Week 15 (Dec. 6 – Dec. 12)

Table of contents

To-do and Weekly Schedule

Reminder

Did you submit the final version of your second essay?

Good to know

You’re pretty much done with this course if you:

  • Wrote and rewrote two essays
    • Including a short paragraph at the end how you used the feedback for the rewrite
  • Did your share of the short joint writing assignment
  • Did all of the blog assignments (check the list)
  • Commented as requested on your fellow students’ posts
  • Submitted two reflections so far
    • Third one coming up soon!

Timeline of assignments coming up still:

  • Dec. 6 – 10: small “un-essay” project: a chance to demonstrate what you learned about tea, using a different creative format. Details below, due on Dec. 12
  • Dec. 12: Third and final reflection
  • Dec. 13 – 15: Third and final check in via Zoom, when we agree on the final grade for the course.

Feel the need to do something extra?

  • Rewrite a post, write an additional post (one of the options not taken)
    • Send me an email to alert me to a rewrite, these don’t show automatically up in my workflow
  • “Gardening” in our Zotero group library, e.g.
    • clean up the metadata (meaning: make sure author, title, publisher, links etc. are correct)
    • add notes for the entries (in particular if you used them)
    • add tags for the entries
    • delete duplicate entries
    • you can even write a short blog post documenting your work in the Zotero group library (add to category FYS106)
  • Leave additional comments in Hypothes.is
  • Add extra posts to your blog about tea-related news (add to category FYS106)

By Tuesday, 12:30PM

Prepare for class: Review the course materials (texts, videos, tea-related activities we did in class and outside of class) and think about what you would like to communicate about the history of tea with somebody who’s not in this class. Is there a strand that runs through everything that you want to highlight? Is there a topic you feel everybody needs to know about or you have a fun, creative idea to share some knowledge about tea with everyone? Add your thoughts to the Jamboard. It’s ok if your ideas differ from all the others: variety is the spice of life!

In this last week of classes, you’ll work on a small project we call an “un-essay”. (Un-essays can be large, but we only have time for a very small one). In this course it is a project that engages with the history of tea and the course materials in an unconventional way. It can take the shape of a musical composition, a skit (or the script for one), a TikTok-style video or twitter thread, a pitch for a business plan for an ethical tea company or an advert campaign for tea,…. You can draw a cartoon, create/design an embroidery project, do a small digital project, …. The possibilities are near endless.

You may work together with a classmate if that helps to make a slightly larger project. Please check all the details and requirements below.

How to get inspiration:

To provide inspiration for small digital projects, we will have Tim Clarke from the Digital Learning team visit our class (virtually) on Dec. 7. He will show some very, very simple tools, for instance a map or timeline you can integrate in a blog post. You can start using these in minutes. Tim has also shared he is available to help you with your projects throughout most of the week.

Brainstorm on the dedicated Jamboard (page 2 onwards) in class.

By Thursday, 12:30PM: final session!

Wow – final session of the semester already?? We will do course evaluations and share progress with the un-essays

1. Course evaluations

You get a grade at the end of the semester, but you also get a chance to share anonymously your evaluation of our teaching. These matter to me, and your other instructors, and perhaps you don’t know why, so I thought I’d explain more in a little video I made last year. (Nothing has changed: we’re still teaching our socks off, the issues are still issues).

Please fill out:

2. Un-essay “lab time”

Share your progress on your unessay projects, and let’s solve any issues you encounter!

Sunday, 11:59PM

1. Final reflection

WHAT

Write a short piece of 500-750 words, reflecting on your own writing during the course of the semester. How have you grown as a writer? How has your writing changed in the past few months? What is good about it? What would you like to improve? If you had the time, what would your plan of action be to implement those improvements? Which pieces would you like to rewrite?…

HOW

Submit as a Google Doc shared with suggesting/commenting access for Dr. D, or a blog post in category FYS106 if you prefer.

WHY

The FYS is a writing-intensive course, so the aim is to make you a better (analytical) writer. By looking back on your work from earlier this semester, and thinking about your ideas about writing, you also develop your metacognitive skills (“thinking about thinking”). That is a valuable skill to posses: the ability to pause, take stock, and evaluate if the work you’ve done is leading you to your goal. We will use this as the basis for one part of the final check-in in Final’s week.

2. Unessay project

  • What: an “unessay” project
  • When: due Dec. 12
  • How: Embedded in a blog post, in the category FYS106
WHAT

A small creative project

WHEN

Dec. 12: right before Finals week, so I get a chance to look at your unessay before we meet to have our final check-in.

If you need an extension because this time doesn’t work for you, let me know! You need to submit your unessay and final reflection 24hrs before your final check in appointment in finals week. This is a firm due date because we hit an immovable barrier at the end of the semester.

HOW

There are two requirements: 

  • You must share your project in a blog post. E.g. it is a digital project you can embed in a post, or a link in a post, or you add it to a post as a photo or video.
    • This makes it easier to share with everybody, and of course with me!
  • In addition to the small project, add a brief explanation/reflection on why you chose this approach, what you learned, and how it connects to our course on the history of tea.
    • This shows how you apply what you learned.

Rest assured that the unessay is not about your artistic talents, but rather about the project’s success at communicating history in a non-traditional format. In other words: stick figures are welcome!

TIPS: 

  • Remember the unessay is about communicating history. No matter how nice your artwork or technical skills, if there is no content, it won’t make for a good unessay.
  • Your target audience is the educated, general public. Your roommate (if not in this class) would be a good guinea pig! Limit the in-jokes, and the jargon.
  • Don’t spend too much time on this. This is not a “Final”, this is a last-week activity, equivalent to a few hours of work in addition to reviewing what you learned in this course.
    • If it takes more than an afternoon in addition to our class time and reviewing the course materials, you’re probably overdoing it!
    • If you hit tech trouble, reach out for help from the DL team after 15-20mins of trying to make it work.

Looking ahead

Next week is finals week: if you are on top of your work and submit your unessay and reflection on time, all you need to do is your final check in with Dr. D and you’re done for this course!!

Slides

If any, they will appear here.

Where to get help