Workshop your drafts

Today in class we looked through the calendar to review what we will be doing for the rest of the term. The schedule is as follows.

Dec 2: workshop Project 2 => revised draft Project 2 due at the end of class

Dec 7: Revised Project 2 returned, in-class workshop on writing essay exams

Dec 9: in-class final exam (like the baseline)

Dec 14: Due at beginning of class- Final draft Project 2; final exams returned, in-class workshop on portfolio

Dec 16: Final portfolio + reflective writing due at the end of class

Procedure for final grades:

I will send you a grade sheet (like the portfolio check grade sheets) on or before midnight, December 20. At that point you will have two days to get back to me to with any corrections, comments, or grade appeals. If I do not hear from you by Dec 22, I will assume that you are in agreement with the evaluation of your work for the course, and I will post your grade to Keanwise. I expect to post all grades before 6 pm Dec. 23.

Appointments for conferences:

Kyle: 3:40 Tuesday

Alexandria: 3:30 Wednesday

Dina: 3:50 Wednesday

Kyenna: 4:10

For Thursday:

Today will be another workshop for Project 2. Your complete essay will be due at the end of class.

Before turning in your essay - you will work in groups on your essays. After discussing your essay, you will write a brief description of what you need to work on for your final revision and post it to your portfolio.

During the last 15 minutes of class, you will complete the SIR II course evaluations.

Making a plan for the Analytic Essay

In class today you looked through the comments on the practice analytic essay, and made a plan to move forward on Project 2.

In the discussion of the Practice analysis essays, I pointed out that the common difficulties were:

1) developing sufficiently detailed discussion of the cause effect relationships in the video - and

2) connecting an interpretation of what the cause effect relationship in the video show to the overall focus of the essay.

Making a plan for your essay.

1. Brainstorm a focus (check the assignment sheet to make sure you have a focus that satisfies the requirements)

2. Watch the video with your focus in mind, and make note of the particular cause effect relationships you want to use to support that focus.

3. Make a list of the cause effect relationships from 2, where you note the cause, the effect, and what the relationship between the cause & effect show with respect to your focus.

At this point you should check the assignment sheet one more time to make sure you have a strong focus. Then check through the notes from the video to confirm that you will have enough material to develop that focus. If you do => you have a PLAN!

You spent the rest of class watching the video + planning your essays.

Homework for Tuesday:

1. Post the plan you developed in class to your portfolio.

2. Write a draft for Project 2.

In class on Tuesday you will workshop+ revise your essays.

Happy Thanksgiving and see you next week.

List of ideas for a focus for Project 2 video

1. how to clarify focus

2. evaluating the resources that the writer has- experience, unerstanding of area, writer vocab.

3. use of questions between writer and tutor

4. responding to writers attitudes- defensive, confidence, confusion, unconnfidence

5. coaches changing "stance"- beginning, middle, end-coaches response towards writers;' attitude

6. coaches stragey for revisions and brainstorming.

7. how talking led to claryfing the focus

Brainstorming for Project 2

We spent today's class studying the video you will use as your focus for Project 2. We read the assignment sheet and the essay the student brought to the writing session, and we watched two of the three segments from the writing session you will analyze.

We then brainstormed a list of ideas you might use for a focus for an essay that uses an analysis of the "action" in these videos to make a point about writing center work. These general statements were meant to give you some ideas that would help you "watch" the video for the particular interactions, conversations, or images that will support the point you want to argue in your essay.

Homework for Tuesday, November 23. By referring to the list we put on the board or by thinking through an idea of your own => state a focus you might use for your essay.

Then => do some brainstorming (similar to what the student in the video does!) to expand and develop that focus. What cause and effect relationships support your "conclusion" about the videos? What "points" would you make with respect to that focus? Which "scenes" could you use to develop those points? This brainstorming can take the form of lists, freewriting, descriptions, or other notes.

After you have done some brainstorming => write a thesis describing what your essay will show. This thesis needs to be specific (remember the difference between the thesis the writer in the video started with - and where she was going by the time she started to write).

Send this writing as an email. It is the Brainstorming assignment for Project 2 listed on the portfolio.

In class on Tuesday we will look through your Practice Analytic essays with the comments, talk about your thesis statements, and work on planning your essays. The Draft for Project 2 will be due Tuesday, November 30.

Videos for Project 2

First 5 Minutes

Analytic Paper

Conclusion

Project 2

In class today we went over the assignment sheet for Project 2. You then used coaching sessions on the Practice analysis 2 to explore which parts of your analytic writing were going well, and which parts you need to work on.

