Help with Searching for Articles

Here's a short screencast taking you through the steps of finding the articles needed for your annotated bibliography.  Don't forget that each person needs to find four articles and provide a paragraph for each.  Take a look at the sample annotated bibliography I showed in class.

Week 5

Today we will briefly discuss the following:

• Difference between revision and editing
• The role of the topic sentence
• Developing paragraphs with examples
• Creating unity within the paragraph
• Establishing coherence

Resources

• Paragraphs 1
• Paragraphs 2

We will focus, however, on moving the text of the collaborative essay from a reflection/report of what happened to a research essay.  To do so we will spend time looking at the papers and identifying possible research themes, narrow enough to cover in a five to seven page essay.  

By the end of the period today, your group should have a research topic based on the collaborative essay.  Each member of the group will need to find at least four sources from the online databases. (I will go over how to access these.)  Each of these sources will need to be read and summarized by the next period.  Each member will bring a printed copy of their  annotated MLA styled bibliography of the four sources to class. (The databases usually provide a link with a choice of styles to paste into your paper; here is another resource that might be useful.)

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For Next Class:

• Identify four sources for the paper.  Create an annotated bibliography using the MLA style. Bring a printed copy of this text to class on Monday
• Watch and take notes from the Tutorials for Biology Students from Purdue University. Watch all seven videos.  Bring your printed notes to class.  
• Work on revising and editing the collaborative essay; paying special attention to the following: 
• Conciseness
• Paramedic Method
• Sentence Variety
• Turn in the finished draft of the essay by Friday.  Have one person email it to me.  Make sure everyone's emails are included the document.

Week 4

Collaborative Essay Update

• Using Google Docs
• Dropbox

Review Use of Quotations

• Nuts and Bolts
• In-Text Citations

Review of Semicolon

• Basic rules

Reminder about MCL

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This week we being work on on an awareness/fundraising campaign for the Nicaragua Project.  We will work together to understand the campaign from the framework of a rhetorical situation as described in the homework for this past weekend.

• Author
• Audience
• Text
• Context

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Task 1:  Help analyze the current brochure we are using for the project and provide an analysis. Work as a team to come up with a one page analysis.  

Task 2:  Work in your established groups to set up goal for the awareness/fundraising campaign.  What do you want to accomplish together?  Here are some of the things to consider that would be most helpful for the project: 

• An email list of people interested in learning more about the Nicaragua Project.  
• Children's vitamins and books (paperback/Spanish) for the upcoming August trip. 
• A team fundraising goal to reach by the end of two weeks.

Task 3:  We will have a table set up on campus to sell cooked and baked goods.  This table should work as a "text" for the group and the activity around the table will be the foundation for the rhetorical situation of the project.  Come up with a schedule for the campus tables.

Task 4:  By June 16, groups will turn in a four page report providing the following:

• An introduction describing the group effort in participating in the Nicaragua Project.
• An analysis of the group's purpose, attitude, and background.
• An analysis of the audience that the group set out to reach.
• An analysis of the context in which the project was carried out.
• An analysis of the text the group created to engage in the audience.

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Service-Learning

Remember that the course has a 10-hour service-learning requirement.  In order to receive credit for your service-learning work, you will need to complete the sign-up forms, perform your service, and provide an analysis.  The Nicaragua Project will fulfill all of these requirements.  There are other possibilities, however.  Please check with me.

Week 3-Wednesday

Warm Up

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Today's Class

• Sharing individual pieces of the collaborative essay.
• Developing a working introduction and exchanging these with other groups.
• Coming up with a working outline.
• Identifying possible research themes from this paper.

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You have until Friday to turn in draft 1 of your collaborative essay.  Use MCL to do so.  Make sure that the essay is organized and developed.  Don't just drop your part in and walk away.  At the end of the paper, provide a table of contents of sorts explaining who did what in the paper.  Be specific.  Each person should take credit for the paragraphs that he or she wrote.  Have this work in by Friday afternoon.

Note: This first draft will be evaluated mostly on its organization and structure.  The evaluation of the second draft will focus primarily on the content and clarity of the writing.

