ENGL344 Young Adult Literature CLASS UPDATES
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu www.leetorda.com NOTE: All classes, student meetings, and open student hours (office hours) this semester will be held virtually via Zoom. Need to make an during a time that is not an open student hour? appointment? Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf and I will send you a zoom link for the time you sign up for. |
Spring 2021 Open Hours for students (office hours):
T&R 11:00-12:30 W 11:00-12:00 F 3:00-4:00 and by appointment. Click here to attend ANY of the Open Hour for Students Zoom sessions listen above. HOW TO ATTEND ZOOM CLASS Click here to attend ENGL 301 Writing & the Teaching of Writing Click here to attend ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature Click here to attend ENGL 489 Advanced Portfolio workshop. |
22 February 2021 Class Update Part I of 2
Hello to you all--
A few things on the eve of our next class meeting. This is part 1 of a 2 part Class update. This update will appear on our class update page in addition to this email. Part 2 will also appear on our class update, but may not appear until late tonight or early tomorrow. Part 1 is informational. Part 2 is an overview of your discussion board posts/google.doc book club posts about Little Women.
ENGL 344 Super Fun Class Profile Scavenger Hunt
Complete this worksheet and email it back to me (and only me) to earn one free week of either a book club journal OR a discussion board post.
___________ is active on campus as a member of the disability advocacy club Students Accepting A Challenge. She enjoys knitting and all things crafty at home and is a massive fan of her grandmothers' Armenian dish Choreg.
___________ is building his portfolio to ready himself to begin a masters in TESOL. His hobbies include video gaming, watching almost every anime ever made and an extensive manga collection.
___________ is a mother to a six-month old baby, which is pretty awesome.
___________ went to the University of Maine and Regis College. Her family is from Ireland, and it is a big part of her family culture.
___________ is majoring in psychology with a minor in childhood studies. She hopes to someday be a psychologist in a children’s hospital where she would be able to care for sick children and their families.
___________ likes fast food, and her favorite is McDonalds even though she knows it isn't good for her.
___________ is an RA at BSU. One thing that is frustrating about being an RA is “is telling grown adults to keep their mask on at all times.”
___________ currently works at a school and has taken on the full-time duties of the teacher she worked under. She also loves spending time with her dog Ramsey, who is a half beagle, half cattle dog mix.
___________ planned to go into social work, but ultimately decided that English was her passion and she has two adorable guinea pigs named Winnie and Marline .
___________ has a cat named Gus, a mini schnauzer named Pepper who recently turned 15, and lastly a doodle puppy named Molly.
___________ was born and raised on a farm in Hanson, and has two dogs, six cats, one white-eared conure, one parakeet, one lion-eared bunny, chickens, ducks, geese, and one horse.
___________ is bilingual, fluent in English and Somali, a language of East Africa.
___________ owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to her cousin Susan Zanzano Mahon who way back when in 1984 gave her her own copy of Little Women.
___________ published her children's book based on how she overcame her speech disorder. She has been involved in many teaching activities including as a substitute teacher at Saint Columbkille Partnership School K-8.
___________ at one point in her time at college pursued a business major, but quickly decided that it wasn’t for her. A big concert goer, her favorite concerts have been Kanye West, Britney Spears, and Lana Del Ray.
___________ wants to teach Haitian students who are learning English as a second language, plans on adopting a child between the ages of 10 to 13 and then hopes to retire from teaching at a very old age of 80.
___________ works at the YMCA as well as at a local elementary school. She used to teach gymnastics classes in her spare time, but with everything with the Corona Virus, gymnastics had to be shut down for the time being.
___________ currently works with students who have behavioral and emotional issues, and although the job is stressful, she enjoys it. Recently, she has been working on finding ways to practice self-love such as writing poetry and crocheting.
___________ has a campus job as the desk manager at the Tinsley center, enjoys reading young adult lit such as the Percy Jackson series, and is also is a huge history buff.
___________ ‘s dream job is to work for the Department of Defense Education Activities teaching military dependents abroad.
___________ has also worked in an animal clinic and was previously on track to graduate as an editor before she decided she wanted to become a teacher. In her free time, she is a sort of collector of hobbies.
___________ has a Japanese Shikoku named Enzo. She says that Enzo the dog got his name because 1) her family is Italian and 2) from the character Enzo in Vampire Diaries and her mom picked the name.
___________ bought a season pass to Six Flags the winter before Covid and never even got to use it and fully intends, once this is all over, to use it every chance she gets.
