2.23 Grades

You should have an email with your grade.  If you don't have your grade - be in touch.

Happy holidays!

12.18 Portfolios, revised work + how you will be receiving your grades

Finishing your portoflios:
Today you worked on completing your reflective essay and posting any revisions/additions to work in your portfolio.

Note:  If you have added or revised assignments for any unit, list the assignment on the first page of your portfolio.  (Directions here.)

How you will receive notice of your grades. 
I will be grading portfolios as soon as all work has been turned in.  After I have grades all of the completed portfolios, I will contact each of you by email with  a grade sheet, and  I will post a notice on the blog to let you know I have sent out the grade sheets.

After the grade sheets have been sent out, I will wait about 20-48 hours to hear back from you.  This is to give you a chance to look through the numbers and make sure that tally with your assessments of your work.  If I do not hear from you after a day or two, I will assume that you are in agreement with the grade sheet, and I will post the grades to Keanwise.

12.15 Peer review

You worked on your portfolios, and while I didn't talk to many of you, it sounded like you got some good work done.

On Thursday we will meet for our last class.  We will check through the portfolios one more time to make sure everything is where it needs to be, and I will review to process for grading/receiving your grades.

I'm hoping that we can use most of class to  have a conversation about "writing about literature" in general - and to talk in particular about whether you think the course has the right objectives, what worked and what didn't, and any suggestions you might have for the next time it is taught.

See you Thursday!

12.11 Workshop

At the beginning of class we reviewed the requirements for the reflective introduction to your portfolio.  This essay should be posted to the landing page in your portfolio.

Also - if you have re-posted or revised work, make a note on at the top of the introduction page, directing me to any documents that I need to re-consider to calculate your grade.

For next class:
On monday you will work in groups on peer review to make sure you have everything in your portfolio, in the right place, and it is your best.

Unfortunately we will be in the classroom without the computers, so bring your laptops if you can.

Have a good weekend, and see you Monday.

12.8 Revising Othello essays + Reflective writing assignment

We started class by listing some "what to work on" patterns in the feedback on Othello essays.  Here is what we came up with,  I've listed the points in the order you would want to work on them.

1. focus:
provide a statement  to set up the fous of each paragraph (topic sentence); should be connected to the thesis
review the thesis to make sure it is stated clearly and in the right place, also make sure each point in the essay refers back/connects to the thesis
deepen/strengthen the critical power of the thesie

2. organization
look at paragraphing: one point per paragraph?
present evidence before discussing/evaluating the point that evidence makes
make sure points are in the best logical order

3. Development (elaboration)
more support from the text you are analyzing
more discussion of what the text "shows" with respect to the thesis/point the paragraph develops
cut any material not needed for/relevant to the thesis/overall focus of the essay

4. Language
revise overly generalm vague claims or sentences
revise to use forms/langauge associated with academic writing

Reflective writing assignment.  Discussion of what to include in the assignment sheet for the reflective essay on writing for this course produced a general outline of the assignment as listed below.

Purpose – to show what we’ve learned = to show development as a writer

Figure out what is getting better + what to work on

Look at where you started – see development + what tools you used to get there

Description of the assignment:

Review writing for the semester – including brainstorming, drafts, and graded essays – as a way to???

Write down writing issues (both writing issues + life issues) – notice how/whether those issues change /affect the your writing

Make some correlations among life issues, writing practices and quality of writing as you move through the semester

Criteria for the assignment

Focus – identify patterns in terms of the author’s development as a writer

Content = examine development writing, drafts, revision process + final papers

Organization=> presented not as a "list" but as a readable essay that makes a series of points about your general areas of strength + weakness.  Should have an intro, body, conclusion
Development needs to include specific references to all stages of writing (brainstorming, drafting revising, polishing) as "evidence" of your claims about how your writing process has developed.

Some "gut" observations of what you learned and how you learned it.  
Getting used to getting thoughts on papers even if they don’t make sense – so you have something to work with

Writing drafts, talking about it, being able to go back and think about what to work on = developing a reflective process where you work with peers

Using a brainstorming process

Useful to attend to text

Peer review – reading out loud, peers are honest + speak in understandable language

Attention to forms expected for academic writing

Use google voice – to “hear” paper

 We decided that because, to be useful, this kind of writing needs to include evidence (specific references to particular drafts, brainstorming or finished essays) of the patterns you describem the essay should be at least 2-4 pages, depending how clearly + efficiently you write.

For next class:

Next class will be an open workshop in the computer classroom.  You will have an opportunity to work on writing of your choice.  Also, if you want to discuss assessment of the last unit, this would be the time to do it.

