Due:
- Workshop comments on students' S/R drafts.
Goals:
- To have students discuss their workshop comments.
- To introduce the Inquiry Essay.
- To practice synthesizing the various authors students have
already read.
Assignment:
- Final S/R essays due next time.
- Finish the synthesis chart you started in class.
- Take ONE of the areas on your synthesis chart from today (language
and individual, community, power, reality, etc.) OR a new relationship
of your own, and write a broad, rough synthesis of the four authors
on that point. Be sure to discuss how each author approaches
that point and the similarities and differences between their
approaches.
Setup Needs:
- Assignment on overhead or handout.
- Copies for the class of the Inquiry assignment sheet and initial
synthesis grid.
- Inquiry Essay assignment sheet.
Sequence:
- Have your students find their workshop partners and start
discussing each others' comments as soon as they come in. Take
the first 20 minutes of class for these discussions.
- Then, introduce the Inquiry Essay with the following sequence:
- First, take a few minutes to recap where the class has come
so far, and how that sequence leads naturally to the Inquiry Essay.
(For instance, you might flag back to the discussion of the course
overview on the first day of class, and reiterate for your students
that they've already explored personal and outside views of language--so
the next natural step is to put the two together and see how they
relate.) (5 min)
- Have your students read through the Inquiry Essay assignment
sheet aloud. Then, if you like, you can have them write for 2-3
minutes to paraphrase the purpose of the essay and write down
any initial questions. Tell them, though, to save the questions
until after the following activity. (10-15 min.)
- Then, have your students begin to practice synthesizing with
the following activity:
Break into groups of 4-5. Try to get a group together which represents
summary responses on as many different authors as possible.
Elect a group leader and someone to keep an eye on the time. Everyone should
record the group's results on the synthesis grid (on handout).
Read each other's Summary/Response drafts and, based on them, fill out the
synthesis grid on how each author approaches each major language relationship
we've discussed. See if you can add at least one new relationship to our
current list of five.
If you don't have any S/R's from one of the authors, work from your original
practice S/R's.
Have your students work on this for most of the remainder of the
class. Circulate with help, encouragement, etc. (25-30 min.).
- Bring your students back together after the exercise and ask
them which of their initial questions still haven't been answered.
Answer those remaining concerns.
- Just before the end of class, give out and explain the assignment
for next time (it might be a good idea to have people write it
out verbatim, or to simply give the assignment as a handout).
Return to Unit One:TR