I decided to make my teaching artifact a redesigned assignment that is scaffolded (instead of two separate assignments) for my ENG2850 – Great Works of Literature class in the Spring (fully online). Right now, I assign my students two essays on two different books that we read in full. I give them different prompts about the same book, and I offer them the posisbility of making up their own prompt as well. However, I think it would be more engaging to let them write about the work they prefer rather than a given work (and less tedious for me to grade 20 assignments about the same book!). I also think that scaffolding a slightly longer assignment on one topic, and including peer-review, will give them a better chance to develop the analytical and writing skills aimed for in my course’s learning goals.

The seminar has convinced me that scaffodling is better, and that also matches my experience of scaffolding in other courses. Students have a feeling of working on less numerous assignments, and instead on abigger project that they can put effort in, and hopefully enjoy, since they choose the topic. I still need to adapt this to the texts I will teach next semester. I also may or may not include the option to make a podcast rather than an essay, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to do this… I’ll have to discuss with the department. Maybe I can do this instead of informal, low-stakes Google Doc posts, and keep the traditional essay as the formal assignment, worth 40% percent of the course grade (the rest can be 25% for a short analysis in groups submitted in early weeks, 20% for weekly asynchonous work, and 15% for in-class participation). A lingering concern I have is with traditional grading and percentages… I am tempted to try ungrading for this course, as I did for writing courses before, but I don’t know how to ensure participation in class in that case. I need to reassess after the current semester is finished. Another oncern with giving them the choice of authors to choose from on the syllabus AND having a scaffolded assignment is that we won’t have studied all the authors on the syllabus by the time they need to choose…

Assuming I stick with the traditional essay for 40% portion of their course grade, here is a draft of how I am planning my teaching artifact:

Final project: writing academically about your favourite text, one step at a time

Assignment specs:
– 1500-1700 words
– Worth 40% of your course grade
– Detailed draft needs to be ready for class on Thursday, March 24th
– Submit finished product via TurnitIn on Blackboard by May 8th

We will work gradually towards the most important assignment of this course. Here are the steps and timeline to the finished assignment:

• February: After choosing a text by an author on the syllabus, you will pick one aspect of the text that you found either beautiful, strange, confusing, or otherwise meaningful.
• Early March: You will brainstorm ideas to structure your analysis over two class workshop. You will then come up with a detailed draft with a structured introduction containing a thesis statement and an outline of points to address in your essay, including selected quotes and evidence to back up your interpretation of the text.
• March 24th: You will bring your detailed draft to class for peer-review in Breakout Rooms (pairs). You will swap your draft with your pair and get feedback based on a checklist. I will then review each draft and advise you on your next steps towards the finished essay. (This step is a crucial part of your assessment for this essay. If, for any reason, you cannot participate in the class eeting on that day, please email me so we can make up for it)
• April: Using the feedback you got from your paired classmate and myself, you will write out your essay according to your detailed draft. We will have in-class workshop on the following topics and you will have the opportunity to request workshops on other topics: Will Power; Inserting Evidence in an Argument; ”Painting the Structure Red”: Making your Argument the Continuous Thread that Holds your Essay Together; Keeping Your Reader With You: Writing Transitions and Reiterating your Argument; Proofreading and Editing. The in-class workshop will contain an in-class writing portion where you will be able to work on your assignment while having the option to ask questions at any time and join a Breakout Room if you need one-on-one help.
• May 8th, 11:59pm: your essay is due on BlackBoard, via a TurnitIn link under ”Course Documents.”

General Checklist to use before submitting your essay:

Thesis/Argument	Is the main “point” of my essay clear throughout? What insights does it offer, or what argument does it make, about my chosen topic? Considering the existing literature on this topic, what do I bring to the table? What are my “findings”?
Support of Thesis	Do I provide details that walk my reader through my argument, step by step? Do I provide rhetorically persuasive reasons and specific evidence to support my thesis in the framework of what has already been argued in the field (remember that your paper is part of a larger academic discussion)?
Quality & Integration of Quotes	Do I summarize, paraphrase, and quote directly in in a logical way from the text I’m analyzing? Do I acknowledge the text correctly, and is th formatting of my quotes appropriate?
Counter-arguments	Do I address the arguments and beliefs of those who may disagree with my position (in a respectful way)?
Organization	Do I organize my paragraphs in such a way that my readers can clearly follow my main argument? Do I announce my structure in the introduction, and do I write transition sentences when I move on to another point? Can my readers easily follow how I develop and support that argument in each paragraph? Does each paragraph contribute to my thesis, and if not, did I delete unnecessary ones? Do my paragraphs smoothly transition into each other using transition words to signal my reader where my argument is going? Do I group information that goes together? Do I use a new paragraph when I “switch gears” to a new subject? (No whole pages without paragraph splits).
Style, Grammar & Editing	Have I used the Word spelling and grammar check tool? Have I proofread myself at least twice to avoid typos and mistakes that would distract my reader from my story? Is my document well presented? Is the layout easy to the eye (Font 12 Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman, justified alignment, 1st line indent, etc.) Does my writing contains few if any “to be” verbs (these are only descriptive, not analytic)? Am I concise, formal, and compelling, emulating the tone of the academic sources I have been using?
Overall Respect of Instructions	Did I respect all instructions on this page? Am I submitting a Word document, using the template provided, and saved as instructed? Did I respect the word count by 10% under or over 2000 words? Did I answer the “Writer’s Letter” questions at the end of the template? Am I on time for the due date? If not, did I request an extension at least 48 hours prior to the due date?

