Connection to course goals: The first activity practices the skills necessary to meet the expectations of the context for Essay 2. After summarizing, the group activity will show students both the expectations of the context (they have to evaluate some aspect of the essay) and the choices available to them (there are several parts of the essay they might look at). This activity and discussion also requires students to consider why they chose that focus, a question they'll have to ask in writing their own essays. Focus is a crucial part of a writing task, and the last activity is designed to show them in more abstract terms why focus is important.
- Discuss Hochschild
- Discussion questions:
- Before we really dive into our own evaluations, what are Hochschild's main arguments?
- Prepare some discussion questions that could help students generate these main ideas. You might glance at the discussion questions offered by Reading Culture for some assistance here. Take about 5-10 minutes to get the main ideas of the essay.
MAIN IDEAS OF HOCHSCHILD ESSAY:
- Americans are working more hours because they want to - work has become a "home away from home." They complain about a time debt, but they actually choose it.
- The social situations and environment at work are actually largely preferable to those at home.
- As work has become more social (Deming's "total quality approach"), home has become more like work (Taylorizing the home) -- quality time to make it more "efficient."
- "Emotional Downsizing"
- Parents can now "buy" their way out of time - various companies designed to fulfill traditional parental obligations for a price.
- CAUSES: More women in the workplace, while men still don't do their part in the home; Job mobility has taken people away from relative who can help.
- SOLUTION: More and better Parental leave, like Sweden
(5-10 min)
Transition: Now that we've seen the main points in Hochschild, let's look at your homework to see what choices everyone made for their evaluation.
- Group activity to show choices and importance of narrowing focus.
- Break the students into groups based on what they focused on for their analysis.
- Group the people who looked at evidence together, the people who analyzedstyle together, etc.
- There should be 4 groups -- evidence, style, organization, agree/disagree
- If there are too many people who looked at any one aspect of the essay, justmake two groups for that focus.
- You might have a "miscellaneous group" in case people looked at more uniqueaspects of the essay in their evaluation.
- If you don't have anyone who responded to an aspect of the essay, that's okay.Just make sure to discuss possible reasons that no one chose this as a focusfor their evaluation.
- Have the groups share their evaluations with each other, and then complete the following tasks:
- Have someone record your responses to the following questions:
- What aspect of the essay did you all focus on?
- Why did you choose this aspect to focus on? (there can be multiple responses here)
- What were your evaluations of the essay based on this focus?
(10-15 min)
- Discuss the groups' responses.
- Your goal in this discussion is to emphasize
- the availability of choices in meeting a context
- the importance of focusing their evaluation
(10-15 minutes)
Transition: We've now seen several different ways you might evaluate an essay to meet the context for Essay 2, now let's move to putting this to practice in your own essays. Let's first consider some of the writing concerns that you'll have to deal with.
- Focus activity - drawing maps
. This activity is designed to show students the importance of narrowing the focus of their text. You can let them know this beforehand, but I usually like to keep them guessing as to why we spend 5 minutes drawing maps in a writing class. It keeps them intrigued, which (as I'm sure you know by now) can sometimes be hard to do.
- Have the class number off by 3's and give them about 5-7 minutes to do the following…
- Ask all number 1's to draw a map of the United States with as much detail as they can.
- Ask all number 2's to draw a map of Colorado with as much detail as they possible can.
- Ask all number 3's to draw a map of how to get to their house/dorm/apartment from whatever building they're currently in.
- After they've drawn their maps, have them get into groups which have one person who drew each type of map. A group should have one map of the US, one of CO, and one of how to get to a person's house.
- Have them focus on one map at a time, and give them a location they'd try to find based on that map. For example, I usually have them look at the map of the US and ask how many groups could, based solely on that map, find their way to my hometown (Appleton, WI)? Of course, no group can. For Colorado I usually use The Brass Ass Casino in Cripple Creek. And then for the final map the location is the person's house. For the first two maps, just decide on two specific locations in the US and in Colorado that won't be on anyone's map. More than likely, the first two maps are hopeless and all of the maps to people's houses work fine. Once you've gone through these maps, ask the following discussion questions…
- Why did the final map work and the first two not work? What was different about the various maps? (they should be able to see that the third map had a clearer focus and purpose)
- How does this connect to writing?
- In writing an essay, unless you have a clear and narrow sense of purpose and focus a reader won't be able to follow your "map," so to speak.
(15 min)
- In writing Essay 2 one of your first goals is to narrow your purpose and focus so you can easily lead a reader through your evaluation.
IF TIME...
- Have them practice narrowing their focus and purpose with their chosen essay
. You can do this as a combined listing and freewriting activity.
- First have them write the essay they're going to write about on the top of a sheet of paper.
- Then list as many aspects of the essay as possible that could serve as a focus for your essay
- Freewrite for 5 minutes on: Thinking in terms of criteria, which of these possibilities would you most like to work with and why? What about this part of the essay is effective or ineffective? What would you tell the professor about this aspect of the essay?
(5 min)
- Conclusion
Return to Unit One:
MWF