Thursday, November 30, 2017

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 13 (November 30)

Greetings!

We had our first presentation this week.  Jade shared some details from her research about the effects of divorce on adolescence; she also brought someone to interview as part of her presentation.  We all learned a lot from her presentation.  Good work, Jade!

We are nearing the end of our semester, and most of the focus for the class is finishing the papers and putting together the presentations.  There's very little that I have to teach them at this point, but I've been doing more answering of questions in the past weeks.  We talked this week about the "hows" of the presentations and steps for revising their rough drafts.

The presentations can be an overview of the main facts of their research, or it can be focused on one section.  They can use PowerPoint slides, poster boards, or other items for visual presentations.  In fact, they don't need visual aids if not absolutely necessary.

When revising their papers, students should look at these areas:
1.  Introduction (with a hook, thesis, and road map), conclusion (summary, thesis, and parting words).  In addition, they should make sure that their thesis statement is clearly stated in the intro and reiterated in the conclusion.
2.  Content.  
3.  Organization, including transitions.
4.  Mechanics & grammar

When professional editors go through manuscripts, they often work from the end to the beginning.

This is the last week to hand in any rough drafts, whether it's a second or third rough draft.  If a student wants me to go over his/her paper before handing in the final draft, I would like to have them by Sunday night so that I have time to go over them by next Thursday.  

If you have any questions about any aspect of your paper or presentation, make sure you contact me.

This week's Class Notes.

Keep Calm and Get Those Papers Done.
Mrs. Prichard

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 16)

Greetings!

We are nearing the end of the semester, which is also the end of this writing project.  At the beginning of the class we did a quick review of the schedule for the next few weeks:
  • 11/23 -- No class -- Thanksgiving Break
  • 11/30 -- Week 13 (Jade presents)
  • 12/7 -- Week 14 (Therese & Jean-Marc present)
  • 12/14 -- Week 15 (Grace and Maggie present)

The final drafts of the essays are due by December 14, but they can hand them in before then.  If they want to hand in a third rough draft, that should be done before December 7.  It takes a significant amount of time for me to go over these longer papers, so I need to make sure that I have enough time to return them.

I usually include some practice with ACT and SAT essays at some point during the Writing 3 class.  Today we talked through an ACT Essay prompt and brainstormed how to organize this kind of essay.  These essays require that they evaluate three perspectives and develop their own opinion about the prompt.  

I did some quick explanations about the Works Cited page and parenthetical citations.  We've talked through these aspects of a research paper, but it's really not until they do their own writing that the instruction make sense.

After the work with the ACT Essay, I handed out rough drafts that had been handed in so that we could do some Peer Edits.  The students carefully read the papers by their classmates and made good comments.

Assignments for November 30
-- Keep working on your papers!
-- Prepare your presentation

Links for This Week
Class Notes

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Prichard

Friday, November 10, 2017

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 11 (November 9)

Greetings!

This week we did some problem solving for specific difficulties relating to format/citations. As students are working on their papers, they don't always know what they don't know (or can't do) until they encounter difficulties.  I showed them how to do hanging indents in both Google docs and Word.  We discussed how what to put between the parentheses of an in text citation.  

In a short time, students are to present their information to the class.  They can share the highlights of their topics or focus on just one aspect.  Some students have not done PowerPoint or Google slide presentations.

Students handed in their second rough drafts, which I will go over this week and hand back next week.  Next week we will do some peer reviews.

Assignments for Next Week
-- Work on your presentation

Links for This Week
Class Notes
Changing Educational Paradigms (One of my favorites ever!)

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard

Friday, November 3, 2017

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 2)

Greetings!

This week we covered information about citing sources and incorporating sources into the text of the research paper.  We've covered this material in a number of ways during the past two weeks, but until a person has a chance to do this in their own papers, some of the instruction doesn't stick.  Hopefully all of the students are at that place in their writing that they have "hooks" on which to hang this information.

As we talked about citations and Works Cited pages, I showed the students some online sources; those links and others will be at the bottom of this e-mail.  With the handouts that I've given the students, the MLA Handbook, and the multitude of online sources, the students should be able to find answers to any citation question that they have.  Of course, they can always feel free to send me an e-mail with specific questions that they can't find the answers to.

As they are finishing their second rough drafts, they need to do the following:
Check all their information -- if they got ideas, statistics, etc. from any source, they need to cite it.
Check for generalities -- be as specific as possible to keep the paper from being vague.
Consider how you incorporated your researched information -- check to see if signal phrases are appropriate to the information.

The class signed up for presentation times.  In our discussion this week, I briefly mentioned the parameters for these, and we will go over them more thoroughly next week.  In a nutshell, students will present to the class the material they feel would be interesting and important to know.  This might be just one aspect from their research or quick summaries of the whole of their information.  They should NOT read aloud the entirety of their paper.  They also need to have a visual component.  PowerPoint works well for this, but in the past students have also put together tri-fold presentation boards or brought in items to show the class.  (I've had chickens, drones, and Danish cookies as part of presentations.)

These are the presentation dates:
November 30 -- Jade
December 7 -- Therese, Jean-Marc
December 14 -- Grace, Maggie

It's about this time of the process that students get sick of their topics and feel that they have an unending project hanging over their heads.  It they've procrastinated, they are feeling the effects.  Ideally, the students are given a significant amount of time so that they can carefully craft a well-written research paper while learning the principles of plagiarism, correct citations, and appropriate incorporation of their researched material.  What often happens is students put off their work or are over scheduled and can't get to their work, resulting in the stress of throwing together something to meet a deadline. I've mentioned to the class many times that this project is as much an opportunity to learn about themselves as students as it is about the paper itself.  Please take some time this week to check in with your students and to encourage them.  

Assignments for Next Week
-- Rough Draft #2
-- Works Cited page
-- Start planning your presentation

Links for This Week:
Class Notes

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard