Another Article on National Adjunct Walkout Day (more of a multi-faceted debate this time)

Here's another article for you to read if you want (meaning, on your own, based on your own time, patience, and curiosity) that brings up more complicated positions on the idea of a National Adjunct Walkout Day:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/27/national-adjunct-walkout-day-approaches-attracting-both-enthusiasm-and-questions.

For instance, this article brings up the question that our classmate, Nuria, asked: If this is a protest that's intended to be visible, who is really going to see it?

Here's how the article's author, Colleen Flaherty, describes this specific position, using someone else's voice (a "They Say" move):

Keith Hoeller, an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Green River Community College in Washington and founder of the Washington Part-Time Faculty Association, which is not a union, said he supported walkout day in theory, but said it suffered from a lack of leadership from an activist group with a strong agenda -- including plans for what happens after walkout day. 

“We want symbols, but we don’t want air symbols,” he said. “If people walk out, is it going to be a blip? Is it going to be an empty gesture? I’m hoping that lots of people walk out, but even if we do, what do we do after that?” 

Hoeller -- who has in the past criticized general faculty unions for not doing more to push adjunct faculty interests -- said part of the problem lies with unions. He asked why they aren’t doing more to help adjuncts participate in walkout day, such as setting up funds for fines. He also noted that K-12 teachers seem to strike with some frequency, sometimes with union support, and don’t appear to suffer fines.

Week 3 Homework

You know the drill. This is your homework reminder announcement, as usual. For next week, you've got a few readings to do in They Say / I Say. All of these readings are listed between "Week 3" and "Week 4" on our course schedule. But if you look at the course schedule, you'll notice I've added another essay that I want you to read, which doesn't appear in They Say / I Say.

Well, here it is, the link to that additional essay, "Feeling Failure," by Jaime O'Connor, published online on the web publication Inside Higher Ed (which you might have seen in the materials for National Adjunct Walkout Day):

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/feeling-failure.

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Now, there's another assignment that I want you to do, and it has to do with our library visit next week. So don't forget: On Wednesday, 2/4, we'll be meeting in the lobby of the Alexandria campus library, in order to have our library resource presentation. Well, the librarian we'll meet, Anne Anderson, and I both want you to start thinking about your research plans ahead of time.

Notice also that this assignment has to do with our Essay 2, which I've provided to you (earlier than I said I would on the syllabus, just so that we can be prepared for the library presentation) both in hard copy in class and here, on this course site, right below this blog post. Make sure to take a couple of minutes on your own to take another look at the assignment and the rubric attached to it.

Here's a link to the library-related and Essay-2-based homework assignment (I'll also provide a handout in class to help you record your work):

http://libguides.nvcc.edu/eng112pre-barnoy.

All of the assignments above are due by the start of class on Monday, 2/2. These are not huge assignment, so they're not worth a whole lot, but try not to miss this deadline if you can.

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Finally, of course, don't forget that what's due on Wednesday, 2/4, is your second draft for Essay 1. This second draft is due directly to me. This draft is what I'll be reading and grading closely. However, I'd like to have the entire packet of drafts/critique related to this assignment, not just the second draft. The way I'd like you to submit this essay is like this: Your first draft on the bottom, then your partner's critique to you on top of the first draft, then the second draft on top of the critique, and finally a copy of the rubric for this assignment on top. Make sure to staple all of these together and have the packet ready to submit to me before we start our library discussion on Wednesday.

As always, if you have questions, or if you feel stuck, email me and I'll try my best to help.

Essay 2 (Early Preview)

Here's the link to your Essay 2 assignment sheet and rubric:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B59oU02C12STdGpQZjhjUF9ib3M/view?usp=sharing.

Be sure to take at least a quick look at this assignment sheet and the rubric attached. Essay 2 is the assignment we'll be thinking about next week, when we discuss communication, audience, and research, and when we have our library resource presentation on Wednesday, 2/4.

