Category: Class

Class, Wed, 12/04

UDel Course Evaluations

Closing Thoughts

Please use Guerilla Mail to (anonymously) write me some thoughts about this course along the following lines:

Snapshot

Please describe a moment in this course that stands out for you—and that maybe even “stands for” this course for you, that’s the moment you’d tell other people about next year, or five or ten years from now. This could be a moment in class, or in group work, or conferences, or talking with a friend or classmate, or working on a piece of writing for this course. Offer me a snapshot of what most stands out for you.

Narrative

Now offer me the longer view. Who were you as a writer (or reader, or student) at the start of this semester? Who are you now? Hopefully, there’s some difference between August and December. If so, how did you get from there to here?

Keywords

As you think back on this semester, what are the terms and ideas that stick in your memory? List however many seem relevant, and tell me why.

Thanks so much! I’ve enjoyed working with you, and would be very happy to do so again!

Essays on Medium

Morgan A, Responding to Criticism: The Dividing Routes

AJ A, Life Lessons: A Student’s Most Valuable Education

Ryan B, “Stupid Is as Stupid Does”

Lauren B, Ignoring the Birds: Grades Over Academic Interests

Amita C, The Little Battles

Maggie C, Embracing the Classroom and the Book: How Education Catalyzes Appreciation

Peyton G, Cameron Fyre’s Day Off . . .

David H, Each One Teach One: Teaching More Than Reading and Writing

Elise J, The Not-so-Golden Ticket: Education for Low Income America and How Mentorship Shapes the Success of Underprivileged Youth

Anaya L, It Is a Pleasure to Defy.

Jimmy M, Educational Conventions Constrict Potential

Zubia M, Esme’s Education: A Guide for Advancing Teaching

Maddie M, Une Belle Vie: What Is a Good Life?

Mike M, Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

Mike O, The Wire as an Examination of the Public School System

Nidhi R, The Seeds of Growth: Coming of Age in Good Will Hunting

Nathan R, *INSERT NAME HERE* What Educating Rita Teaches Us About Individuality

Hannah S, Motivation

Hayley S, Learning: The Savior of Many

Kelsey W, Where Magic Meets Education

Class, Mon, 12/02M

Arcade

Fastwrite

Pull up your essay on Medium.com. Turn your laptop so that people walking by can easily look at your work.

Get out two pieces of paper. Put your name and the title of your essay at the top of both. Create a “flyer” for your Medium essay on one sheet, by pointing (in bold, large print) three moments in your piece that you think readers might want to notice. Try to highlight both passages in your writing and interesting uses you made of the affordances of Medium. Your flyer might look something like thius:

Leave the other sheet blank for reader comments.

Flânerie

Wander about the room, browse through the pieces written by your classmates, and make comments on things that strike you. When we reassemble, I’ll ask you to remark on moments in pieces that surprised or especially pleased you.

To Do

  1. Wed, 12/04, class: Closing thoughts: I’ll ask you to complete the University course evaluations and to respond (anonymously, in writing) to some more informal questions I have for you about this course.
  2. Tues, 12/10, 11:00 pm: If you wish, you may submit one more draft of Essay 1 or 2—either as a print essay or on Medium. In either case, I’d ask you to send me an email in which you point out the main changes and additions you made to your piece.

Class, Wed, 11/20

Essay 2/Grades

Copyleft

Creative Commons

Posting to Medium.com

Studio Time

  • Create an account on Medium.com. Upload a version of your piece to it. (Save it as “Share draft link”.) Begin to play with:
  • The various images, audio, video, and links you might want to add to your piece.
  • The ways in which you might want to reformat or restructure it.
  • Parts of your text you might want to add to, cut, or rework.

To Do

  1. Class, Mon, 12/02: Post a version of your first or second essay to Medium. Feel free not only to add images, audio, video, and links to your piece, but also to reformat and add to the content of your piece. That is, think of this as not only a chance to reversion your piece, but also to redraft it. If your online version of your piece improves signficantly upon its print version, it will receive a higher grade.
  2. Class, Wed, 12/04: Closing thoughts and course evaluations.

Class, Mon, 11/18

Affordances

An affordance is a suggested use—something that an object, technology, or environment allows you to do readily or well.

