Day 6 . Monday, September 8th
Tuesday, September 21:
Activity Ideas
Introduce the Class
Session and take roll (1-2 minutes)
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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)
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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.
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Create
a Transition to the Next Activity |
Choices
for New Writing Situation (5-10 minutes)
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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.
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Create
a Transition to the Next Activity |
Revision
Notes (5-10 minutes)
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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 |
Create
a Transition to the Next Activity |
Freewriting
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Allow students time
in class to incorporate their revision plan into their Letters
to the Editor. You can use a brief version of a backwards
outline to help them find the most important aspects of their
Summary/Response essay or can create an overhead that helps them
flesh out their claim, their most important reason(s) and evidence
that will feasibly fit into the limitations of a 200 word letter.
You could try a looping/focusing
activity here, too, where students would look back over their
Summary/Response Essay and choose the most important reason and
focus on elaborating on it for their Letter to the Editor. |
Letter
to the Editor Group Activity
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Design an activity that
allows students to help each other create their Letters to the
Editor. You might do a version of the following:
In groups of 2-3, have
students discuss their claims, main reason(s) and most important
evidence from their Summary/Response essay and help each other
draft their Letters to the Editor.
Or, you might have students
read each other's Summary/Response essays and identify what they
think the backbone of the essay is and what parts should be in
the Letter to the Editor.
You should design an
overhead or worksheet that guides students through the activity. |
Concluding
and Assigning Homework (2-3 minutes)
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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)
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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.
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