Reminder: Critiques for Essay 1 First Drafts Due Wednesday, 1/28 -- and Some Materials on National Adjunct Walkout Day

This is just to remind you: Your critique for a classmate's Essay 1 first draft is due this Wednesday, 1/28. As with the first drafts, I'll take a quick look at your critique, but essentially, your critique is due to your partner. It's essentially due to him or her. And that'y mainly why I encourage you to try your best and be on time. But if you can't make it, for whatever reason, talk to me as soon as possible, and we can decide what to do.

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And just to follow up on our discussion today, here are some materials about National Adjunct Walkout Day, which is scheduled for Wednesday, 2/25 (which is a class day for us, and also the day when our Essay 2, second draft, will be due):

First, here's the very first blog post to officially announce National Adjunct Walkout Day, posted on Inside Higher Ed, a web publication intended for college insiders (meaning mostly professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students, but also curious administrators):
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/10/06/national-adjunct-walkout-day-planned.

Next, here's a video that was put together by Ohio State adjunct professors, and it's their attempt at explaining the whole adjunct situation as thoroughly and simply as they can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhhi6hDy3mA.

Finally, here's an article by a controversial writer, Sarah Kendzior, whose work I've assigned my students to read in the past, and in fact this is not the first time she's written about adjuncts, but in this article, she sums up the situation pretty quickly, and starts from an interesting personal note:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/762-the-adjunct-crisis-is-everyone-s-problem.

Let me know if you find interesting links, too! I can easily post these links here once you give them to me.

Week 2 Homework

Did you get last week's reading assignment done? Well, if you didn't, then make sure you do it as soon as possible -- because your written homework, due Monday, 1/26, is straight out of the introduction of They Say / I Say. And here is that assignment:

-- Do exercises 1 and 2 on pages 14 and 15 of They Say / I Say. (Notice: These page numbers might not be the same for other editions. But these exercises are easy to find. They're the last two exercises at the end of the introduction of any edition of this book.)

I'm still not sure how I'll give credit to this homework assignment. Maybe I'll collect the sheet of paper that you did your homework on, or maybe I'll just go around the class and check off that you did your homework. Either way, you'll need to have your homework written out or typed up and printed out, ready for me to see in class.

The rest of your homework that's due next week is basically right there, in the course schedule (remember? -- that thing at the end of our syllabus?).

The next part of your homework, of course, is more reading:

-- Do the new reading assignment, which is basically to continue reading in They Say / I Say, but also to read one of the essays that appears in the back of any edition of this book, the essay titled, "Don't Blame the Eater," by David Zinczenko. (And if you still don't have a copy of They Say / I Say, then I'm trusting you to use your creativity and judgment to find a way to do the assigned reading anyway. It's not all that hard to figure it out.)

And the other last of your homework is to continue work related to Essay 1:

-- Write a critique in response to another classmate's first draft of Essay 1. The basic idea is that you're giving your own constructive feedback on another student's writing in the form of an intelligent, but casual, short essay. Now, these critiques are due on Wednesday, 1/28, so just in case you've run into some trouble getting your Essay 1 first draft done, or whatever the issue might be, then you should definitely talk to me about possibly getting until Monday, 1/26, to figure out a way to fix the trouble.

And if you're not sure about how to organize your critique, either because you couldn't make it to class today or maybe because you lost the handout that I gave out in class today, here's a link to an electronic copy of this handout:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B59oU02C12STalkwWEdSQUhVeGs/view?usp=sharing.

Week 1 Homework (and Reminders)

If you look at the course schedule in the back of our syllabus, you'll notice that you have a reading assignment to complete for next week. Some of the material for this reading assignment is in our textbook, They Say / I Say, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Remember: I'm perfectly fine with you getting any edition of this book. In fact, I want to make this reading assignment a challenge to you. The challenge is this: Find the reading material on your own, and find it soon. If it's not obvious how to do that, try to be inventive. Find and read these short pieces before our class meeting next week. By the time we meet, I'll assume that you will have read these pieces next week, and I'll assign homework based on that assumption.

Of course, there's one piece that I promised to provide online, the article by W. Andrew Ewell, "We Must Stop Praying to Our iPhones: Dissent and Critical Thinking in the Internet Era," and here it is:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/11/we_must_stop_praying_to_our_iphones_dissent_and_critical_thinking_in_the_internet_era/.

