English 1 at College of the Sequoias
College Reading and Composition is a first-year course created to support your development as a college-educated reader, writer, and thinker. This course offers you an opportunity to explore texts from a variety of diverse voices and enter conversations with creative thinkers. We will empower you to make choices in your writing that strengthen your voice as a scholar and persuade your audience. In this course, you will develop research strategies, learn how to find credible information, and incorporate those sources into your writing to support your arguments.
Each week we take on a new topic and look at it from a variety of different angles, we will have collaborative discussions and writing assignments about these topics. We will also compose deep academic research for our topical essays. Our reading material comes in the form of non-fiction book chapters, news articles, podcasts, essays, and film. This is a zero cost textbook class, all reading material will be provided to you on Canvas.
Course Description
COURSE OUTCOMES
1
Critically read and respond to materials from a variety of perspectives and genres.
2
Write and revise persuasive, unified, and well-organized arguments.
3
Reflect on individual writing, practices, and processes.
4
Conduct research and evaluate multimedia sources for credibility.
5
Purposefully integrate credible research material from a variety of sources into writing using appropriate documentation.
Who is this for?
This course is ideal for students who are new to college and those seeking to improve their academic writing and research abilities. It is UC/CSU transferable and a requirement for General Education patterns.
Course Materials
Laptop Resources
Laptops Rentals (Fill out this form)
Laptop Checkout: 3 hours at a time in the ESS building.
Grading Overview
Student Resources
Access to books, journals, and online databases.
Support with essay writing, grammar, and mechanics. Drop in or make an appointment!
A variety of helpful how-to videos, from MLA formatting to using a database.
Resources for academic, personal, and financial assistance.
Class Schedule
1
2
3
1
Mondays
Tule Building, Lecture: Journal response, composition chapter of the week review and exercises, assigned reading review and lecture on articles, videos & audio, small group discussions, group sharing of reading analysis and reflections. Rotating Activities: Socratic circle seminars, research workshops.
2
Wednesdays
Tule Building, Lecture: Journal response, composition chapter of the week review and exercises, assigned reading review and lecture on articles, videos & audio, small group discussions, group sharing of reading analysis and reflections. Rotating Activities: Socratic circle seminars, research workshops.
3
Saturdays
Independent Work: Most major writing assignments are due online in Canvas on Saturday by midnight.
What We're Watching (Free Access)
What We're Listening To
Amazon Music
What the rise of ultra-processed foods means for our heal...
Ultra-processed foods now make up the majority of calories in the typical American diet. Studies show the health effects are about as bad as smoking. What would it take to get back to eating real food? Dr. Chris van Tulleken joins Meghna Chakrabarti.
Instructor Information
Olivia Estrada
Born and raised in sunny San Diego, Olivia loves all things California and the California higher education system. She has worked in the automation industry in the private sector for over 15 years while substitute teaching part-time. Currently, she is an adjunct English instructor and a marketing manager for a machine vision company. She also mentors English majors and is a part of the FEC committee.
Olivia is a product of the California Community College system herself, having graduated from San Diego City College with honors, she completed a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at UC San Diego, and earned a Master of Arts Degree in English and graduated with Distinction from National University. She loves the process of learning and is currently working on a second master's degree in film studies.
Outside of being a student, she loves teaching. Whether training new hires at work, substitute teaching, tutoring, or teaching as an adjunct faculty, she loves seeing students progress and feels lucky to be a part of that process.
In her free time, Olivia loves going to concerts, spending summers in San Diego, gardening and growing her own food, reading, listening to audio memoirs, hosting game nights, swimming (pool and ocean), and snorkeling. With a recent new love of travel, she's visited Detroit, New York, Chicago, Tahiti, and Fiji the last few summers.
Instructor's Email
Attendance and Participation
1
Attendance
Regular attendance is expected but you are not penalized for missing classes. Additionally, some class sessions are mandatory for a specific assignment, such as our LRC research session, our Jeopardy Assessment, our graded film analysis discussions, and our group essay collaborative sessions.
2
Active Participation— What Does it Mean?
Engaging in class discussions, contributing ideas, asking questions, actively contributing to group work and discussions.
3
Respectful Environment
Creating a positive and inclusive learning environment for everyone. Be respectful and considerate to your classmates when discussing ideas and peer reviewing each other's work.
4
Important
Since all class content is posted on Canvas (including the lecture slides), you are still expected to complete all work fully if you miss class
Course Policies
Harassment & Distraction Policy
It is the policy of the Sequoias District to provide an educational and safe atmosphere free of unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct or communications constituting sexual harassment as defined and otherwise prohibited by state and federal law. The procedures for reporting charges of sexual harassment and for pursuing available remedies are available from the COS Title IX Officer, John Bratsch, johnbr@cos.edu or 559-730-3776. Additionally, this is a safe space and a distraction-free academic zone. I have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind directed at any student during or outside of class for any reason.
Late Work & Drop Policy
Late work will be accepted up to one week (7 days) late with a 10% late penalty. Please contact me if you are experiencing life circumstances that require additional time to complete assignments so we can work out a plan.
It is important to stay on schedule with the class, participate weekly, and not fall too far behind so that you can be successful. If you do not attend class and do not participate online in the weekly assignments for over two weeks, you will be dropped from the course. Your presence and activity are important to ensuring your success!
TurnitIn
Written work submitted through Canvas also goes through TurnitIn.com to check for plagiarism and AI writing. Academic honesty is an important part of being a student. Your journey as a student prepares you for future work at a 4-year school and creates strong employability skills. We want you to be highly prepared for academic success and success in the job market- but in order to achieve this, you need to grow, learn, and refine your writing, analytical, research, and collaborative skills!
Work that has been flagged red on Turnitin (which means there is a large amount of plagiarism) will receive a grade of zero, and there will not be an opportunity to resubmit that assignment. If the essay is flagged yellow (indicates a moderate amount of plagiarism), I may ask you to revise and resubmit your work. Work that has been identified as mostly AI written will also receive a score of zero and require additional consultation. There are appropriate cases and uses for AI, which we will detail throughout the semester, but copying and pasting AI writing and passing it off as your own, is not one of the acceptable use cases. Please see me if you have any questions or are unsure or questioning the way that you use AI. I would rather you ask me first so we can figure it out together!
Important Dates
1
Aug 25th
Last day to drop with a refund
2
Aug 26th
Campus Resources Tour
3
Sep 18th
Graded Class Discussion
4
Sep 25th
Library LRC Research Session (Meet in the library)
5
Oct 2nd
In class Group Essay
6
Oct 7th
In class Group Essay (final draft)
7
Oct 9th
Graded Class Discussion
8
Oct 18th
Last day to drop with a W
9
Oct 28th
Graded Class Discussion
10
Dec 9th/10th
FINAL