10/29/08

After I took attendance, I reminded the students that the Writing Process is about text, not pictures and formatting. They all thought this was a good clarification. I also told them that I would have Project 2 back to them on Monday and that Project 3 had to be ready so that they could pull P2 out and put P3 in.

I then collected their 3rd drafts, their proposals, and the last 2 Viewpoints that I had them write about the Archives and the Writing Process so I could really see what they wrote. While I gave them credit and skimmed through their 3rd drafts, they had to write me a persuasive letter about why I should let them have a day off on Wednesday of the upcoming week. I told them they had to use at least 3 of the persuasive styles.

I then introduced my students to an activity about organizing a paper. I had three different historical feature articles that were cut up by paragraph and mixed up. Students had to put the paper back together in whatever manner they thought made the most sense. They then had to reflect on what they learned from the activity and then look at the organization of their own papers. The students seemed to like the activity and did fairly well, however I think all of them had at least one or two paragraphs in the wrong place.

At this point, we were almost out of time. I reminded students about their homework. They had to finish project 2 and have it ready to turn in on Monday. They also had to write a draft of their complaint letter to someone on campus.

At the end of class, instead of doing my normal individual consults, I did consults with all of the students for a kind of midterm checkup. Basically, I just quickly gave them an update on their attendance, their participation, and their "grade." The students complained a little, but I thought it was a good way to make sure that they all knew where they stood in my class and where they need to be to finish.

Overall, it was a good day. I felt like we should have moved a little faster, but I think the students also enjoyed having a little slower day. Plus, I felt good when I left, which always signals to me that I had a pretty good day.

10/27/08

I was missing a good amount of students today; I only had 11 out 17. Pretty disappointing. Everyone keeps telling me it was the nasty weather....which if it was, is a really sad excuse. We live in Michigan! It's always crazy weather and it's not like it's snowing yet.

Anyways, I started class by confessing to the class that the transitions exercise that I did on Wednesday of last week wasn't very good, but that the words and the idea are really important.

I then collected the students second drafts of Project 3 and their ranked list of ideas for Project 4. I had 9 drafts from the 11 students and only 3 ranked lists!! I told them I was pretty disappointed.

While I put marked their work for credit, I had them write a Viewpoint about why they don't complete the writing process. They had to tell me if they see the importance of the process, what they struggle with and why. I reminded them that I want honest answers.

After they were done writing, I handed back their draft and lists, and we started talking about the Viewpoint. I was pretty shocked at their honesty. Many of them told me that they didn't complete the process because they're lazy, don't want to go to the lab to print out their work, and other things like that. It was really disappointing and frustrating. I forgot to collect the Viewpoint today, but made note to collect it during the next class.

One other thing that I did with my students was introduce a new policy. I told them that they needed to highlight or underline any and all changes from one draft to another. I told them that I didn't have time to constantly be looking to see if they changed things from one draft to another and that they need to be aware or their changes, too. I gave them a few minutes to mark changes to this draft so that they could practice doing that.

I then moved the discussion to the problem of plagiarism. I had several students in their drafts obviously copy and paste information from the internet. In order to combat that, I used a handout that Maggie had made about tips to avoid it and also an example from the writing handbook that shows students how different their work needs to be from their source if they decide not to actually quote their source. We then talked about this...mostly I was talking about what I've seen and told them that I am not stupid and catch it when they do. The whole conversation/lecture was pretty somber, but I think they got the point.

In order to change the mood of the class and continue our work on Project 4, I introduced the class to the three styles of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos. I had the students take notes on their meanings and ask any questions. Then, I split them into 3 groups and they had to read an opinion paper from the Kalamazoo Gazette out loud with their group and decide which styles were used and find specific examples. When they were all finished they had to share with the class how their writer proposed to solve the problem that the 3 articles discussed and then tell which styles were used and what the specific example was. Each student had to say at least one thing. This went well but we just about ran out of time because the studio consultants arrived.

I quickly wrapped up the activity by handing out the proposals for Project 4 and gave the homework for Project 3. The students then got to munch on Halloween cookies I had bought for them and take a few minutes to chill before the other class came to join us for the editorial board review.

Once the other class arrived, Kate and I had the students line up and were given a partner from the other class and a peer review sheet that they needed to fill out with their peer. After they were finished, they were able to leave.

Overall, I think it went well. The consultants and I had to definitely keep the students on track, make sure they were following directions, and guide them through when they got stuck, but they all left with basically a rubric filled out about their work.

10/22/08

So after some disappointing attendance for the Archives Field Trip, I was hoping today would be good. However, I need to learn that one bad day can sometimes lead to another not-so-good day.

