Tue. March, 9, 2010

We watched "The Listening Project." Kudos to Josh! This movie is an excellent visual supplement to Said, Pratt, and Anzaldua. One student had to leave early, but on his way out he told me he was sorry to leave because he was enjoying the film. After watching half the film, I opened up the discussion. Listening to responses, I could tell the film had a profound impact on everyone's world paradigm due to the thoughtful and insightful perspectives. We didn't have time to finish the film nor our discussion, but we'll do so on Thursday.

Additionally, I handed back 2.1. Reading and commenting on these took a significant amount of time since I sought to offer substantial feedback. I think I put more time into commenting on this piece than any other project in both 107 classes. Many students engaged the prompt and topic from a challenging perspective, grappling with their community, its purpose and message, and how it conveys its sense of identity to others. One student stayed after class and told me this project really offered her a chance to ask herself why she is doing what she is doing. I prefer not to go into details, but she found that although she doesn't question her community's purpose, she sometimes questions the "why" behind it. Needless to say, my heart was gladdened that a project caused my student to significantly question why she was making specific choices. In the end, she found renewed commitment to her choice and community.

Back to the paper... For other students, I wonder how effective my comments will be? This is the last paper--I'm hoping they feel motivated to take my comments and work with them. I ended class ten minutes early and told them to read the comments and if they had any questions, to stay behind so we could talk. Only three students stayed. I was hoping more would stay to discuss where they are. I know it's their grade and life, but I want to motivate them--this will be a question I have for Sunny and Brenda--how to motivate non-English major students to want to improve their writing? I put a lot of time and effort into thinking about and implementing motivational moves in my pedagogy, but feedback from those who have done it for years will be helpful

Thur. March 4, 2010

Students turned in their first draft of the Project 2.1 assignment. Additionally, I asked them to bring in three total copies so we could workshop papers. In work shopping, I put specific questions on the board for them to answer. I prefaced their peer work with the notion of not just saying "good" or "bad", but actually offering substantial feedback. For example, one question called for students not to just list the writer's purpose, but give a thoughtful sentence that summarizes the writer's purpose. Also, they had to list the actual aspects that created each person's community. In other words, the paper focuses on community identity and how this identity is constructed and conveyed to the world at large. They had to use outside sources, scholarly and non-scholarly, and Said to build their argument, so the peer reviewer was called upon to examine and critique whether or not these tasks were effectively accomplished. Further, I called attention to the fact that this exercise is also an attempt for them to build their own critical muscles so they can go home and do the same critiquing of their own papers. In regards to actual progress, I found they worked hard and critiqued well. Many students wrote significant feedback.

I experimented today. I've found many students rely on cliches to try and convey their points. So as a group, we brainstormed cliches and I asked two students to write the cliches on the board. After many good laughs, I pulled a sentence from a student paper and put it on the board. It read, "Sometimes, this is when volunteer spirit has to kick in and we have to do the right thing." I asked students to identify the cliches and see if they could replace these instances with more specific language, language that "really " says what they mean. I thought they did a terrific job of taking in the notion of saying what they mean rather than relying on out-worn phrases. Most took the notion to their peer-reviewing work and began seeing where cliches were limiting them. In the end, I was pleased by our progress and the connections we're making.

Thur. Feb. 25, 2010

Utilizing Blackboard and the projector, we looked at a sample 2.1 paper I had from last quarter. We went through it page-by-page to see how this writer went about constructing their piece--writerly/rhetorical moves, etc. Interestingly, after a few minutes, students began calling my attention to places where the text tripped into "readability issues." I came up with this term as an overall designation for content lapses, grammar, syntax errors, and places that cause the reader to halt. This term became necessary after students called me on the fact that I said I don't put a large onus on grammar, and yet I was calling attention to syntax and grammar errors. However, when I created an umbrella that covers many "errors" that cause lapses in readability, students could see the connection. I had one student read the paper out loud and she began getting frustrated when she had to stop because of these "readability" issues. Other students soon joined in so that as the reader tripped, students were calling attention to "why" she tripped.

Pedagogically speaking, I regularly try to make connections between my students' writing and the world outside of academia. Hence, I was pleased when they called my attention to the fact that a problem could arise if their boss continually "tripped" over readability issues in their writing. In the end, hopefully, we're moving towards to the notion of correcting errors in a positive light so the reader can follow along without "tripping." This seems to be working--we'll see how it goes.

Tue. Feb. 23, 2010

More unpacking of Said's text. Working in groups, students focused on questions that I tried to relate to their own writing--Said's purpose, meaning, how he goes about articulating his argument, writer/rhetorical moves Said makes to bring the reader over to his side, etc. Additionally, since photos are an integral aspect of Project 2, we focused on the messages brought to and conveyed through the photographs in "States." Lastly, we began writing an introduction to 2.1 together. We picked one student who had a firm notion of what he wanted to write about, and then students brainstormed ways to go about beginning writing the project. I wrote the ideas on the board as we went along and then we began crafting the beginning to 2.1 together.

Overall, I'm seeing students are making "synaptical" connections between the writerly moves Said makes and their own writing process. Thye offered moves that pleasantly surprised me, and I think, themselves.