I would appreciate any feedback on this assignment draft. Do you think it’s manageable? What do you think of grading with percentages, as opposed to ungrading (giving only feedback and asking them to self-assess at the end of the semester to determine a letter grade)? Also, I know the provisional title is lousy… I’m just not inspired at this stage fo the semester…

Hi everyone!
1. For my teaching artifact, I’d like to redesign a very classic essay assignment I give my students in ENG2850 – Great Works of Literature. It is a 1000-word essay on Candide, by Voltaire, which gives them four prompts (including a develop-your-own-topic one). There is no use of external sources for this essay; it is a rhetorical analysis only. The results on this assignment hasn’t been great, and students seem to have felt lost as to how to approach an academic essay, even though they are sophomores.

2. I would like to scaffold that assignment into more steps that help them break down the task and develop a good writing methodology that they can take beyond my course.
I am also condiering giving them more choice as to which book they choose to analyze, among the ones we have studied. The trouble is that there are few texts we read in full, hence my assigning this text and giving them only a choice of prompts on the same text. I did get sick of reading essay after essay on the same text, and no one chose to come up with their own prompts, so I may still offer more liberty next time and require them to do more research on texts we haven’t read in full.
Some tools I could use to scaffold this assignment are:
– StoryMap (they can build a visual map of their background research on the author and literary movement, or use it to trace a character’s journey);
– Slack channels (for peer-reviewing one another’s drafts and brainstorming ideas);
– A Google Doc (for building a group essay together maybe, though I’m unsure about that one, as we already use a Google Doc every week for presentations on the readings, and I’m not sure a group essay would really give students the opportunity to develop their individual writing skills. They do get another short essay in the semester, so maybe I could give them one essay to write in groups of 2-3 and one individual essay).
– I also want to reduce the amount of instructions on the essay pages of my website and give them advice more efficiently.
– Finally, I want to consider “ungrading” for this course (giving only feedback, but no grades, except the final grade required on the Baruch transcript. I have done that fro my ENG2150 and ENG2100 courses before, and it has removed a lot of pressure off both the students and I.
To determine their final grades, students keep track of their own work (just as I do keep my own records, where I suggest letter grades) and they fill in a self-assessment form. The letter grade they suggest for themselves is rarely very different from the one I suggest. Often, students underestimate themselves.

Here is my assignment sheet as it currently is (it’s quite rigid, and admittedly, it testifies to my French academic education…):

Short Essay #1

Date due (via TurnitIn, on Blackboard): Friday, October 15th by 11:59pm EST.
Please use the assignment template provided below and write your essay directly into it. Kindly save your document as ENG2850_LastName_FirstName_Essay1.ENG2850-Assignment-TemplateDownload

Instructions

Your first essay will be on Candide, by Voltaire (1759). It should be 1000 to 1250 words long. You should organize your argument in two or three parts and choose specific examples to illustrate your point, duly presenting your quotes in quotation marks and indicating the page number in parenthesis.

Here’s a tip: divide up the word count into your two or three main points. You can title each part of your essay if you wish, or simply lay out your page so that the different parts of your analysis are clearly discernible, but don’t forget to write transitions for your reader when you switch parts.

In any case, you should have a separate paragraph for your introduction (in which you will explain your topic, formulate the questions you will attempt to answer, and outline the structure of your analysis) and another paragraph for your conclusion (in which you will reiterate your point and open up towards further questions your analysis will have prompted).

Very important: Give a clear outline of your essay structure in your introduction. Clearly state what are the different parts of your essay, and you arrive at your argument or thesis. There should be a clear thesis statement in your introduction, and it should be clear in your conclusion as well.  You can even say plainly: “this essay will argue …”; “first, I will analyze…”; “second, I will analyze…”; “Ultimately, this essay finds that…”

Please choose one of the following prompts to guide your analysis:

1. Analyze the concept of optimism as depicted through the story of Candide (the character).
You may choose to focus on the character (characterization), on plot, or on any other aspect through which you read the text. How is optimism pictured in the text? Can you associate this depiction of optimism to any political or philosophical position? How can you tie it back to the historical context of Candide, which was published in France in 1759? Make your analysis as specific as you can by focusing on one particular aspect of the story which conveys a depiction of optimism (character, plot, etc.). Note that “optimism” does not merely refer to a way of thinking positively, but to a dangerous theory of Voltaire’s time: the Church was using the theory that all is part of God’s plan (aka. optimistic determinism, by Gottfried Leibniz) to justify evil done in the name of God (e.g. burning people at the stake and other persecutions). To avoid psychological or philosophical flat statements in your essay, focus on the specific literary devices through which the text criticizes optimisic determinism. Analyze some of these devices’ effects on the audience, in relation to the specific historical context of the novel.  Organize your argument in two or three parts and choose specific examples to illustrate your point, duly presenting your quotes in quotation marks and indicating the page number in parenthesis.

