Class Plan -- Day 8

Return to Unit One:TR

• Reading of Lutz and Lakoff, practice S/R of one of them.

Goals:

• To generate criteria and do mini-workshops of the practice S/R's
• To discuss the language issues developing from the readings so far.

Assignment:

• Choose ONE of the author's we've read so far, and draft a complete Summary/Response essay on that author. Use the assignment sheet and the criteria we generated in class today.

Setup Needs:

• Daily prompt

Sequence:

• Start with the following Daily (10-15 min).

Your assignment for next time will be to revise one of the practice       

Summary/Response drafts you've done, and get it ready for a peer          

workshop.  Let's spend the class today generating some guidelines you can  

use to revise.  To get started, do two things:                            

                                                                          

1.  Look back over the articles you've already worked with and see which  

one strikes you as the best one to use for your final Summary/Response.   

Which one grabbed you the most?  Which had the most interesting           

concepts?  Which one do you already have the best ideas about?  Write     

down which one you'd like to use and why.                                 

                                                                          

2.  Assuming an audience of classmates and considering the discussions    

we've had so far about summarizing and responding, what are the elements  

that any Summary/Response must have in order to effectively communicate   

its purpose to its audience?  Consider, here, what the essay should do    

in terms of each of the main writing elements:  focus, development, and   

coherence.  If you have time, map out a possible organization you think   

might work well.  We'll discuss your ideas when we come together.         

When your students are done with the Daily, start a discussion about the criteria for a good Summary/Response in terms of each writing element, starting with purpose and audience and working your way through focus, development, coherence and organization. Keep going until you have a pretty comprehensive list on the board. (20-30 min)

• (NOTE: You may even want to have a student write the criteria on the board while you take notes on paper. Then, you can type up the criteria generated by the class, distribute them, and use them for further assignment guidelines or as a workshop guide.)
• If time allows after this discussion, begin discussing some relationships between all four authors which your students can use as collecting material for their Summary/Responses. A good way to do this, if you have time, is to break the class into groups, and have each group explore connections between all four authors and one of the language issues. Then, you can have each of the groups present their findings to the rest of the class.
• If you have any remaining time, have your students exchange the practice s/r's they wrote for today for a mini-workshop.
• (NOTE: If you feel your students would be better served by a longer workshop on the samples, save the discussion about language connections for the next class).