Week 8

Plans for Today:

• Post Midterm Reflection
• Rabbit Hole Assignment/Research Journal

Few things:

• For those of you that were granted extensions, on blackboard it will show that you submitted your portfolio late, but that's fine.
• I will get to grading as soon as possible, but be patient with me as I granted quite a few extensions and I am a graduate student myself with a lot of work on my plate. Plus I have a lot of students to grade. I hope to be done within two weeks if not sooner. Definitely before Halloween as that is when midterm grades are due.

Post Midterm Reflection

Now that you all have finished your Midterm Portfolio consider the following questions:

• What didn’t you include in your portfolio that you wish you did, and why?
• Knowing what you know now about the process of creating these portfolios, and writing the reflective overview, what would you do differently, and why?
• Is there anything you considered doing or writing about in your reflective overview that you didn’t because you were unsure of yourself? Or not sure if it was “allowable”? What was it and what stopped you?
• What would you say is the most important lesson you can take from this writing task and how can you apply that lesson to your next writing tasks (Reading Responses, Research Journals, Crossing Threshold assignments, writing in other classes)? Your final portfolio?
• What specific actions do you think you can take to make sure things go smoother next time?
• Is there anything you can start doing today that will help you perform better in future writing assignments?

If you have not yet finished your Midterm (you were granted an extension) answer these questions with that in mind. Is there anything you did this first half of the semester that made it harder for you to submit on time? What will you do differently for the final? Still answer the above questions but apply them to where you are right now in finishing your portfolio.

Brief Discussion

Rabbit Hole Assignment/Research Journal

This will be a continuation of your research journals, but I’ll have you do something a bit different:

Response: I want you to share what you discover in a response using your classmates as your audience (consider that not all of your classmates are at the same level of understanding as you, so you will still need to write in a manner that doesn’t assume your audience has complete mastery of the material; moreover, not every class member is as familiar with your research area as yourself). Share your quotes from A and B with the class, as well as the citation/bibliographic information of your sources.

Instructions: Imagine you have a source called source A. In this source, you see a quote from another source called source B. In this source, you see a quote from another source called source C. I want you to pick a source from your research and this will be your source A. I want you to find a quote in source A, that connects to a source B. I want you to find that quote in source B. Read a paragraph before the quote and a paragraph after the quote. Next, I want you to repeat this for source B, and find a quote in source B that connects to source C. Find the paragraph your source B quoted from in source C. Then, read a paragraph before and read a paragraph after.

Example: I’m reading The New York Times, and I notice a quote pulled from a document from the Congressional Budget Office, I track down this document. In this document I find a quote from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and I track this document down. I can then compare and contrast how each author or sets of authors used each other’s work. I can look for similarities and differences. I can ask myself whether or not there was any bending of the truth, or misinterpretations along the way. I can track the conversation and the construction of meaning between these parties. As a student, I would explore these issues and share what I learned from this exploration.

Journal Entry: Since this assignment involves research, you should take the time to write a research journal associated with this research activity in addition to your response. Remember your research journals should follow the template below:

TEMPLATE FOR RESEARCH JOURNAL/RABBIT HOLE ASSIGNMENT:

Each research journal will include the following information (copy and paste the information below into a google doc and use it as your template for each journal entry):

• Date and time spent for each of your research sessions
• The research question(s) that are guiding your inquiry for this session
• Research resources that you are using (internet search engines, library databases, interviews, grazing journals or magazines, others’ bibliographies, etc.) In other words, what tools are you using to find information? And why these tools specifically.
• Keywords you use for each search; how you determined them.
• List (with bibliographic information) each result you consulted/read/ or determined as useful (SOURCES, A, B, C, and so on depending on how many you do).
• Notes for each source, recording what you thought was useful/interesting; including quotes, paraphrases, data, etc. that contributes to your learning/how the sources relate to each other considering the above assignment description.
• For each research session, a reflective summary of what you did, how it contributed to your learning about your issue, and what you plan to do in your next research session. (Include information about how/why you added research questions or changed them; about what new search terms you will try or did try, and why; about how you might use the information you have found or how it adds to your knowledge about your issue (Anything new? How does it relate to what else you are learning?) Finally, for each of these reflective summaries, explain/explore how the work you did relates to one or more of the Information Literacy Concepts (ACRL) that we have read so far.