Homework:
Send an email in which you give the Practice Analysis 2 writing a grade based on the Content criteria for Project 2. Your email should describe how/whether you met each of the criteria, how many (if any) points you gave/took off with respect to each criteria, and the overall grade the essay should receive. This email should also describe the revision strategies you would use to revise for an "A" essay.

In class on Thursday we will watch the video for Project 2, and do some rhetorical analysis + prewriting to get started on the project.

Coaching in the writing center: Those of you who would like to try coaching some sessions at the Writing Center should send me an email - and I will contact the GAs on your shift.

Practice Analysis 2

In class today we talked in some detail about different kinds of cause effect relationships, and about how to use discussions of those different relationships to develop a cause-effect essay. (see HTWA pp. 138-143).

For homework: Use the notes and writing you developed for the Practice Analysis 1 assignments to write a complete cause-effect essay. If you want - you can use an entirely new focus (maybe one of the focuses listed on the board in class today). Your essay can be as long/short as you choose => but remember that the purpose is for you to practice and get feedback on analytic writing - before you turn in your graded essay (Project 2). At the top of your essay - write your focus. Turn your essay in as an attachment. The essay should follow the criteria/form we set up at the end of class discussion:

Introduction where you set up your focus (based on the kind of cause-effect analysis you will write about)=> overview of what you will analyze + what your analysis "shows" and/or why it is significant to writing center work

Background (if necessary)a paragraph to give a more detailed overview of the context or set of relationships you will analyze

Body of the analysis: a series of paragraphs where you:
identify a particular cause effect relationship and describe IN DETAIL the causes & effect (be sure to include both descriptive + interpretive statements about the causes + effects)
discuss how this particular cause-effect relationship connects to/shows something about your focus

A conclusion that sums up connections between your analysis + your focus and connects everything back to the importance/significance


In class Tuesday, you will "grade" your essays in terms of the criteria for Project 2 (which are very much like the criteria we developed in class last Thursday and which are listed on the blog for Practice Analytic Assignment 1). You will then turn in your graded essays - and I will also give you a grade (though it will only count as feedback for you - so you know how well you are doing).

Continue to take notes in the writing center, and to bring your tutor observation sheets to class so I can enter them into my gradebook.

Practice Analysis 1 continued

In class today we talked about the "parts" of an analysis. We talked about the different kinds of evidence you need to provide to develop an analysis of events that you observe (like coaching sessions); specifically we explored the difference between observations/descriptions and interpretations/inferences. Observations are what you actually see - such as the student leaning out of the conversation, speaking softly, saying "Do you think it's boring?" and covering her mouth as she listened to her work. Interpretations are statements about what those observations might mean => that the student is shy, uncomfortable, or an inexperienced writer.

We watched the video part by part, observing the interactions between what the student did & what the tutor did. Our assumption was that what happens before => causes what happens after. Detailed descriptions of what happened, the sequence of what happened, and your interpretations of the meaning of what happened will be the basis of the cause-effect analysis you will write for Project 2.

Specific observations are the "proof" for your interpretations. In class you practiced writing a detailed description that would support a statement that the student was uncomfortable.

Organizing cause-effect analyses. Toward the end of class, you wrote a ordered list of the points you would need to make (and the material you might include to develop those points) to form a kind of "outline" for an analysis of the video that focuses on showing how the tutor's moves helped to put the student at ease.

The overall outline in the sample paper was:

- set up focus => general statement that student was uncomfortable (Cause) & tutor's moves made her less uncomfortable (effect)

- level of student discomfort + moves tutor made during warm-up talk (might want to add more detailed description to illustrate/prove student discomfort + more detailed descriptions of tutor moves. Also might want to add a description of any changes in the student's appearance, behavior, talk, etc that indicates she is more comfortable)

-level of student discomfort + moves tutor made in transition to working on essay (what should be added?)

- level of student discomfort + moves tutor made during session (anything to add?)

- conclusion

In discussion that followed - several different patterns for organization were suggested. At this point - it might be useful for you to return to CH 5 in HTWA and re-read 138-143.

In class on Thursday we will talk about different kinds of causes (138-140) and about deciding on a focus for your analysis and associated patterns for organization.

Homework:
Re-read: HTWA 138-143.

Write: 1. Turn in the "outline" you started in class for an analysis of the tutoring video. Make sure your outline includes a clear statement of what your analysis shows. 2. State one point you will make with respect to what your analysis shows, and using observations (and appropriate interpretations) from the video - write a detailed description to support one of your points (it should be different from the point we worked on in class).

sample video analysis

During the video I noticed the cause and effect issues with a student feeling uncomfortable in the writing center. Observed in the video, the student showed signs of uneasiness during the session; however, the tutor made an attempt and had some progress in trying to relax the student.