The design and architecture of environments enable certain types of interaction to occur. Round tables with chairs make chatting with someone easier than classroom-style seating. Even though students can twist around and talk to the person behind them, a typical classroom is designed to encourage everyone to face the teacher. . . . Understanding the affordances of a particular technology or space is important because it sheds light on what people can leverage or resist in achieving their goals. For example, the affordances of a thick window allow people to see each other without being able to hear each other. To communicate in spite of the window, they may pantomime, hold up signs with written messages, or break the glass. The window’s affordances don’t predict how people will communicate, but they do shape the situation nonetheless.

danah boyd, “It’s Complicated” (Yale UP, 2013), pp. 10–11.

Digitizing

In Groups

Please scan quickly through the following pieces as examples of writers trying to make thoughtful uses of the affordances of the web.

Use these texts to generate a list of at least five ways (more if you can) in which the affordances of the page and screen differ. (An easy example: Turn vs. scroll. You turn the pages of a book, but scroll through an online text.) Be ready to offer examples of the affordances you identify from the four Medium essays.

To Do

  1. Wed, 11/20, class: Studio time. Create an account on Medium.com, and begin digitizing either Essay 1 or Essay 2.
  2. Mon, 12/02, class: Post the digitized version of your final project to Medium.com. We will create an “arcade” that allows all of you to walk around and see what other peope in the class have done. We’ll then talk about what you changed in your pieces (and why) as you shifted modalities.
  3. Wed, 12/04, class: Closing thoughts and evaluations.
  4. Mon, 12/09, 5:00 pm: Email me the revised version of Essay 1 or Essay 2 (optional).

Class, Fri, 11/15

Refining Essay 2

Trade drafts with your partner. Begin by reading silently through their piece (or through the sections they’ve marked). As you do, highlight the places in the text where the writer addresses these issues:

  • Project: Where does the writer articulate their project, what they’re aiming to accomplish in writing this piece? (This usually, though not always, takes the form of a couple of sentences that begin with something like: “In this essay, I look at . . .”)
  • Map: Where does the writer offer you a sense of how their essay will unfold? What do they tell you about how they will move from one section to the next of their piece? How do they describe the materials they will be working with? How do they describe their own method or approach?
  • Engaging With Others: Tara Westover argues that engaging with others who are different from us is the central task of education. Where in their piece does the writer do this work? How generously and accurately do they represent other views or experiences?
  • So What?: Where does the writer answer this question? What do they add to the conversation about their subject?
  • Small Stuff: Does the writer have a good title? A running head? What about the list of references? Help each other out with the technical stuff.

After you’ve read and annotated your drafts, have a conversation about them. What advice can you offer each other about how to add to or clarify these four aspects of their writing?

To Do

  1. Mon, 11/18, class: Bring a print copy of the final version of your second essay to class, and post an electronic version of it to Google Drive. I will give a letter grade to this piece. We will also discuss digitizing texts.
  2. Wed, 11/20, class: Studio time: Work on creating a version of your first or second essay to post on Medium.com.
  3. Fri, 11/22 through Fri, 11/29: No class: Thanksgiving Break!
  4. Mon, 12/02, class: Post the digitized version of your essay to Medium.com. We will construct an Arcade that allows us to view and discuss your work.
  5. Wed, 12/04, class: Closing thoughts. Evaluations.
  6. Mon, 12/09, 11:00 pm: Email me your revision of either Essay One or Essay Two (optional).

Class, Wed, 11/13

Thoughts on Westover

Fastwrite

So you now know a little more about Tara Westover as a person. How does that add to or change your response to her memoir, Educated?

Citing Articles and Web Sites

Author Date Title Publication Info
Who? When? What? Where?
Westover, Tara 2018 Educated: A Memoir New York: Random
Rodriguez, Richard 1978 “The Achievement of Desire: Personal Reflections on Learning ‘Basics.’” College English (40): 239–54.
Bocci, Goali Saedi 2018 “A Psychologist’s Take on Tara Westover’s Memoir, Educated.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/millennial-media/201804/psychologists-take-tara-westovers-memoir-educated.

Westover, Tara. 2018. Educated: A Memoir. New York: Random.

Rodriguez, Richard. 1978. “The Achievement of Desire: Personal Reflections on Learning ‘Basics.’” College English (40): 239–54.

Bocci, Goali Saedi. 2018. “A Psychologist’s Take on Tara Westover’s Memoir, Educated.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/millennial-media/201804/psychologists-take-tara-westovers-memoir-educated.

Citations are laboriously-coded, extremely slow hyperlinks.

