Connection to course goals: Practicing summary reinforces the skills they'll need to meet the context for Essay 2. The different types of response and the analysis of Molloy provides an opportunity to practice the type of thinking and critical reading they'll need to meet the context for unit 2. The pre-writing activity emphasizes again the need to meet the context, but moves them into how they can make choices within the expectations of the context - there are different ways to set-up the criteria and still meet the context.
INTRODUCTION: Devise a brief introduction that explains what they'll be doing today in class and why.
- Review Academic summary by looking at their homework assignments
.
- what did you summarize out of the Molloy essay? What were his main ideas?
- Did you choose any quotes that you thought were ESSENTIAL?
Compile on the board a list of what should be included in an academic summary of Molloy.
MAIN POINTS OF MOLLOY ESSAY:
- The way we dress is a distinct sign of our class position.
- Dress is an "essential element in helping a man to function in the business world with maximum effectiveness
- They way we dress has a direct impact on how we are treated and how we may treat others
- Molloy conducted several "experiments" to prove his theory
Make sure they're on track with the main ideas here and not summarizing too many or too much detail about his experiments. (10-15 minutes)
Transition: Now that we've effectively summarized Molloy, let's move to the next step in our evaluating process and make judgements about how well this essay would meet our criteria for the audience. To help with that evaluation, let's first look at the different types of response from the PHG and how the might be used to fulfill the context for Essay 2
- Introduce the types of response - list on the board
- Analysis - Looking at the effectiveness of the text - how strong/credible/relevant is the evidence, how effective is the tone or organization, etc.
- Agree/Disagree - why do you agree or disagree with what the author says?
- Interpretation/Reflection - Explaining key underlying assumptions and implications of a text, often utilizing a writer's personal experience. (5 min)
- WTL: How might each of these fit with the criteria we came up with on Tuesday?
- Hand out the typed compilation of the criteria from the previous class.
- Which type(s) of response seem most applicable to our context for Essay 2?
- Probably analysis
- How might the other types of response be used?
- Which of our criteria might involve showing how a reader might agree or disagree?
- Which of our criteria might involve looking at the author's assumptions or implications?
In short, try to show how the context for Essay 2 certainly requires some sort of analysis, but the other types of response can also be incorporated as well. For example, they might be able to use an agree/disagree response to show how an essay elicits an energetic response from a reader. Perhaps an essay is so controversial that it would make readers especially emotional about the issue, and thus they would want to talk about the essay. Thus, the agree/disagree response could show how the essay would make an effective discussion generator, which could be a goal of the sociology professor. (10 min)
Transition: Now let's apply one of these types of responses to the Molloy essay to practice evaluating.
- Analyzing Molloy's evidence.
- First try to generate a list of what would be considered effective evidence.
- What should evidence do/be in order to be considered effective?
- Detailed
- Specific
- Relevant
- Credible
- Explained
- What evidence from any of the essays we've read has been effective and why?
- Second, look at how this list would play into the criteria the class has established.
- Why would effective evidence be useful for the professor?
- What would a professor be interested in regarding evidence?
- How might an essay with less effective evidence be useful to the professor's needs? (10 min)
- Okay, now let's evaluate Molloy's evidence.
- Divide the class into groups of three or four
- Each group should:
- Find at least two places where you think Molloy's evidence is effective and explain why
- Find at least two places where you think Molloy's evidence is less effective and explain why?
- Explain, based on either (or both) of the above why you think the essay would or would not serve the purposes of the Sociology Professor. How well does it meet the criteria? (10 min)
- Discuss group findings.
- First, have each group show at least one piece of effective and one piece of ineffective evidence.
- Then, discuss as a class how well the essay meets our criteria.
- Where is Molloy's evidence effective? Why is that effective?
- Where is Molloy's evidence less effective? Why?
- How could he improve the evidence in the essay?
- How might his use of evidence have been influenced by his audience?
- (15 min)
- Pre-Writing Activity - Finding and narrowing their criteria
. We've talked a lot about the list of criteria we generated a few days ago, and have used it in class, but in writing your essay one of your tasks will be "personalizing" that list to fit your purpose for the essay. That is, it would be too much to try to evaluate an essay in terms of all of the possible criterion we've generated, so based on which essay you choose and how you want the professor to view that essay you'll have to decide which of those criterion are the most important and relevant to your purpose. To that end, let's practice narrowing that criteria using the essays we've read so far.
- WTL:
Choose any of the essays we've read so far, and then take 5 minutes to write a narrow list of criteria to better reflect your evaluation of that essay. That is, which of the criterion seem most relevant to the essay? Which features of the essay are most notable/important? Which part of the essay was most influential to you as a reader? What would you want a professor to know about this essay?
- Tell them to hang on to these WTLs, and emphasize that once they actually do choose the essay they'll evaluate for their next paper, they should go through this process of narrowing the criteria. (8-10 min)
- If time, have them discuss their narrowed criteria.
- Have two or three students offer their new criteria list for their chosen essay and list their criteria on the board.
- Ask them to explain why they chose that list of criteria - what were your reasons for focusing on these parts of the essay?
- Ask the class if what the person has selected seems like it would work to meet the context for Essay 2.
- You might also ask if they can think of any other ways they could arrange the criteria for that essay, to emphasize that there are choices and more than one set of criteria will likely work for any essay. (5 min)
- Conclusion:
Summarize, or perhaps ask a few students to summarize, the main concepts from today's class. What did they learn? How does it relate to their assignment?