12.4 Revision

Strategies for working on revision:

Deciding what to work on
1. Re-read the assignment sheet
2. Assess your essay for:

genre: does the essay make a point appropriate to literary studies?  does the essay's focus meet the "so-what" test?  is the essay organized in general patterns associated with academic essays (intro-body-conclusion; they say=> I say) ?  is the language appropriate to academic style?

focus: does the essay set up its focus (clearly) near the beginning of the essay?  Does each paragraph connect to that focus in a different way?  Are there statement in each paragraph that state the connection to the focus?  At the essay's ending, does the conclusion re-state the focus in light of evidence presented in the body paragraphs?

organization: Is the focus set up at the beginning? does the essay provide adequate contextual/background information BEFORE it evaluates/assesses/builds/makes a point about that material?  do the points unfold in a logical order?  is there one well developed point (related to the focus) per paragraph?  are there transitions?

development: do the body paragraphs present specific, relevant quotes/paraphrases from the text?  are quotes presented using the "sandwich" method?  are quotes and references to "facts" cited appropriately?

language choices/sentence structure/style: repetitions?  fuzzy (unclear) meanings caused by overly general statements (watch of the use of pronouns or placeholder language used to stand for ideas, conclusions, inferences etc. e.g. Many characters in Othello this cause problems. ) I

3. Read the comments


How to work on:
focus
to clarify/strengthen the focus=list points in order make sure all connect to focus;read the first paragraph (thesis) and pay attention to how the rest of the essay connects to the focus set up there; read the body + conclusion and pay attention to what these paragraphs focus on & make sure that is set up in the intro
to deepen-broaden the focus = do some brainstorming/freewriting/associating/listing to deepen-broadent the focus

organization
check the points set up in the intro=> then check to see that points in the essay follow that orer
decide on an overall strategy for the organization then check to make sure the essay stays consistent with that strategy
make a reverse outline
make a list of "the best" order for your points

for internal organization of paragraphs = make sure each paragrah follows the par before it and that it connects to the focus, provides support/evidence/development and transitions to the next paragraph.

development
gather more evidence
go back to the text + develop some more analysis of the text
do more brainstorming


Where to post revision plans
Post your plan for revision on the "polished essay" page for the unit you are working on,  For example, if you are revising your short story draft, post your homework plan for revising that essay and the revised plan you worked on in class today, to the polished essay/short story page.

For next class, Dec 8: 
Post your revised essay (either poetry or short story)

Drama essays returned
Discussion of revision for Othello essay
Presentation on Reflective essay assignment

12.1 Writing about literary research

We are NOT going to be writing an essay on Mango Street.  I looked at the number of weeks left in the course and decided we simply do not have time to do in-depth work on revising without ditching an assignment - so that's that.  Below I have posted the revised schedule.

Revisions to the schedule
Dec 1: Discussion of deValdes essay

Dec 4:
workshop on revision of either the Short Story essay, or the poetry essay

Dec 8: Drama essays returned
Discussion of revision for Othello essay
Presentation on Reflective essay assignment

Dec 11
workshop = in-class conferences on essay of your choice

Dec 15  
Peer review of reflective essay + revised essays

Dec 18: Complete portfolio due at end of class


Connecting to the researh - writing about scholarly essays.
Reviewing the focus, theory, and main points for the essay. Just as when writing about literature, when writing about research essays connected to a particular work of literature, it is important to spend some time with the research essay before deciding on a focus or "taking a stand."  In general, when reading a critical essay, you will need to have a strong hand on the following.

• A clear idea of the thesis
• Background to set up the argument.
• (theory, terms defined, overivew of - how to interprt plot/character/scene)
• the list the points the author makes to develop the thesis (notice the order)
• The essay's conclusion

In our discussion of deValdes we decided the thesis centered on:
-  the creation of identity;
-  the role of an "impulse toward the world (a voice) and the persona or character or role assumed as - -  that voice is projected into/finds its place within social culture
-  presentation of a critical model of reading
-  discussion of an aesthetic process where things become metaphors of (becoming) a self

In terms of background materials, we noted that deValdes made connections to social feminism, distinctions between semantic and semiotic (voice + character/ the literal and the metaphoric)

We also noted that in her discussion she set up each discussion by referring back to the theoretical/features of her "model" that she would work with in the "reading" she used to illustrate the point.

General ideas/approaches work for writing about literary essays
- explorations of structure=> theoretical readings of how the critical essay works
- discussions of the historical context for the essay,  how it fits in with other essays about the same work, or how it connects to the larger body of theory it draws from
- agree or disagree (or agree with some parts and not others) with the essay's thesis/main points about how the literary work "works", connets to theory, or etc
-discuss how the critical essay might be extended, applied to other sections, improved, etc.

You did a great job reading this essay.  Thanks for your good work.

What to do for next class
Write:  post reflective writing on which essay you will revise, and what you plan to work on for your revisions. Consider focus, organization, development, language choices, and correctness.  Be as specific as you can about what you want to revise.

We will use the class in the computer lab both to identify WHAT to work on, and HOW to work on the most important writing issues for your essays.