Final Grades

Now that you have completed and submitted your Portfolios, it is time for me to grade them.  I will begin this today and be done by next Monday.  I will then enter the grades for the term at myCNM, where you will be able to access your grades by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

If you would like to know how your final grade before then, you can email me at any time.  As soon as I have a final grade for you, I will reply with that information.

Thank you all for your hard work this term.  Best wishes to you.

Portfolios Due Wednesday 4/22

As announced, the Portfolio assignment is due at the beginning of class tomorrow, 22 April.  In order to be eligible to submit a Portfolio, you must have earned a total score of at least 21, be on track to earn 45 hours of attendance, and have posted at least six entries to your online Revision Journal.

At the start of class tomorrow, I will ask you to bring me your Portfolios one at a time.  I will check each one to make sure it includes the three revised assignments.  I will have a stapler if you need to attach your three assignments.

After all of the Portfolios are collected, we will spend a few minutes discussing the grading process and timeline, as well as the procedure for accessing your final grades.  I will then share a few pieces of information regarding English 0950.  We will likely be done within 20-30 minutes of the start of class time (but this will still count for two full hours of attendance).

Grading Update

Over the past 24 hours, I have graded 80+ revisions, and I am impressed with the work many of you have done.  Any work submitted before midnight Thursday has been graded and returned.  I now have a few more assignments to  grade, and they will be completed before today’s 5 pm deadline.  I may not get around to returning those until later today or over the weekend.

I will also look over total scores and begin emailing students who have not yet achieved a total score of 21 or higher.  Thank you for all of your hard work.  Now let’s get those portfolios ready!

Revision Deadline

As we reach the final two weeks of the term and you work on your Portfolio, it is time to announce the revision deadline. One of the requirements for passing the class is to earn a total score of at least 21 on the five assignments. You can earn higher scores by revising and resubmitting your work, either in class or via emai, but the deadline for doing so is next Friday, 17 April. To be eligible to submit a Portfolio and pass English 0750, you must have a total score of at least 21 by 5:00 pm that day. (This means you likely need to send your revisions to me no later than Thursday, 16 April to ensure that I am able to grade your work by the deadline.) Please email those revisions to me as soon as you can. I will typically return graded revisions within 48 hours.

Links to Student Blogs

In class yesterday we worked on setting up your blogs for the Revision Journal portion of the Portfolio assignment.  This morning I posted links to those blogs in the left toolbar.  Please check the link to your blog; if it is not there or does not work, please send me the correct link and I’ll fix it.

If you were not able to set up your blog, we can work on this in class Wednesday.  Remember that you need to post at least 6 times to your blog as you work on your Portfolio.

Revision Journal

Part of the Portfolio assignment for this class is the Revision Journal. As you work on revising three of your assignments for the Portfolio, write at least twice weekly on the process of revising and the skills you are gaining from working on your Portfolio. You will write a minimum of six entries between now and the end of the term.

Your journal will be posted to the Internet on a blog. We will begin by creating blog accounts and setting up your blog, and you will then email the address of your blog to me at rdturner@cnm.edu so I can post a link to it on our class blog.

Then update your blog regularly. Write about what you are learning as you revise for your Portfolio. How did you choose the three assignments you are working on for the Portfolio? What are you noticing about your old assignments as you revise them? What writing skills are you developing? How will these skills help you in English 0950 and other writing situations?

Successful journal entries will be focused and brief, generally ranging from 100 to 250 words in which you discuss one topic or aspect of your revising process. You must write at least six journal entries in order to be eligible to submit a Portfolio.

We will be using WordPress as our blogging platform; this is the service I use for our class blog. Here are the steps for creating your WordPress account and setting up your blog:

1. Open your web browser and go to http://wordpress.com/.
2. Click on “Sign Up Now.”
3. Fill out the sign up page by creating a username and password and entering your email address.
4. Check your email and follow the activation link to confirm your account.
5. Sign in anytime at http://wordpress.com/ to change the appearance of your blog and post your entries.

Graded Essays

First of all, thank you to everyone who submitted their Essays to me this past week.  I am currently grading them, and I will return graded Essays via email next Tuesday, 7 April.

Your graded Essay will be a PDF document, which will open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, which comes installed on most cpmputers, including those in the CNM computer labs.  You can download Acrobat Reader here if your computer does not have it.

My comments are inserted into the file wherever you see the small page icon, usually over text.  Hover your cursor over the icon to see the comment.  At times I have also used colored highlighting to indicate certain sections of the Essay.

You can revise and resubmit your Essay for a higher score at anytime.  Simply email your revised Essay to me as an attachment.  Graded revisions will typically be returned via email within 48 hours.

No Class Wednesday 1 April

I apologize for this, but I have to cancel class today and stay home with a sick child. To make up for missing a day of class, you can earn today’s attendance hours by submitting your Essay assignment via email as discussed in class on Monday. As mentioned then, your Essay is due to me by email (rdturner@cnm.edu) before 5 pm today; I will reply to confirm receipt of your Essay. Graded Essays will be returned via email next Tuesday.Today’s topic in class was to be the Portfolio assignment. We will go over this material in class next Monday, but you can get the details of the Portfolio here. Begin working on your Portfolio by deciding which three assignments you want to include in your Portfolio.

Please do not hesitate to email if you have any questions or concerns. And please keep an eye on the class website for further announcements and class materials. Thank you. I’ll see you Monday.

Portfolio Assignment

Now that you have completed all five written assignments for English 0750, it is time to assemble the final project, the portfolio. The portfolio consists of three of your previous assignments, selected from the Application Packet, Summary, Review, Instructions, and Essay. Select the pieces that you feel best reflect your work in this course, and revise each substantially. These revisions will be based on my previous comments, your classmates’ feedback, and your own rereading of your work.

The purpose of the portfolio is to see what you have accomplished in this course and prove that you are ready for English 0950 and other college-level and practical writing situations. This also acts as the final exam for this course, demonstrating your ability to revise your own writing in meaningful ways. You must submit a passing portfolio in order to pass the class.

Before I accept your portfolio, you must have met the other requirements for passing the class: you must have earned a score of at least 21 on the five assignments, and you must have earned at least 45 hours of attendance.

We will conduct revision workshops during the remaining class periods. Bring to class the assignments you will be revising to receive feedback from your classmates.

When you hand in your portfolio, simply staple the assignments together, making sure your name is on each one. You must also complete at least six revision journal entries as part of your portfolio preparation process.

Your portfolio is due in class on Wednesday, 22 April.

Six Words to Make up Attendance

Another option for making up attendance hours is to create an account with Smith Magazine to post your own six-word memoirs online. You can post up to 10 six-word memoirs for one half-hour of attendance credit each (for a total of up to 5 hours of attendance credit).To create an account, go to the Smith Mag registration page and create a username and password. You can then post six-word memoirs to SmithMag.net for others to read. Your six-word memoirs may also be eligible for inclusion in one of their published volumes of six-word memoirs.

Then email me at rdturner@cnm.edu with the link to your profile. I will reply to confirm that I got your link and award the attendance hours earned. Remember, you can publish up to 10 separate six-word memoirs, and you will earn one half-hour of attendance credit for each six-word memoir.