Grades:We re-calculated the weighting in the rubric for assigning grades (See last blog). I feel like the new numbers allocate credit more fairly with respect to the amount of work and reading you put in to the various projects.
The process for assigning grades will be as follows.
You will turn in your final portfolio by the end of class, December 16.
On or before Tuesday, December 21, I will email you a copy of the rubric with the number of points you earned for each component (and comments explaining the points). It is your responsibility for you to check your email for your grade sheet.
After receiving your grade, you should look over the points + the comments and let me know if there should be any corrections or adjustments. You will have 48 hours from receiving the email to inform me of any readjustments. Hopefully we will be able to settle any re-calculations simply and by email. negotiate them.
Once grades are agreed upon, or if I do not hear from you within 48 hours of sending you the grade sheet, I will post grades for the course on Keanwise.
I expect to have all grades posted by the evening of Thursday, December 23.
Presentations:This week, both Tuesday and Thursday, you will give presentations on your research projects. Your presentation will be based on a draft of your project (posted on your blog). In your presentation you will cover the points listed below. You should be able to "talk through" rather than read your discussions with respect to these points.
The reason for talking rather than reading is to help you find new, more focused language through your presentation, and to allow you to use the interactive, open-thinking of talking to pull in any important ideas the writing process edited out.
Points to cover in your presentation:
1. A detailed description of what you studied. By "detailed description" I mean that you will present your focus in way that provides background material you will need to answer questions for 2=> why your research is important, the problems it solves with respect to writing center work, and how writing center personnel might apply your findings.
For example, stating that you studied "body language" is too general. A detailed statement might be - that you focused on how and to what extent students and coaches picked up (consciously and unconscioulsy) on body language cues during sessions, and that you paid particular attention to: 1) the features of the situations in which coaches (and writers) did or did not pick up on body language cues; 2) what kinds of information coaches & writers seemed to "get" from body language cues; and 3) how picking up on body language cues did (did not) create a more effective session.
2. Why your research is important, the problems it solves with respect to writing center work, and how writing center personnel might apply your findings.
3. An overview of what other researchers have found with respect to your research foucs/questions. This should include both the names of key articles and the information the did (or did not) report with respect to your focus.
4. Methods for gathering + analyzing data
5. A short summary of each "chunk" of data + the main point(s) you want to illustrate through the presentation of that data (what the data show with respect to your focus)
6. Discussion of what data show when taken as a whole
7. Conclusions + recommendations for further study
I will be reading through your blogs (hopefully you will all have feedback by the end of Saturday).
For Tuesday
Blog 19: Post the complete draft for the research essay.
After you have given your presentation, post:
Blog 20: Plan for revising research project. This should include an overview of each of the points listed above - and whether or what you need to do to make your essay stronger with respect to each of the requirements. You should also comment on any global stylistic revisions that you need to work on. For example, common revisions include:
- using active as opposed to passive constructions;
- clarifying referents for pronouns (and phrases such as "there are, "it is" etc);
- deleting repetitive phrases, sentences, and words = when in doubt, take it out;
- revising complex &/or sometimes run-on sentences into a series of simple, declarative sentences;
- replacing complex noun phrases with nouns
Have a good weekend & see you Tuesday.
