Course Essentials

Required Materials

Required Texts are as follows and can be found at our campus bookseller: www.hartnell.edu/bookstore (Links to an external site.) located on the Hartnell campus, 411 Central Ave. in the Student Center.
Everything's an Argument, 9th ED. by Andrea A. Lunsford

In addition to weekly discussion posts and short/long essay assignments, you will do a Mid-term Portfolio on your readings.

What is Critical Thinking

What is Critical Thinking?

No one always acts purely objectively and rationally. We connive for selfish interests. We gossip, boast, exaggerate, and equivocate. It is "only human" to wish to validate our prior knowledge, to vindicate our prior decisions, or to sustain our earlier beliefs. In the process of satisfying our ego, however, we can often deny ourselves intellectual growth and opportunity. We may not always want to apply critical thinking skills, but we should have those skills available to be employed when needed.

Critical thinking includes a complex combination of skills. Among the main characteristics are the following: rationality, self-awareness, honesty, open-mindedness, discipline, judgment.

Hone Your Critical Thinking Skills-by making mistakes!!! (and learning from them)

Your brain is like a muscle! It changes and gets stronger when you use it. Yes, even when you make mistakes you are using it! In fact, when you make mistakes your brain grows the most IF you dive in to figure out what went wrong. This means we have to look at feedback and compare our answer to the feedback to see where we made a mistake.

Scientists have found that your brain grows more when you learn something new than when you study something that you already know. "The best way to grow your intelligence is to take on challenges and respond with good strategies and get help from others."

Resources & Good Practices

All of us need assistance at some point or another. It is extremely important that you seek help immediately. There is no such thing as a dumb question and I believe you ALL can succeed with the proper support, patience, faith, and consistency. I am your first line of support so do not hesitate to contact me!

To help reduce that stress and improve the likelihood of completing the activities in our course successfully:

Allow yourself the time and space you need to do your best work.
Don't procrastinate (establish a daily schedule and stick with it).
If you get stuck on an assignment, reach out to me or the Panther Lab. We welcome your questions and we are happy to help you think through your ideas so you can successfully complete an assignment.
Ask questions; don’t let doubts linger.
Use one notebook to keep all your notes and examples to help you study.
Do your homework in Canvas consistently (establish a daily schedule and stick with it--yes, I mentioned this before😉so it must be important).
Attend tutoring sessions on zoom (Panther Lab). They provide free drop-in tutoring as well as individual and group writing workshops. Click on the link to sign up! https://www.hartnell.edu/students/programs/tutoring/drop-tutoring.html

What is CANVAS?

In the video below, you will learn about your Canvas Dashboard and Global Navigation links. You’ll also learn about navigating a course and accessing assignments.

FOR MORE SUPPORT

For more support with Canvas, visit our Academic Support Online FAQ. You can also complete the Student PASS Help or Password Reset form. One of our staff members will get back to you. If you would like tutoring for your class, check our updated Online Panther Learning Lab schedule.

How do I Access my CANVAS account the first time?

Your Canvas log in is DIFFERENT than your PAWS log in! To log in to your Canvas courses, follow the steps below: