Intro Post: Pre-Semester Stuff

I'm Dr. Michael Harris-Peyton, and I'm your professor for English 110: Seminar in Composition this semester. E110 sections are limited to 22 students each, so they tend to be one of the more tight-knit classes in your first year. I'm teaching 3 sections (026, 076, and 105--you're in one of those), which I treat as one large class of 66 students. I pretty much exist to help you guys get better at writing.

You can call me Michael, or if that weirds you out, Dr. Michael is fine. Dr. Harris-Peyton if you're talking about me to someone else (there are lots of Michaels).

There are no textbooks for this course, in case you were looking.

First Day Meetings In the first week of semester, we'll meet on Zoom in small groups to set up your access to the course, go over the basics, meet face-to-face-ish, and deal with questions. There are multiple timeslots to accommodate your diverse schedules. Each meeting time can have a maximum of 9 participants. You can sign up for your choice of First Day "Here's All the Stuff" Zoom meeting with the link below (won't work if you're not signed in to your UD email, BTW): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1072PxQnzce6r25vlv4VFMUDD8KBslz69IEHeaZUcBMA/edit?usp=sharing

How The Course Works

We're asynchronous, which means there's no meeting time. I'll post two written/prerecorded Lesson Posts per week on the class blog, on Mondays and Thursdays at 2pm, which can be found here: 

BLOG | Dr. MBHP's SP21 E110 (wixsite.com)

These posts will also be linked on the course's Canvas page and on the Slack channel. You'll generally want to read/watch the lesson within about 24 hours, since there's writing assignments occasionally, and a Participation Quiz (basically a reading guide) on Canvas that you need to fill out for every Lesson Post. 

(The quizzes are short, dumb, and the scores don't matter, but they let me track your progress and identify issues. If you're prone to mind-wandering, doing the quiz while you're reading/watching the lesson may help with focus).

Graded assignments (papers, those Attendance "Quizzes") are turned in on Canvas. Canvas is like Sakai, or Blackboard, or one of those online course management platforms you probably used before. UD Canvas can be found here: https://udel.instructure.com/ . Many or all of your classes at UD will use this system.

Lesson Post links, along with assignments, files, handouts, readings, and that sort of stuff are also posted on Canvas, just in case you miss or lose track of something.

There's a class Slack Channel. Slack is like Discord, but with more emphasis on text and teamwork. The slack replaces in-class questions, discussion, and provides a channel where you can coordinate with peers, ask each other questions, and do teamwork (like peer review). Lesson Post links will also go up on the Slack immediately. This is where the class "happens". A signup link was included in the email I sent you on Sunday, February 8. In addition, I'll share this channel with you during your First Day Zoom meeting (more on that in the section above).

Assignments

In any given week, there's either a blog post or a slack discussion. The discussions are more casual "chip in and discuss the thing" writing. The blog posts are adaptations of your graded work to an audience of your peers, and get posted to the class blog (the same site where the Lesson Posts go). I'll walk you through how to do this during the First Day Zoom meeting.

There are, in addition, 4 graded papers, which are the typical assignments for an English class. Those get written, peer reviewed, and turned in on Canvas for a grade. Each has a blog post adaptation, which is like a trailer/advertisement/internet version of the thing. I'll have specific instructions about these, and the blog versions, in the Lesson Posts as we go along in the course. Each one is a big deal, with dedicated instruction handouts, peer review, professor draft feedback, and dedicated lessons.

Image credit: portrait by Jeph Jacques, of Questionable Content fame, ca. 2010.