Research Questions?

Before we leap into our research questions, I think it's important to reflect again on our progress so far. To do that, I'd like you to reread your Stage II essay and prepare a cover letter addressed to me in which you walk me through your work-in-progress. Please address the following questions in your letter, though not necessarily in this order:

• Give me a one sentence definition of the construct you've explored. What would you like your audience to learn about YOUR analysis? 
• What do you think you got right about this assignment, taking into account the four points I'm looking for (original claim, inquiry (research), discourse (connections) and rhetorical effectiveness (audience/purpose)? 
• What do you feel still needs work?
• What would you like feedback on or help with?
• How does your essay fit into the greater conversation of writing studies?

You'll be turning this in today in class, so get to work >:O

Then, we'll be looking at the Stage III assignment together. I know it's a lot of information to digest, but the gist is that you're preparing a research proposal where you're explaining to me how you plan to conduct your research in the future. Stage III is not an essay; it's more like a rough outline of how you hope to spend the rest of the semester on your own, independent research project. 

The first place to start with this is to develop a research question. We'll be talking about this in class, and then, you'll be developing your own research question drafts today in your groups.

Studio Work

Work on developing your research question in your groups today. Discuss, bounce ideas off of each other, consult with me. I'll be circulating, offering help where and when I can.

Before you leave, please turn in:

a draft of your research question
a list of suggestions you received from your group to help you develop your question (minimum of 3 SPECIFIC suggestions)
a list of suggestions you GAVE to your group members to help them develop their questions (minimum of 3 SPECIFIC suggestions)


Homework

1. Post your revised research question in the comments section below. Please also respond/critique at least one of your classmates' questions. If you critique more than one and offer particularly helpful suggestions, there's some extra credit in it for you!

2. Finish reading Sommers. We'll have a quiz on WEDNESDAY.

Please also note that we'll be meeting in the library in classroom 2 on the first floor on Wednesday for our 2nd class meeting (instead of the studio).

Revision?

Today we're going to open up our discussion on revision and the Sommers article. During our first class period, we'll be reading the first two pages of Sommers and responding to the following discussion questions in your groups, which come from the first 2 PAGES of the article:

1. How were you taught to revise?

2. What does your actual revision process look like? What do you do when you "revise" something?

3. What does Sommers say is the problem with the current theory of "the writing process?"

4. Based on your experiences with writing, do you think Sommer's criticism of the writing process is valid? Why or why not? Discuss your own experiences in relation to the text.

Studio Work

Today we'll be conducting our peer review session! Once in the studio, get into your peer review groups and reread your partners' papers. Then, begin your discussions.

Before you leave today, please turn in to me your revision plan, which should include the following (be detailed and specific in your responses!):

What did you learn were the strengths of your paper
What did you learn were its limitations?
Based on your discussions today, how do you plan to revise and why?

Homework:

Revise your Stage II Essays (due Monday)
Finish reading Sommers (quiz Wednesday)

Stage II and Gillam

A good example of constructive peer review advice! :D

 Today in class we'll be exchanging drafts of Stage II and, again, revisiting our peer review process. You'll need 3 copies of your draft AND the Gillam article.

Before we jump into that, I'd like to briefly go over how to do a Works Cited page, since a lot of you all had questions about this part of the assignment. If, after our discussion in class, things still don't quite add up, here is a good resource:

The Owl

Studio Work:

After reading the Gillam article, respond to the following questions. Use your groups as resources and discuss these, though each person will need to turn in their own before they leave the studio this afternoon.

1.     What are “higher level thinking skills?” How does Gillam claim peer response reinforces this? Do you agree? Why or why not? Try to give examples from your own experiences with peer review in your response.

2.     What does Gillam mean by “vernacular?” In the past, what are some things teachers/professors have said about your writing? How is this similar/different from the feedback you get from your peers? Which do you think is more helpful, and why?

3.     What is “metacognition?” How does peer review reinforce this? Thinking about the other readings we’ve had so far, when else might we use metacognition? What have our other authors had to say about it (perhaps, though, using different terms)? 

