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Assignment Sequence Expanded for 0160
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Critique of Essay in Morality Unit
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Original Sequence
Goal for unit:
To develop ways to analyze texts, specifically, (1) to find patterns in
the students' own observations and (2) to develop perspectives on a text
by considering alternative ideas about morality in texts and in class
discussion. To analyze one text closely, developing an thesis that
integrates all the observations made through close reading.
Homework: Read Brandt (191)and Didion (179) and write an elegant,
inclusive summary of each, that is, a summary that includes all the main points
and that does so in a way that is concise and powerful. To prepare for this, do
the part-whole exercise by
marking and labeling the parts in the book. Write a response (focused freewrite)
to main idea of each (combined, 1-2 pages). You may wish to have students
answer the "Previewing" questions in class before doing the
reading. (See page 5-6 in The
Presence of Others.) Other useful material for critical thinking
may be found in The Presence of Others, pp. 1-7 and 19-21, in
The Bedford Reader, pp. 478-491, and the
Critical Thinking website.
Day 1. Didion may best be approached as a mystery essay:
first identifying the most explicit statements of theme and using them as
clues to decipher how the other parts of the essay (various stories)
connect with or amplify those themes. Students' part-whole exercises
can be reviewed for how inclusive and elegant their summaries are.
Then students can make a list of things they like and dislike about the
essay they feel most engaged by and search for patterns among those
lists. Homework: Read Gilligan (169) and Gomes (205). Before reading the Gilligan,
do a bit of freewriting to think about whether you've noticed a difference in
what men and women value as morally correct. As you read Gomes, consider how
Didion might react to him. Write a summary, doing
the part-whole exercise in your book (or underlining and connecting key
concepts, as we did in class), and write a response (about 1 page each). In your
annotating, pay special attention to places you liked and disliked.
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Expansion
Because you meet twice a day, you can have
students review how to do a part-whole exercise in class before you give
them this assignment.
You will have time to review both the Brandt and the Didion
in some detail. You can review, by projecting assignments in
Blackboard onto the screen, how students divided the essays into parts and
how they labeled those parts, instead of just reviewing the summaries.
Students can work in groups to come up with superior summaries and
compete for the most elegantly written summary that is also inclusive of
all the major points.
You can begin essays in class the day before,
especially to have them reflect on how they read and what strategies they
can adopt. (See
Goals-Activities page.)
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Day 2. Review their summaries of
Gilligan and Gomes, possibly doing one as a class and one in pairs or
groups of three. Focus primarily on Gilligan essay by using LCD
projector to share provocative excerpts from their responses to Gilligan
in Blackboard. Use discussion to help them think critically about
where Gilligan's essay is strong or weak, especially the role that
interpretation of data plays. Homework: Read the King essay (142). To get into it, I recommend that you first put yourself in his
position (in jail, South still segregated even 100 years after the Emancipation
Proclamation, himself a clergyman) and do a
freewrite about what you might be
thinking about fellow clergyman who criticized the demonstrations against unfair
hiring practices in Birmingham, Alabama, as "unwise and untimely." What do you
think Didion would say of King's call to conscience?
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In class, you'd be able to devote significant
time to both the Gilligan and the Gomes. There would be more
hands-on time to have students compile lists of what they liked and
disliked, notice where they agree and disagree with each other, and notice
patterns in their likes and dislikes.
You will have far more time to help students not
just consider but plan how to use the discussion of King.
You could prepare students to take notes during the class discussion, ask
them to refer to those notes to create a list of points on the board,
notice patterns among the notes, and do a focused freewrite to arrive at a
possible thesis.
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Day 3. Discuss King, especially to consider various perspectives on
his essay, including the white ministers and Didion. Consider how
bias in language might vary depending on one's point of view. See
possible questions. End
class by strategizing how today's discussion could be used within a
critical essay. Homework: Choose one of the four essays we've read in the "Moralities"
section of The Presence of Others. Reread it. Note all the places that you
particularly like, dislike, or have some reaction to. Revise your summary to
create one that is truly elegant and inclusive, that connects all the major
parts in a way that "flows." Then select and answer questions for
analysis from the following sources and answer them in relation to the
text you are critiquing: The Presence of Others,
pp. 1-7 and 19-21, and The Bedford Reader, pp. 478-491. Come
to class prepared to discuss with a group of students who have also read
your essay what you can conclude about it.
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You will have time to teach them how to do this
complex assignment by going over an example journal or even beginning the
assignment in class.
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Day 4. Students meet in groups according to the essay read.
Their task is to share all their observations with the idea of coming up
with a description of the persona that arises from the text. They
can be very creative with this as long as they support their description
by referring to the text. The groups can share these persona
descriptions briefly with the whole class. Homework:
Revisit all the places you noted that you had a strong reaction in the
text and all the answers to critical questions (all from yesterday's
homework) and create a special double-entry
journal, in which the left column is composed of quotes or paraphrased
material from your text and the right column is your critical response to
it. Color code the right column entries according to patterns you
notice. In a sentence or two, identify each of these patterns.
Finally write a thesis statement that integrates all of these patterns and
the persona work from class.
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Students will need time to practice paraphrasing
and summarizing in class. They will need one-on-one attention to
develop their thesis and organize their essay. This would be a
perfect day for the tutor to appear. |
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Day 5. Project one particularly generative double-entry journal on
the board and have the class problem-solve their way through the next
steps: critiquing the thesis and deciding upon the parts of the
essay based upon the two columns of the journal. Students might then
work in pairs to critique and organize each of their own essays. Discuss
paraphrasing and summarizing as it applies to the first draft. Have
students write an introduction in class. Homework: First draft of Analytical Essay #2,
including Work Cited and metatext. See essay assignment.
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Day 6. Begin by reviewing some introductions and body paragraphs
from a few strong first drafts (if possible by previewing in Blackboard).
The class will use
key questions
for peer response as a partial guide to
respond to a peer’s draft.
Homework: Second draft of essay.
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Students will probably have time in class to do
all the peer review work and to meet with their peers to discuss their
comments.
You'll have more time to teach grammatical
concepts in context, both by using The Bedford Handbook and by
letting them work in pairs to edit a handout of selected sentences from
their essays.
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Day 7. Have students do some editing work, teaching
grammatical concepts where necessary. Homework: Final
draft, submitting both in Blackboard and via hard copy. |
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In fact, this unit would probably not be
designed with three drafts if it were a regular 1201 because the paper
load would be too heavy.
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