Homework for Wednesday, October 17

Read

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

Write

• Research Journal/Rabbit Hole Assignment (RJ_6), using the above template.
  • At the end of your research journal/rabbit hole entry, implement a half page (2-3 paragraphs) that discusses your research in relation to the knowledge practices from “Searching as Strategic Exploration”
• CT_7 (on "Failure can be an important part of writing development" 4.2)

These writings should be completed by Sunday October 21 since research journals are always due the week I assign them and this CT is only over one threshold concept.

Plans for Today:

• Discussion of ACRL Searching as Strategic Exploration

Warm up:

• The ACRL notes "Novice learners may search a limited set of resources, and experts may search more broadly and deeply to determine the most appropriate information within the project scope".
• What do you think this quote means? In previous research and/or the research you are doing for this class, do you see yourself as a novice or an expert?

Group up, Share, Discuss:

In groups of three, one note-taker, one researcher, and one speaker. ALL GROUP MEMBERS MUST PARTICIPATE IN THE GROUP ACTIVITY. Keep your discussion on class work. It's okay to chat a bit, but if I can see it's consistent your participation/group activity grade will be lower.

• Examine the following quote. What do you think about it? Do you agree? Use examples from real life to explain:
  • "novice learners tend to use few search strategies; experts select from various search strategies, depending on the sources, scope, and context of the information need."
• Choose three knowledge practices and three dispositions to examine and explain to the class using personal examples. Can you make any connections from this reading to the other ACRL concepts?
• How does this reading relate to your work with the research journal this week?

Homework for Friday, October 19

• Make sure you are finishing your RJ_6.
• Be prepared to discuss Naming What We Know 4.2 "Failure can be an important part of writing development" (make sure to write CT_7 on this threshold concept).

Plans for Today:

• Discussion of "Failure can be an important part of writing development" 4.2

Warm Up:

• Point me to one area of this threshold concept (4.2) that you found interesting and write out, explicitly, why you found this interesting.
• Use quotes from the text and be prepared to share your answer.

Group up, Share, and Discuss:

In groups of three, one note-taker, one researcher, and one speaker. ALL GROUP MEMBERS MUST PARTICIPATE IN THE GROUP ACTIVITY. Keep your discussion on class work. It's okay to chat a bit, but if I can see it's consistent your participation/group activity grade will be lower.

• Examine the following quote. Break it down, explain it, and apply it to your personal experiences. Do you think Burger has a good idea?
  • "In the writing classroom, when assessment is tied too completely to final products, students are more likely to avoid risking failure for fear of damaging their grades, and this fear works against the learning process. They focus instead on what the teacher wants and simply hope to be able to get it right on the first try. Burger (2012) advocates building "quality of failure" into his courses and reports that his students are willing to take greater risks and to examine their missteps for what they can change about them" (63).

Write:

• Go back to your warm up, space down and brainstorm the following questions in relation to your Research Project:
  • Who do you feel needs to know this information?
  • Who is a part of this conversation?
  • Who is concerned about this issue?

It's okay if you don't have all the answers to these questions yet. But they will relate to the readings for next week AND will help you in formulating your three genres for the final project.

Homework for This Sunday:

• Research Journal/Rabbit Hole Assignment (RJ_6), using the template.
  • At the end of your research journal/rabbit hole entry, implement a half page (2-3 paragraphs) that discusses your research in relation to the knowledge practices from “Searching as Strategic Exploration”
• CT_7 (on Threshold concept 4.2).

Homework for Monday, October 22

Read and Start working on CT_8

• Naming What We Know 1.5, "Writing Mediates Activity" & 2.2 "Genres are Enacted by Writers and Readers"
• RJ_7 will be assigned Monday.

I will start grading your Portfolios this weekend! I will grade what you have submitted to me and what I see in your folders.