I never thought I'd say this, but I love the reading responses. (OK--not when I'm writing them, only when someone else is.) They have been a great way to teach both form and content, all without the students really realizing it. In writing a summary, the students are looking for the author's main point and replicating the form of the writing by touching on the most important points in chronological fashion. In the evaluation section they are looking at what is effective in both form and content--how the author is manipulating them as a reader. The comparison section gives them another opportunity to look at what the author is saying, and how it compares to other essays we have read. The sections differ from one another, teaching the students about purpose, and hey, even rhetorical strategy. Love it.
One of my favorite teaching moments of the semester occurred the day I passed out the requirements for essay #2. Randy complained that he didn't think the assignment was relevant to anything we had been doing, so I asked him what he'd written about in his evaluation section the previous week. It was like the light went on for the whole class (or at least 3/4 of them--the others were asleep). WOOOO! We can do this, people! We've already been doing it! I guess it is that whole "wax on/wax off" thing, eh?
As for the third essay, I've been asking them every day for different organizational plans. Someone volunteers a topic and thesis, or gets it dragged out of them, and then we map it out on the board. Not in great detail, but just general possibilities for examples, possible sources, or possible roadblocks. They seem pretty calm at this point, so I hope this is a sign of confidence and not just complete surrender.
Now if someone would just organize my bib essay for me--and decide on a topic for my thesis--life will be great.
No comments:
Post a Comment