4. Gillam's basic argument is that peer review helps the reviewer just as much (if not more) than the person receiving the critique. Can you think of any OTHER ways giving feedback helps YOU as a writer? Reflect on the feedback you've given your peers so far. If you feel like giving feedback doesn't help you as a writer, what do you think you (or we as a class) can do differently to make it a beneficial process for everyone involved. 

 Homework:

Read your partners' essays and prepare critiques for them. You may want to focus on the following discussion questions, as they're what I'll be looking at while grading. 

 1. What claim is the author making about the construct? Is the claim clear from the context of the paper (Remember -- a claim can be like a hypothesis, your particular theory about a construct)?

2. How does the author incorporate inquiry into their investigation? If using primary research, how does the author connect the research back to his/her claim (to prove, support, or disprove). If using secondary research, how do the quotes, paraphrases and discussions included connect back to the chosen claim?

3. How does the essay exist within the discourse we've been having in class and in the readings? What original thought/analysis does it add to the greater conversations going on around us?

4. Who was the essay written for? What is its purpose? Are these questions answered by the context of the essay? If not, indicate areas where the author could clarify these questions for you as a reader.

Please bring 2 copies of each critique you write to class on WEDNESDAY to be prepared for our peer review.

Brittanie's Stage II Draft

College reading? :D

Here's an example of a Stage II draft! Brittanie was kind enough to let me post this on the blog for you all to see. Just like last time, you're welcome to leave PQP style feedback for extra credit.

College Reading

What is college reading?  I believe college reading is a bit more complex than our normal common sense way of reading.  It involves more research and peer discussion rather than just reading to understand.  It allows us as students to absorb what the author’s purpose was and helps us to relate to the topic and come up with our own ideas.  In college reading, I would recommend that the best strategies to use would be the “rhetorical strategies” – Flower mentions in her article. She states that we must relate to the text, ask questions about the authors purpose and give our own opinion, this will make college readings a bit more easier.

My ideas of college reading have been formed by my recent first time college English class.  In this class we are assigned to read several articles on different studies of what good writing and reading are.  One of the articles that really helped to introduce me to good college reading strategies was the article named “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning” by Linda Flower.  It was an article about a study done on entering freshmen and graduate students and their strategies on understanding a college level text.  It showed that the entering freshmen that used the common strategies that were taught in High school could not understand the college level text. On the other hand, the grad student that was a more experienced reader used the rhetorical reading strategies and had no problem understanding what the author’s purpose of writing the text was, asking his own questions, or giving his own theory.

Many of the people I associate with believe that college reading is too hard and complicated to understand.  They believe you must be “really smart” to be able to understand what the text is saying.  That was the exact same perception I had about college reading also.  In the beginning of this college freshman year, one of my very first assignments was to read a college level book and write my thoughts about the authors purpose.  When I opened the book, I could not understand a single word!  I had no clue what I was reading.  I tried so many of the strategies that I was taught in high school, I tried to understand the text by writing a summary of every paragraph, highlighting important details and words… but nothing seemed to work!  What I am trying to say is what us as entering college freshmen don’t understand about college reading is that it is not just about reading to understand, or summarizing- in order to be at a college reading level we must form our own theory of the authors purpose and relate our own expierences with it.  We must think outside the box when reading a college level text, and not just focus on the meaning or summary of the text.  I believe we can change the students perspective of college reading by introducing them to rhetorical reading strategies, having them practice those strategies over and over again, read college level text often, and showing them that college reading is really not that bad.

Beginning Stage II: Looking at "Constructs"

Well, I'm GIVING you the time :-)

Before we leap into our Stage II assignment, I think it's important to look back at our Stage I essays and reflect on what we've done so far (we've done a lot!).

To do that, I'd like you to reread your own essay. Prepare a cover letter addressed to me in which you walk me through your work-in-progress. Please address the following questions within your letter (though not necessarily in this order):

Give a one sentence summary of your literacy narrative. What do you want your audience to take away from your experience?

What do you think you got right about this assignment? Remember the four points I'm looking for (narrative, vivid details, significance and discourse).

What do you feel still needs work?

What would you like continued help/feedback on?

How does your essay fit into the greater conversation of writing studies?


