October 21

We spent today's class brainstorming ideas for the research project. I encouraged you to keep an open mind as you observed your first several sessions, and to remember that you need to frame your study so that it answers some specific questions with respect to writing center work.

In addition to the research project assignment sheet, I have posted two sample research essays that have a form similar to the work you will be doing. As we discussed in class, because of your brief window for observation - your data will necessarily be "thin." That's OK. The real purpose of the project is for you to get your feet wet in using the observational-reflective processes that are frequently applied both in writing centers and in writing classrooms.

For Tuesday:

Blog 11: brainstorming for research project

Read: use the "research plan" sheet (posted to the right) to do some in-depth thinking about your project. Specifically, begin to identify + check out research essays that will be useful for your project.

For the next couple of weeks, we will have class on Tuesday, and then we will have optional meetings in the WC for one-on-one or group work on your projects on Thursdays.

For those of you who showed up but were unsure about what we were doing, (I was late) sorry for the confusion about this Thursday's class.