Assignment Notes

Students have an assignment to complete that includes contacting a librarian. 

Assignment and essay prompt are below.

Dark-Herold is allowing student to pick just about anything as their "theory" that they are applying to humor, so I would just help them find a strong substantive article on the topic they have chosen and not worry about how  (or if) it fits in with humor.

Essay Four is now in play.  Like the previous assignment, do not worry about tying information in to humor.  Please note that she has changed up the requirement for scholary sources slightly.

Essay 2 Prompt:

Drawing from Pink and Gladwell, make a case for why Marita and KIPP students like her are successful. In essence, you have to look at their success from the perspective of both authors. How would Pink explain Marita’s success? What support from Gladwell’s Chapter 9 do you imagine Pink would use to support his view? How would Gladwell support KIPP students’ success? What one concept of his from Chapter 1 “The Matthew Effect” best clarifies in your mind the success of Marita and KIPP students? Then what support from Chapter 9 can you use from his article to prove your case?

“The Rise and Fall of Motivation 2.0” by Daniel Pink “

The Matthew Effect” by Malcolm Gladwell

“Marita’s Bargain” by Malcolm Gladwell

Essay Requirements:

• An Introduction paragraph that introduces readers to the topic in an interesting way and leads logically to a discussion of the authors and articles you will focus on. Provide readers who are not in this class with a brief summary that clarifies each author’s argument and gives them some clear insights on the main ideas discussed and meaning of key terms. Given the focus on KIPP Academy and Marita, you need to be sure to introduce both when summarizing Gladwell. Help readers get a clear sense of what authors discuss. Your introduction needs to end with a clearly stated thesis that identifies the two concepts the authors would propose that explain KIPP students’ success.
• Focused body paragraphs guided by clear topic sentences that show the thesis/ controlling idea of your essay. In your body paragraphs you will need to prove that the concept you’ve chosen is supported by evidence from the author’s text as well as details Gladwell gives about KIPP students and Marita. You are applying a concept from Pink and Gladwell and showing how evidence we have about KIPP students and Marita supports your claim. Work to organize your discussion in a logical way that flows and keeps the needs of your reader in mind. Be sure to clarify terms/concepts you use so an outside reader who hasn’t read the chapter will understand them. Use correct MLA citations when integrating the author through quote and/or paraphrase.
• Conclusion paragraph (full paragraph). In your conclusion, I want you to acknowledge the usefulness of viewing success from the lens of both authors and what they add to our understanding about student achievement. How do these authors work together to provide us with a deeper understanding of why students like Marita are successful? In addition, if you feel they have left something out of the equation or perhaps minimize something you feel is especially important, then here is where you can address this to give a richer view of the issue. You need to watch your tone as you do. You are joining the conversation with your own thoughtful observations. Be well reasoned in your approach.

DUE DATES:

First Draft/Peer Review of Essay Two due November 12, 2024 should be at least 3 pages long. Keep in mind that your final, revised essay needs to be a full 3.5 pages, but for your peer review draft, it may 3 pages). The revised final draft of Essay Two is due Monday, November 18, 2024

FORMAL REQUIREMENTS

The final version of your essay should be a minimum 3.5 full pages + a Works Cited page (so 5 total). You can write more, but it must meet the minimum length. Points will be deducted for essays that do not meet length requirements (when in correct MLA format, spacing, margins, and font). Format: MLA format----Times New Roman 12pt font, double space essay, no extra spaces between paragraphs, and have 1-inch margins—top, bottom, left, right. Make sure you have good ink quality.

special Note: Using outside research from the MJC databases, integrate two outside sources (scholarly or substantive) in the form of quotes into your essays. Also, make sure to quote the two authors from Unit Two at least once each.

Essay 3 revolves around answering a open ended happiness question (different than their practice) and  Krannzman is requiring that they find 3 non-scholarly articles. They can come from Gale Ebooks or EBSCOhost.  In the instructions that he sent me, which are attached, he says substantive sources.  Don’t worry about that. Any article 4 pages or more are fine.
 

Please feel free to direct students with questions to me. - Mike

Update Nov. 7 re: sources from Mike Leamy: 

Andrew got back to me this morning

• He is fine with students using  chapters of ebooks that they find in EBSCOhost, but usually discourages it because they tend to be too long.  I think the confusion comes from him telling them to go to EBSCOhost Databases, not eBook Collection: EBSCOhost for their initial search.  7 of the 13 students who reached out to me yesterday had all eBook sources.  I’m not sure what went wrong this semester with our instruction session, but something went wrong!
• He is fine with them using Gale eBooks,
• His instructions specifically mention Gale eBooks and EBSCOhost Databases, but he’s fine with them using Gale Databases as well.  He just wants them to limit their sources to non-scholarly. 

Despite the busy Libguide, the key here is to KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Students doing prompts 1 or 2 will be well served finding a basic topic overview or two  on their social issue and then using one of the linked sources to their banned book of choice for that part. 

Students choosing prompt 3 will be fine using sources linked on the guide in the Banned Books box. There are two sources on each book. 

For the research paper on For Profit Education, students are required to use four sources provided to them in Canvas as well as find:

2 additional  articles that are at least 5 pages of text, have a relevance of the last 5 years, and were acquired from the MJC Library database in regard to For-Profit education.

Here's the LibGuide for the assignment. The videos on using EBSCOhost is custom-made for this assignment.

Essay for which they are doing an Annotated Bib: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h0YQtrAQOD2wF9RNhk49qc5tva2vL74ivVkEwnssGjI/edit