Course Syllabus

Welcome to Engrd 310!

Sections 16496, 17267, 17585

This course covers the theory and practice of advanced critical reading skills and strategies needed for college-level texts with emphasis on the following: critical and analytical evaluation of printed material representing diverse language, social and cultural communities; vocabulary development; proficient comprehension skills; development of efficient and flexible reading; and application of these skills in textbook and nonfiction reading.

• Office Hour Schedule:

Mondays 9-10am and 12-2pm in STS 223
Wednesday 1-3pm in the Writing Center by appointment
Tuesday and Thursday 10-11am via Zoom

• • Join Zoom Office hours by clicking this link:  https://lrccd.zoom.us/j/87679481094

 Please communicate. That is the #1 key to success for an online class. Stay in touch. Reach out. Ask questions and ask for clarification. 

Academic Honesty & AI Tools

All assignments must be your own work, your own ideas, stated in your own words. Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s words or ideas as if there were your own (e.g., copying directly from another text; hiring someone to write your papers; having your mother, friend, etc. over-correct your work; or turning in work that is identical to someone else’s – including HW assignments).  Plagiarism will result in a failing grade on that assignment and will be reported to the Division Dean and the Campus Discipline Officer for appropriate action.

All submitted work must be your own. You should not copy ideas/content/whatever it is from online resources. When you integrate others' work into your own through paraphrases or direct quotes, you are required to properly cite the source and include a Works Cited. Plagiarism is an especially important line to not cross for an online class. You will learn skills so that you can be sure that you are submitting work that is free from academic dishonesty.

AI is changing the experience of teaching and being a student in new ways. Therefore, I plan to be as open with you as possible as I evolve how I address my concerns about students using AI to write their essays. I am in the process of adding in more ways to make sure my students engage in the writing process and avoid cheating. There are ways to use AI that aren't cheating, such as using ChatGPT to generate your Works Cited entries for you (I think it works better than most citation machines out there).  But our classroom environment is built upon trust and upon critical thinking. If we're letting others - including AI - do that thinking for us, we are not engaging with our class work faithfully.

If any of your assignments flag the AI detection, I will require that we meet on Zoom and talk it through. In our conversation, we will talk through the submission and work to find out why it's flagging and how to revise it so that it no longer flags the AI. This is a new and tricky aspect of being a college student and professor, so this is why our communication is essential. 

Therefore, to be clear, any time AI detection flags any submission, I will require a conversation on Zoom with the student so that we can work through the issues until the detection does not flag AI in the submission. Only at that point will I be able to accept the work for credit. 

Please, if you start to panic about an assignment, your grade, or the workload, talk to me instead of resorting to cheating or plagiarizing or relying too heavily on AI. There's absolutely no obstacle we can't address together, so there's never a reason for you to resort to unethical academic behavior.

Thank you to Eve Imagine for this language!

Accommodations

If you are a student with a learning disability or other special needs, please let me know as soon as possible if you need accommodations. Please reach out to me and I’ll be happy to work with you and the Disability Resource Center for reasonable accommodations for needs that have been verified with DSPS More information is here about how to use DSPS online: https://www.scc.losrios.edu/student-resources/support-services/dsps

Attendance & Participation

- Attendance is defined as logging on to our class and submitting/posting on Canvas. This means posting Discussion Posts, submitting assignments, and taking quizzes.

- If you do not post/submit any assignments within the first week, you may be dropped as a "No Show"

- If you do not log on to our Canvas class in the first week, you will be dropped from as a "No Show"

- If, later in the semester, you miss more than 3 due dates (about 1.5 weeks) of logging on and posting/submitting you may be dropped in accordance with the campus attendance policy. However, it is always your responsibility to keep your enrollment up to date (in other words, you won't automatically be dropped). I will make every effort to communicate with you in order to avoid this situation.

Important Dates

-  1/28 is the last day to drop the class with no notation (meaning the class disappears).

-  4/14 is the last day to drop the class and receive a W. After this date you will no longer be able to drop the class and will receive a letter grade. Always communicate with your instructor when deciding whether or not dropping is the right choice for you.

Grading

Process Work (Posts, Quizzes, Annotations)	30%
Midterm	20%
The Underground Railroad	25%
Final	25%

Most smaller assignments are graded on a pass/no pass basis. Larger assignments are typically graded more traditionally via points. I strive to use Rubrics in nearly all of my assignments to clarify expectations. If you have any questions regarding your grade, please reach out. Final grades are A, B, C, D, and F.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• analyze texts representing diverse language, social, and cultural communities using active reading strategies and analytical thinking skills.
• analyze an author's purpose, tone, bias, and point of view.
• evaluate the logic of arguments by identifying logical fallacies, propaganda techniques, and emotional appeals.
• compose a sound argument in response to a text by synthesizing at least two opposing points of view.

Late Work

Time management is a crucial skill in an online class. If you find yourself consistently falling behind and you're feeling overwhelmed, reach out and email me or stop by my office hours to discuss a plan to get you back on track. I almost always accept late work.  I want everyone to finish the semester successfully. Please communicate with me. Late work may receive 50% late penalty, especially if you are not in contact with me.

Required Materials

We will be reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. You can purchase or rent this via the SCC Bookstore, or where all books are sold. It's a very popular book so any local bookstore (or local library) will have a copy as well. I recommend getting the hardcopy, physical book as it will make reading,annotating, and noting page #s much easier. However, I do allow the Kindle/e-Version if you prefer that.  We won't start reading it until after the midterm.

• Purchase at Amazon Link
• Purchase or rent at SCC  Bookstore Link
• Local bookstores:
  • Beers Books: https://www.beersbooks.com/
  • Capitol Books on K: https://capitalbooksonk.com/ 
  • Time Tested Books: https://timetestedbooks.blogspot.com/
  • And Barnes & Nobles for sure has copies too!  

Writing Center