___________ has been published in online journals five times so far. She has two cats: Loki and Binks and a dog named Casey.
Introductory Class Message 27 January 2021
If you are seeing this message, you are currently enrolled in Lee Torda’s ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature. Our first class of the semester is next week Tuesday evening, 2 February 2021. We will meet synchronously from 5:00 to 7:00.
Here is the zoom link for all of our synchronous meetings. This link will also give you access to any conference hours that we might have over the course of the semester.
ENGL 344 LINK TO ZOOM MEET-UPS (every other week except where noted):
https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/94901236301?pwd=MTNoeFFDZEVkczFadkR5Z0w4SFZuUT09
Meeting ID: 949 0123 6301
Passcode: 983383
You may or may not have read the email that I sent to everyone registered prior to January 1st that outlined how our class will meet. I repeat that information here: we will meet synchronously from 5:00 until 7:00 for the first two weeks of the semester. After that, we will meet synchronously every other week and asynchronously in between those synchronous meetings. Synchronous meetings will always run from 5:00 until 7:00 (I find more than two hours online is just too much).
If you are reading this message on Blackboard: Please note that I do not host class on Blackboard. I’m only posting this message here to alert you to this fact. I keep a teaching website, www.leetorda.com, that you can access by clicking here. All course materials are housed there, including the class discussion board. You can go to that site now to access the policies and the syllabus for the course. They are up to date except for inevitable mistakes that I am sure I’ve made, but, generally, they are complete.
The one question that I always get is if I don’t use Blackboard, how will you know what your grades are. Here is my answer: I will tell you. More on that in the policies and any assignment page for our class as well as when we meet.
I am not requiring any advance work for our first meeting, though you are welcome to get started on the reading with all the copious time I’m sure you have (jk).
Finally, this information is repeated via email to everyone in the class, and will be permanently housed on our CLASS UPDATE page on, yes, my teaching website. ADDITIONALLY, you can also find the original email I sent out earlier in January when you legit had no reason to be paying attention to email on that same class update page.
I know we are all tired of Zoom University, but I promise to give it my very all to make this an intriguing and positive class for you. I hope you’ll join me in that effort (it totally won’t work otherwise).
See you next week Tuesday. LT
Hello to you all--
A few things on the eve of our next class meeting. This is part 1 of a 2 part Class update. This update will appear on our class update page in addition to this email. Part 2 will also appear on our class update, but may not appear until late tonight or early tomorrow. Part 1 is informational. Part 2 is an overview of your discussion board posts/google.doc book club posts about Little Women.
- Attached to this email you will find what I am calling the ENGL 344 Super Fun Class Profile Scavenger Hunt. You will also find the contents of the attachment at the end of this email. Match the name to the description for your classmates using the Class Profile Page for our class, which is now live, and you will earn one free week of EITHER discussion board posts or book club google.doc posts. NOTE: the class profile page is not complete. Not everyone sent me what I needed and after spending the weekend trying to hunt things down, I’m posting what I’ve got.
- If you want credit for the google.doc book club for Little Women, you need to post my midnight tonight.It was due last week Tuesday, and yet I’m noticing that a lot of folks have not posted. This puts your groupmates in a bad spot. I know this is the first week where you had to do this asynchronously. I’m going to be about as generous as I can be, but folks should be aware that as the semester progresses, I will get less and less patient.
- The syllabus is confusing about what you need to come to class with. It’s my intention that we’ll work on and draft the very, very short, Flash Mentor Text Memoir in class. You’ll turn it in to me the following week, via email, on 2 March 2021. Thus, you don’t have to do anything but show up ready to work on this short assignment tomorrow. This is on me. I was not clear in the syllabus, but I’ve updated the language so it should be.
- About the website: So, you might notice that it looks substantially different. I’m not super in love with it, but after spending Friday afternoon with Weebly trying to figure out what folks were getting the Captcha screes without verify buttons, they suggested that because the theme of my site was old it might be affecting functionality. So I spend Saturday AM changing it. Like I said, I don’t really love how it looks, but we are in the middle of the semester and I don’t have time to spend more time on it. It does the job. But I don’t want you to think I got hacked or something. It’s my site.
ENGL 344 Super Fun Class Profile Scavenger Hunt
Complete this worksheet and email it back to me (and only me) to earn one free week of either a book club journal OR a discussion board post.
___________ is active on campus as a member of the disability advocacy club Students Accepting A Challenge. She enjoys knitting and all things crafty at home and is a massive fan of her grandmothers' Armenian dish Choreg.
