Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Library Orientation Cyber-Assignment

We are at the Library at the College of Alameda presently.Not all students are here and many students forgot, and were happy to see Dominique at C-211 at 9 to remind them where we were today. It was our typical quiet class. No one said much, I hope the information was useful and that students are now more prepared to approach the writing assignments than before.

Please write a response to the library orientation. Share with your classmates what you learned and what resources you plan to use in your research process.

Post which essays you plan to write this semester in the post below--Assignments Fall 2009. Give a brief synopsis of what you'd like to accomplish in each essay and what you need to do this. Choose 4 topics. If I can be of help, please let me know. I know a lot about the topic and know many of the people Jeff Chang interviews in Total Chaos.

The in-class assignment was to find a scholarly article about the topic you plan to write about first, along with locating another article which defines "What is hip hop?"

Write a summary of both articles --it can be in the same essay response. Include a works cited page with the MLA format. Post the summary/essay here now. Homework is to read the Pure Movement (59) essay and On Lit Hop essay(92). I will put a link for your responses for Thursday. We will have a guest on Thursday and then we will go over to A-205 to continue our discourse on-line.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

The library orientation was a good review, but for the most part I am pretty aware of what plagiarism is and also how to gather a information for a research paper.

For the students that were not there we basically got a tutorial on how to search databases. On top of that we watched a quick clip on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

The alameda library does have a lot of resources on hip hop and we are supposed to use a scholarly resource in our essays. The librarian passed around a hip hop encyclopedia that I think is going to be especially useful to anyone that is picking the first essay.

Overall it was a good review but it was basically covering everything we have covered in class as far as thesis sentences and gathering information goes.

Ilene Lee said...

Ilene Lee
English 1B
Professor Sabir
TTH 9-10:50

The library orientation was very informative and useful in composing an essay. Although most of it was review from my past classes, we went over the beginning aspects of constructing an essay. In addition, we had handouts on forming thesis, avoiding plagiarism and using the library article databases. The librarian did an excellent job at breaking down the components of articulating a clear thesis and provided examples of ineffective thesis.

For students who were not present at the orientation, try picking up the handouts we received at the library and look over the powerpoint presentation the librarian used to clarify thesis statements. There was also a useful video clip the librarian used to teach students to avoid copying the works of others. I would also recommend students to practice using the library database and becoming familiar with that site to find outside sources.

To aid my research process, I will use the reference section of the library to find more information about my essay topics. There was an interesting hiphop encyclopedia that gave a lot of data about hiphop movements and artists. I will also continue to use the book catalog to find any books that may be useful to collecting additional information. The library article database also has various search engines that will serve as a valid source to find helpful scholarly articles about your topic.

Eugene Kwan said...

Today's library orientation was a informative process in searching for references to aid our essay. The data-base will be a solid lead in seeking out scholarly testimony and statistics to be used.

The video describing plagiarism was informative. It was a review on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. The librarians are also very helpful.

One of the best books to references in the library was the encyclopedia on hip-hop. It is definitely worth spending some time to check out.

Professor Wanda's Posse said...

Ilene, you gave a great detailed recap of the ortientation.

Amy, I can't tell if you were bored or not. I always schdeuled these orientations just in case there are students who haven't been to a library in a while or never had an ortientation at an academic library.

Eugene, thanks for your comments as well. Everyone else, the assignment, find two scholarly articles and post summaries with MLA (to the extent blogger allows) still applies.

I'd certainly pick up the password information, so you have access to the databases outside off campus.

Professor Wanda's Posse said...

Oh Amy, please send me the link to the music festival on Treasure Island next month.

Nicole G said...

the library orientation was helpful. it was a review, but its always nice to brush up on something you havent used in a year or so. i did have a hard time hearing the librarian speak however. he was kind of quiet.

The majority of the class didnt show up on tuesday, and if they dont know how to do use the database they should arrange to have someone go to the library and show them. Its a very helpful tool for research.

Derek said...

The library orientation was a good experience for individual that had not been in the library before. Many of us probably knew how to not plagiarize. It was a good review for me because some things I might have forgotten.

For students that were not there, you have missed out on some things that were handed out to us and some books that the instructor passed out. I think that the books were very helpful and it might be a great help for individuals that do their first paper soon.

I thought it was a pretty good review because I learned something from it and now I know that there is a database that we can use off campus.

Mar`Queshia Wilkerson said...

The library orientation was very useful and it gave a few ways of finding good article for my upcoming essay. The tips on plagiarism was very good too because happen sometimes in college.

The librarian basically of good database we can use for our upcoming essay and any else outside of this English 1b class. The Alameda library is very help and has a lot of resources for students. he even show us the encyclopedia on hip hop. That is good resource for our essay. the overall orientation was very help with things from finding books on certain topic to database that can also be of some help.

Unknown said...

http://www.treasureislandfestival.com/

This festival is Oct. 17th and 18th. The day with all the DJ's is on the 17th, the following day is a bunch of indie rock bands.

Mar`Queshia Wilkerson said...

Pure Movement

Rennie Harris is a woman who was a normal young lady who blow up in the hip hop industry by her idea of Pure Movement. Her idea of Pure Movement involved more than just hip hop. This idea came about when she had to step out of her zone to preform for forty-five minutes (when she is only really use to dancing for ten minutes)for a show called "Endangered Species", she went through different obstacles just to this show great. she stayed with her hip hop but other dances were incorporated within her dancing. Mrs.Harris analyzed her work before and after it is done but she never really thought of the outcome until it was already done. although Mrs.Harris was great in hip hop and it clearly showed while she was growing up she also open her eyes to other dancing styles which help her do great job on her show "Endangered Species". Mrs. Rennie did not know her impact she had on many once she preformed. her performance changed many of her audience lives as well as her own. Thanks to her idea of Pure Movement Mrs. Rennie Harris did a great job in her show casing and moved people in the process.

Mar`Queshia Wilkerson said...

On Lit Hop

Adam Mansbach is a fiction writer who is now going forward on his literature involving hip hop. Adam analysis many who are fiction writers as well. He considers himself a hip hopper which is a person who has participated in it, observed, criticized and championed the culture for twenty years. He understands the hip hop industry and know whats is expected due to his several years dealing with hip hop, but now he s trying to incorporate hip hop into his literature which is "Lit Hop". in order for him to do that he looks back into the world of hip hop with the artist and writers to make sure his literature on hip hop is correct. By him looking back on many artist and writers he uses the mistakes to analyze to make sure he doesn't do the same mistake someone else did. Adam wants to get his Lit Hop right the first time and now the second time because literature on hip hop will be good for those who know nothing about hip hop.

Professor Wanda's Posse said...

Rennie Harris is a man. You should visit his website or google him and watch some of his work...he is amazing! He has this piece: Rome and Jewels (a spin off on Romeo and Juliet)which is brilliant! He is one of the greatest hip hop choerographers around today and he is really a cool person too.

Professor Wanda's Posse said...

Oh, these responses to articles need to be three paragraphs and use citations. Look at the assignment.

Anonymous said...

Jose Vasquez
9/22/09
English 1B
Professor Wanda Sabir
Response to Library Orientation

The library orientation was a great review to me because I had forgotten many things that would help me write a good research paper. The librarians show how we can use information on the Internet that would allow us to write a college level paper. He gave us tips on how to create a good thesis statement and how to use the library for references. The librarian showed us how to use the library database, which I did not know what it was until today. The database is a program that colleges have that allows us to use information on anything that you need to research. The librarian also showed us a short clip that talked about how to avoid plagiarism. Overall the presentation was really a good idea by the teacher because it brought back all the elements that a student needs to know to write an essay.