As you send me e-mail questions, I will respond here in case anyone else in
the class has the same questions.
You should begin by reading the assignments for the first 3 weeks (through "Once
More to the Lake" Don't worry about the Rubric assignment yet; I will explain later.
When you have read the essay, do the 10-minute write. Remember, you first want to see what
you have to say before your ideas are contaminated by anyone else's (including mine). You
can look at the 10-minute write topics under Reading Assignments and send me an e-mail
with your response. Then, if you are the teacher or leader for that essay, post your
questions as soon as possible to allow your fellow group members as much time as possible
to respond to you. You can check out sample questions also under Reading Assignments or
make up your own questions. Then start answering the questions for
"Examsmanship" and the other readings as soon as the teacher/leader posts them.
If you are the secretary for that essay, keep checking back on all the answers; try to
find where they are in agreement and summarize the answers for your group. When your group
is happy with your answers, post them as "Answers for 'How We Listen'" or
whatever the name of the essay is. Then, if you like, when the group has come to a
consensus on the answers, each of you should read through my "After Discussion
Lecture" on that essay; you can get there from the Reading Assignments page. Type in
your name when you are finished and check the box that says you have read the lecture. You
have until Feb 7 (at 7pm) to complete the first 4 essay discussions, until Feb 14 for
"Brown Wasps" and "Once More to the Lake."
Good luck. If you have more questions, use the e-mail area of our web pages to ask.
You could copy down the 10-minute write topic you want to answer and go to the e-mail page and use that form to send the 10-minute writes. If that is too much trouble and you have another suggestion, please let me know.
Do nothing yet. When we have read the first 4 essays, as we begin to prewrite for our first writing assignment, I want the class to think about what criteria are reasonable to expect in a Freshman Composition class for an adequate or "C" paper, what it would take to write a paper worth an "A" or "B" and what would constitute an "F" or unsatisfactory paper so you will know how to evaluate each other, and eventually so you can learn to know how good your own papers are even before you turn them in to be graded by a teacher. So wait for further instructions on the rubric.
I'm going to give everyone a break since we got started late and you are having some trouble understanding your responsibilities in the groups. Therefore, ALL 10-miute writes, discussions and consensus reports for the first 6 essays will be due Feb 13 at 7pm. However, questions on all essays are due from the leaders by this Friday, Jan 28th at 6pm. Post your questions in your group folder with a heading of "Questions on 'put in your essay title here'" I will give no credit to anyone who has not posted questions by then. If no one in your group posts questions on an essay, any one of you could post questions for extra credit points after the Sunday deadline.
You earn 4 points for each 10-min write, reading the after discussion lectures, and for participating in the discussions, 10 points for posting questions or acting as secretary, 10 points for all term paper assignments except annotated bibliography which is points, 10 points for posting your own essay on time, 10 points for evaluating another student's essay, 4 points for participating in the group evaluation of another student's essay, and more assignments to be determined later. Hope this helps.
