Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Field Notes and Peer Responses

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Two-Letter Words, M-P


Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching

ENG 1103: Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man”

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/

Sample Assignment

In the third lesson of the Check, Please!, Starter Course, Mike Caulfield, author of the course and a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, continues his instruction on the second step in four-step SIFT approach to determining the reliability of a source. Lesson three, “Further Investigation” covers these topics: (1) Just add Wikipedia for names and organizations, (2) Google Scholar searches for verifying expertise, (3) Google News searches for information about organizations and individuals, (4) the nature of state media and how to identify it, and (5) the difference between bias and agenda.

One of the most instructive parts of lesson three focuses on two news stories about MH17, Malyasia Airlines Flight 17, a passenger flight scheduled to land in Kuala Lumpur that was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. While the second story, a television news segment, appears to present detailed investigative reporting challenging the conclusion of the Dutch Safety Board and Dutch-led joint investigation team–the conclusion that Russia was to blame–a quick just-add-Wikipedia check reveals that RT (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian state-controlled international TV network, a government propaganda tool rather than a source of fair and balanced news. The first video, the one produced by Business Insider, a financial and business news site, delivers accurate coverage of MH17.

Another notable segment of “Further Investigation” addresses the important distinction between “bias” and “agenda.” There, Caulfield observes that “[p]ersonal bias has real impacts. But bias isn’t agenda, and it’s agenda that should be your primary concern for quick checks,” adding that “[b]ias is about how people see things; agenda is about what a news or research organization is set up to do.”

Work Cited

Caulfield, Mike. Check, Please! Starter Course, 2021, https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/front-matter/updated-resources-for-2021/.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Reflecting on Your Literacy Narrative


Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Our Visit with Roy Peter Clark

J.J. Pollender (left) asks a question of Roy Peter Clark (on screen).
Roy Peter Clark (on screen) fields a question from Stella Galindo Haas (left).


Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching

ENG 1103: Model Literacy Narrative, “A Bridge to Words”

Hillaire Belloc’s “Rebecca,” illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen
Carl Thomas Anderson’s comic strip character Henry

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Introducing Roy Peter Clark



Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Two-Letter Words, F-L


Posted in Check, Please!, English 1103, Teaching

ENG 1103: Model Assignment for Check, Please! Lesson Two

In the second lesson of the Check, Please! Starter Course, Mike Caulfield, author of the course and a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, focuses on investigating a source, the second step in the SIFT approach, which he introduces in lesson one.

One of the most useful practices presented in lesson two is Caulfield’s follow-up to the Wikipedia strategy, which he outlined in the previous lesson. After he reviews that strategy, Caulfield explains how to use the control-f keyboard shortcut (command-f on a Mac). Typing control-f (or command-f) will open a small textbox in the upper right of the screen. Typing a word you are searching for will highlight the first appearance of the word in the text. Hitting return will highlight each subsequent appearance of the word.

Lesson two introduced me to fauxtire, a term for websites such as World News Daily Report, based in Tel Aviv, that present themselves as satirical but in fact serve primarily to perpetuate disinformation.

Perhaps the most memorable portion of lesson two was the side-by-side comparison of the websites for the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Pediatricians. Though at first glance the two appear comparable, using the Wikipedia strategy reveals their profound differences. While AAP is the premiere authority on children’s health and well-being, ACP was founded to protest the adoption of children by single-sex couples and is widely viewed as a single-issue hate organization.

Work Cited

Caulfield, Mike. Check, Please! Starter Course, 2021, https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/front-matter/updated-resources-for-2021/.


Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Revising Your Literacy Narrative