SUMMER 2020 assignments ENGL301 Writing & The Teaching of Writing:
Research in Teaching Underserved Students
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
Summer 2020
All Summer Session I classes have been moved online due to the Covid-19 emergency. Online Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday evening, 7:00-8:00 PM and by appointment (email me at [email protected] to set up an a time). |
RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS
Overview. During this part of the summer you will take the theory work you’ve already done and develop meaningful classroom practices with them. The focus of our research will be to look at how to best serve otherwise underserved populations in the reading/writing classroom.
Details. You will locate and read five scholarly articles on the underserved population, produce an annotated bibliography of your articles, and then you’ll write a brief analysis that highlights what you find to be the most important things to know from your readings.
We will also discuss the appropriate way to cite sources in the body of your writing as well as in a bibliography using APA style.
Why this focus on underserved populations? Because the classrooms you will enter into will be filled with diverse students that will most likely not be the student you are (because a lot of folks who want to become teachers found solace and comfort in school and, thus, imagine that school is that same thing for most students—and are often flummoxed at why it is not). Further, students who begin to fall behind in literacy as early as 4th grade are statistically more likely to drop out of high school. Thus, it is important to consider the diversity of student needs because much is at stake.
NOTE: Originally, this was going to be formatted as a Pecha Kucha, but, in all honesty five weeks is not enough time. You could put together the Pecha Kucha, but then I'd be the only one who watched it, and what's the point of that. It's just as easy for me to read your material. Additionally, I"m eliminating the need to pick a topic in groups. You can pick your own population, but you should check with me before locating your articles.
HOWEVER: To bring some concluding energy to this assignment, I will assemble completed annotations into a kind of underserved population wiki. I will include excerpts from our analyses as introductions to the different topics.
Here is a more detailed explanation of each part of the project:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Locate five journal articles. You will identify a population and check in with me to see if it will work. Then you'll locate your five scholarly articles that contribute to a serious conversation about your group of students. Ideally, it will look at literacy and your student population, but it might include more general information about what makes them challenging to teach, best practices, social-emotional needs, government and school district policies/legislation that might affect these students (or their families) in the classroom. I reserve the right to veto articles I think aren’t meaty enough.
2. Read your articles, of course.
3. Annotate your articles. Annotation typically means a very brief—sometimes three sentences—summary of an article. I would like for your entries to approximate something more like a half page, double-spaced—but, seriously, no more: there is an art to good annotation; part of the skill of it is to be brief but potent. Think of these annotations as a briefer version of your reading journal: your annotations should include two or three sentences of summary, two or three sentences of review (how helpful or not helpful the article/chapter is), and two or three sentences that say something about what you might or might not try in your classroom because of something you read in this article (application).
Click here to read the guidelines for developing your annotations and a color-coded sample annotations you can download.
4. Assemble your annotations with APA style . Citation information should be single spaced, APA style.
5. Post one of your annotations to the CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD during the week of 18 June 2020. I will give individual feedback on the discussion board to help all of you learn this careful skill. The Annotated Bibs are one of the only places in our class where I'm really helping you as a writer and not as a future teacher of writing. If we were meeting face-to-face we would conduct a workshop as a class, but since we aren't able to do that, we will do it this way.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ANALYSIS
1 .Take some time to consider what you are learning about your topic in these three articles. What seems to be the central concerns of your topic? If you can tell, who are the important theorists or practitioners? Are there any debates among scholars going on about different aspects of the topic? In what ways do the articles seem to be in agreement with one another? In what ways do the articles seem to take different directions?
2. Write an analysis for your annotations. This analysis should consider the thinking work you did in Step One. Your analysis should be 750-1000 words (3 to 4 pages) double-spaced—use the same guidelines as for all of your other pieces of formal writing. On Tuesday, 18 June 2020, I'll be online to help you locate articles and understand the assignment. On Tuesday, 25 June 2020, I'll be online to workshop your analysis with you and your classmates. These are both optional sessions. You aren't required to attend, but you have the option to get feedback from me and from other classmates who come by. The annotations and the final analysis are due in the final portfolio for our class.
BEST PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU FOR THE ANALYSIS: DO NOT simply re-summarize the articles in the cover letter. Try, instead, to convey what this body of research values about students, teaching, and teachers. The analysis should put your articles in conversation with each other. You should have an argument, a thesis, that guides this analysis, one that tells me what is most important to understand about your underrepresented populations as learners in reading/writing classrooms in particular and in school in general. You can feel free to quote from your articles as long as those quotes don't outnumber your writing. Keep in mind that I will have the annotations, you do not need to give long summaries of each article in the analysis. Use strategic bits of summary as evidence of the larger point your are trying to make in your analysis.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED
This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade. In order to earn a "B" grade you must
In order to earn an "A" grade, you must
In order to earn a "C" grade, you must
If you fail to complete the requirements for a "C grade, you will earn and "F" grade for this 15% of the semester.