I will be giving you a bit of class time to think about this, and I'll be using it as a guide to help me evaluate your essay and provide you with some feedback for further revisions. Please, put some thought into this assignment.


Once we wrap that up, it's time to start looking at STAGE II. There's going to be two parts of this assignment: 1. a short, informal group presentation of your construct and 2. an essay in which you discuss your definition of that construct.

Give us a slap in the face! Redefine your construct!

Here are the "Construct" choices:

College Writing
Good Reading
Peer Review
Revision
Research
Technology in the classroom

Studio Work

In your groups of 4, develop a definition of your construct, which you'll be responsible for "teaching" to the class (your audience)! How do you define your construct? Where does your definition come from? Where do you think you can find out more information on it (articles? experts?). Create some sort of a graphic representation of your construct and be ready to present to the class on WEDNESDAY. Your presentation should be about 5 minutes long and is informal.

Homework: Read the Stage II Essay Assignment under the writing assignments tab. Post here on the blog either 1. your idea as to what you're supposed to do (translate my big, long and wordy assignment into "student") 2. Ask a relevant question about the assignment or point out something that doesn't make sense to you or 3. Answer another student's question. Please have posted here on the blog in the comments section before noon on Wednesday.

Also, be working on your informal group presentations! Those are due 2nd period on WEDNESDAY, though you'll have a bit of time to work on those in class, too.

Michael's Essay

Leave PQP feedback for Michael below to get some extra credit!

Lessons

College has just arrived and my biggest fear comes with it. I’ve heard rumors of how hard college is and that it’s just going to be a waste of time. Bu for me I know it won’t be a waste, I’m going to make something out of it and hopefully get over my fear and improve on it. So you’re probably thinking how is it possible for someone to improve on their fear, well I guess it just depends on what your fear is. My fear is not that I am going to college and I have to make friends or anything like that. My fear is not being able to pass my English class or improve my writing skills.

                English has always been my fear ever since I was a little boy not only because I did not know how to write properly but because I wasn’t a good speller. I remember when I was in middle school; my friends would make fun of me for misspelling things and writing things that just wouldn’t make sense. I know that they wouldn’t make fun of me to discourage me from writing but I guess they would do it to get laugh out of it. While they were there making fun of me, my confidence in writing went down and I felt dumber and dumber every time. Then I had some friends that did not make fun of me but they try to help me out with my writing and I was grateful that I had them there for the help but It just made me feel so dumb because I always needed there help. Another thing that I did not like was when we had to write an essay and present it to the class because not only would my friends know that I was not good at English but the whole class.

                I always blamed my past teachers for how I write now because it seemed like they wouldn’t spent that much time on teaching English and just focus on teaching the other subjects. I assumed it was because they thought that English was just common sense and we should already know how to write. But in reality it wasn’t and there was a lot to learn about it. Since, I really didn’t learn anything in English and I wasn’t a natural writer like other when I got to high school I was always placed in the dumb English classes[K1] . Once I was placed there I was nervous because I thought that English was going to be a lot harder since we had much more to learn. When I arrived for my first English class my teacher told us to take out a piece of paper and to grab a dictionary and write down the 20 definitions on the bored and once we were all let him know so he can put on a movie[K2] . When we heard out teacher tell us this we all looked at each other in shock like is this guy serious. And he was, we did not just do this for the first day of school but for the whole year. Through my whole high school year with my luck I always got teachers like that at that point in time I did not mind because English was so easy and I did not need to do much work or feel dumb anymore.

                Now that I am going into college I realized that I’m not going to have the same type of teachers that wouldn’t teach much and that I was going to have teacher s that expect much more. I start to worry and panic because my high school years were just a waste of time. Me thinking that it was cool to have it easy in high school was a big mistake because now when I come to college it will not be the same. When I went to register for my college classes they told me that I need to take a remedial class for English. At first I was kind of embarrassed that I had to, then I realized I will learn the English that I have always wanted to learn. Maybe now I can overcome my fear and improve on it. Now that I am an adult I know not to blame my teachers for how I write even though they were suppose to teach me how, I look at the person in the mirror and blame him for how I write.