Also, remember that your first draft of Essay 1 is due on Wednesday next week. All you need to do is write one draft of this essay, print it out, staple it, and have it ready to show me. I'll simply check you off for doing your first draft. Then, in class, you'll hand it to someone else to write a critique for. Of course, if you can't finish your first draft, I encourage you to print out and bring whatever you have. But I'd prefer something finished -- even if it's bad. A bad first draft is worth just as much as a good one. As for critiques, we'll be sure to talk more about those next week.

And don't forget your very first homework assignment, which was assigned a few days ago: Send me an email!

Finally, let me remind you that next Monday, 1/19/2015, is Martin Luther King Day. We won't be meeting on this day.

See you again on Wednesday, 1/21/2015. I look forward to seeing your Essay 1 first drafts.

First Homework Assignment Reminder

Don't forget that your first homework assignment is ... to email me! Please be sure to do so ASAP. I'd like to have your email easily accessible, and you need to have mine easily accessible too.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Essay 1

This blog post contains the link to your first major essay assignment for this semester. Be sure to also pay attention to announcements made in class about what is due when. For instance, you'll need to know when the first draft of this assignment is due. And always, always look back to the course schedule in our syllabus, because that schedule will also mention what is due when, and it will always be available for you to check online.

Here's the link to your first major essay assignment:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B59oU02C12STNXpwUFAtTmNKS2M/view?usp=sharing.

(Now, notice the label at the bottom of this blog post -- "essay 1." This label also appears at the list of labels at the top of this site, and it's one way for you to always be able to look back at the essay 1 assignment, even at later points in the semester.)

Course Syllabus (with Course Schedule Inside)

This blog post contains a link to our course syllabus. In case you've missed our first class on Monday, 1/12/2015, or you lost your physical copy of our syllabus, or whatever other situation occurred and you need to access our course syllabus online, here's your link to an electronic version of this document (just click this link, right below, and you'll be there):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B59oU02C12STSWlvcVNneXBTSkk/view?usp=sharing.

(Now, notice two important things: First, this syllabus also contains another important document inside of it -- our course schedule. So be sure to look through it all the way to the end. Second, take a look at the label for this blog post, then notice that "syllabus" is added to the list of labels on this site. Clicking this label is one way to get back to this blog post and access the syllabus at any time this semester.)

Important First Details

Dear Students of Ishai Barnoy,

If you made it here, that's great. Welcome to the blog for our class. This will be our central website for course information -- announcements and assignments most of all -- from the beginning until our last day.  

This here -- what's called a "post" -- will be our very first announcement.

So take a moment to notice the organization of this website, this web-log, or just blog. Notice that the newest post, which will contain the newest announcement or assignment information, always appears at the top (see the dates?), while the older posts proceed downward. Notice how this older post will always stay at the bottom, while all the newer posts will accumulate on top.

Now notice the other elements of this blog. On the right (going from bottom to top) there's my short and ridiculous introduction, with the picture of a smurf that kinda looks like me. Right above it is the blog archive. The blog archive will be your way of getting to older posts quickly. Just click on the appropriate month (if necessary), then the appropriate date, then you're basically there. Next, right above the blog archive is a clickable list of labels, for quick access to different blog topics. Right now, there are only two labels, which lead you directly to this post here.

Makes sense? That's pretty much all there is to such a simple blog as this!

Oh, I almost forgot!  How do you get in touch with me? That's important, but also very simple -- just send me an email. But please note: I'm going to spell out my email address. The reason I'm spelling the address out is to avoid spammers. Spammers are mostly just these automated pieces of software, or "bots," which are programmed to scour websites for people's contact information. You, however, are much smarter than automated bots, so you'll be able to translate what I give you into a proper email address, right?

So here it is: 

barnoy (no space) english ["at" symbol] gmail [dot] com

Got all that?

Be aware: The next post will contain our course syllabus. That's important, too! For now, though, all the stuff here is a great start.

See you soon!

-- ib (which stands for Ishai Barnoy -- but I'll be using "ib" because it's, uh ... cool)