Day 6 . Monday, September 8th

Wednesday, September 15:  Activity Ideas

 

Discussing NYT News Clippings

Mini-Workshop for Analytical/Evaluative Responses

Sample Academic Summary/Response Papers

Choosing a Response

Concluding and Assigning Homework

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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.

 

Discuss NYT News Clippings (5-7 minutes)

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Create an activity that allows students to share topics/articles they've been following and reading about in the NYT

You might make this sharing or writing about topics a standard way to start classes from here on out.  You can vary the activity as much or as little as you please; just keep in mind that repetitiveness or activities without reward can squash student motivation.

Today, you may want to add on a discussion of letters to the editor as a preview of what students will do when they revise their Academic Summary/Response papers.

 

Create a Transition to the Next Activity

 

Mini-Workshop for Analytical/Evaluative Responses (15 minutes)

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Workshop Analytical/Evaluative Response

Place students in groups of 2 or 3.  Instead of exchanging papers right away, have students read their papers out loud to each other* and then answer the questions on the overhead after each one.  You can use these questions or create your own based on your students' needs.

*Sometimes it is effective put the writer in the role of "active listener," so you might suggest this to the groups.

After your response is read out loud, answer the following questions as a group:

How clear is the claim?  Does the claim clearly reflect our purpose (to analyze/evaluate?)

What criteria does the writer use to evaluate the text's effectiveness?

What reason(s) is the writer using to support the claim?

How sufficient is the the evidence the writer is using to develop the reason(s) and claim?  Where the does the writer need more evidence?

 

Create a Transition to the Next Activity

 

Discuss and Workshop Sample Academic Summary/Response Papers (15-20 minutes)

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Sample Academic Summary/Response Papers

Provide students with a few moments to read back over the sample essays.  You might have students complete a WTL before you begin discussing the samples as a class.

Design an activity/discussion outline that facilitates the class workshopping or talking about the sample essays.

Your goal here is to foreground the concepts we have been working with thus far.  We also want to emphasize the choices the writers made in the samples.  To what extent are these choices successful?  What could be improved?

 

Create a Transition to the Next Activity

 

Choosing a Response (5-7 minutes)

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Create a WTL overhead for individual or group work

Have students look back over all the work they've done this far and answer questions like: 

Which type of response seems most accessible to you?

Which did you feel you accomplished most effectively?

Which do you feel you could revise to make the most effective for Portfolio 1? (keep the length and other expectations in mind here)

Which do you feel displays your grasp of the concepts we have learned thus far?

Remind students that they need to decide on their Summary/Response so they can do the homework for tonight.  Also remind them that they can combine ways of responding but that they must be extra careful about clarity if they do.

 

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.