down on the page for at least 10 minutes.
  • Due Friday, September 13: Reading Response 1: Of the writing Liao talked about (the new pieces she wrote and the one by Amy Tan), choose one that you can find some connection to in your own personal experience. What was it? Why did you connect with it? If you have trouble relating, try to focus on the “moves” of literacy narratives that Liao writes about and how something about your history with your identity, language use, culture, etc. could be turned into a literacy narrative.  Write at least 250 words in response.

Topic(s):

Monday, September 16

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Wednesday, September 18

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Write a “half-draft” of your literacy narrative: Write roughly “half” of the word count required for our Literacy Narrative assignment that was introduced previously. Complete this survey if you are using AI.
  • LET ME KNOW BY EMAIL IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH CLASSMATES READING WHAT YOU’VE WROTE BECAUSE IT IS TOO PERSONAL
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. The prompt for next week is this: What’s something you don’t know how to do but would like to learn about? Why can’t you learn about it now? What’s getting your way? How can college help you learn more about it? Is it another language? Is it doing something physical like carpentry or boxing? Is it something artistic like poetry, sculpture, or DJing? Is it more about history? You have this time in college to learn. What do you care about? How can you cultivate it now and what might it be? Why? You don’t have to respond to all of these questions; they are just to help get you thinking about college as a time to learn things you really want to learn rather than only what you feel like you are “supposed to” learn.

Monday, September 23 (No class; meeting in 1-on-1 conferences)

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Meet with Prof. Libertz today, tomorrow, or Wednesday
  • Before the meeting, you should have ready:
    • Some way to access your half-draft of your literacy narrative
    • Some way to take notes while we discuss your draft (e.g., pen/paper, laptop with notes app)
    • Some ideas for how you can move your literacy narrative forward to the next draft
    • Any questions you have for the class or whatever
    • Any goals you want to accomplish this semester

Wednesday, September 25

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “What is authenticity?” by Theo Van Leeuwen. NOTE: this reading will be difficult. There will be unfamiliar words or familiar words used in unfamiliar ways. It was written for an audience of experts in linguistics and discourse studies so there will be things mentioned that might not quite make sense. Go back to “Reading and Writing” for tips on reading difficult texts. It is okay not to understand everything; it is not okay to give up! Give a good effort here for reading these 6 pages on authenticity.
  • Create at least 4 annotations
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Here is the prompt: How have you been managing your time so far? What has worked well? What has not worked well for you? Think about all of the unstructured time for your classes that you have in college vs. high school when you had to be somewhere from early in the morning through the afternoon. Now, you might have whole days where you don’t have to attend a class. So, how have you managed that? Does anything need to change? If so, what? You don’t need to answer all of these questions, but write for at least 10 minutes about how you have been managing your schedule for your learning.

Monday, September 30

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Wednesday, October 2 (no class)

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • None

Monday, October 7

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “What is Rhetoric?” by Seth Graves, Lucas Corcoran, and Lisa Blankenship
  • Post at least three annotations on “What is Rhetoric?”
  • Reading Response 2: Has anyone ever said to you before that “it’s just not that deep” when you were talking about a movie, a show, a book, a sign, a conversation with a friend or romantic partner, something a family member said to you, etc.? Where someone felt you were seeing something there that wasn’t there. Or, has the opposite happened, where you made the case that you saw a “meaning” in something that the other person didn’t quite see until you pointed it out? If you ask me, ANYTHING can be “deep” but some interpretations are certainly better than others. Write about one of your experiences and how you found meaning in something that others reacted to. Finally, connect this exploration to what you read about rhetoric this week. Write at least 250 words in response.

Wednesday, October 9

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “Tools for Analyzing Texts” by Lisa Blankenship, Seth Graves, and Kate Eickmeyer
  • Post at least four annotations on “Tools for Analyzing Texts”
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Here is the prompt for that: Talk about a person you met so far this semester who has really influenced you in some way (hopefully positive!). You don’t have to name them. What did you learn from that encounter(s)? What further encounters with other people would you like to have? Who do you want to get to know? How will you get to know them? Clubs? Jobs? Classes? What’s your plan for meeting more people you can learn from and grow with? Write for at least 10 minutes.

Monday, October 14 (No class)

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • None

Tuesday, October 15 (follows Monday schedule, so we meet)

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Wednesday, October 16

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models be Too Big?” by Bender et al. (2021). We have talked about this kind of difficult reading before and have done some already with the “What is authenticity?” reading. Review our lesson plan from September 25 about doing difficult reading as well as “Reading and Writing” from our textbook. THIS READING WILL TAKE TIME, IT IS 14 PAGES LONG AND IT CAN BE DENSE. Make sure you have enough time to read it; it will take much longer than most of our readings have taken so far this semester.
  • Complete at least 4 annotations on Bender et al. (2021)
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Here is the prompt: This semester is getting close to half way over. What have you learned from being in college at Baruch so far? What really sticks out to you? How are you now different? What have you been confronted with that has shifted the way you see the world? Why? This could be from any class, conversation…anything that has to do with your time at Baruch so far. Finally: what do you want to learn more about still? Why?

Monday, October 21

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Re-read Bender et al. (2021) from October 16
  • Complete Reading Response 3: As you re-read Bender et al., start to annotate and take notes on moments that would be relevant to your group’s topic related to AI (we got into groups on Oct 16). In your response of about 250 words, explain why a specific part of the article (of about 3-5 sentences) is relevant to your group’s topic and interesting to you as a reader. Also write about any confusion or questions you have about what you read. You must offer a quote or paraphrase of no more than 5 sentences. So it is clear, copy down the part of the article that you are responding to right into your written response for this assignment (this does not count towards word count). Your response, excluding the copied passage, should be about 250 words in a Word or PDF document submitted to Brightspace.

