Q Welcome to Adolescent Literature 2221 003 Dear Class, I am glad to meet each and every one of you. I know this is an unusual circumstance. We will be meeting “virtually,” by voice and video rather than in person. Still, it is my hope that all of us, together, will become a learning community and that you will have cultivated at least one thinking partner. But above all, it is my aspiration that we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to speak our minds without fear of judgement, without considering first what someone else might think of us before we express our ideas and that technology might supports us in doing that. Here is my goal for all of us and this comes from the noted speaker and psychologist, Brene Brown: My aim for us is to have the courage to be imperfect. To accomplish this, we will, rather than journal writing, be writing letters to each other, weekly. You will receive a letter from me on Friday mornings. Your group will send your own deadlines and each of the letters must have been shared from person 1 to person 3 and back to person by Wednesday night. For some letters, there will be direct guidance; other times the topics of discussion will be up to you. These letters will be counted in your overall grade through participation and assignments. On the syllabus you will see that there is a catchall category for journals, quizzes, short responses that accounts for 30 percent of your grades. The letters should be thoughtfully composed, timely, and crafted with the idea that you are all thinking together, inspiring one another, and growing your relationships not just as friends, but as thinking partners. In our first letter I want to ask you to talk about Charlie – who is he? Do you think he is the same person “in person” as he is to us, the reader? You can also chose to write whatever you want about your reading. These letters will serve as a basis for the papers you will write this semester. They will also support the development of your writing voices. Here is our procedure: ? The path of the letters: o Person 1 will launch and write to Person 2. o Person 2 must include a summary of what Person 1 said and add their own ideas and forward the letter to Person 3. o Person 3 must include ideas summarized from Person 2 and so on and forward letter back to Person 1. o You will have to correspond with your partners to schedule your letters. For instance, Person 1 agrees to forward letter to Person 2 on Sunday and Person 2 agrees to forward letter to Person 3 on Tuesday. o If you need emails for your fellow students you have a way to look them up but if you can’t find it, please contact me and I will help you. ? Please upload your individual letters to BB for a grade. There will be a letter assignment (Letter #1) ? Don’t hesitate to ask me questions. Contact me at robinsm@oldwestbury.edu. I look forward to this semester and to read your writing and share in your thinking. More suggested direct guidelines and your writing/thinking partners will be shared below. Best, Prof Robins Here is the list of partners: Person 1 Person 2 Person 3 Sterline Giovanni Edina Vanessa Azarai Amritjot Javont Alexa Dulce Ryan Jonathan Christopher Daniel Shadab Colin Jaylen Sohab Johanna Sajid David Victor