___________ is building his portfolio to ready himself to begin a masters in TESOL. His hobbies include video gaming, watching almost every anime ever made and an extensive manga collection.
___________ is a mother to a six-month old baby, which is pretty awesome.
___________ went to the University of Maine and Regis College. Her family is from Ireland, and it is a big part of her family culture.
___________ is majoring in psychology with a minor in childhood studies. She hopes to someday be a psychologist in a children’s hospital where she would be able to care for sick children and their families.
___________ likes fast food, and her favorite is McDonalds even though she knows it isn't good for her.
___________ is an RA at BSU. One thing that is frustrating about being an RA is “is telling grown adults to keep their mask on at all times.”
___________ currently works at a school and has taken on the full-time duties of the teacher she worked under. She also loves spending time with her dog Ramsey, who is a half beagle, half cattle dog mix.
___________ planned to go into social work, but ultimately decided that English was her passion and she has two adorable guinea pigs named Winnie and Marline .
___________ has a cat named Gus, a mini schnauzer named Pepper who recently turned 15, and lastly a doodle puppy named Molly.
___________ was born and raised on a farm in Hanson, and has two dogs, six cats, one white-eared conure, one parakeet, one lion-eared bunny, chickens, ducks, geese, and one horse.
___________ is bilingual, fluent in English and Somali, a language of East Africa.
___________ owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to her cousin Susan Zanzano Mahon who way back when in 1984 gave her her own copy of Little Women.
___________ published her children's book based on how she overcame her speech disorder. She has been involved in many teaching activities including as a substitute teacher at Saint Columbkille Partnership School K-8.
___________ at one point in her time at college pursued a business major, but quickly decided that it wasn’t for her. A big concert goer, her favorite concerts have been Kanye West, Britney Spears, and Lana Del Ray.
___________ wants to teach Haitian students who are learning English as a second language, plans on adopting a child between the ages of 10 to 13 and then hopes to retire from teaching at a very old age of 80.
___________ works at the YMCA as well as at a local elementary school. She used to teach gymnastics classes in her spare time, but with everything with the Corona Virus, gymnastics had to be shut down for the time being.
___________ currently works with students who have behavioral and emotional issues, and although the job is stressful, she enjoys it. Recently, she has been working on finding ways to practice self-love such as writing poetry and crocheting.
___________ has a campus job as the desk manager at the Tinsley center, enjoys reading young adult lit such as the Percy Jackson series, and is also is a huge history buff.
___________ ‘s dream job is to work for the Department of Defense Education Activities teaching military dependents abroad.
___________ has also worked in an animal clinic and was previously on track to graduate as an editor before she decided she wanted to become a teacher. In her free time, she is a sort of collector of hobbies.
___________ has a Japanese Shikoku named Enzo. She says that Enzo the dog got his name because 1) her family is Italian and 2) from the character Enzo in Vampire Diaries and her mom picked the name.
___________ bought a season pass to Six Flags the winter before Covid and never even got to use it and fully intends, once this is all over, to use it every chance she gets.
___________ has been published in online journals five times so far. She has two cats: Loki and Binks and a dog named Casey.
Introductory Class Message 27 January 2021
If you are seeing this message, you are currently enrolled in Lee Torda’s ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature. Our first class of the semester is next week Tuesday evening, 2 February 2021. We will meet synchronously from 5:00 to 7:00.
Here is the zoom link for all of our synchronous meetings. This link will also give you access to any conference hours that we might have over the course of the semester.
ENGL 344 LINK TO ZOOM MEET-UPS (every other week except where noted):
https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/94901236301?pwd=MTNoeFFDZEVkczFadkR5Z0w4SFZuUT09
Meeting ID: 949 0123 6301
Passcode: 983383
You may or may not have read the email that I sent to everyone registered prior to January 1st that outlined how our class will meet. I repeat that information here: we will meet synchronously from 5:00 until 7:00 for the first two weeks of the semester. After that, we will meet synchronously every other week and asynchronously in between those synchronous meetings. Synchronous meetings will always run from 5:00 until 7:00 (I find more than two hours online is just too much).
If you are reading this message on Blackboard: Please note that I do not host class on Blackboard. I’m only posting this message here to alert you to this fact. I keep a teaching website, www.leetorda.com, that you can access by clicking here. All course materials are housed there, including the class discussion board. You can go to that site now to access the policies and the syllabus for the course. They are up to date except for inevitable mistakes that I am sure I’ve made, but, generally, they are complete.
