To help students determine which topics they’d like to focus on for Portfolios 2 and 3. To share issues and encourage collaboration on research for P2B.
Working together as a class to explore research possibilities, share articles, and narrow topics foregrounds the collaborative nature of CO150 as well as underscoring the importance of writing as a planned, incremental process.
Have students pull out their copies of the P2B Inquiry Essay assignment sheet. Give them a few minutes to look it over, and then check to make sure they understand the goals of the assignment. Emphasize that their work in P2B will set up P3 (you might refer back to the overall course goals to help students see how each of the assignments in the course builds on the previous assignments).
Transition: Develop a transition here.
The goal of this activity is to get students talking about which topics/issues they want to pursue for their P2B and P3 focus, and to encourage them to share articles they've found for P2A with their classmates. Go around the entire class, asking each student what issue they're planning to research for P2B, why they chose that issue, and whether they've found any interesting/useful sources so far in their research. List each student's issue on the board, and address any questions that come up about research processes (or, better yet, deflect these questions to the class to encourage the students to use each other as resources). You can add to this activity in any way you think will help students work together on their research for P2B. One possibility might be to ask the class to keep track of who is working on which issue, and to each come up with articles or resources from their P2A research to share with at least two other people in the class.
Transition: Develop a transition here.
If you did not return P1B during conferences, do so now. It’s often useful to take a few minutes when returning an assignment to discuss what has been going well for the class as a whole and what could use extra attention. One way to do this is to prepare an overhead or use the board to put up two columns, listing first what the class as a whole is doing well and then moving on to discuss areas that could use additional work. Make sure to take a few minutes to point out resources online or in the PHG that students can use to work on those areas that need extra attention, or even pull out overheads or handouts you’ve used previously to review. This might also be a good moment to show students your grading criteria for the Inquiry Essay to help prepare them to work on drafting their essays.