Yet, even in these mediocre and slightly disappointing days, it is important to focus on the good things. Even though several students didn't show up for the Archives Field Trip, many of them did get my email and listened to the reminder at the Archives about having their rough drafts done for today. While they weren't very exciting (they were short and shallow), at least they had gotten started. I collected the drafts for credit and skimmed them over while the students wrote the Viewpoint about their experience at the Archives. I asked them what their opinion of it was, if they found anything good, what they didn't like and if they would return. Although our post-Viewpoint discussion was pretty bland, I got a few good responses.

I passed back the rough drafts and we talked about how they felt about writing the rough drafts. Again, they were pretty quiet, but a few people shared their feelings. I then handed them an example of what I want their articles to look like from the Kalamazoo Valley Museum's Museography magazine.

I then tried to engage my students in a short discussion and analysis of transition words. I had handed out a little sheet with transition words on it and asked the students to use those in this article to help it flow. However, after doing this, I realized that many of them may not know how to use them. So I had them pull the sheet out and we talked about how to use them, what they mean (definitions), and then pulled an example from one of the students papers to try to help her fix the flow. The example was challenging. The students didn't want to participate at first, but after some nudging, really started thinking and decided they didn't think we could fix the problem with just the two sentences.

Because I was running our of time, we decided to end our discussion by saying that we really need to work with all of the text in order for the words to be useful. I quickly had them brainstorm some ideas about issues they have with Western. After they talked with each other for a few moments, we listed their ideas on the board and talked about which ones would work (change could actually happen) and which ones were unreasonable.

Their homework was to go home and come up with a ranked list of things they wanted to complain about. They also had to continue their research and write their second draft for Project 3.

The only thing I wished I had planned better for and been more alert during was the mini-lesson on transition words. I think that I should have picked another example or had one picked before class. I did apoligize to the students the following Monday for the flop of a mini-lesson that it turned out to be and yet stressed to them the importance of these words. To my amazement, I actually had one of my students use the word moreover in his third draft!

After class time, Kate and I had a combined writing studio. Since many of her students didn't have drafts done, we just split them into groups and talked with them about their feelings, organizing their papers, and different strategies they can use when working on articles like the ones they were required to write. Pretty short studio, but at least we talked over a few things.

10/20/08

So I took my class to the archives in East Hall today for their WMU History Excavation Project. I had them meet me in the classroom at noon and we left at about 2 minutes after the hour and walked all the way up there. I had a few students complain, but we made it in about half an hour which gave us plenty of time to explore the archives and find the information they needed. Sharon, the lady who helped us coordinate this field trip, found a bunch of information for the kids before we got there and all they had to do was wait for us to bring it to them. Plus they were able to copy the information they wanted to use so that they could read more later and use some of the awesome pictures they found. It truly was a cool experience and many of my kids got really into it.

The only thing I realized that I should have done was to communicate better with Kate, my teaching partner, and Sharon, the lady at the archives. I had told them we would be there at 12:15 and we didn't arrive until 12:30.

10/15/08

Good indy consults are always a great way to end class and make me feel like I had a better class than I really may have had.

Today in class, I started out right away by going through the materials that they each needed to have in their folders. They had a checklist from Monday, but I had a lot of materials missing and added for Project 1, so I decided to do a quick check with all of them. They definitely need to get themselves a little more organized.

We finished up Project 2 with the in-class reflection. This time I had them tell me what they thought their grade should be and to make an argument for that grade. This seemed like a good prompt. Each one wrote as much or more than I asked in a short amount of time. I'm not sure if I'll agree with them all, but it should be interesting. When they were finished, I had them put it in their folder and hand them in. Only 2 were missing (1 from an absence, 1 from a student whose computer was stolen).

With Project 2 done, we jumped right back into project 3. I had the students give me their topics and a student volunteer wrote them on the board for me so I could keep my own record of the topics. A few students wanted to do the same topic, but I encouraged them to find another. Each one did and I think they were ok with that.

I then began to prepare them for the archives visit with a KWL. I handed out the worksheet so they could follow along and we talked about what a KWL is. Then we chose a topic for the class (Waldo Library which morphed into Waldo himself) and filled out the sheet on the board. This took a little prodding, but we came up with a long list of what we know and a some good things that we wanted to learn. With JB's help, we also were able to fill in a few things we learned. Overall, this went really well.

I then had them fill out the KWL for their topic. Each student had a fairly good list of things they knew and things they wanted to know. I then had them share with the people around them to see if they could get any more ideas. A few students didn't want to participate, but I think I got them to at least share with one person a few things.

Next, we looked at an MLA handout that Randall made for English 1000. It was to help students identify what information they needed to get when they find good information at the archives. I quickly went through the most common ones they would use and asked for any questions.