Overview. During this part of the summer you will take the theory work you’ve already done and develop meaningful classroom practices with them. The focus of our research will be to look at how to best serve otherwise underserved populations in the reading/writing classroom.
Details. You will locate and read five scholarly articles on the underserved population, produce an annotated bibliography of your articles, and then you’ll write a brief analysis that highlights what you find to be the most important things to know from your readings.
We will also discuss the appropriate way to cite sources in the body of your writing as well as in a bibliography using APA style.
Why this focus on underserved populations? Because the classrooms you will enter into will be filled with diverse students that will most likely not be the student you are (because a lot of folks who want to become teachers found solace and comfort in school and, thus, imagine that school is that same thing for most students—and are often flummoxed at why it is not). Further, students who begin to fall behind in literacy as early as 4th grade are statistically more likely to drop out of high school. Thus, it is important to consider the diversity of student needs because much is at stake.
NOTE: Originally, this was going to be formatted as a Pecha Kucha, but, in all honesty five weeks is not enough time. You could put together the Pecha Kucha, but then I'd be the only one who watched it, and what's the point of that. It's just as easy for me to read your material. Additionally, I"m eliminating the need to pick a topic in groups. You can pick your own population, but you should check with me before locating your articles.
HOWEVER: To bring some concluding energy to this assignment, I will assemble completed annotations into a kind of underserved population wiki. I will include excerpts from our analyses as introductions to the different topics.
Here is a more detailed explanation of each part of the project:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Locate five journal articles. You will identify a population and check in with me to see if it will work. Then you'll locate your five scholarly articles that contribute to a serious conversation about your group of students. Ideally, it will look at literacy and your student population, but it might include more general information about what makes them challenging to teach, best practices, social-emotional needs, government and school district policies/legislation that might affect these students (or their families) in the classroom. I reserve the right to veto articles I think aren’t meaty enough.
2. Read your articles, of course.
3. Annotate your articles. Annotation typically means a very brief—sometimes three sentences—summary of an article. I would like for your entries to approximate something more like a half page, double-spaced—but, seriously, no more: there is an art to good annotation; part of the skill of it is to be brief but potent. Think of these annotations as a briefer version of your reading journal: your annotations should include two or three sentences of summary, two or three sentences of review (how helpful or not helpful the article/chapter is), and two or three sentences that say something about what you might or might not try in your classroom because of something you read in this article (application).
Click here to read the guidelines for developing your annotations and a color-coded sample annotations you can download.
4. Assemble your annotations with APA style . Citation information should be single spaced, APA style.
5. Post one of your annotations to the CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD during the week of 18 June 2020. I will give individual feedback on the discussion board to help all of you learn this careful skill. The Annotated Bibs are one of the only places in our class where I'm really helping you as a writer and not as a future teacher of writing. If we were meeting face-to-face we would conduct a workshop as a class, but since we aren't able to do that, we will do it this way.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ANALYSIS
1 .Take some time to consider what you are learning about your topic in these three articles. What seems to be the central concerns of your topic? If you can tell, who are the important theorists or practitioners? Are there any debates among scholars going on about different aspects of the topic? In what ways do the articles seem to be in agreement with one another? In what ways do the articles seem to take different directions?
2. Write an analysis for your annotations. This analysis should consider the thinking work you did in Step One. Your analysis should be 750-1000 words (3 to 4 pages) double-spaced—use the same guidelines as for all of your other pieces of formal writing. On Tuesday, 18 June 2020, I'll be online to help you locate articles and understand the assignment. On Tuesday, 25 June 2020, I'll be online to workshop your analysis with you and your classmates. These are both optional sessions. You aren't required to attend, but you have the option to get feedback from me and from other classmates who come by. The annotations and the final analysis are due in the final portfolio for our class.
BEST PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU FOR THE ANALYSIS: DO NOT simply re-summarize the articles in the cover letter. Try, instead, to convey what this body of research values about students, teaching, and teachers. The analysis should put your articles in conversation with each other. You should have an argument, a thesis, that guides this analysis, one that tells me what is most important to understand about your underrepresented populations as learners in reading/writing classrooms in particular and in school in general. You can feel free to quote from your articles as long as those quotes don't outnumber your writing. Keep in mind that I will have the annotations, you do not need to give long summaries of each article in the analysis. Use strategic bits of summary as evidence of the larger point your are trying to make in your analysis.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED
This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade. In order to earn a "B" grade you must
- Complete five annotations following the guidelines laid out in class
- Complete an analysis that follows the assignment requirements
- Participate as required in the Class Discussion Board workshop of your annotations
In order to earn an "A" grade, you must
- Do all of the things required of a B grade
- Develop an analysis that synthesizes information rather than just summarizes your research.
In order to earn a "C" grade, you must
- Complete four annotations following the guidelines laid out in class
- Complete an analysis that attempts to follow the assignment requirements, even if it falls short
If you fail to complete the requirements for a "C grade, you will earn and "F" grade for this 15% of the semester.