Wednesday, October 23

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read your group’s article about generative artificial intelligence (GAI) or AI
  • Post at least four annotations on your group’s article.
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. What adjustments have you made compared to how you were a student in high school? Why have you made those adjustments? Have they helped? In what ways? Where are you still stuck as you adjust to college? What isn’t quite working for you yet? Why not, do you think? What things might you try to help you in areas you are struggling? Why?

Monday, October 28

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “Writing with Other Voices” by Daniel Libertz
  • Post at least four annotations on “Writing with Other Voices”

Wednesday, October 30

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Re-read your group’s article about GAI or AI
  • Reading Response 4: Using the article or advertisement you worked on during class on October 23 (we analyzed the speech to the UN by the Google CEO) OR another article/advertisement you chose, try to use your group’s “lens” from what your group drafted on October 23 to analyze at least one component of that article/advertisement. If you have already started your draft for your rhetorical analysis, you can simply copy/paste some element of analysis work in that draft as a submission for Reading Response 4. If you haven’t started your rhetorical analysis essay yet…well, get started! And use what you have done so far in Reading Response 4. Write at least 250 words.
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. What are you more confident about at this stage of your college career? Something about academic performance? Something about social or emotional intelligence (e.g., building relationships, being a good listener)? Something about relationships with family or loved ones? Something about your goals or interests? Something else? Explain why you are now more confident about that. What are you less confident about? Why? Is that a good or bad thing (e.g., it could be a good thing to be less confident in what you know as it means you are learning the limits of what you thought you knew)? Why?

Monday, November 4

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Wednesday, November 6

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Read “Finding and Evaluating Sources” by Daniel Libertz
  • Post at least four annotations on “Finding and Evaluating Sources”
  • Schedule a time to meet with Prof. Libertz as a group of 4.
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Write about a time since the semester began where you used something you have learned or thought about in college when in a conversation with a family member or friend. You could also write about reading or watching the news, a TV show, a film, playing video games, etc. when you used something you learned or thought about from a college class. How did you use that thing you learned or thought about? If you can’t think of anything, instead write about something else in relation to the usefulness or excitement you have felt about something you’ve learned so far.

During class (must be completed if absent):

  • Read “Section 5: Introduction” by Seth Graves
  • Read “The Research Process” by Seth Graves, Lucas Corcoran, and Kamal Belmihoub
  • Across both readings, post at least three annotations related to connecting your personal experience to research you’ve done (based on how research is described in the readings).

Monday, November 11 (No class; 1-on-1 meetings

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Meet with Prof. Libertz in your group of 4 on Monday or Wednesday in my office
  • Group 1: Eva, Luke, Andre on morality/economics/risk and AI (Monday, Nov 11 at 10:50am)
  • Group 2: Nathaniel O., Garson, Bhavjit, and Ethan on socializing and AI (Wednesday, Nov 13 at 11:40am)
  • Group 3: Deona, Azrin, Kory, Kareem, and Kaitlin on technology and child development (Monday, Nov 11 at 11:35am)
  • Group 4: Rachel, Luciano, Wilson on digital literacy and education (Monday, Nov 11 at 1pm)
  • Group 5: Abdel, Yamini, Natanael L., and Fernando on AI and limitations on creativity (Wednesday, Nov 13 at 12:20pm)
  • BRING DRAFT OF RESEARCH QUESTION

Wednesday, November 13

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Submit revised version of Research Question to Brightspace by November 14 at 11:59pm.
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. Re-read the last 6ish weeks of journal entries. What stands out to you as most important? What have you valued reflecting about most? How have things changed for you since you wrote that entry or entries? Essentially, what I want you to do in this journal entry is to reread your past reflections and see what has had the most meaning and value for you so far. What stands out to you and why?

Monday, November 18

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Wednesday, November 20

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Complete research plan (due by end of day, 11:59pm)
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book: What is something you are proud of so far this semester? Something you have created (in school or outside of school)? Risks you have taken (e.g., joined a club about something you don’t know much about, went up to talk to people you ended up making friends with, spoke up for yourself or others about something important to you)? A performance you feel you nailed (e.g., an exam, a speech or presentation)? What makes you proud of it? Also: do you find yourself talking yourself down even when you are proud (e.g., “it wasn’t that big of a deal, but” or “it’s a small thing, but” or “I know lots of people do this well”)? Why are you doing that, if so? By contrast, do you worry that pride can make you too comfortable and not “hungry” enough to get better at things? What’s going on with both under- and over-confidence? (You don’t have to respond to all of these questions but I find them interesting, overall!)

Monday, November 25

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Write synthesis paragraph

Wednesday, November 27 (No class; follows Friday schedule)

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • None

Monday, December 2

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • None: focus on your research projects!

Wednesday, December 4

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

Monday, December 9

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Work on final projects

Wednesday, December 11

Reading/Writing/Other Due:

  • Work on final projects
  • Complete your 10 minutes of private writing for the week in your composition book. What is writing for? What does it do for you? List all the things you use writing for in your life. Try to be exhaustive. Of the things you listed, where does writing these journal entries fall in? If it doesn’t fit into that list, add a new list item where writing in this journal would fit in. What kind of writing is doing these journal entries and how can it be helpful? Was this journal helpful for you? (it’s okay if it wasn’t!). Before answering, re-read all of your journal entries (really! Do it!). Try to be generous here if it wasn’t helpful (I’m not reading these so this isn’t about my feelings! More about not being too dismissive too quickly, before you had time to think it through). If not helpful to you after thinking about it, explain why. If it was helpful, try to be specific—in what ways? Finally, think more about what writing is for, for you, and how it can help you in your life.

Final Projects Due Wednesday, December 18