Day 6 . Monday, September 8th

Monday, September 20:  Activity Ideas

 

Discussing Letters to the Editor

Choices for New Writing Situation

Revision Notes

Concluding and Assigning Homework

If you have more time...

backReturn to Outline

 

Introduce the Class Session and take roll (1-2 minutes)

Back to Top

By referring to your agenda on the board or by previewing the day's goals/objectives, introduce the class session for your students.  Today, write your own introduction.

 

Discussing Letters to the Editor (25 minutes total)

Back to Top

 

Return students to Portfolio 1 Guidelines (3-5 minutes)

Point students back to their Portfolio 1 guidelines and discuss the Letter to the Editor aspect (5 minutes)

Remind students that their letter to the editor will be a revised version of their Academic Summary/Response. Cover the differing limitations between the Academic Summary/Response and the Letter to the Editor. Be sure that students are clear that both versions of their work need to be turned in with Portfolio 1.

Letters to the Editor Activity (10-15 minutes)

 Drawing on letters to the editor from the Appendix or ones you have found interesting recently as well as the letters students brought in today, design an activity that highlights the choices writers make when writing a letter to the editor. 

Discuss the sample Letters to the Editor (10 minutes)

Since we have read the extended version of these letters, foreground the choices the writers made in condensing them into their letters.

 

Create a Transition to the Next Activity

 

Choices for New Writing Situation (5-10 minutes)

Back to Top

 
Help students make choices for their letters to the editor

Design an activity where you help students make and discuss the choices they will need to make in order to revise their Academic Summary/Response papers in order to meet the expectations of a letter to the editor.

 
Create a Transition to the Next Activity

 

Revision Notes (5-10 minutes)

Back to Top

 
Help students begin to revise

Design an activity or WTL that lets student begin to make revision notes and revise their Academic Summary/Response papers

 

Concluding and Assigning Homework (2-3 minutes)

Back to Top

Today you might have a student recapitulate the main objectives you discussed today or you might write your own conclusion.  Be sure to cover the main ideas in the articles discussed today and to highlight what aspects they'll need to use to complete their Analytical/Evaluative Responses.  Remind students where they can access their homework.

 

If you have more time...

Establish Grading Hierarchy (5 minutes)

Back to Top

 
Establish the hierarchy of criteria you will use to grade student work

By now, you've probably already heard many versions of the question "What exactly are you looking for in this paper?"  While we realize we have been teaching all along what we have been "looking for," part of this question stems from students usually being excluded in the process of evaluating the work they've done for a piece of writing.  The goal here is to give students a voice in establishing the hierarchy of criteria against which their work will be evaluated and also to open our eyes to what we've taught to be sure we grade fairly and accordingly. 

You can structure this activity similarly to the way we created a hierarchy for the Academic Summary/Response is structured.  Be sure to acknowledge the shift in audience and slight shift in purpose as well as the new limitations (primarily length) in the hierarchy.