The one question that I always get is if I don’t use Blackboard, how will you know what your grades are. Here is my answer: I will tell you. More on that in the policies and any assignment page for our class as well as when we meet.
I am not requiring any advance work for our first meeting, though you are welcome to get started on the reading with all the copious time I’m sure you have (jk).
Finally, this information is repeated via email to everyone in the class, and will be permanently housed on our CLASS UPDATE page on, yes, my teaching website. ADDITIONALLY, you can also find the original email I sent out earlier in January when you legit had no reason to be paying attention to email on that same class update page.
I know we are all tired of Zoom University, but I promise to give it my very all to make this an intriguing and positive class for you. I hope you’ll join me in that effort (it totally won’t work otherwise).
See you next week Tuesday. LT
Email to Those Registered by 5 January 2021
Hello--
If you are getting this email you are enrolled in ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature. Excuse this intrusion on your winter break. After last semester, all of us deserve some time away from computers. So if you open up your email on January 26th and worry that you missed this, no need. I’m emailing you ahead of the semester for those folks who like to know as much info as they can. Get ahead of the start of the semester.
First, I’ve had some questions about when and how our class will meet. ENGL 344 is a once a week, Tuesday night course. It was my experience last semester that teaching such a course fully online requires some modifications to how long we can meet (three hours in zoom is death). We will meet online in zoom for two hours, 5:00 to 7:00. Our first and second week will be synchronous, as will every other week after that. Alternate weeks will require asynchronous work from you.
I emailed this information to the registrar as I was required to do, but it does not show in my version of infobear. I wanted to make sure this was clear to all of you prior to the start of the semester. Of course, you’ll get more and specific details about this at the start of the semester, but I wanted to give you this information for planning purposes.
Secondly, attached to this email are the book orders for all three of the courses I am teaching this coming semester. I don’t ask students to purchase texts lightly. I know how expensive these texts are and I want to do what I can to make it as affordable as possible. So. . .
I’m mostly including the book lists for those of you who might have the inclination to read ahead. For those of you in ENGL 344, Little Women, followed by Gossip Girl will be the first two texts of the semester. Novels will be spaced out every two to three weeks of the course.
As we draw closer to the start of the semester, you will receive emails about first zoom meetings, were to locate the course materials for our class, and any updates on when and how we will meet.
Until then, be well everyone. Rest as you can. Stay safe for yourself and those you love.
LT
Hello--
If you are getting this email you are enrolled in ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature. Excuse this intrusion on your winter break. After last semester, all of us deserve some time away from computers. So if you open up your email on January 26th and worry that you missed this, no need. I’m emailing you ahead of the semester for those folks who like to know as much info as they can. Get ahead of the start of the semester.
First, I’ve had some questions about when and how our class will meet. ENGL 344 is a once a week, Tuesday night course. It was my experience last semester that teaching such a course fully online requires some modifications to how long we can meet (three hours in zoom is death). We will meet online in zoom for two hours, 5:00 to 7:00. Our first and second week will be synchronous, as will every other week after that. Alternate weeks will require asynchronous work from you.
I emailed this information to the registrar as I was required to do, but it does not show in my version of infobear. I wanted to make sure this was clear to all of you prior to the start of the semester. Of course, you’ll get more and specific details about this at the start of the semester, but I wanted to give you this information for planning purposes.
Secondly, attached to this email are the book orders for all three of the courses I am teaching this coming semester. I don’t ask students to purchase texts lightly. I know how expensive these texts are and I want to do what I can to make it as affordable as possible. So. . .
- I don’t care what edition of a book you use as is the case in some literature classes. My only concern for those of you taking ENGL 344 is that you don’t get an abridged version of Little Women.
- I don’t care if you read books using kindle—I mean, first, how would I even know, but, also, I don’t care.
- I’m not condoning anything illegal, but if you found a .pdf of a book online that didn’t cost you anything, and at least for the fiction included in the ENGL 489 and ENGL 344 book lists, they are out there, I would have literally zero idea that you were doing that and not buying the book.
I’m mostly including the book lists for those of you who might have the inclination to read ahead. For those of you in ENGL 344, Little Women, followed by Gossip Girl will be the first two texts of the semester. Novels will be spaced out every two to three weeks of the course.
As we draw closer to the start of the semester, you will receive emails about first zoom meetings, were to locate the course materials for our class, and any updates on when and how we will meet.
Until then, be well everyone. Rest as you can. Stay safe for yourself and those you love.
LT