Our final activity of the day was a quick lesson on introductions. I tried to talk with students about them before, but we didn't get very far. Today I think we came up with some good ideas as a class. I had them pull out the examples of feature articles I had given them the last class and had a few students read the intros to their articles. We then talked about whether or not we thought the intros were effective and why. As always, it took some work for them to go deeper than "it's boring," but we eventually got there.

Here are a few of the things they came up with:
An interesting intro begins with an eye-catching picture, thought-provoking quote, engaging story (maybe even a story that has some missing information, like who the person in the story is), or a question. Intros should be easy to read (no long complicated research-filled sentences) and should include some good detail, but not too much. In contrast, they decided that a boring intro is one that jumps right into research and is hard to read.

I think I'll make a sheet with these characteristics on it for them to refer to as they work and for us to use when we look at each other's intros.

Finally, indy consults went well. We looked at their goals and tried to decide if we were on track with accomplishing them and were able to talk about any concerns or attendance issues.

10/13/08

I feel like the middle of the semester is always so-so. Everyone is tired, the weather gets dreary, and it doesn't seem to matter what day it is, it's just kinda blah...

Yet, even in all of this, good things still happen. Today in class, after attendance, a reminder about my new policy, and the announcement of our Field Trip to the Archives coming up, I handed out the checklist for Project 2, which is due Wednesday, and checked to make sure my students had their third draft so I could give them credit and they could do a mini peer-review. For the mini peer-review, I had each student put one thing that they were struggling with that they wanted their reader to look at. Then they exchanged papers with a partner that I chose for them. This seemed to go well and it really didn't take long. I think it was a good last step in the process.

We then transitioned into Project 3 again with the Viewpoint. Today they needed to tell me about some of the things that they've wondered about Western. I gave them the example of the "W" by Waldo Library. They came up with some really good other ones, like the flyer columns, the big cement blocks that have steam coming out of them, the train car by BC.

I then had them talk about the topics they came up with. We talked about what makes a topic good (depth, specificity, accessible for research) and then they each ranked their own topics (top 5). I think the ranking was good for them, but they didn't really want to participate in the discussion for this much (especially in any depth). I then collected these so I could give them credit and get an idea of the topics they had chosen.

Finally, I put them in groups (5 of them) so that we could look at the genre of a feature article. Kate had given me some great examples to use. Each group had a different article and was responsible for reading through it and then making a poster about what they think the genre of a feature article is. I gave them a list of questions to consider and then four key areas to touch on. This activity kinda seemed to flop a little bit. They refused to think beyond the context of the story and to really look at the genre. I definitely think we're going to need to talk about the genre some more.

Besides the students refusing to think beyond surface level, the only thing about today that I didn't like was that I really needed to rush through everything. I wish we would have had more time to reflect on the genre and their topics.

"You were so late you missed the late speech" - 10/8/08

I really felt like I went in to class today with a much better attitude than Monday and it really helped. I think the students knew it, too.

I began class today by handing back their viewpoints from the last two weeks and also the 7 rough drafts that were turned in the last class. Most of them were really good. I then gave a short speech on being late. I've had a problem with students walking in as late as 10 or 15 minutes. I also told them that I capped their absences at 6. I think I got the message accross in the right manner. I concluded this part of the class by collecting the second drafts so I could give the students credit for having them done.

Next, I had them do their viewpoint. Today they had to tell me either why they do their homework or why they don't, and then I had them tell me their feelings about turning in Project 2 on Monday because technically we were a day behind the entire project. I ended up handing back the late students work during this time and tried to hurridly mark who had their second draft done and who didn't. I was proud of them because they all had a second draft!!! Although their lateness did really annoy me...

After a brief few moments of sharing about the viewpoint - during which time one of my students said that she does her work for my class because she knows if she doesn't, then she has to catch up (that's just what I wanted to hear!) - I made the executive decision that they would turn in their final drafts on Wednesday so they could have adequate time to incorporate changes from peer review and gather all of their process materials.

I then handed out a sheet of brushstrokes that they could use in their papers to improve their sentence structure and also add more creativity into their papers. I quickly went through the sheet with them and then had them practice on the back. We quickly shared a few of those. Almost all of them were able to come up with three examples out of the four and every student had at least one.

Next, I split had them split up into "expert" groups. Each corner had a group: grammar gurus, format fiends, quizical questioners, and creatity catalysts. I then evened out the groups and then had them split into another group in which they had one expert from each section and do a mini, fast paced peer review in which they only focused on their area of expertise. This seemed to go well and I was able to speed them up a little during each round. (We did four rounds so that they would have comments from each expert).

For the final part of the class, I gave a brief description of Project 3 and then handed out the assignment that they needed to do along with revising their second drafts which was to brainstorm ideas for P3.

