Hi All,
I'm reading cover letters for the 95 essays I'm slugging through, and wanted to share with you a comment:
"I felt like this was an open assignment. I was used to having assignments where I would be given questions to answer and told how my essay should look from those answers. This was more up to me and how I wanted the essay to turn out. I had to figure out how to still meet the essay's criteria."
I'm still turning this over in my mind, trying to decide if she meant this as a good or bad thing...I suspect she meant good, but is demonstrating that curiosity that not all my 95ers are...self directed...many seem to want to simply be told what to do and how to do it, with little room for "figuring it out" (banking). I'd like to explore how to do this/encourage this without sacrificing standards/form/structure...
KMS
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Rubric Essay One: General Guidelines
This is more "nuts and bolts" than we may want to discuss on the blog, but here's my revised rubric for next time after taking it through this first paper...
ENGLISH 95X – This I Believe/Essay One
Thesis and Introduction
___ Do the first few sentences of your introduction effectively get the attention of your readers and make them want to continue reading?
___ Do the beginning sentences of your introduction logically and smoothly lead up to your thesis statement?
___ Do you present a one-sentence statement of your thesis that conveys the main idea of your whole essay and answers the assignment question?
Organization and the Support and Development of Ideas
___ Do you begin each body paragraph with a clear topic sentence that gives you some specific point(s) to develop or support?
___ Is the main idea of each topic sentence directly support your thesis?
___ Is each claim presented in your body paragraphs supported using PIE? Is there enough information and evidence/elaboration?
___ Is there a logical progression of ideas within paragraphs and from one body paragraph to the next?
___ Do you end body paragraphs with a concluding sentence and/or logical transition into the next body paragraph?
___ In the conclusion, do you restate (but not repeat) the thesis statement and leave readers thinking about the importance of the ideas you develop in the body of the paper?
Style
___ Do you use a variety of sentences throughout your paper? (Notice how each sentence begins and how long each sentence is. If necessary, rewrite or combine sentences for more variety.)
___ Could any of your sentences be rewritten to convey ideas more effectively or more clearly? Do any of your sentences seem a bit awkward, causing you to pause and reread the sentence to understand the meaning? (If so, rewrite those sentences.)
___ Do you use a variety of words and avoid repeating the same words many times in your paper?
Mechanics
___ Is your paper in the correct format, double spaced with 12-point fonts?
___ Do you have the proper heading and first page format on the paper?
___ Does the paper have a title?
___ Have you proofread your paper carefully to eliminate all errors?
ENGLISH 95X – This I Believe/Essay One
Thesis and Introduction
___ Do the first few sentences of your introduction effectively get the attention of your readers and make them want to continue reading?
___ Do the beginning sentences of your introduction logically and smoothly lead up to your thesis statement?
___ Do you present a one-sentence statement of your thesis that conveys the main idea of your whole essay and answers the assignment question?
Organization and the Support and Development of Ideas
___ Do you begin each body paragraph with a clear topic sentence that gives you some specific point(s) to develop or support?
___ Is the main idea of each topic sentence directly support your thesis?
___ Is each claim presented in your body paragraphs supported using PIE? Is there enough information and evidence/elaboration?
___ Is there a logical progression of ideas within paragraphs and from one body paragraph to the next?
___ Do you end body paragraphs with a concluding sentence and/or logical transition into the next body paragraph?
___ In the conclusion, do you restate (but not repeat) the thesis statement and leave readers thinking about the importance of the ideas you develop in the body of the paper?
Style
___ Do you use a variety of sentences throughout your paper? (Notice how each sentence begins and how long each sentence is. If necessary, rewrite or combine sentences for more variety.)
___ Could any of your sentences be rewritten to convey ideas more effectively or more clearly? Do any of your sentences seem a bit awkward, causing you to pause and reread the sentence to understand the meaning? (If so, rewrite those sentences.)
___ Do you use a variety of words and avoid repeating the same words many times in your paper?
Mechanics
___ Is your paper in the correct format, double spaced with 12-point fonts?
___ Do you have the proper heading and first page format on the paper?
___ Does the paper have a title?
___ Have you proofread your paper carefully to eliminate all errors?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Trust the Process?
My 95 has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. On the plus side, the students are motivated and engaged in class. On Monday I had (for nearly an hour) to keep a queue on the board of students who wanted to speak about the thoughts they were having in response to the reading. Finally, I just had to cut the students off (though some still wanted to speak), so I could explain the homework before the end of class.
The difficulty has been with reading/writing skills. Only about half of the students are writing passing summaries at this point, and 2/3 of the students did not receive a passing grade on the first paper.
Why is this? I suspect that they don't fully understand how much work they need to be doing outside of class. Though they're motivated in class, only 4 students sought help with the paper from me or the Writing Lab, even though I discussed the importance of seeking help every day. Many don't seem to put much time into the work outside of class. Occasionally they admit that they rushed this or that assignment, they didn't finish the reading, etc, and they complain about the work load a lot. I do know that many of them are terribly overcommitted in their lives and probably weren't good candidates for an accellerated class in the first place.
I'm trying to trust the process and hoping to see the students rise to the occasion on the second paper.
The difficulty has been with reading/writing skills. Only about half of the students are writing passing summaries at this point, and 2/3 of the students did not receive a passing grade on the first paper.
Why is this? I suspect that they don't fully understand how much work they need to be doing outside of class. Though they're motivated in class, only 4 students sought help with the paper from me or the Writing Lab, even though I discussed the importance of seeking help every day. Many don't seem to put much time into the work outside of class. Occasionally they admit that they rushed this or that assignment, they didn't finish the reading, etc, and they complain about the work load a lot. I do know that many of them are terribly overcommitted in their lives and probably weren't good candidates for an accellerated class in the first place.
I'm trying to trust the process and hoping to see the students rise to the occasion on the second paper.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Thinking About Where My 961A Is on Tuesday March 1st...
One of the things that really surprises me at this juncture of the semester is that this class doesn't feel much different than an English 1A. I'm not saying that all (or necessarily any) students are writing 1A level essay or reading texts with 1A level skill and alacrity. But the class feels like an English 1A. As we work on our second major essay, students are coming to class with what I see as 1A-level concerns, the types of things I expect and hope 1A students are struggling with at this point in the semester:
- Problematizing an idea
- Focusing a claim
- Learning to better plan/design/pre-write an essay that relies on outside sources and research. (They're starting to realize freewriting a research-driven essay doesn't really work at all...)
- Elaborating upon and amplifying ideas through fuller analysis, explanation, and paragraph development
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