I've just posted some comments to Kristen's posts and replied to a comment she posted on one of my posts.
Week 9:
Monday: It was the first day back from Spring Break so I needed to assess their progress (mostly internal) and make the remaining schedule and our due dates clear. I handed out calendars for April 2010 and May 2010 with the assignments written in their due dates. I think this helped students visualize the remaining weeks of the semester. On the Wednesday before break we'd discussed time management. They filled out weekly calendars -- wrote in the calendar the times they have class and work, time to transport, sleep, clean, eat, complete assignments, and socialize.
We also discussed their concerns for the essay and the holes or gaps they could identify in their research.
They had a dialogue due. For this assignment they create an informal dialogue that might occur if the authors of their sources were to have a conversation. I usually find this assignment quite successful -- they can really embody their sources' points of view.
Wednesday: Their Research Log 3 and Source Essay 3 were due on Wednesday. I usually have them briefly write up four sources they've found for each research log. And in their source essays, they explore one central idea or argument in one source and create a plan for how to use that source in their essay and what other sources it could lead them to.
I'd changed the length requirements for the polished Researched Discovery Essay, but I hadn't changed the source requirements. The research felt rushed this time, and I couldn't imagine them having time to find four more suitable sources, so for Research Log 3 they needed to find at least two sources that fill the gaps they'd identified in their research. And for their Source Essay 3, they wrote a detailed draft of an outline for their essays, including what ideas from each of their sources would support or help explain each idea or section of their essay.
I decided to require 6 sources instead of the usual 8 in the polished essay. I hope the research component of the essay feels complete. If not, the altered timeline to allow time to select speakers and prepare a speech might need rethinking.
Week 10:
Monday: Their first draft of the essay was due today: 7 pages and 3 sources. Many of the students pieced these 7 pages together from previous assignments. They are extremely rough. I find this is usually the case with the first draft, and I don't know if that's a necessity -- the messy piecing together of all the work they've accomplished thus far -- or if it's a waste of their time. Maybe I should schedule one Frankenstein draft before this first draft that asks them to piece together their previous assignments into an essay as best they can. Then I can require that the first draft be a smoothing and an adding to of this Frankenstein draft.
I've talked to some instructors who are having students complete polished essays throughout the semester, and the finished assignment is a smoothed compilation of these polished essays. How's that going? Does that seem like a better organization than what you've previously used, than what I'm currently using?
Wednesday: My class is extremely small this semester. I have only 9 students now; 3 have withdrawn for various reasons. The discussions I plan for the small groups end up happening with the entire class since we're so small, especially if anyone is absent. Students had written response letters after reading a classmate's first draft. They described their classmate's draft to the class and voiced praise and concerns. That opened up interesting brief discussions, and some of the students who hadn't read the draft (though they know about one another's essays pretty well) offered some ideas for their classmates.
We also looked back at the opening paragraphs of the essays/chapters we've read by published authors this semester. We discussed what's effective, what's ineffective, what they've learned an introduction should do, and what they like to read in an introduction. Drafts of two potential introductions are due the following class period.
Hi, Ladies.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you all are doing such great work! Like Kate mentioned, I am one of those teachers who assigned three 5-page research essays, among other assignments, and right now we are working on combining them for the final inquiry essay.
For each essay, we focused on different elements of the research and inquiry process: primary sources, secondary sources, opposing viewpoints, narrative, making connections, etc. I had them handle the essays as rough, exploratory drafts.
This seemed to work well to compile a lot of material. And, the combination process has been going okay so far. I will let you know more when I see their final projects. This strategy makes a lot of sense to me, and seems very structured. I tend to organize longer projects of my own in this way. So, it seemed easier to teach it like this.
However, the only downside I can see is that their essays may lack some inquiry depth by not completing some of the other assignments I've seen done in other classes, the mini-projects designed to help them reach deeper into their questioning. I think there are positives and negatives to teaching the class in both these ways.
Keep up the great work! I can't wait to see your final products. :)