Week 7

Plans for Today:

• Warm Up
• Discuss Naming What We Know 4.4 "Revision is Central to Developing Writing"
• Last part of class spend time on Research Proposal if time permits.

Warm Up:

Respond to NWWK, 4.4, “Revision is Central to Developing Writing”:

• What are the benefits of revising your writing?
• In this chapter, Downs notes “The threshold concept that revision is central to developing writing can be difficult in a number of ways. Novice or unreflective writers, especially students, may see revision as punishment for poor performance” (67).
  • What is your experience with revision?
  • Do you agree with this? Provide some specific examples perhaps from other classes or in high school.

Discussion:

• Revision process?
• "First, unrevised writing (especially more extended pieces of writing) will rarely be as well suited to its purpose as it could be with revision. Second, writers who don't revise are likely to see fewer positive results from their writing than those who build time for feedback and revision into their writing workflows" (66)

Peer-review Research Proposal:

Look at your partner's research proposal and give them some feedback. Make sure you have the assignment description pulled up. Every comment you give them should be actionable. Remember, don't say, "this is good" or "this is bad." Give them something to DO such as "this would be clearer to me if you explained this quote."

Homework for Wednesday, October 10

• Have the draft of your RO ready to be peer-reviewed one last time before you submit it for the midterm. Do not skip Wednesday thinking you won't miss anything. Peer-review is a large part of your grade and I will be going over any last minute questions you have before you have to submit your portfolio. This is especially important for those of you that missed Friday's class last week, but will also be beneficial for those of you that didn't. Simply put, DON'T SKIP.
• READ the rubric for the midterm portfolio if you haven't already.
• I have office hours today from 3:30-5pm. These will be the only office hours offered this week since I'll be traveling after Wednesday so please use them if you have any specific questions for me.

Plans for Today:

• Peer-review workshop day

Reminders

• Make sure your folders are organized. If you have CT’s, RR’s, RJ’s or warm ups in random folders, it will make it very hard for me to navigate your folders which may result in me not being able to find your assignments to grade them.
• As you revise your research proposals, make sure that you are using the research that you've been doing for your research journals. Don’t simply throw in everything that you know about the topic, but carefully chose what you think is appropriate for this piece of writing.
  • Remember, when I grade I will be able to tell if you've been doing research this first half of the semester because I can see what you've put in your research journals. This is why the research journals are so important.
  • Make sure to include your sources at the end of the proposal!
• Do not copy other people's work (remember, I told you this happened before and it did not end well for the student). I am not saying this to scare you, I'm just saying it as a reminder since it has happened before. It is okay to share sources with each other if your topics are similar, but make sure you are doing your own unique research on your sources.
• Lastly, the midterm will be due Sunday night (October 14) by midnight since I've extended the deadline. Submit the LINK to your REFLECTIVE OVERVIEW through the assignment "Midterm RO" on Blackboard. This link should take me to your Google Drive folder. I will grade the RO first and then go through your folders to grade the rest of your work.
• If you are struggling and need to request an extension, email me as soon as possible. I am willing to help you out, but you have to ask. Don't wait until the night it's due to send me an email!

Warm up (1-3 mins):

Write down any questions you have for me related to the midterm portfolio.

• Do you have any questions about the rubric?
• Assignment description?
• Template for RO?

Workshop for Reflective Overview

Choose a partner and read their Reflective Overview. When reading their work, make sure you have the Reflective Overview assignment description and rubric open in another window, and consider the following:

• Does the student clearly address the prompt?
• Does the student use the template and guidelines provided?
• Does the student anticipate readers’ needs and expectations?
• Does the student write enough in each section to make sure readers understand the message they are trying to get across?
• Does the student provide sufficient and appropriate evidence to support assertions? (citations, links to evidence in Google Drive)
• Does the student use the ACRL and Naming What We Know to support their points and explain concepts from class?

After you read their work, offer the student 2-3 pieces of feedback using the comment feature in Google Docs. Your feedback should be specific and actionable. Moreover, your feedback should include a “because clause,” meaning you should always offer a clear reason for your suggestions/feedback. Feedback should focus on “higher-order” issues such as structure, developing examples, etc. Your feedback should help the author expand and explain their attempts to make meaning from the texts. Avoid commenting on grammar and spelling, and avoid non-actionable comments like “make this clearer,” or “this is good/bad,” etc.

No face-to-face class today! I will be in San Antonio presenting my research at a conference so use this time to work on your writings and make sure your portfolio is ready for submission.

Remember, submit the link to your Reflective Overview (the link that takes me to your Reflective Overview document in your google drive folder) on blackboard.

This assignment is due by Sunday night (October 14) at midnight. After that it will be marked as late and you will receive a ZERO unless you have contacted me and I have granted you an extension. If the blackboard link doesn't work for you, send me the link through email. As always, you know I will do everything in my power to help you out so don't hesitate to let me know if something comes up.

Also remember, if you are missing assignments in your google drive folder, you won't receive credit for them simply because I cannot grade them.

See you all in class on Monday! Enjoy your weekend.

Readings for next week

Focus on your midterm this weekend, but if you feel like reading ahead we will be going over the following next week:

• ACRL, "Searching as Strategic Exploration"
• Naming What We Know, 4.2 “Failure can be an important part of writing development”