---

Flower Discussions

Today in class we'll be continuing and wrapping up our discussions of the Haas and Flower article. I hope you didn't find the article too, too difficult to get through, though I do know it's a challenging read.

Studio Work

Your task for today is to develop a visual representation between the Haas and Flower and the Richardson article. How are they connected? Develop a "mind map" draft on your tables today illustrating the connection between these two articles. What would they agree on? Where do they differ? For an extra challenge, try to include DIAZ in your map, too.

Then, take your sketch and draw it on the class whiteboards. Your group will be responsible for walking us through your mind map as a mini presentation. The best illustrations will be included here on our blog, so do a good job with this!

Homework: Finish your Stage I Revisions. They're due when we return on MONDAY.

For extra credit: 

Post any memes, gifs, or pictures that you feel represent any of the readings we've done so far in class. Be sure to give an explanation, too!

Here's my example: The picture above! For me, this picture represents the Flower article in that it shows a character rhetorically reading a text. We can tell he's rhetorically reading because he's able to envision the text, thereby "constructing" meaning in his mind. The meaning of the text is in his mind, not on the page, so that's where we see all the action. When he's watching t.v, he's being a "receptive" or passive watcher -- only observing what's on the screen rather than constructing meaning for himself.

YOUR TURN! Have fun with this assignment.

Haas and Flower Thoughts

Actually... Flower would agree!

Today we'll begin looking at the Haas and Flower article in class. It's kind of a tough read, so be sure to take your time with it.

In class today we'll be working through the first 3 pages of the text. Talk about it in your groups. Then, I want you to address the following questions:

1. Translate the text into "student" i.e a language you can understand
2. Define what "rhetorical reading" is in your own words
3. Characterize your reading habits. Discuss the reading strategies you use when approaching a text. Would Flower say you're a "rhetorical" or a "receptive" reader?

In the studio today, we'll be conducting our peer review session. Here's the procedure for peer review:

• Read the text out loud (either the author or another group member may read it to the group, you all decide).
• Discuss the paper as a group
• Move on to the next partner's paper

Each group member's paper should be read/discussed for at least 10 minutes.

Then, before you leave today, reflect on the following questions and turn in to me:

1. What did you learn were the strengths of your paper?
2. What areas need improvement?
3. What revisions do you plan to make on your paper and why?


Here's our blog discussion question (for possible extra credit)

What do you think we can do as a class to improve our peer review sessions?


Homework:
 1. Finish reading Haas and Flower. We'll have a QUIZ WEDNESDAY.
2. Work on your revisions. They're due on MONDAY

Peer Review?

Follow the PQP format! :-)

Peer review can be tricky, but we'll be practicing how to do it effectively in class today in preparation for our "real" peer review session on Monday. In class today, we'll be reading the NEUBERT article.

Here is your group discussion questions for today (turned in at the end of 1st period):

How would Neubert and McNelis define "peer review?" What is their PQP method? Do you think it's useful for our class setting? Why or why not?

Studio Work:

What is peer review?

In groups, read the Writing Doesn't Happen in a Vacuum essay. On your tables, work together to write 3 PRAISES, 3 QUESTIONS and 3 POLISHES. Be sure to keep your comments detailed and specific.

Then, swap tables with another group. Review the feedback they provided and label it either VAGUE, GENERAL BUT HELPFUL, or SPECIFIC.

Return to your table and revise any VAGUE or GENERAL BUT HELPFUL comments.

Due before you leave the studio today:

In your own words, define "Peer Review." What do you think is the key to a successful peer review experience? What can we do as a class to ensure that our session next week is a productive one? What can you do as a student to provide helpful feedback?

HOMEWORK:

Write a PQP critique of each of your partners' drafts. Each critique should be roughly 1/2 page long (typed, double spaced). Please bring 2 copies of your critiques to class on Monday (one for your partner, and one to turn in to the instructor).

Also, begin reading FLOWER (be sure to bring it to class on Monday). You don't need to finish it over the weekend, but do begin reading it as we'll have a quiz next Wednesday.
 
Have a suggestion or comment about peer review? Feel free to post it in the comments section below. If you write something insightful, you may receive extra credit!