Welcome to our first in-person class. We’ve got a lot on our “Chalkboard,” more than I expect us to get to on this strange, happy, rainy day.

Thanks to those of you who have already turned in your library assignments, and who have been participating in the Hypothes.is conversation on “La Otra” and “Quick Feet.” We’ll try to build on that a bit in class today and between now and Tuesday (on Zoom.) 

The main focus of this post will be the expectations blog posts and replies. Remember that in contract grading, your work is assessed as “complete” or “not-yet-complete.” To be marked complete, you needed both a post that followed instructions for content and format AND a reply to at least one peer who had not received at least two comments. 

Examples of posts that are complete include: 

• Kevin (Weiting, Ashley) — “Hope for something different”
• Yingrong (Zoe, Kevin) — “ENG 210- New Beginning”
• Fatou (Rachel, Luis) — “Indicative Expectations”
• Demetri (Fatou, Panagiotis) — “My Expectations”

There may be some others that have gone up or been completed since I checked this morning. 

Examples of work that needs an additional commenter: 

• Zoe (Rachel) — “Hopeful Expectations”
• Panagiotis (Yingrong) — “New Year, New Goals”
• Weiting (Zoe) — “The Promises for ENGL 21002”
• Spencer (Kevin) — “Pressed for Time –  My Course Expectations”
• Yaminah (Demetri) — “Expectation Letter”
• Ashley (Yaminah) — “Main Expectations”

And some work went up very close to the start of class, so has no comment trail yet, such as:

• Luis (no comments) — “Expectations”
• Rachel (no comments) — “Expectations for ENG 210”
• Ashanti (no comments) — “My expectations in Learning”
• Diana E. (no comments, published privately)

If you’ve posted and commented, then your work is done. If you have not done this yet, you can complete it within the next 24 hours. For now, there’s not a penalty. In general, this is the sort of thing that would lead the work to be marked ‘late’. We’re all still learning how to do things in this class so I want to be fair until we all get oriented. 

***

The class wrote a number of blog posts describing their expectations for the semester from their instructor, from each other, and from themselves. Many students commented on how stressful and unsatisfying emergency remote instruction has been. Quite a few expressed nervousness about being able to improve their writing. Most were excited to return to campus in person; no one expressed nervousness about that (though I wonder if some people are nervous). A few students set particular goals related to their field of study or to academic habits. Less than half the class completed the task on time. [This is an example of summary. Why?]

I was “moved” (to borrow the phrase from one student’s comment) by the honesty of these notes. At moments, students examined themselves (one called their work habits ‘lazy’), and at others they critiqued the attidues and approaches of their instructors. Most have high hopes to connect with their peers and with the material. I’m hopeful (to use another frequently deployed word) that our work will be fruitful as more voices join the conversation. [This is an example of response. Why?]

Two other great quotes that we’ll talk about over the next few class meetings:

• “That is why I chose to have a class that is a hybrid because I am a very visual learner and I need in-person time to keep my head in the game.” This is an example of metacognition AND positioning.

• “aspects of writing such as preparation, organization, and time management.” This is an example of concrete language

• “I think all of us as writers have amazing ideas, but we don’t flesh them out.” This is an example of a claim. We’ll talk about that on Tuesday.