Developmental Writing Exercise - Pronouns

I don't think I would do this with my 200 classes, although many of them need this, but it does seem like this would be a waste for most of them.

Many students have a hard time with pronouns.  They use them, but there is no clear antecedent.  Or there is a clear antecedent, but the noun and the pronoun replacing it don't quite match.

The exercise would be:

Have students circle every pronoun and then mark the noun it goes with.  That noun should be almost immediately preceding it.  And it needs to agree.  When it doesn't, students would rewrite their sentences.

I could have students mark each others' papers, but that not be very encouraging.  I think I would want to ask someone else's thoughts on that.  

Paraphrase

One of the things I notice with students is that they struggle to state what a quote actually means.  A good exercise for in-class would be to ask them to paraphrase claims.

What do individual words mean?
What the most important part of a sentence?
What does it mean in context?

In classes with lots of board space, I could have students work in groups and write their paraphrases on the board, but I only have that in two of my four classes at SDSU.

I could have them do that as an in-class individual exercise, but then I would have to read what they wrote.  Aaargh.

Hmmm.  Another idea.  If I had these printed out, I could ask students to do this in the first five minutes of class, when students aren't showing up.  Worth 2 points.  One point for getting it right.  One point for being there to do it.

I like that one.

I wouldn't even need it to be printed out.  I just need to put it on power point and show the quote on the screen.  I like it!

As I think about this, I could teach the whole idea of a quotation sandwich and parenthetical with this exercise.

I can put the quote up on the screen with the author's name and the page number.  Students can introduce the quote, include the quote, add parenthetical citation, and then provide a paraphrase afterward.

This exercise would work well for RWS 100, 200, and developmental or basic writing classes.  

No Time

I'm teaching five classes and taking a class.  I've got a B+, and I don't even think the class is that hard.
I quite SDICCCA and my internship.  I just couldn't keep up.
I have had 24 hours without papers to grade.  Only 24 hours.

I've learned a bajillion things this semester, and I can't even keep track of them.

This is hard.  

Research Training

I just tried to train students in how to research.  That did not work, and I'm trying to figure out why.

It's hard to do on a screen, of course, but my strategies were all wrong.

I have two more classes that will do that, and I really need to figure it out.  More later.

Content of an Argument versus the Construction of an Argument

Somalia - Day 1

The theme is social justice.  I wanted students to think about the needs of other people in the world.

If you can make a chance, should you?

I showed images of a current international crisis, the famine in Somalia, and then asked them to read four articles about Somalia and respond to them.

The responses were well written for the most part, as students described what they were thinking and feeling.  They adequately described the situation, and I was pleased.  Many were shocked that this was happening, but they didn't know anything about it.

Observations:
1.  I hoped to start off by appealing to their emotions.  I definitely did that.
2.  I hoped to get them to think about the controversial aspects of response.  We discussed that in class.  Not all students agreed about what we should do.
3.  I get some of the best free response papers I have seen.
4.  Images were essential.  In one of the classes, I didn't have time to show the images so they looked at them at home.  That really helped the students.  Many of them referred to what they saw.
5.  Appealing to a current event really helps students place rhetoric in context.  Even if they don't follow the news, they do want to know what's going on.

In every class, at least three students missed out on this very foundational aspect of the class because of the add/drop/shuffle.  I wonder if I should wait. I don't know.  

Add, Drop, Shuffle (The Worst Part of the First Week).

The hardest part of the first week of school was the add, drop, shuffle.

1.  Students want to add my class because it fits their schedule better.
2.  They want to add someone else's class and drop mine to create a better schedule.  However, they can't drop my class until they add the other one.  I cannot add the other students until they do that so the process is slow.
3.  Students want to shuffle their schedule and move to another section that I am teaching.  One student moved from the 9:00 to the 10:00 and then back to the 9:00.  To complicate things, she has only attended two classes.  Last Friday, three students in my 9:00 class asked to move to the 11:00 class.

Students show up at the beginning of class, the middle of class, the end of class.  It's exhausting.  I spent more time responding to emails about adding and shuffling than I did to creating lesson plans.

And responding in class to those requests took time away from the lesson plans.

Fortunately, I took good notes.  Unfortunately, I underestimated the enormity of the process and didn't create a plan of attack.

First Day:

1.  Write on board how many openings in the class.
2.  If students approach me before class and ask about crashing, let them know that I will address that after I take roll.
3.  After taking roll, ask if there are any crashers.  Explain that I can only keep 32 students in the class, that on the second day I can disenroll students if they do not attend, and that I will end class five minutes early so that they can sign the list.

The list would include name, red ID #, email, and are they enrolled in a section of RWS 200 already.
Chances are, some students will leave because they don't want to sit through the class.

1.  If they are not already enrolled in RWS 200, they get priority.
2.  After that, tell them I will give add codes on the second day if I have room on day 2.
3.  Priority given to students who do the homework.  (?)
4.  I think I shouldn't shuffle students on the first day until I absolutely have room in the class.  I need to think about this.  

I do need to be careful about homework.  Students can't do the homework if they don't have the book so I need to assign

One-and-a-half weeks into the semester, I think we're finally done.  I wonder if I should have done ANY work the first week of the semester!

And I think I need to ask Jamie or other lecturers what they do so that I can get a better plan.  More later.