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.