As we gathered this morning, the general conversation revolved around everyone voicing relief that the school year was finally over. Ruie played hostess and offered participants little quiches which I am currently munching on. Very yummy! Thank you Refreshing Ruie and Motivating Megan!
Many folks were missing today. Chelsea is on her honeymoon, May is in Guatamala, Amy and our other Sarah were also missing today. We began with our alliterative adjective get-to-know-each-other activity. Being second to last was good and bad for me: I was able to hear the names over and over, but it also meant I had a lot of names to remember. Despite this stress, I found that this activity really helped me learn people's names! For those of you who were absent, here are our alliterative adjective creations: Amazing Amy Anxious Amy Calm Colleen Courageous Curtis Ironic Adrienne Jovial Justin Joyful Jill Juggling Jackie Juicy Justin Kempt Kevin Laughing Laura Loquacious Lisa Lucky Lauren Motivating Megan Nautical Natalie Refreshing Ruie Relaxing Rachel Showing Sarah Sleepy Spencer Spiritual Stephanie BTW, Congratulations Showing Sarah on your good news! After summaries of our May 18th class were read, Ruie showed us the the convertors and adapters we can check out for our trip. I hope I the following information is correct: • The adapters simply allow something that won't get fried by 220v (like a computer) to be plugged into an English outlet. • The converters are used with electrical appliances (such as a coffee pot, Laughing Laura's curling iron, or Juggling Jackie's hair straightener) to prevent them from being destroyed by 220 volts. Maniac Michael commented "You'll know if you made a mistake. You'll hear a pop, smell smoke, and that'll be it." We then pulled out our essays and Refreshing Ruie then went over the rules of commenting on each other's writing. They included: • Start with the person on writer's right. • Readers take turns saying positive things about the paper during the first round of commenting • During the second round, give suggestions or things that you noticed The writer has the hardest part in all of this: She/he cannot talk: no apologizing, no defending, no butting in while a person is talking. I was in a group with Amazing Amy and Enlightening Elliot and I personally had trouble following the rule of "no butting in." When one of them had a question about something I had written, I felt the need to explain it, as they did when I had questions abut what they wrote. Did anyone else find this challenging? We then had a presentation by Dr. Sally Buckner, a well recognized NC Poet. She has done so many things that I couldn't write them down fast enough during Refreshing Ruie's introduction, but fortunately the Asheville Poetry Review summed it up nicely: "Sally Buckner has taught at every level from kindergarten through graduate school and recently retired after twenty-eight years on the faculty at Peace College. A former journalist, she has published poetry, plays, non-fiction and short stories in many journals and anthologies. In 1991 she was the editor of Our Words, Our Ways, an anthology of literature designed to accompany eighth grade studies of state history. Her first collection of poems, Strawberry Harvest, was published by St. Andrews Press in 1996. In 1999 she was the editor of Word and Witness: 100 Years of NC Poetry, published under the auspices of the NC Poetry Society by Carolina Academic Press. http://www.ashevillepoetryreview.com/tag/sally-buckner Dr. Buckner's presentation was entitled: "Bringing Out your Inner Poet." "These techniques," she stressed, "can be used with any grade level. Students will read poetry better if they write their own poetry," Dr. Buckner went on to say. "In general, people who don't get poetry tend to read it like a newspaper." We began our thoughts about reading poetry through "How to Read a Poem" by Michael Chitwood . Though his poem, Chitwood encourages us to focus on the words and their meaning, read and re-read slowly and quietly. Dr. Buckner advised that when writing a poem, "the what dictates the how." She then gave us many ideas for writing poetry called "frames." These were particularly helpful for me since I am not in the habit of writing poetry, unlike many of my talented colleagues. Some frames started with phrases such as "If I were to see her shape from a mile away, I'd know so quickly it was her. . . If I felt hands on my head. . .If I heard a voice coming from a rock. . ." Other frame poems had a specific number of lines and directions of what to mention in each line. Another used the idea of writing two poems about opposites. We experimented with writing poetry using these frames. Maniac Michael wrote about his granddad and included some neat words that evoked smells (which is a powerful poetical device.) Dr. Bruckner suggested that such a poem would make a great gift because it tells meaningful things about the the subject. When the frame poems were finished, we then took as much of the frame out of the poem as possible. Some people liked their poem with the frame better than without. "A good poem tries to get at an ultimate truth." said Dr. Bruckner who