Interactive Syllabus Survey

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Hi! I'm Dr. Lindsey Albracht. You can call me Dr. Albracht, or Professor Albracht, or Lindsey. What's your name?(Required)

First Last

Is that the name you prefer to be called?(Required)

Yep.

No, I go by something else.

What name should I use?(Required)

Some people have trouble pronouncing my last name. I say it like this: ALL-brahkt (rhymes with SMALL-socked.) What's the best way to pronounce your name?(Required)

My pronouns are she, her, and hers. Some people use he, him and his; some people use they, them, and theirs; some people use a combination or other pronouns that aren't listed here. What do you prefer to use? You can also write "I'd rather not say."(Required)

Can you put an e-mail address in the box below that you're the most likely to check?(Required)

I have a few students who are taking both 200W and 201W with me this semester. We're going to spend a lot of time together! Are you taking both classes, or just this one?

I’m taking both 200W and 201W with you

Just taking one.

This class considers what research from within the fields of Writing Studies, Linguistics, and Education tells us about how we learn to read and write. Developing our curiosities and examining our beliefs about writing, this course is intended to strengthen writing practices by helping you to overcome fears about writing, increase your fluency, and engage in the creativity of writing. Does that sound good?(Required)

Yes, sounds good.

I don’t understand.

Please tell me more! What questions do you have so far?(Required)

There are several goals that I want you to work toward in this class. This is what they are: (1) Increase your writing fluency and comfort with regular writing (2) Develop mindfulness about your own writing habits and processes (3) Articulate strategies for improvement (4) Be able to choose among a variety of strategies to meet a communicative goal (5) Practice writing strategies to address a number of rhetorical situations, genres, and modalities. Which of these goals sound like they might be the most important to your future goals? Why?(Required)

So, you've heard a bit about MY goals for you. What are YOUR goals for you this semester? What do you want to learn or achieve in this class, and how might it help you in your future pursuits?(Required)

OK. Enough of the lofty stuff. Let's talk about the basics. You know that this is a fully in-person class, right?(Required)

Yep: I’m excited to be (back) on campus!

Yep: I couldn’t find an online section, but I’m a little freaked out to come back in person.

Uh-oh. This is fully in person? I didn’t know that.

Honestly? Me too. I'm required to keep this in person until CUNY tells me otherwise, but I've got immune compromised folks in my family, and I'm worried about the spike in COVID cases. Let's help each other out: be in touch with me if there's anything I can be doing to help you feel safer, OK? I'm going to be as flexible and accommodating as I can as we learn how to navigate this return to campus together, and I hope that you'll do the same for me.(Required)

Got it.

I love your enthusiasm! This is my very first semester on campus as a full-time faculty member, so you'll have to tell me all of your best on-campus navigation secrets.(Required)

Great!

This is my first semester on campus too.

Not that I want you to go away, but just so you know, you can drop this class for a 75% tuition refund up until February 3rd. No hard feelings: people add and drop for all kinds of reasons in the first week. I also want you to know that I have a flexible attendance policy and ways for you to make up the classes that you miss, so if you need to miss, it's OK to do that.(Required)

Got it.

Another heads up: this is a writing-intensive class. Here's how the college defines this: "This course is a Writing Intensive (W) course and fulfills one Writing Intensive requirement. W classes include a significant portion of time devoted to writing instruction. This may include things such as revision workshops, discussions of rhetorical strategies, or reflective writing about writing assignments. For more information on teaching a “W” or writing-intensive course, please refer to Writing at Queens." We're going to write every week in here, revise, share our writing, and analyze samples of writing. Does this sound OK?(Required)

Great! I’m excited.

I’m a little nervous about this, but this mostly sounds OK.

I don’t think I can turn something in once a week.

So, I do have to require a certain amount of writing in here: the college is clear about this. But I recognize that this might not be the best semester for you to take this class. Not that I want you to go away, but just so you know, you can drop this class for a 75% tuition refund up until February 3rd. No hard feelings: people add and drop for all kinds of reasons in the first week.(Required)

OK, got it.

I get that. It's a lot of writing. If you need extra time on something, I can be a little flexible with deadlines as long as you're turning stuff in fairly regularly. You can also miss a deadline here or there without it impacting your grade that much as long as it isn't happening all the time.(Required)

OK, got it.

There's no coursebook in here, and I use all open access materials so that you don't have to pay extra money to take this class on top of the money that you already paid. You'll mostly do readings in here. There are some video. I also am planning to use a handful of podcasts (audio interviews), but unfortunately, some of them don't have written transcripts. Is that going to work for you?(Required)

Yep: podcasts are fine.

I can’t access podcasts if I don’t have a written transcript.

Thanks for letting me know. Can you tell me a little more? If this issue has come up in the past for you, how did you deal with it? I'm still learning about which accommodations are available at Queens.(Required)

My office hours are going to be on Thursdays from 12:15-1:15 for this class. My plan is to have you send me a message on our class instant messaging system (Slack) if you want to meet, and then we can either hop in the Zoom room for our class or just "meet" on Slack. Is this going to work in your schedule? If not, when are some times that you'd be able to meet with me instead?(Required)

I'm planning to use Slack to help you keep track of your progress in this course. This is also where you can access stuff that I don't want the whole internet to be able to access (like our Zoom link), and a place where you can reach me or your classmates if you need to get in contact with us. You'll get reminders about stuff that is due on your phone if you download Slack there, or you can opt out of getting reminders if you want. You should have information in the first e-mail that I sent out to the class about how to access Slack. Can you think of any problems that you might have with this?(Required)

Yes: I’m worried about this.

No: this sounds fine.

