Frequently Asked Questions

 

1) Will we be doing a lot of reading in this class?

Of course! But it will hopefully be reading that is fun, interesting, and diverse to you as a reader. If you look at our syllabus you’ll see we have 7 books on our reading list. What we need to keep in mind is that this is a course that focuses on Young Adolescent literature/ YA lit. This means that the books in question are written for middle-school and high-school audiences. We are, however, a university 200+-level course.

So we will be covering more material and more books than if this were a fiction class geared towards adult fiction that might look at 5-6+ books.  We’ll be reading one book every 2 weeks so our pace will be steady, but quite manageable. I’ll include critical YA analysis readings in the weekly blocks that are required analytical reading that will help you not only interpret our books better, but will also help you develop your analysis skills on our literary analysis papers. Friendly FYI: I can see through Moodle analytics what folks read what and how long folks spend on timed assignments..

 

2) Will we be discussing all books on the syllabus? Should I buy these books from the bookstore?

We will be reading all of the books on the syllabus that are listed at the bookstore. For each book that spans a two week period we will have a forum where each student will contribute two discussion posts tackling various questions. In this way we will be talking to each other as a class in two formal conversations about a given book each week. Beyond forum posts there will be three quizzes throughout the semester that will ask you to draw connections between our books and discuss overlapping or contrasting themes. Finally our essays in this class will focus on broader shared concepts across readings and in YA literature in general. So you will need to read all of these books and you will need to be able to quote and cite from these books for assignments.

As to buying them and where to buy--

Our bookstore has all of the books in stock and available. Should you want to go online you can sometimes find some of these books for sale for a cheaper price. Amazon offers them as do sites like Textbook Underground, Barnes & Noble, Thrift Books, Target, Discover Books..etc. If you want to save a bit of money, price compare these sites and be sure to account for any shipping charges. If buying online I'd recommend getting any cheaper ones all at once to save yourself the hassle of paying for shipping twice and see how many you can cheaply buy from a single site. That might reduce costs.

See too if NMC has a buy back policy for our books and if that makes it cheaper overall to shop at the bookstore.

Another option is to utilize the NMC Osterlin library and other local libraries. Osterlin does have all of these books, some on reserve that can be read for a few hrs at a time in the library and often an additional copy that can be checked out for the semester.

 3) I’m new to online courses; do I need to panic about the technology? What tech issues are common?

Breathe easy. I have students who come into ENG 271 with a variety of abilities in terms of sufficiency with using technology. Therefore my goal is to keep this course as streamlined and consistent as possible. I know for at least half of you this is your first time taking an online course.

Each block has a consistent set-up with weekly notes and forums. There will be every few weeks a quiz or essay due. The instructions for each activity will be both detailed and straightforward.  You should find the technological component of this course easy and navigable. 

I will say that if you feel unfamiliar with Moodle, submitting assignments online through Moodle, and finding course information, you need through the Moodle student orientation online to get a sense of where things are.

And please take 10-30 minutes studying our course main page as the semester begins to see what is located where.  I work to keep it as basic and accessible as possible for you. But nothing beats taking some time to look around and get familiar with our main course page.

The only real tech issues that come up with any frequency are sometimes certain browsers make  “copy and paste” options difficult. I post any browser incompatibility warnings that I am aware of. Firefox and Chrome are the recommended browsers when working in Moodle. If you find that something is not opening, chances are you need to use a different computer (or change your settings) or more often simply your browser. But if there is an issue let me know asap. This way I can see if it is an individual problem or something larger.

 

4) Tell me about due dates and how strict you are. Is this course self-paced?

We do have firm due dates in this course and we are not self-paced. See my late work policy in the syllabus for important specifics you will want to know.

 

5) Will I get feedback about my writing?

Yes I like to give feedback. On your essays I give many margin end notes that are quite detailed and your quizzes I’ll give a paragraph or so in response.  Forum and glossary posts are rated individually, but I do not give individual feedback for these. I treat forums like a class conversation, so while I do post a response to each forum talking to the class as a whole about concepts that came up and often mention interesting student points, my comments here will be public and class-wide.

 

6) Do we workshop?

Good question. Before each essay is due there will be an optional plan due before. This is your optional workshop with me. I will respond within 3-4 days after your plan is due giving you time to work on your essay with my comments. Some students love to submit a plan, and others don’t. This is a personal decision. Of course there is also the NMC Writing Center that provides an excellent way to get informed feedback. We do not workshop papers student-to-student as my composition classes do; the plans serve to fulfill part of that workshop experience if you want. Also we can have optional individual zoom meetings that help folks get plenty of feedback and toss ideas around; contact me if you would like to set up a Zoom meeting.