2. Discuss the use of satire as a literary device in Candide. How do you recognize satire in the text? What are specific examples of it, and what effect do these passages produce? What is their intended audience? How can you relate those satirical passages to the whole plot, and more broadly, to the historical, social, and/or political context of 18th-century France?

3. Discuss the representation of religion in the passage below. Closely analyze the passage below through the lens of religion. Relate it to the whole chapter, the wider plot, as well as the wider context of Candide. Two or three points should emerge from your reading of this passage: make them the different parts that structure your essay. What does the passage suggest about religion? Additionally, is there anything the text suggests about the female gender, in this passage?

Candide fled quickly to another village […] The orator’s wife, putting her head out of the window, and spying a man that doubted whether the Pope was Anti-Christ, poured over him a full…. Oh, heavens! to what excess does religious zeal carry the ladies.’ (Chapter 3)

This is how the passage begins and ends: please analyze the whole passage contained within the […].

Tip for close text analysis: Read the passage a first time without taking any notes. Pause at the end and listen to your thoughts. What does it make you think about? How does it make you feel? Why? Take note of where your head takes you, and read the passage again, now influenced by your particular perspective. You now have your topic angle, and from a second and third reading should emerge some subpoints to structure your analysis.

4. Formulate a question of your own, which you will first discuss with me to ensure it has the potential to yield analysis. This is a good option if you read Candide through a perspective you do not see represented in the prompts above.

*No other texts than Candide are required for this essay, but if you would like to use any additional sources, please feel free to do so, as long as you acknowledge them. Please note that the rubric does not take into account any use of external sources for the calculation of your grade.*

Rubric

This assignments counts for 25% of your course grade.

Here is how I will assess your essay:

• Clarity of Argument: 30%
• Organization of Argument: 20%
• Support of Argument with Specific Examples from the Text: 20%
• Attention to Reader (clear transitions and multiple formulations of the points addressed): 15%
• Language, Grammar and Layout: 15%

Please use this rubric as a checklist before you submit your work.

The points gathered out of 100 will determine your letter grade as presented in the table (cf. syllabus). You will be given a letter grade for this essay, but it is your score out of 100 which will determine the 25% of your final grade that this essay represents. At the end of the semester, the points gathered in essay 1, essay 2, participation, and the final exam will give a total score out 100, and you will see the corresponding letter grade on your transcript.

 

1. Hi! Nice meeting you! Could you introduce yourself? What department are you from? What courses are you teaching or have been teaching? What are the classes you teach like, such as format or class size? Is there anything you want to tell us about your teaching, research, or other projects? 

Hi everyone! My name is Manon, I’m a third-year doctoral student in comparative literature at the Graduate Center. I’ve been teaching in the Writing Program (ENG2100, ENG2150) and in the Great Works of Literature Program (ENG2850) at Baruch since the Fall 2019.

1. Could you talk a little bit about that course you’ll be working on during this seminar? 

I’ll be working on ENG2850, Great Works of Literatue. This is a required course for sophomores of all majors. We review literature of different genres from 1700 to present, roughly. The goal is that students get familiarized with major works of world literature and learn some literary analysis, developing critical thinking and cultural knowledge which hopefully they will export onto other disciplines, and beyond college too.

1. What are the listed learning goals of your course? They could be ones provided by the department, or ones that you have written for your syllabus? Please list them (pasting is fine!).

Specific outcomes of this course are the following:

• Interpret meaning in literary texts by paying close attention to authors’ choices of detail, vocabulary, and style;
• Discuss the relationship between different genres of literary texts and the multicultural environments from which they spring;
• Articulate a critical evaluation and appreciation of a literary work’s strengths and limitations;
• Present their ideas orally;
• Write critical essays employing
          o A strong thesis statement,
          o Appropriate textual citations,
          o Contextual and intertextual evidence for their ideas.

1. What class materials are you planning to develop? What goals do you have for them?

I am currently using an interactive Google Doc where a student posts each week on the releant work, and the rest of the class comments on them. This has been great for discussion. I also lecture for half the class using a powerpoint and some videos. I need my students to engage in class as much as they do on the Google Doc. They are reluctant to speak, and are all off camera, so class can be tedious.