I ended the class with the late speech again and a reminder of my policy of 6 total. Then I made sure that those who were late picked up the handouts they missed and I chatted with the late students. (I made sure I shut the door during this time which was good because when my late students came in, the door squeaked loudly and made their presence known).

I then went straight to my consultation time. I decided to do individuals this round so that I could speak with each student about his or her work and behavior in class. This turned out really well because many of them had questions that they otherwise wouldn't have asked and also gave me a chance to praise them for the things that they are good at. For two of my boys, who typically do the bare minimum, I was able to tell them that they were improving their work a lot and really give them good feedback. They both left class with huge smiles on their faces and THAT is what I like to see!

Overall a great day. The only things I would have changed would have been to keep the late speech for later in the class so I didn't have to waste time by repeating myself and also I would have watched the time a little better.

10/6/08

I started class today by handing pack Project 1. The students didn't seem too thrilled to get it back nor did they have any questions except about what the letters meant. I hope that the feedback I gave them was sufficient and will be considered.

I then had them write. I asked them to tell me what I could help them with as they write this article. While none of them wrote a lot, many of them shared at least one or two things that they wanted help on. I had one student who said she didn't think she needed help on anything and I told her that I expected her paper to therefore be exceptionally good. : ) After they wrote, I had them share with me what they wrote. Many of them didn't want to answer, but I was able to get a few responses.

Next I gave them a quick reminder about being on time. I explained to them that it is frustrating to me to have to give directions two to four times because they are late. I think they understood...now I just hope they actually make a change.

I then passed out a sheet about punctuation that someone else who teaches English 1000 had come up with. It gave an example letter that had no punctuation and then two options after that for where the punctuation could go. As a class, I asked them to help me revise one of the examples so that it was not only more understandable, but also flowed better. This seemed like a challenging but helpful activity to them.

I then put up on the overhead words and phrases (editorial language) that should be used during peer review. I explained to them that they were too nice to each other during their peer review for project 1 and that we needed to step it up a notch and be more honest with each other. One student suggested that I keep the list on the overhead; I told her that is what I planned to do.

I then had those who had actually done their first draft pair up and fill out a peer review sheet for their partner. I gave them permission to write on each other's drafts, too, which they were really thrilled about. For those who didn't have a first draft, I had them look at the examples I had handed out last time and had them come up with the characteristics of a good introduction.

I concluded the class by having the one group share what they had learned about introductions and the other group share what they had learned from looking at each others papers. Finally, I gave them their homework, telling them that those who didn't do their first draft were still expected to have a second draft on Wednesday, with changes made from another person.

10/1/08

*Class today did not go as expected, but I keep reminding myself that good "stuff" still happened.

I began class as usual: taking attendance, collecting homework and putting up the viewpoint for the day. This week I focused their viewpoints on describing things. The viewpoint today: "You find an ancient, abandoned temple and inside there is a jewel encrusted box. Describe the temple, the box and its contents." After the students spent some time writing, I shared with them a few of the exceptional viewpoints from the last class that had exemplary (in the context of this class) descriptions. I then had them share the viewpoint for the day.

After this, we revisited our list of titles for the magazine we are currently working on. The previous list was long and we had voted on the titles we had come up with so far and decided to eliminate a few. I had asked them to come up with new ideas as homework and they didn't have any. No one wanted to talk, but after a little prodding, I finally had a few of them help eliminate further the ones we didn't want to use (least popular) and then decide what we would actually call our magazine. They decided that the magazine would be called the "Buckin' Bronco" and the tag line for the magazine would be "Saddle up and Survive" with the title of the issue being "Ways of Western." I was really proud of this...I hadn't anticipated all of the detail of the title, but I think they learned a lot about it and streched their idea of a title's importance.

To finish the class, I wanted them to look at different examples of National Geographic style articles and also survival guide articles. I had made copies of several examples and passed them out so the students would have them to use when they began their rough draft over the weekend. This is the part of class that didn't go very well. They pretty much refused to talk. I was able to get them to come up with the criteria for each style, but they wouldn't talk much after that.

One problem I need to address is tardiness. I've had one student come in over 10 minutes late the last two classes and several come in similarly late other classes. I asked this particular student to come talk to me and thought that she had forgotten when we finished with writing studio, but she ended up finding me. I asked her why she was late and she gave me lame excuses about problems with the buses. Kate said they were lame, too and that she was just playing me. Either way, Kate gave me some good ideas about how to deal with that. She said she always closes her door so that late comers are noticed because they cause a ruckus with the noise the door makes. I decided I would try that the next class.

One thing that was really cool today was that Kate and I combined our classes for writing studio. Kate and I participated as consultants and made sure that the students were in groups with other students who were writing about similar cultures. This seemed to go really well. The students had the chance to get ideas from one another and talk about any concerns they had. Plus it gave them a chance to get up and move around and get to know other students.