This week’s materials:
Course outline: JN8502 MRP II: Storytelling Seminar
Welcome back!I hope you’ve all enjoyed your first week at the Ryersonian and Ryerson Review of Journalism. As you know by now, our first class meets on Wednesday, Sept. 11 from 1-4 p.m. in RCC-223. Ahead of Wednesday’s class, you can find the course outline above. I’ve also posted it to the course D2L shell.
During this six-week, hands-on course, you will work in smaller groups to develop and produce your Major Research Project. The key methods of instruction for this course will be blog posts, talks with guest speakers, peer feedback and support, in-class discussions and presentations.
INSTRUCTOR’S BLOG: Here you will find a new blog post every Wednesday from Sept. 11 to Oct. 23. It will contain links to the following week’s reading, listening and viewing materials as well as background information on guest speakers. I’ll also share examples of exceptional features in the news. All course readings are also linked to from the outline and from the D2L course shell.
INDIVIDUAL BLOG: You will be posting most of your assignments to the same individual blog you started for JN8501, you can also use it for your own notes and reflections on your MRP.
PEER PARTNERS: Peer learning is an essential part of this workshop class. Each student will be paired with a classmate whose MRP complements their own project’s themes and/or approaches. For the first 20 minutes of each class, beginning the second week, you will be making comments on each other’s latest blog posts. You will also be meeting with each other for the last 15 minutes of each class to discuss your plans for the week ahead. You will be assigned your partner during our first class. You can find your peer partner on this spreadsheet.
PEER LEARNING AND CLASS ATTENDANCE: This is a workshop course and your individual progress relies on the feedback you receive not only from your instructor, but from your fellow students. To be successful in this course and to be a meaningful part of the support network at the core of this workshop, you must endeavour to attend each class. Be aware that regular unexcused absences will have a negative effect not only on your work, but on your classmates’. This course only meets in person for six weeks, so each week counts.
You can find details about the assignments, guest speakers, class format and attendance guidelines on the course outline.
You will be receiving your marks on your Expanded Treatment via email before the end of the week. During class, we’ll go over some common challenges experienced by your classmates and creative approaches to tackle them.
As always, if you have any questions, please email me at asmaa.malik@ryerson.ca.
Have a great weekend,
Asmaa