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Class Plan -- Unit One, Day 12
Goals

Assignment for Day 13

Reading - Begin thinking about which essays you think you would like to use in writing your Inquiry Essay. Re-read and annotate these essays.

Writing - Get the names of all of the people in the group you worked in today. Between now and next class, respond to each person's 1) Personal Essay (the first essay you wrote on the Web Forum in this class) and 2) "School Language" posting (assignment written for today). Start by reading what that person wrote, all the while thinking about ideas which that experience or story calls to mind. What class readings are you reminded of and why? What issues/questions are relevant here? Post a response which shares with the writer these connections you've made in your own mind. As you do this, make notes for yourself about what connections you made, so that you are able to share these in class next time.

[YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY WANT TO DO THIS ASSIGNMENT AS WELL, READING ALL OF YOUR STUDENTS' POSTINGS AND GIVING THEM FEEDBACK ON CONNECTIONS THAT ARISE IN YOUR MIND. THIS WOULD ALSO HELP YOU TO BE ABLE TO LAUNCH NEXT CLASS'S DISCUSSION OF THESE WEB FORUM POSTINGS.]

Related Handouts

Activities
Daily - For their daily, have students quickly re-read the editorial from the Boulder Daily Camera, written by CU professor Paul Levitt. Then have them write in response to the following: In a sentence or two, describe the argument is Levitt making about "the unprepared undergraduate"? Have you ever read or heard this argument before? Based on your own experience and observations, do you agree with Levitt? Or do you disagree with him? Finally, how does he differ from Mike Rose ("The Politics of Remediation," which you read for today). Rose also writes about the underpreparation of college students, but he does so in a somewhat different way. How would you explain the difference? [Give students at least 15 minutes to re-read the editorial quickly and to begin answering as many of these questions as possible. This writing will serve as the basis of the following discussion.]

Discuss Rose Essay - The ensuing discussion might establish the thesis and main points of Rose, then go on to examine how there are other positions on this issue of students' lack of preparation. Rose takes a sympathetic view which places a good deal of responsibility on the university, but others (like Levitt and Rodriguez) could be said to take very different approaches. [You will want to come to class with a set of discussion questions which help to generate a discussion between Rose and other related texts: Levitt, Rodriguez, Tannen, hooks, etc. Also frame the discussion in terms of one or more of the issues/questions you generated as a class last time. When you put the list back on the OH, you might decide that there need to be some additions, based on what these two new readings (Levitt and Rose) bring to the conversation.] IMPORTANTLY, THIS DISCUSSION (IF WELL EXECUTED) WILL MODEL THE PROCESS OF SYNTHESIS FOR STUDENTS.

Give Inquiry Assignment - Take about 10 minutes to go over (briefly) the basics of this assignment, and assure students that you will discuss it more in the next class. [THE PURPOSE OF DISTRIBUTING THE ASSIGNMENT AT THIS POINT IS TO SIMPLY FILL THEM IN ON THE BASICS SO THAT THEY KNOW WHERE THEY'RE GOING AS THEY DO THEIR HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT CLASS.] Then move into the following daily and group activity by explaining that they will need to start thinking about the readings and about their own personal experience in a focused way--by selecting an issue or question that interests them and seems workable.

Review the list of issues/questions we've generated, and decide which one of these you find most interesting or useful at this point. Write a short paragraph describing why this issue or question interests you more than others. (This decision will determine how they are grouped in the following small group activity.)

Group Work

SEE APPENDIX 13 FOR SYNTHESIS GRID TO PASS OUT TO YOUR GROUPS (1 PER GROUP).

Students work in groups according to which issue/question they find most interesting at this point. [IF THERE ARE SOME GROUPS WHICH ARE PARTICULARLY LARGE, YOU MIGHT BREAK THEM INTO SMALLER GROUPS--OF 3 OR 4--FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS EXERCISE AND THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT.] They work with a synthesis grid, trying to determine who participates in this conversation about their issue/question and who doesn't. For those authors who do participate, what position do they take on the issue? With what other authors do they agree? With what other authors do they disagree? Encourage students to fill out this grid with as much detail and as many connections as possible.

Collect these grids at the end of class; copy and distribute them next class as a resource for all students in their collecting process.[IT IS LIKELY THAT STUDENTS ARE GOING TO NEED MORE TIME THAN IS AVAILABLE IN THIS CLASS TO COMPLETE THIS GROUP ACTIVITY. IF THAT'S THE CASE, GIVE THEM TIME AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT CLASS PERIOD, THEN FIND SOME WAY TO GET THE SYNTHESIS GRIDS COPIED (PERHAPS BY BEGGING ANOTHER TA TO BE YOUR ASSISTANT?) BEFORE STUDENTS BEGIN THEIR FREEWRITING AT THE END OF CLASS.]

 

Explain Web Forum Assignment for next class, reminding students how to respond to others' postings.

THIS MIGHT BE A GOOD TIME TO BEGIN REMINDING YOUR STUDENTS OF YOUR OFFICE HOURS AND YOUR WILLINGNESS TO TALK TO THEM ABOUT PARTICULAR READINGS OR IDEAS THAT THEY ARE STRUGGLING WITH. THERE ARE NO FORMAL CONFERENCES SCHEDULED FOR THIS ESSAY, BUT THEY ARE UNNECESSARY IF YOU CAN GET YOUR STUDENTS TO MAKE USE OF YOUR OFFICE HOURS DURING THEIR WRITING PROCESS BY REMINDING THEM (REPEATEDLY) OF WHEN YOU ARE AVAILABLE.