 

7) Can I miss any assignments in this class and still pass?

This question elicits a big “hmmm” from me and unfortunately it is often asked by students after they have already missed a handful of assignments. The short and simple answer is that a missed forum on occasion will not hit your final average too hard and while one missed quiz or glossary has a bigger impact you might still be okay overall.

But there is a difference in passing and passing highly. If you have your sights set on earning high marks in this course missing assignments will quickly pull you down. And unless you score very highly on every other assignment, missing an entire essay will often pull you below passing.

When missing a forum or two comes into “play” is often when students are hovering between a 3.0 or 3.5, or 2.5/3.0, or other variations. Sometimes a missed forum or two does little damage to a final average if it is in the middle of a certain GPA range, but other times it pulls a 3.0 down to a 2.5. The math is the math and I cannot predict how your final numbers will line up exactly, though I can tell you the range you are in at a given time.

My best answer to this is to try not to miss assignments, especially bigger ones, and to remember that a forum that is less than your best work for one week is still likely better than nothing at all. However do not attempt to comment on books you have not read. I will be looking to see that all of your course work demonstrates careful critical reading and thinking! Consistently low forums will affect your grade heavily.

 

8) I’m nervous about my writing ability. In the past I have not scored well on essays.

I hear this a lot from students. It is nothing to be ashamed of or nervous about. We all have different skill sets. My goal is to make you feel comfortable with your writing and to feel that you grow as both a reader and a writer in this course. I will say though that growth as a writer does take time, and sometimes you may not recognize growth immediately, but chances are you are always moving forward the more frequently you write and read. 

I am very clear on my assignments about what I am looking for, especially on larger essays and quizzes. You will not be guessing. I’ll not cover it all in depth here, but I will say that I am looking for writing that has evidence of a clear thesis that poses a debatable argument. I am looking for concrete main points that support a thesis with student opinion and insight as well as specific textual support in way of quotes and paraphrases. I am looking for fresh unique opinions that add to the overall conversation about a book or concept. And yes I look too at spelling, grammar, language usage, and citation style. 

But you never need live in fear of my metaphorical red pen. I will not take away heavy points for a few grammatical errors nor for smaller citation concerns. I am not concerned with perfect writing, but instead promising writing and provocative ideas. This does not mean that I overlook sloppy or careless writing; I don’t. But it does mean that I want you to be more concerned about the quality of your thesis support than the perfection of avoiding all run-on sentences or fragments.

I give plenty of samples throughout the semester and there will be a writing quiz that covers basic writing skills before we get deep into any formal essays.

 

9) What kinds of books or what kinds of topics will we be looking at in this course?

We will be covering a lot of ground in terms of diversity in our reading. We’ll be looking at books that deal with issues of race, gender dynamics, sexuality, social norms and expectations across various cultures/time periods, and much more. And our books in addition to having a wide variety of voices and characters represented, will also give us different writing styles and techniques to study.

You might truly enjoy every book we read. I would love that and I always have a lot of students who write at the end of the semester how much they loved the reading.

But there may be a book that unsettles you at times. I will admit to being unsettled myself reading over certain characters’ lives and stories. This can be especially true in the nonfiction/memoir we read. That said, being unsettled can be a good thing, and can challenge us to think about how we view the larger world and our role in it.

I hope that each of you will find a particular book that speaks to you and that has a narrator/protagonist you feel you understand.  I also hope that there will be a reading that challenges you or provokes you deeply in many ways.

You can expect to see a lot of voices represented and I would say that the readings have been very well received each semester. At the end of the semester I ask students to comment on their favorite reading and I always hear that nearly every single book has at least one if not a handful of voices speaking in its favor. This tells me that truly each student gravitates towards different books and that our diverse list is both appropriate and successful in reaching the class as a whole.

I do ask that in online conversations respect is the order of the day as we talk about engaging, sometimes hot button, issues. This has never been a problem.  I’ve been teaching this particular course now for a few years and have always had courteous engaged reflective students.

  

10) Will I do a lot of writing in this course? Will assignments overlap?

You will have regular forums and glossaries but I imagine your work there taking a couple of hours a week. In general the heavy writing will be focused towards your reading quizzes (4 a semester) and your essays/final project (3 in total). 