Thanks for letting me know. Can you say a little more about why you're worried?(Required)

So there are three "major" assignments in this class. In the first one, you'll do some goal setting for yourself, and then you'll return to your goals a couple of times throughout the semester to check in on your progress. If you're also taking my 201W class, you'll be doing something similar in there, but since these classes have different goals and learning outcomes, I'm hoping that these will feel different enough to you. How does that sound?(Required)

Sounds pretty easy.

Yikes, I’m worried about this one.

Thanks for letting me know. Can you say more?(Required)

In the second assignment, you'll be exploring a belief that you have about writing or literacy by interviewing someone in your life about a belief that THEY have about literacy (or writing, or schooling, or language). Using the interview, you'll write a separate reflection that explores how the interview confirmed what you believe about the major topic you discussed, or how it challenged you, or how and what published research within Writing Studies says about the topic. (Required)

Cool. I think I can do this.

Yikes, this one sounds scary.

Thanks for letting me know. Can you say more?(Required)

The last "major" assignment is one that students last semester really enjoyed. In this assignment, you'll do some more research about the literacy belief you began investigating in the last assignment. Then you'll compose something for an audience outside of this class to teach them what you've learned. The linguistic resources you select, what you say, and the modality of your composition will be determined by the audience you want to address. So that means that you might end up making something that looks like the other writing that you do at school, but it might mean that you make something new, like a podcast episode or a game or video. How does that sound?

I think I can do this.

Yikes, this one sounds scary.

Thanks for letting me know. Can you say more?(Required)

Coming to class and keeping up with your work is super important in here: we're going to do a lot of collaborating. But we're also still in a full-on global pandemic, and I imagine that some of us will be out sick this semester. If you can't come to class, you're going to have the option to "make it up" by reading some recaps that your classmates produce and filling out an exit ticket (a form like this one — not this long, though!). You'll be able to find these in the #whatyoumissed channel on Slack. But this is really not as good as attending class: it's just a "better than nothing" alternative. Do you think you'll be able to come to class a lot when you aren't sick?(Required)

Yeah, I’ll be in class or read recaps and fill out exit tickets when I can’t make it.

I might need to miss class a lot, and watching recaps isn’t going to work.

Thanks for letting me know. Can you say more about why?(Required)

Tell me a little bit about your thoughts on class participation. What does it mean to you to "participate" in class? What helps you and encourages you? What makes you hesitate to participate? If you are taking both 201W and 200W with me and you already answered this in the other survey, you can just tell me that.(Required)

I do not “directly” penalize late work (e.g. with a points deduction). But turning in work late can mean that you don't get feedback. This can negatively impact your experience in the class, and also your grade. So, try to turn stuff in on time, or let me know ASAP so we can come up with a new deadline.(Required)

OK. I won’t expect feedback if my work is late, and I’ll let you know ASAP if I need an extension.

Hmm, I have a question about this.

Tell me more. What's your question?(Required)

Sometimes, you're going to write in class. Do you have a device that you can take with you to school to do this?(Required)

Yes, I do.

No, I don’t.

If you get distracted and start using your device for stuff that is not related to this class, what's the best way for me to respond?(Required)

Sometimes, students stop coming to class and and turning in work, and they also stop responding to e-mails or other attempts from me to reach out. If this happens to you, what's the best way for me to handle it? Should I leave you alone? Keep trying to contact you? Tell someone in your life? Something else?(Required)

On the second day of classes, we're going to talk about the grading system in this class, which is a little non-traditional. But basically, you can earn a good grade in here by doing your work on time, revising it when it doesn't meet requirements, coming to class (or catching up when you miss), and completing all of the major assignments. The amount of work that you do will determine the grade that you earn: not the quality of your writing. Does that kind of make sense?(Required)

I….think so? I’m fine with waiting to hear more about it.

I’ve taken a class with you before / a class with a grading contract. I get it.

Oh no, not at all. Help!

What worries you about this system, or what questions do you have?(Required)

It is important to me to provide an accessible learning environment for all of the students in this class. I'll ask for your feedback on how to make this happen, but you may also contact Dr. Mirian Detres-Hickey at the Office of Special Services for Students with Disabilities at [email protected] or 718-997-5870 for more information about receiving additional support services and accommodations. Do you want to tell me about any accommodations that you need right now or any other accommodation requests?(Required)

Yes: I need to tell you about an accommodation need.

No: I don’t need to tell you about an accommodation need.

Thanks for telling me. What's up?(Required)

You've got to wear a mask in here properly (covering your nose and mouth) all the time. Please don't make me be the mask police, OK?(Required)

OK. I’ll wear one correctly at all times.

This is going to be a problem for me.

This one is a New York State law and a CUNY regulation, so please let me know why you will not be able to do this and how you'll provide proof that you have an exemption or an accommodation.

Do you need for me to wear a mask that has a clear plastic window so that you can see my lips moving (you might need this if you are a person who is deaf or hard of hearing.)(Required)

Yes: I need you to do this.

Nope, it’s OK for you to wear a mask that hides your mouth.

What are the three most important takeaways for you about this class or these policies so far?(Required)

You'll be able to find all of the information that you just read and learned about on our course website: the same site that you're on right now. You can also locate the reading and assignment schedule here, and all links to class readings. After you're done with this form, feel free to look around, but just a heads up that all of the information might not be ready yet if you're filling this out before classes start.(Required)

OK, got it.

You did it! This is the last question. Is there anything else you'd like for me to know about you? Sometimes students like to tell me about their caretaking responsibilities, their job, anything that's going on in their life that might interfere with their ability to take or finish this class, their star sign, their Tik Tok handle, or their hobbies. Some students give me a link to the writing that they do outside of school. Some students share a fun fact, and others leave this blank.

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