Week 2

Plans for Today:

• Warm up
• Group discussion
• Brainstorm ideas for research project

Reminders

I looked at all of your introductory letters and provided comments. Though this assignment I didn't give specific feedback to make changes or improvements, I will do that for your next assignments so it's good for you to be in the habit of checking for my comments and feedback.

Warm Up:

You have about 10-15 minutes to complete the following prompt (Save the Warm Up in your Google Drive folder and title “Yourname_Warmup_Jan23”):

Having read the ACRL concept “Research as Inquiry” respond these questions:

How does the quote “Formulate questions for research based on information gaps or on reexamination of existing, possibly conflicting, information” change (or not) the way you think about your experience with research? Use one or two examples from personal experience to answer these questions.

Group up, share, and discuss:

You will get into groups composed of one note-taker, one speaker (to present to class), and one researcher (this individual will the primary person responsible for finding important passages). Choose one question to specifically examine. Once you answer that one, move on to the following questions:

• Explain 1)“formulate questions”, 2)“information gaps”, or 3)“reexamination of existing, possibly conflicting, information”.
• Take notes as you discuss, for we will then share our thoughts and discuss the readings with the entire class.

Brainstorm:

Go back to your warm up, and start a list of topics/subjects that interest you and about which you might want to learn more. You can start very broad to begin with. Don’t worry, you will narrow it down later.

You may choose to research something related to your learning community team research project and expand upon it to relate to something directly within your career interest or field. After reading your introductory letters, I've seen lots of similar career interests among you already.

This is the first step in our "research as learning" semester-long sequence of assignments and activities. So don't assume you are picking anything for the entire semester. It's a way to learn about and to develop our information literacy

Homework due for Friday, January 25

• Have your draft for Crossing Thresholds (CT_1) at the ready for Friday. We’ll be discussing these threshold concepts and your writing in class so make sure you remember the concepts well.
• Make sure you are prepared to discuss Threshold concepts 1.0 and 1.1 from Naming What We Know.

Plans for today

• Class discussion on Threshold Concepts 1.0 and 1.1
• Look over CT_1

No warm up today!

Group up, share, and discuss:

For this time in class use your time wisely. Keep your group focused on the text and class discussion. In groups of 3 (DO NOT WORK ALONE OR LEAVE ANYONE OUT. GROUP WORK AND CLASS PARTICIPATION IS PART OF YOUR GRADE), answer the following questions:

Group A:

Threshold Concept 1.0 “Writing is a Social and Rhetorical Activity”

• How is writing a social and rhetorical activity? Provide examples.
• What part does audience play in writing? Explain.
• What does this quote mean: “Writers are always doing the rhetorical work of addressing the needs and interests of a particular audience, even if unconsciously” (17).
• Lastly, come up with something else from the text you found interesting or notable.

Group B:

Threshold Concept 1.1 “Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity”

• How is writing a knowledge-making activity? Provide examples.
• What does it mean to say “we don’t simply think first and then write… we write to think”? (19)
• How might this be troublesome to some people? Can you imagine how people may believe the opposite (writing is NOT a knowledge-making activity)?
• Lastly, come up with something else from the text you found interesting or notable.

CT Discussion:

Groups of 2: Open up the Crossing Thresholds (CT) Reading Response of your neighbor. Pull up the prompt for the assignment. Where does the writer respond to the prompt? What is the writer not doing, need to respond more fully to? Why? Write comments through the comment feature in Google Docs.

Homework Due for Monday, January 28

Read:

• ACRL "Introduction and Definition."

Read:

• Naming what we know, threshold concept 1.6, “Writing is not natural”
• Naming what we know, threshold concept 4.0, “All writers have more to learn”

Write:

Crossing Thresholds (CT_2) Reading Response:

• Respond to the two threshold concepts 1.6 and 4.0.
• Check out Crossing Thresholds (CT) assignment page for the specifics on how you should respond to the threshold concepts.

Research to Learn: Reading Response (RR_1)

• Respond to the ACRL Introduction and Definition.
• Tell me how this definition of threshold concepts relates to what we have discussed so far in Naming What We Know.
• Further, how does “Information Literacy” relate the concepts we have read and expand our understanding of research?
• Use specific passages from the text and personal experience to answer this prompt.
• For the major assignment description, click here.

As we are now working on multiple assignments, make sure your folders are organized. For example, you should have a separate folder within your folder titled "Crossing Thresholds" and "Research to Learn". Within "Research to Learn" you should have sub-folders titled "Reading Responses" and "Research Journals" to keep everything organized.

*Note: Make sure your CT_1 is complete and in your folder by midnight on Jan. 27. I will be looking over these over the weekend and into next week to provide you with feedback. If you are not up to date on assignments, I will take note, so make sure your folders are up to date and easy for me to navigate.