I never have a quiz, glossary, or paper due the same week.  Each larger assignment (beyond the weekly forums) will be due a separate week than other larger assignments. This way you can pace yourself and focus accordingly.

 

11) Is this a challenging or hard course?

This is a tough question for me to tackle. Yes you will be doing a lot of reading and a fair chunk of writing. But my goal is always to make this reading and writing purposeful and engaging. I do not believe in “busy-work” and I do not believe in creating an environment where you feel paranoid about every writing stylistic issue or memorizing exact dates or minor details in a given book.

I want you to enjoy the reading and be moved by it. I want the writing to help facilitate your understanding of the books and even more importantly develop your analytical abilities in speaking about and discussing these concepts. 

To that end I give you a great deal of ownership over your work. Forums will have a variety of questions you can answer. Quizzes will ask you to focus on two books at a time and bridge connections between them, often allowing you to pick a theme or series of examples that you find important. Essays are largely open-ended giving you freedom in how you respond. This way you can move in a direction that interests you instead of writing about exactly one idea that I tell you to discuss. In particular your final project will be full of many different creative options for you to work on.

Do begin the semester though with an awareness of how steadily we move through our reading and writing work. If you slack off for a few weeks it is going to be a sprint to catch back up. I believe this is true in most all college classes and we are no different. Keep this in mind and try to “stay on the wagon” so to speak.  We may be an online course, but we keep the same momentum as a face-to-face course.

So yes I do think it is the appropriate amount of challenging for a 200-level lit course. You will need to do the work and put in the time. But I work to never waste your time and to honor the time you put into your assignments. I cannot promise you will love every reading or every assignment, (a nearly impossible feat) but know that I select each reading and each writing assignment with clear course goals and good intentions in mind. 

In my college evaluations and class end-of-semester reviews students almost always list this course as challenging, but give high marks for enjoyable readings and depth of feedback. I hope that you will like it too. This is a fun class for me to teach and I hope it will be a fun one for you to take!

12) What do I need to know about our Moodle course page?

Let me break it down as easily as possible. The syllabus and schedule links are up at the very top of the course page. These are your first "go to" documents. After that is the "Projects/Essay Assignments" block/section where you can look at the description of all our big assignments. 

Below that section you'll see Week 1 & 2. I will post notes, forums, and other files each week in an individual blocks. So really almost everything you will need will be in each two week section. I'll even copy the schedule over into the notes. And if we have a paper or quiz due, the submission link will be right in the  block.

On the left hand side though you will see some smaller blocks running down the length of the page. There is the Instructor Info Block with some quick contact details and several images of me so you get a sense of who you are talking to! There is the People block where you can easily look up the contact info of any member of the class. And below that a Quickmail block for fast and easy emailing. Also along that left hand side is where you will look to find the link for your Gradebook.

13) How do you deal with suspected cases of cheating/plagiarism?

NMC has asked that faculty submit all cases of suspected plagiarism or cheating as a red flag report. This is the keep accurate records for all students throughout NMC college courses. While plagiarism may have varying consequences like failing the assignment versus failing the course (or in some severe cases enrollment status at NMC), know that regardless of the degree I will be following the college-wide policy of submitting red flags for each incident and then determining the specific consequence along with any appropriate counselors.

The easiest way to avoid any problems is simply to not take any work online or from others that is not yours without citing it. While you may rely on cited outside sources on our literary analysis papers, your forums and quiz responses will reflect your own thoughts and ideas with textual citations as appropriate and needed.

14) What is the best (and easiest) way to get in touch with you?

I am often on my email and will respond as quickly as I can. During the week day I try to check my NMC email at least once a day. During the weekends I will check in on occasion. Emails sent right before larger assignments are due on Saturday by midnight are often missed. (I have 3 young children so I am not often up late in the evening!) Plan to get in touch with me well ahead of time for a larger assignment that you are apprehensive about. If you ask me ahead of time about concerns you have you can expect a detailed and informed response.

Additionally you can ask to set up a Zoom conference with me via Moodle. We can find a time that would work with your schedule!

15) For each assignment how will I know what you are looking for?

I will post student examples or samples for every type of assignment we have including forums, glossaries, quizzes, papers, and plans ahead of time to help students have a sense of the general structure and expectations of an assignment. Additionally I provide detailed directions and instructions on all assignments.