Day 11 (Friday, September 14)
Lesson Objectives
Students will
Connection to Course Goals
Today’s class emphasizes the writing process as a series of rhetorical choices.
Connection to Students’ Own Writing
Before drafting the letter, students will examine its rhetorical situation to explore how they will address purpose, audience, genre and context.
Prep
All you need to do for today is to reread the assignment sheet so you can address student questions and any potential misreadings.
Materials
Assignment sheet
Overhead transparencies:
Pre-workshop instructions
Lead-in
Students have made many of the rhetorical decisions necessary to draft the letter, such as choosing a subject (article) and an audience. They may be uncertain about how to begin writing the letter, and so today’s class will focus on that.
Activities
Take attendance and introduce class as usual.
Ask students to share which article they chose, and why. You might ask a few students to discuss their choice of audience as well. Help students see connections among subject-audience-purpose in their article choice.
Transition write a transition here that will connect this activity to the next.
Ask students to take out the assignment sheet, and spend time reviewing the goals of the assignment. Point out the grading criteria, too, but don’t put too much emphasis on them because worrying about grades can hinder some students’ writing processes.
Transition write a transition here that will connect this activity to the next.
Put instructions on the overhead that will lead students through a pre-workshop in which they will get feedback on their audience descriptions. Explain the instructions and then arrange students into groups (groups of 4 work well for this activity).
Writing a Letter Pre-Workshop
In a small group, take turns sharing audience descriptions. Group members can help the
writer by asking for more description of the audience and by offering ideas about how the
writer can shape his/her letter to best meet the needs of the chosen audience.After everyone has shared, discuss the assignment generally, and come up with one
question to ask the class as well as one piece of advice to share with the class.
After groups have finished discussing, ask each group for their question and their piece of advice.
Transition write a transition here that will connect this activity to the next.
With their rhetorical choices fresh in their minds, students should make so notes to help them as they draft. This doesn’t need to be formal; it can be a bulleted list, a web, or something else, as long as it will help the student remember how he/she wants to structure the letter and what he/she wants to say. This should help students get started and perhaps will raise questions they want to address on Monday or via email or during office hours.
Transition write a transition here that will connect this activity to the next.
Think through and write down your “if time” and “if I run out of time” ideas here.
Homework for Monday
Continue to collect ideas for your letter and bring them to class Monday, along with any questions that come up as you collect.
Access the sample letter(s) from the File Folder. Print them out and read them. Then review the assignment criteria and re-read the sample(s). When you finish reading, make a strengths/weaknesses chart on the back of the(each) letter. Bring the assignment sheet and the sample letter(s) with your comments to class.
Connection to Next Class
Today's class helped students collect ideas or "pre-write." Next time students will practice responding to sample letters.
