Pen, Phone, Pencil, Marker, Compute, Crayon, Tablet, Chalk, Etc. (15-20 min)

With the person next to you (or in a trio if we have an odd number), exchange the following information:

1. Your first name (the name you like to be called)
2. Your major (or what you are thinking about majoring in OR it’s cool if you are not sure yet to say that)
3. What feels like the best way to write. You can answer with a specific tool like a pen, pencil, or typing on your phone (or marker, or crayon, or tablet, or laptop, or desktop, or chalk, etc.) and/or on what kind of material like white lined-paper (or digital screen, or chalkboard, or legal pad, etc.) and why you think that feels the best to you.

Introduce your partner(s) to the class. I’m going to make a quiz based on this information! Pay attention!

First-Day Writing (30 minutes)

Okay, we are just gonna get into it! Let’s write. Here is the prompt:

Technology is machinery or equipment that is used for some purpose, typically developed from scientific or systematic knowledge of some kind. What technology do you use regularly that has had the largest impact on you? Why? Write me at least 3 paragraphs (can be more!) describing this technology, explaining how it has impacted you, and explaining why it has had such a large impact on you.

I’m going to collect this for an activity during next class. But also to get a sense of who you are as a writer right now.

Intro to Class + Setting up Perusall (Syllabus, Grading Contract, etc.; 30-45 min)

What we all described earlier were writing technologies. We can, and do, use different technologies to help us record thinking, learning, language, and rhetoric (all mixed up together). We are going to explore that idea all semester…how technology can help with or get in the way of our thinking.

Let’s get into pairs.

Let’s first get started on Perusall. Those of you who have laptops or tablets, go ahead and create a Perusall account if you haven’t already done so and it would also be good to purchase the textbook:

1. Create a Perusall account at perusall.com 
2. The onboarding process will ask you for a course code. 
3. Enter the following course code: LIBERTZ-CXTJD 
4. Go to “Library” and click Join the Conversation, 5th edition (ISBN: 978-1-5339-6975-0). 
5. There will then be an option to purchase it there. It costs $24.71.
   1. However, you can also purchase the textbook through the bookstore here: https://baruch.textbookx.com/institutional/index.php. The price may be different. I would recommend purchasing through Perusall as it seems to always go smoother than purchasing through the bookstore.

Once we are set up on Perusall, I want us to try out annotating, since that will be a big part of our semester. Right now, we are just getting used to how it works on Perusall and later we will talk more about strategies for annotating.

Group Assignments for Sections of Syllabus and Grading Contract

In your group, each of you will read your section of the syllabus to, at minimum,

1. summarize verbally
2. ask one question as an annotation
3. make one more annotation about anything you want.
   
   You can do this as one group rather than each member of the group.

In your group, each of you will read your section of the grading contract to, at minimum,

1. summarize verbally
2. ask one question as an annotation
3. make one more annotation about anything you want.
   
   You can do this as one group rather than each member of the group.

Each group will summarize their section and we can talk through any questions as we go.

Weekly Private Writing Journal (10-15 min)

I’m going to pass out a journal I bought each of you. You are going to write in this journal once a week. Your first journal entry is due by class time next Wednesday (September 4).

For each journal entry, write the date it is due at the top left corner. So, for your first entry, write: “Wednesday, September 4.”

Each week, I’ll give you a prompt to write in response to. If you just aren’t feeling that prompt that week, feel free to write about something else that inspires you or has captured your thoughts, feelings, or curiosity that week.

Why do this?

Colleges are places where everyone is working to create knowledge. We want to know things. We want to know things that we did not know fully before. Writing is a tool to help do this; it forces you to attempt a recording of what you are thinking and feeling so you have that record staring right back at you, to ponder further.

This journal will be for your personal knowledge-making as a college student. Most prompts will relate to how you are navigating this current semester of college and how you fit in (and you do fit in! You belong here–otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting with all of your other colleagues here). By the end of the semester, you’ll have a tangible artifact from this semester that charts the thoughts and feelings you’ve traversed for several months.

I’ll also use some of the prompts to extend into activities we do in a given class session.

However–and this is important–I won’t read it. I just will check that you have done it. This writing is completely for you. No one else.

Next Time

-You will have the textbook purchased as soon as you can (need to have it for homework!)

-You’ll read “Reading and Writing” in our course textbook, Join the Conversation.

-You’ll leave annotations, similar to what we did during today’s Perusall activity. Since this reading will help teach you about annotations, there won’t be requirements on how to annotate other than you making the annotations. Next class, we will develop requirements for annotation assignments.

-You’ll complete your first journal entry for your weekly private writing. The prompt will be on our course schedule each week. I won’t reveal it until a week before it is due. For Wednesday, September 4, you’ll write in response to the following: 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.