At first the student seemed very awkward and embarrassed to be in the writing center. She hardly said a word to the tutor and really had no idea about what was going on. The tutors’ first attempt to dispel the discomfort included her asking what major the student was going into. Although, the student was undeclared and very self-conscious about her answer, the tutor continued on and mentioned being undeclared is okay for beginning students.

When the tutor began to transition into working on the paper she asked the student to read the essay for her. Unfortunately, the student was to shy to read her own paper and requested the tutor to read the essay for her. As the tutor read the essay, she showed much interest and made the session a bit more personal by saying she is interested in watching the movies that were brought up in the essay. Clearly, this was another effort made to relax the student.

Additionally, the tutor gave the student a great deal of positive feedback to boost the students’ confidence. Due to the encouraging advice, the student was able to break out of her shell a tad and read part of her essay after the tutor asked her a question. Even though the student still had uncomfortable body language, the tutor was able to relieve the tension before the session ended.

Obviously, the issue the student had was being uncomfortable. Luckily, the tutor knew how to react to this situation and clearly made a strong point not to give up on trying to make the student feel at least a little comfortable. Thankfully, the tutor was able to alleviate some of the anxiety the student was feeling.

Practice analytic paper

Note: Bring the tutor observation sheets that you have collected so far to class on Tuesday, November 9. I will do a quick check of your notes and make sure you are on track for gathering notes you can use to write the analytic paper.

We reviewed the overview of analytic writing in your textbook. In this discussion we established that causal analysis generally answers a question about relationships between causes & effects. We talked about the "parts" a cause-effect paper would need to include to meet its purpose, and listed them ( these were listed for a second time in the assignment sheet we developed for the homework assignment).

We also talked (quickly) through two of the sample analytic papers in your text book. Discussion of the essay on i-pods/technology emphasized that the organization (form) of your essay should be guided by the audience and purpose of your essay. In this essay, the writer argues against the "old fogeys" - who are also probably his primary readers; therefore he meets counter-arguments first (addresses causes/effects that may seem important but can be explained another way). Discussion of the speed limit essay illustrated the importance of looking at your focus in a way that is sufficiently complex to really explain (as opposed to appearing to explain) the relationships you are analyzing.

We spent the rest of class viewing and analyzing the video of a mock session between A (tutor) and S (student). We wrote a list of observations detailing what "happened" in the session - noting what seemed to be cause/effect relationships - and then watched the video again. After the second viewing we wrote a list of cause/effect questions that you might use as a focus for the homework assignment.

We then developed the criteria for the homework assignment:

Homework assignment=> due Tuesday, Nov. 9, as an email attachment.

Purpose: write an analytic essay with a focus for analysis that answers a question about cause effect relationships within the mock-session in the video.

Criteria (what the essay should include):

1. detailed (focused) descriptions of the cause effect relationships you will analyze

2. discussion of and claims for how the cause/effect relationships in the session "worked" as well as how they relate to your focus

3. clear statement of what the analysis shows (with respect to tutoring)

4. support for discussion & claims in 2.

Length: This essay should about a page but no more than a page and a half. The purpose of the assignment is to give you practice developing a cause/effect analysis so you can get some feedback on how you are doing before you work on the final project.

To keep this paper short - your paper should include a clear statement of your focus, a description of the cause/effect relationships you will analyze, and a conclusion. State them clearly - but you do not need to elaborate. For the analysis itself = analyze only 1 of your examples /claims. The other examples/claims to develop your analysis can be listed - but you don't need to develop the support.

Portfolio: I will be grading your portfolios over the weekend and you will have a second "grade-so-far" on Tuesday.

Reminders and answers to questions asked in class:

1. When you have a graded draft with comments => post that draft (rather than the ungraded copy).

2. The persuasive essay will be graded not only on form and content, but also on the quality of your revisions => so it is essential that you post successive drafts.

3. If you want me to "re-grade" earlier assignments - (work turned in with the first "grade-so-far" portfolio ) - make a note of what you want me to grade on the home page. Without a note requesting a new grade - I will not know that I needed to re-read earlier work and I will use the numbers from the first time you turned in your work.

Enjoy the rain!

Video

Work Day for Reflective Essay + Portfolio

Today you worked on your reflective essays for the Persuasive essay (assignment sheet posted to the right), and on setting up your portfolio.

We also talked about your observations in the Writing Center. You should be collecting your observation sheets. On class Thursday, bring the observation sheets you have collected so for - completed & dated, I will mark your credit in the grade book.

In class Thursday we will get started on the analytic essay.

Read: HTWA, Ch 5, Causal Analysis

Post all assignments through the Persuasive essay to the portfolio. I will grade portfolios over the weekend and you will receive another "grade-so-far."