Hi folks,
Thanks for taking the time to fill out the Google form survey regarding the class so far and what changes you might like to see in the second half of our semester.
There were some resounding commonalities among your responses as well as some topics that had variation, so I want to cover them here and tell you about what we'll be adjusting. I also want to give you some extra guidance, structure, and models for the upcoming post for Sunday. (There's a really helpful document toward the bottom of this post, so please read all the way through.)
Survey Feedback and Future Changes
Breakout Rooms
One thing that was resounding was people's interest in the breakout rooms and also having more of them (with 3-4 members).
I will make a concerted effort to set aside time in each class session for us to have interactive breakout rooms with structured exercises so that you have a concrete activity to work on together. I may jump into the rooms as well so that I can check in.
We will often use Google docs to ensure that work is being done in the rooms (I know how easy it can be to go down the rabbit hole of "dog groups on Facebook!"). As one person recommended, we can also create separate docs per group if that seems easier. I'll condense them afterwards if needed. I won't limit us to the groups you started with — as you'll see in the screencast, we will be working with those groups a lot in the weeks ahead anyways.
Other in-class materials
It sounds like most of the class feels that the shared Google docs and slideshows are working well, so we will keep using those. I'll try to think of other innovative ways to apply them both as well. I will also keep varying the delivery of information in lecture form with your doing exercises either independently or in groups. So, in essence, more of the same, but maybe a clearer shift between your work of "listening" and "doing" each day. (But you can always feel free to jump in more with questions or comments to feel more "active!")
Writing topics
People want to talk about a lot (!) of different writing elements, including, but not limited to: style, argumentation, creative writing, tone, thesis, analysis, and research. Wow! We are trying to cover as much territory as possible. When we start meeting in groups more regularly, please do let us know if you want to work on something particular within your own writing, since we'll be reading your work together and we can apply suggestions most directly.
Post Length
Let's reduce the length of posts to 1,000 words. That will keep them consistent over the weeks and make stretching to the word count feel less like a chore and more like something you'll just naturally hit.
Where to find stuff
As much as possible, I will try to streamline the delivery of information through these Friday Follow-ups instead of multiple emails, and will try to keep homework in line with the website agenda (sometimes we do have to throw in a last-minute piece to make up for not getting through something in class; sorry about that).
Schedule / Meetings
I've created a short 5-minute screencast video that walks through a few of the schedule changes and other small things about our website and where to find assignment info:
Okay, that's all for the survey part of this discussion. If you have other feedback that wasn't covered or that you want to add, please let me know.
Where we've been
This week was dedicated to learning the "They Say, I Say" techniques. We used a slideshow on Wednesday combined with a Google document (on both Wed and Thursday) that helped us practice identifying another writer's argumentative viewpoint and then articulating our own response beyond a basic "I agree."
Key formulas
The say = writer + strong verb + paraphrase AND/OR quotation (think strategically!!)
I say = "yes, and…" or "no, because…" or "I'm of two minds: on the one hand… on the other hand…"
Sunday's post
For Sunday, you'll be writing what I have called an "Agreement and Disagreement piece." Obviously, this is not a specific genre of writing. In our assignment details, I outline the different ways you might approach this piece (you can argue with one source, multiple, etc). Please read that prompt first, if you haven't already.
What I'll be looking for is that you give equal weight to stating agreement and disagreement. I'm also looking for you to really spend time on each point and flesh out not only your articulation of a "they say" but also spell out your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. This is the last very structured or template-based post. In the future, you'll be presenting your own viewpoint through op-eds.
This piece should feel different than last week's "framing the conversation." Instead of hitting on the main overarching idea of all the sources, I want you to focus on specific passages from sources that interest you most and to spend time spelling out just one claim from each passage at a time. In other words, you can dedicate a whole paragraph to just one small claim that a writer makes without even talking about the entirety of the article. You'll want to engage with focused arguments so that you can respond to them with equal clarity, specificity, and concreteness. There's a lot of process-based critical thinking and reflection that should be going on.
To guide you through more of the "They say / I say" framework and really show you what I mean by the above description, I have created a Google doc (also embedded below) that walks through ways you might present agreements and disagreements, using the paragraph we used as a sample in the slideshow on Wednesday. Please read this document carefully and, if you'd like, you can add comments where you have questions or want something explained more (this is why I am sharing it as a Google doc rather than a PDF; feel free to mark it up!).
Next week
As mentioned in the screencast, we will meet on Wednesday and Thursday next week. I will assign an exercise for you to complete on Monday by end of day. Look for these adjustments to be made on the calendar and assignment details on the website on Saturday.
One last thing
I will be sending you feedback on your first Project post ("Framing the Conversation") hopefully by Saturday morning via email.
You'll receive a letter grade for that project (5% of total course grade). So far, you've received grades for 2 other blog posts, one of which you got by email. But since we have only completed about 15% of our course grade so far, you may not have a sense of your grade — that is why. If you have questions at this point, let me know.
All right, that's it from me for now.
Best,
Dr. V