Barbara Fister, “Decode Academy”, 2013

To Do

  1. Fri, 11/15, class: Bring a print copy of your all-but-final draft of your second essay to class. Make sure this draft includes a list of References or Works Cited. We will do some work on these pieces.
  2. Mon, 11/18, class: Bring a print copy of the final version of your second essay to class, and post an electronic version of it to Google Drive. We will discuss digitizing texts.
  3. Wed, 11/20, class: Studio time: Work on creating a version of your first or second essay to post on Medium.com.
  4. Fri, 11/22 through Fri, 11/29: No class: Thanksgiving Break!
  5. Mon, 12/02, class: Post the digitized version of your essay to Medium.com. We will construct an Arcade that allows us to view and discuss your work.
  6. Wed, 12/04, class: Closing thoughts. Evaluations.
  7. Mon, 12/09, 11:00 pm: Email me your revision of either Essay One or Essay Two (optional).

Class, Mon, 11/04

Workshops

Pretty much the same process as before. Read your drafts. (If you’ve written significantly over 1500 words, pick a 1500 word section to read.) Readers should focus on:

  • What’s working in this draft?
  • What does the writer need to work on more?

Added questions

  • What more do you need to know about the text the writer is discussing?
  • What more do you need to know about what the writer wants to say about that text?

Post-Workshop Memo

Send me an email in which you talk about:

  • What you need to say more about the text you’re writing about;
  • How you need to clarify your perspective on that text.

And

  • Any other questions you may have for me.

Revised Schedule

Of Interest

Fareed Zakaria interviews Tara Westover (8/19/2019)

To Do

  1. Mon, 11/04, end of class: Email me a post-workshop memo. I will email you back with my comments.
  2. Wed, 11/06, Fri, 11/08, and Mon, 11/11: No class meetings! (I will be at a conference.) Spend this time developing your good first draft into an amazing second draft. Consider making an appointment at the Writing Center to talk over your work with a tutor there.
  3. Tues, 11/12, 5:30 pm, Mitchell Hall: Listen to Tara Westover speak. Bring your copy of Educated. You might be able to get her to sign it!
  4. Wed, 11/13, class: Discuss Westover’s talk and your work on your second essays.

Class, Fri, 11/01

Pomodoro

  • Work intensively for 25 minutes on the piece you’re writing. No distractions. Take a 5-minute break. Do anything offline that you want: go for a walk, chat with friend, eat a snack . . . This counts as one pomodoro.
  • Then go back to work for another 25 minutes, followed by another 5-minute break.
  • After four pomodoros, take a 15-minute break.
  • Continue until your project is done, your workday is over, or your attention and endurance is exhausted

This technique was first developed by Francisco Cirillo in the late 1980s. Here’s his website. And here’s a web-based pomodoro timer: Marinara.

For This Class

We will do three, abbreviated pomodoros: 15 minutes on, 3 minutes off; 15 minutes on, 3 minutes off, however-many-minutes-left on. The goal is for you to leave this class with your first draft well begun. (Which is a good thing, since it is due on Monday.)

To Do

  1. Mon, 11/04, class: Bring four copies of the first full draft of your second essay (X5) to class. We will workshop them. Please also post an electronic copy (“Name X5.docx”) to the Google Drive folder. Email me a revision plan after your workshop. I will email you back with my comments.
  2. Wed, 11/06, Fri, 11/08, and Mon, 11/11: No class meetings! (I will be at a conference.) Spend this time developing your good first draft into an amazing second draft. Consider making an appointment at the Writing Center to talk over your work with a tutor there.
  3. Tues, 11/12, 5:30 pm, Mitchell Hall: Listen to Tara Westover speak. Bring your copy of Educated. You might be able to get her to sign it!
  4. Wed, 11/13, class: Discuss Westover’s talk and your work on your second essays.

Class, Wed, 10/30

Fastwrite

You’ve got a first draft of your next piece due this coming Monday, 11/04. Write a brief description of what you want to do in that piece. Describe what you want to talk about, the text you’ll be discussing, but more important, try to suggest what you want to say about that text. Are you going to try to offer a “deep” reading that points out meanings that the author intended but are not obvious? Or are you aiming for a more “critical” reading that points out problems with or gaps in the text?

Groups

Hand out your proposals. Read your fastwrites. Brainstorm together about ways of developing your ideas into an actual essay.

To Do

  1. Fri, 11/01, class: Come to class with whatever draft of your draft that you’re able to produce on your laptop. We’ll work on them.
  2. Mon, 11/04 class: Post your first draft to the class Google Drive folder. Title your document: “Name X5”. Bring four print copies with you to class. We’ll workshop them, and I’ll ask you to give me one copy at the end of the workshop.
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