The Instructional Sequence in Action: Windows into Accelerated English

1. The Instructional Sequence in Action: Windows into Accelerated English Julie Ewing, Melissa Knoll, Bridget Kominek, and Mike Mangan

2. Session Overview • Bridget and Mike will share strategies and examples of how to support students’ understanding of and engagement with challenging readings so students can write about them in a meaningful way • Julie will discuss how she tailors the writing process to an accelerated classroom: how to create drafts from in-class writing activities and directed journals/reading logs • Melissa will present strategies for effective peer review including best practices for generating productive student critique

3. What Does It Mean to Use Reading? Traditional Developmental Class Accelerated Class • Students are assigned reading • Quiz for understanding • Class discussion • Write an essay about ideas from reading/inspired by reading • Students are assigned reading • Class discussion • Quiz for understanding • Feedback on quiz • Further discussion including additional readings • Synthesis quiz on multiple readings • Write an essay responding to ideas from reading or using readings for support

4. Sample Activities to Support Reading • Golden line/problem passage • Survival words/survival concepts • “What belongs?” activity

5. Challenges • What do you do if they don’t understand the reading? • What if students just don’t do the reading?

6. Theme: Life and TechnologyThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Texts: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, by Steven Johnson 1984, by George Orwell Big Brother

7. Synthesis Essay 1(2 options) Video Games and Intelligence Steven Johnson argues that, thanks to what he’s dubbed “The Sleeper Curve,” video games are making us smarter. Where do you stand on this issue? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Use evidence from Nicholas Carr’s discussion of our brains (Chapters One, Two, and Three), as well as from Johnson’s Introduction and Part One, to write a well-supported argument for your position. The Internet and Our Brains Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our brains work, and not in a good way. Do you agree with Carr and believe this is something we need to worry about, or do you think, like Johnson, that these changes are making us smarter? Use evidence from Carr’s discussion of our brains (Prologue, Chapters One, Two, and Three), as well as from Johnson’s Introduction and Part One, to write a well-supported argument for your position.

8. Writing ProcessActivities/assignments for each essay: • 1st Reading Log (AKA reading response paper) • 2nd Reading Log • Synthesis Essay Assigned • Brainstorming/freewriting activities • Working with reading logs • First draft • Freewriting/collaborative activities • Double-entry journal • Other activities • (Semi) Final Draft • Portfolio Draft The Reading Logs function as very rough drafts. When they receive the essay prompt, they realize they have already written a lot on the topic in their reading logs. Much of the first draft is mined from the reading logs. After I read the first drafts, I plan various in-class writing activities according to their needs as a whole. The double-entry journal is a particularly effective one. The (semi) final draft is the graded draft. Students revise essays of their choice one more time for the final portfolio

9. First Draft • Students begin creating the first draft in class: • Using freewrites and reading logs • In-class freewrites on both prompts • Highlighting passages from reading logs, color-coding sections (intro, body sections, conclusion, main points, support) • Freewriting to extend the passages they’ve chosen • On their own, they fashion a first draft for the next class (2-3 pages)

10. Reading Log • A directed journal designed to guide the student through the reading/critical thinking/writing process. • A relatively low-stakes (low point value) means of reading/writing practice. • Consists of 4 parts: • Prereading, Reading, Postreading, and Memorable Quotation • The End Result: • The end result is, ideally, a two-page discussion of the issues raised in the prompt. • It’s not an essay, per se—it will likely be somewhat disjointed and lack transitions. • But it can be mined for the formal essay assignment associated with this unit.

11. Example: Pre-reading A. Describe a game you enjoyed playing as a child and reflect on the ways you feel it benefitted you. B. Describe the ways in which you think the Internet has improved your life. In what ways do you think it can hurt you? (Roughly 2 paragraphs in length) • Good for introductory “hook” or possibly the conclusion to the essay.

12. Example: Reading Read Johnson, Part 1 “Games” pp. 17-62 and “The Internet” pp. 116-124; and Carr, “Chapter Two: The Vital Paths.” • These are the chapters that directly relate to the synthesis essay assignment.

13. Example: Post-reading A. Briefly summarize what Johnson says about video games and the Internet. What is your reaction to this reading? What do you think about Johnson’s assertion that video games today are so popular because of the numerous “rewards” they provide the player? What strikes you the most about this? B. Briefly summarize Carr’s chapter. What is your response to the idea of “brain plasticity”? In what ways does it relate to Johnson’s argument? Be specific and quote both essays to show the connections. (Minimum 2 paragraphs, often more) • This is the bulk of the reading log, where the students work through the material in the assigned readings. Students borrow freely from these sections for their essays.

14. Example: Memorable Quotation Copy exactly and precisely a section of either reading (at least five lines) that you especially like or find interesting or memorable in some way. Put this section in quotation marks and introduce it by author and title, and at the end of the quote, place the author’s last name and page number in parentheses. Explain why you find it interesting or memorable. (1 paragraph) • If it is applicable to their essays, students will use this quotation to support their argument. (We practice responding to it in double-entry journals.) • Some of the reading logs require different types of quotations: short, long, opposing viewpoints. For instance, sometimes I’ll have them copy a passage they disagree with and then play the “believing/doubting” game.

15. Preparing the Semi-Final Draft In-class activities geared toward revising/developing essay drafts include: • Double-entry journals • “So What?” • Thesis statement workshops • Brainstorming development (small-groups or all-class) Students then prepare drafts for graded submission.

16. Double-Entry Journal • Dialectical note-taking • Allows students to focus in-depth on their response to specific passages • Passages they find important • Passages they find interesting • Passages they find confusing • Done in or out of class • Can be mined for the formal essay associated with this assignment.

