Day 6 . Monday, September 8th

Tuesday, September 14:  Daily Class Outline

Lesson Objectives

Today we continue learning about the Analytical/Evaluative Response.  We also introduce the concept of "unpacking claims" which is an effective development tool. As with the previous sessions, we also hold students accountable for their reading of the newspaper by asking them to bring in three clippings on issues they find provocative.

Connection to Course Goals

We continue to expand students' repertoires of responses and reinforce the importance of focus and development.  By showing students samples of how other writers have the met the expectations of the Summary/Response Essay, we demonstrate that there is no "single" way to accomplish a purpose and provide students with concrete examples of what effective choices can be for their writing.

A Possible Sequence of Activities for Today
1. Introduce class session and take attendance.  
2. Discuss news clippings and a few of the topical issues they’re seeing in their reading of the NYT. Activity Ideas:  Discussing NYT News Clippings
3. Finish discussing Analytic/Evaluative Response and apply it to Brooks' and Krugman's articles.  Activity Ideas:  Wrapping Up Analytical/Evaluative Concepts
4. Allow students time to freewrite on their Analytical/Evaluative Responses. Activity Ideas:  Freewriting
5.  Introduce students to the concept of unpacking their claims Activity Ideas:  Unpacking Claims
6. Help students determine what type of response they would like to continue to work on for their Summary and Response paper.  You can remind them that we will do a mini-workshop on their Analytical/Evaluative Response for homework tonight.) Activity Ideas:  Choosing a Response
7. Discuss and workshop the sample Summary and Response papers to help students prepare for workshop on Thursday. Activity Ideas:  Sample Academic Summary and Response Papers

8. Establish a conclusion for the class session and instruct students on where to access homework assignment. 

Note:  You will find sample guidelines for the Analytical/Evaluative Workshop under Activity Ideas.

Activity Ideas:  Concluding and Assigning Homework

Assignment for Next Class Session

Assign the following to students:

  • Complete your Analytical/Evaluative Response and add a summary of the corresponding article to your response.  Post your draft to the forum titled "Analytical/Evaluative Drafts."
  • Workshop the draft posted above yours on the forum.  You will need to have completed the workshop by noon* tomorrow (Wednesday) so your peer will have time to incorporate your feedback into h/er draft for Thursday's workshop.
  • This week and next you should also keep an eye on the Letters to the Editor in the New York Times since we will be discussing that aspect of Portfolio 2 soon.
  • Choose the response you want to revise into your Summary and Response Essay for Portfolio 1.  Expand as much as you need to create a rough draft to bring to our in-class workshop on Thursday.

*You may alter the time by which you would like your students to post their workshop feedback.  Just be sure that students have enough time to respond and enough time to incorporate the feedback into their drafts for Thursday's workshop (especially if they are polishing their Analytical/Evaluative Response).

Additional Teaching Resources

CSU's guide on Integrating Technology into the Traditional Classroom provides you with several suggestions for how to support your class activities with technology.

Conducting Online Discussions covers topics such as using discussion forums, mailing/chat rooms, and email lists to help you facilitate discussion and student interaction outside the walls of the classroom.

It can be helpful at this point to consider Peter Elbow's distinction between two goals for writing:  writing to learn and writing to show what one has learned.  Check out Writing for Learning--Not Just Demonstrating Learning to help you wrap up the Summary and Response Essay for Portfolio 1.