illustrated this thought with a poem her husband wrote about his father who died when her husband was 13. Through poetry, he was able to illustrate the essence of the question "What was so special about my dad?" After writing our own poetry, we discussed poetry revision suggestions: check for clichés, use lively, precise verbs, avoid adverbs, take out function words, be specific with your words, use strong beginnings and satisfying endings. The draft review form offers suggestion to use during revision or a student can take a bad poem and revise it to make it better. To wrap up the morning, students shared poetry ideas: Lucky Laura's students look at something through a scientist's eye then a poet's eye. For example, a scientist might see that a pencil is yellow, it has an eraser etc. A poet might see it as a magic wand. Jovial Justin uses music in his classroom. Has students extract powerful lines from their favorite songs and discuss how they are poetical. Enlightening Elliot also uses music. She has students pick a favorite band, examine its song lyrics, and create a powerpoint explaining the literary devices used in the lyrics. Don't forget to check Moodle for a corrected copy of Buckner's guide. Respectfully submitted, Colleen Walsh Class Scribe Report by Jackie Seigel
We started the afternoon by signing up for travel insurance for our trip overseas. Ruie stated “this is really just to make sure we can ship your body back”. We hope that our families will not have to cash in on this additional benefit that NCSU is providing. We confirmed that we all had our flights booked. Ruie, Sara and Mike will be traveling earlier and will retrieve items purchased on previous trips. These items will help make our stay more enjoyable in the dorms. May (the birthday girl 7/17), Jill and Jackie will be arriving in England one day early and will meet up with the rest of the group the morning of July 18th. We all will then travel to Guilford by group van to start our adventure together. J Overview of Moffett’s Writing Modes Framework (Ruie) Secondly we were introduced to a PowerPoint on James Moffett’s Modes of Discourse. According to Ruie he is also known as the Guru of English Writing. This is the theoretic framework of writing. Moffett attended Harvard University but was not a graduate and had an untimely death of cancer. He changed the way writing was taught. The model used was a communication triangle. Moffett’s suggests writing activities help students as they experience the different stages of abstraction. Moffett’s stages compare to Bloom’s revised taxonomy. His triangle was created before the onset of technology so technologists have written tools and applications for teachers. The goal is to have students be able to move up and down the ladder of abstraction. Moffett’s modes of discourse.pptx Peer Response Rules and Peer Response Sharing Next we were given our expository essay assignment based on a reading from A Dab of Dickens, a Touch of Twain. This draft is due to a peer partner by May 31st. When sharing our piece with our peer we will follow Glatthorn’s suggestions on how to respond to someone else’s writing. We will read our partner’s work in pieces and follow the guide to help make suggestions for revision. The goal is to help them improve their piece. It is not necessary to take anyone’s advice or include their suggestions in your writing. This assignment will help us be a better responder to our student’s writing. We will also share our writing in groups at our next class. We should bring four additional hard copies to share face to face when we meet again on June 15th. Ruie noted that when we share our pieces face to face we must not apologize for our work. Group members will take notes, reflect and make positive comments. After the first round, be prepared to be thick skinned and silent to take in all the subsequent suggestions. We are all growing from the experience just as our students will. Google Docs Overview (Megan) Megan introduced the group to Google Docs. We were given the chance to set up our accounts. Many have used this platform before. We will post our writing assignment to this location to share with someone outside our peer group. Megan went over the directions and they are posted on the Moodle. We will be able to post our comments on the document that we download to the site. According to Megan once your assignment is posted you can leave comments on your partner’s work or anyone in your group. This will help prepare us for our face to face group meeting in June. Seven Keys to Effective Feedback and directions on how to comment on Google Docs were also posted on the Moodle by Megan. We learned that feedback enhances performance and achievement in writing. Google docs.docx Seven Keys to Effective Feedback.docx Setting the Stage for Peer Response with Partner in Google Docs Lastly we were given an example of one of Ruie’s former students to practice our critique. We practiced how we are to give feedback. Additionally revising strategies were posted by Ruie on the moodle. |
AuthorStudents of Writing and Technology Class Archives
August 2013
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