17. Double-Entry Journal Notes from the text • Collect direct quotes or paraphrase key ideas you found in the text. • Collect anything you find relevant, interesting, surprising or confusing. • Be accurate--copy quotes exactly and make sure your paraphrases convey the same meaning as written in the text. • Include all bibliographic information: author, title, page numbers, publication information, etc. Your Response/freewrite • Respond to the notes on the left, freewriting whatever comes to mind as you review them. • Some questions to prompt your freewrite: • What strikes you about this? • What are your first impressions? • What thoughts, ideas does this trigger? • Do you agree or disagree with the author's position, claim, or message? Why? • What else have you read that connects or relates to this? • How do you feel about this?

18. Student Samples “Put aside for a moment the question of why the marketplace is rewarding complexity, and focus first on the question of what complexity looks like.” (Johnson 65) “For some people the idea of reading a book has come to seem old fashioned, maybe even a little silly like sewing your own buttons on a shirt or butchering your own meat. (8) Nicholas Carr, The Shallows. Carr: “That our brains are always in flux, adapting to even small shifts in our circumstances and behavior.” Why would they reward complexity? Maybe it’s because the more complex the programs are they contain more details. Like if you tell a story to a child, you need more details (experiences) to make the story more interesting rather than just putting your points in the story. It does seem old fashion due to the way we can now research info. Before the internet you had to read one page at a time now we can scroll through paragraphs with ease. So it feels antiquated to most of us. No more Dewey Decimal system in the library now you just open up Google and type your question and poof just like magic you have several sources to choose from. Our minds are constantly changing, change with our own experience. The brain has the capacity to adapted any circumstance or need. Ex: where we try to learn another language, our brain are learning to know the new sound of each letter in the new language. We are not machine.

19. Portfolio • Students choose from their body of work • 2 essays (minimum) • 2 other works • Revise for portfolio (15-20 pages revised work) • Last two weeks of class focused on revision strategies, workshops, conferences

20. For more information: Julie Ewing Associate Instructor, English Acceleration Coordinator Lake Tahoe Community College Ewing@ltcc.edu 530-541-4660 ext 392

21. Approaches to Peer Review Melissa G. Knoll, PhD Irvine Valley College

22. Preview • Student Responses • Review Challenges • Three Strategies to Meet the Challenges • Activity: Demonstrating Your Process

23. Negative Student Responses • “At first, I didn’t care what the other students had to say because I didn’t think they knew what they were talking about.” • “I’m sorry, Professor. I’m not a good writer, so I don’t think my advice is that useful. I just don’t know what to say.”

24. Positive Student Responses • “Peer Evaluation Day is the best day. It’s so helpful to see what other people have to say!” • “It’s joyful to learn from others and to see them learning from me too.”

25. Some Challenges • Students dread judgment and feel defensive about sharing their work. • Students lack familiarity with the standards of evaluation. In other words, they don’t know what to value when they read writing. • Students feel ill-equipped to offer meaningful critique because they lack either the language or the confidence for doing so.

26. Meeting Challenge #1—Conquering Fear of Judgment • Consider modifying language that implies judgment, such as “evaluation” and “review.” • Consider using terms such as “troubleshooting” and “workshop” • The Seven Game

27. Why Play the Seven Game? • Students receive feedback without having to identify their work (texts are identified via initials only) • Students are less likely to personalize the critique • Because students don’t know whose work they are evaluating, they are more likely to provide meaningful critique without fear of offending a specific party

28. The Seven Game

29. Meeting Challenge #2—Instilling Confidence and Providing Knowledge The Think Aloud: • Show students what to value by modeling the process with a document camera • Read an essay and think through it out loud for them • Make sure you provide both praise and meaningful critique • Use “I statements,” such as “I really liked it when,” “I’d like it better if,” and “I don’t quite see how”

30. Why Do the Think Aloud? • Students learn what to look for when they are reading each other’s work. In other words, the activity familiarizes them with the standards of evaluation. • Students will model the language you use when they give feedback to their peers. • Students hear your helpful tone and are less likely to feel punished and judged.

31. Think-Pair-Share: Modeling the Reading Process Directions • Choose a paragraph • Take turns reading your paragraph sentence by sentence, and voicing your thought process out loud to your partner • As you do so, try to use “I” statements • Listen to your colleagues and provide meaningful feedback

32. Meeting Challenge #3—Modeling Productive Discourse: The Fish Bowl Description of Activity • The professor models group feedback while reading and trouble-shooting student work in front of the class. • The students read their texts and collaborate with one another in front of an audience of their peers.

33. Why Do a Fish Bowl? • It provides appropriate framing language so that students learn how to offer critique that will be listened to and heard. • It gives students an opportunity to practice being more cognizant and purposeful communicators, both verbally and through body language. In other words, it makes them more aware of how they are communicating while providing feedback. • It suggests more equity between the reader and the collaborator.

34. The Fish Bowl: Part 2—Student Groups

35. The Fish Bowl Part 2—Student Work

36. Student responses to the Fish Bowl • “One thing I like about this exercise is that [it] involves interpersonal communication [. . . .] It’s more of an engaging environment for students [. . . .] Verbal responses are much clearer and easier to understand than written responses. Colleagues could ask more questions about their essays and they would get quicker responses than just the regular peer evaluation.”

37. More student responses • “I liked it better than the traditional [peer evaluation exercises] because of more direct interaction with the actual writer. Being able to give direct feedback to the writer feels better because you may not know how to word comments on the paper. [Instead] you can actually say it directly to the writer. Most importantly getting the feedback actually spoken to me was more clear.”

38. Thanks for learning with us today!