Please read the following pages:

The Rhetorical Situation   

• Introduction
• Audience
• Context
• Example 1
• Example 2
• Conclusion

Week 3

Today we keep exploring the notion of education.  I'd like for you to look at a classic in rock history, Pink Floyd's "We Don't Need No Education."

Take a quick shot at writing a response to the images and music in this piece.  What does the video have to say to you?  Any connections with the other readings you have done?  Where is Raquel?  Write an introduction with a strong thesis.  Remember that there are a number of ways you can start your introduction.  You can use a startling statistic, a good question, an anecdote, a quotation, or the opposite of what you will argue.  Here's more information.

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The following questions might be useful in your attempt to make sense of your teaching/learning experiment on Wednesday.  They are inspired by Purdue's Writing Lab page on stasis theory. Use your notes to answer them.

• What happened on Wednesday?
• What were some of  the challenges of the experiment?
• What did you learn from the experiment?
• What are the implications of what you learned on your own experience in the classroom?  How might this insight help students and faculty create classroom spaces where learning is maximized?

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Your collaborative paper should cover or include the following:

      A description of the experience emphasizing key moments

      What was learned about the learning and teaching process

      A recommendation or two based on the experience

      Pictures

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For Wednesday:

 Turn in peer review by Wednesday.

 Post to MCL a draft of your contribution to the collaborative essay; bring a printout to class.

For Friday:

 Complete MLA Diagnostic in MCL.

 Polish the draft of the collaborative essay.

Wednesday, May 19

Don't forget that you are working in your groups tonight doing your educational experiments.  Take pictures, write a couple of pages of notes, and bring them to class on Monday.  Have fun!

Week 2

We continue exploring the idea of education.  You are currently working on a reflective response to the links I provided last week and the discussion we had in class.  I'd like to add another layer of information to this on-going conversation.  

The first layer comes from a recent New York Times article on the different views regarding college education.  It should come very close to home as you are engaging in one of the most life altering actions a person can take.  The questions the article raises should spark some deep thinking.

The second link is of a video interview I did two weeks ago in Nicaragua.  It's of a thirteen year old girl, the only person in her village to go to secondary school.  Her goal is to graduate and go to college.  Her effort is valiant and one to be deeply admired.  There are questions regarding her future, however, even if she gets the opportunity to complete her goal.  What might those be?  How is her story and effort connected to yours?

   New York Times

   Raquel Mendoza González

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A Word about the Diagnostic

I'm not sure if you have access to the review page pointing out each of the areas that were covered by the exam, but if you do, please print it out.  I'd like for each person to make sure to cover those areas that gave the most trouble.  I'll explain what I mean in class.

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A Word about Grading Scales

I use a very simple grading scale that takes into account just three levels.  I've used this system for some time now and it works, allowing me to create a very transparent system of grading.  Here it is:

✓+ = 95%

✓   = 77%

✓-  = 68%

Although there is no B grade in the individual grades, students can earn a B through a combination of the ✓+ and ✓.  

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Research

Library Databases

Evernote

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Other Resources

Gustavo Esteva

Unitierra

Barefoot College

We Start

“Never let school interfere with your education." ~Mark Twain

     I came across the following quote in the Barefoot College website, a school in India dedicated to working with rural children.  As I read about this school, I clearly connected the work they were doing to my experience in Nicaragua.  I then wondered what this far away effort had to do with us here in Miami.  It was then that I came across an article by Gustavo Esteva; he reminded me of the things that bring me the most pleasure when I teach well.  

     His piece pointed to the possibility that my role in the classroom as all knowing and complete authority is one of the stumbling blocks in allowing you, the so called students, to actually become engaged to the point that you become aware of the truth of Twain's statement.  Many of my years as a student were spent passively receiving whatever my teachers and schools wanted.  In the process, I often found myself bored out of my mind, twisted by the pressure and force of grades and the consequences of not playing by the rules.

     In my years of teaching, I have struggled even more with this.  I work in an institution that demands that I grade you and that I teach certain "skills" that often seem so disconnected from the reality of your own lives.  I cringe at the damage I have done and take solace in the effort I make every term to encourage creativity, joy in learning, and non-conformity in the face of institutional pressure and force.

     Please visit the three links I've made reference to in this short reflection and let's dialogue regarding the implications of a semester of exploration and profound learning.