Final Exam Meeting: Mon, May 5, noon--2:00

There is no final exam, but we are still required to meet. So, typical Angie style, I think it should be a final party!

I'm going to have you all sign in for attendance, then fill out a quick survey about writing in your field.

I'll bring treats, we'll play your favorite YouTube videos (and some of mine), and we can just do what we do best: hang out and have fun. Or take a nap? I've always wanted to make class-time nap time. "And now students, put your heads on your desks and do some catch-up work!" Anyway...

I don't expect you to stay for the whole two hours, but I will. That way if some of you have overlapping schedules, you can come in later if you need to. Hang out for 30 minutes or so, then we'll go our separate ways.

Man it was a great semester! I learned SO MUCH from you all about communicating in your fields!

In The Classroom on Monday (Tomorrow)

Be there!

Also, you should have received a link in an email for the evaluation for my class. Please fill it out. I will also give you time in class Monday and Wednesday. Fill it out honestly--I don't see it until almost fall, and then I never know who said what. However, I DO get to read all the comments you put in there. Again, they are anonymous, but I love to read them, and I read each one--praising or criticizing. The numbers part doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but writing out your comments helps me be a better teacher and design better classes.

I wish there was a link for me to evaluate you as students--because you have been the best bunch ever. And I've never said that before!

Friday: Class online; Extra credit assignment

If you want to earn extra points towards your final grade, here's a one-time opportunity:

Step 1: Revise the Portfolio assignment and post it on your blog by Friday night at midnight. 

 The assignment needs to:

   

                             1) Be fully ready to teach from (spell-checked, design, wording)

                             2) Attempt to include those details and reasons for the assignment                                                                          you know are important to me as we discussed in class                                                                                      yesterday

                             3)  Make sense to you so that you could teach from it

Step 2:  Also by midnight Friday, post a simple reflection of your decisions in the revision process--why you changed what you did, and how that principle can be translated to writing you do for your own assignments in my class and others.

This extra credit assignment is worth 3% of your final grade. (Which means if you do it well and get full credit for it, you get the extra credit. If you do it and it sucks, you don't lose any points from your total grade. Make sense?)

If you're not interested in the extra credit, then use class time Friday to continue revising your portfolio!

                               

Wednesday, in class!

Great work today, y'all!

See you in class on Wednesday! Keep working on your portfolios and thinking about rhetorical analysis so we can have a productive discussion about it in class. I appreciate you all wanting to understand it more, and it helps me to explain it if you can think of very specific questions. One good one that more than one person brought up was "What is the difference between writing a summary and writing a rhetorical analysis?" Well, good question. We need even more specific ones than that, too.

Monday is an Online Class Day (DURING CLASS TIME)

Hey all,

Monday during class time I want you to work from home. Wednesday will be an in-class day, Friday could be either--I'll let you know Wednesday. ( I will also be getting your videos Monday, so I should have them accessible to you by Tuesday)

During class time on Monday (4-21), I want you to be at your computers, doing the work I describe below. If you don't have a laptop, or if you prefer, you may work in our classroom. It is still ours, I just won't be able to be there.

1. Find yourself in the groups below, note which assignment I'm asking you to work on (If one is not specified, it's because you didn't post on the "Conferences with Me" blog post so I don't know what you're doing. Prior to Monday, figure it out and comment on that blog post.)

2. At the beginning of class time, 

A.    Look back at what you wrote on our conferencing post about why                                                                    you want to use that assignment. 

B.   Expand on it a little, and put that in an email to the other person in                   your group. 

C.    Attach the assignment I've listed here to the email to your partner 

D.    Send it to them. Your work with your own piece is done for this class period and you will now turn to work on the email you have received from the person in your group.

          This should take 10 or 15 minutes, tops.

3.  During class time,

A.     Thoughtfully read through your group-member's email and assignment. You might need to read through it more than once or twice.

B. Ask yourself what questions the author might need to ask themselves in order to accomplish their own goals for this assignment. What questions come to mind when you read their piece? Do their answers bring up questions they could address? What areas seem skimmed over that they could go deeper on? How might they go deeper into that specific area?

C.  List these questions in a return email to your group member. Elaborate on the questions, explaining your why's and what in/about their writing prompted your questions. Please list questions for your group member. Don't tell them how to revise, but let them know, as one reader, what kinds of questions their piece and intent to revise it brings up for you.

D. Option: An easy way to comment on a paper can be found HERE. Just be sure you save your partner's paper with a new title before you start to comment on it, and send them back that copy so their original file won't get overwritten.

4. Before class time is over, send your partner's piece, along with their comments, back to your partner. CC me in the email. (If you haven't CC'd before, Google it!)

5. In the event that you don’t get an email from someone within the first 15-20 minutes of class, use class time to work on your own piece of writing, utilizing the prompt to develop your work. At the end of class time, just email me your own work that you have asked/answered questions on, since you don’t have your partner’s assignment and your feedback to email me.

This is going to take all of you working together to make this work. If one person doesn’t show, your partner loses out. Team time!

Team #                          Assignment to work on

Team 1:

Amanda and Blake          Textual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 2:

Tanner and Ashley          Visual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 3:

Adam and Michael           Textual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 4:

Wyatt                            Textual Rhetorical Analysis

Matt                              Summary

Team 5:

John L. and Sam             Visual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 6:

Kaitlin and John A.           Visual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 7:

Josh                            Textual Rhetorical Analysis

David                            Visual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 8:

Sophie and Kayla             Textual Rhetorical Analysis

Team 9:

Zach and Jacob               Pick the assignment you’ve chosen that you are the least

                                              Sure of how to improve

Team 10:

Joe and Ryan                  Pick the assignment you’ve chosen that you are the least

                                              Sure of how to improve

       

(The last two teams I don’t have portfolio information on. If you are including either of the rhetorical analysis in your portfolio, work on those, please. If your name is not on this list it's because you have an excused absence from this class day based on another scholarly activity with a conflicting schedule.)

ONLINE CONFERENCES WITH ME!

Hey Y'all. Due to more medical complications, we are not going to be able to do conferences face to face, we will have to do them on the blog.

 (What? the Dr doesn't think I should DRIVE when I'm super lightheaded...what kinda crap is THAT?? He obviously was never in the military, where we adapt and overcome....oh hey why are there stars out when it's daytime? Why am I on the ground when I was standing up a minute ago??? Okayyyy fine. I won't drive. But I WILL finish out my semester with my students. Somehow or other! I miss being in class with you, but we're going to finish this thing strong--it just might look a little different than we had planned, roger roger??)

New Conference Instructions:

Each one of you will post a comment in response to this post. It will contain three things:
     1.  Which pieces you want to put in your portfolio
     2. Why
     3  Any questions you have or challenges you are having with this assignment

Do this during the time you and I were going to meet. You may post your comments sooner if you wish. If we didn't yet set a time, do it before 5 p.m. on Friday.

I expect each of you to comment and it will count as two absences if you don't--just like if we were meeting.  My hope is that I'll be able to respond to your post right away and you can respond back--then as others arrive on the page to post, look through the other conversation to see if your question has been answered. If it has, and you ask it anyway, I"m just gonna shake my head and smile and write "Refer to ______'s question and my answer, above."


Let's get it done, shall we??

Portfolio Assignment! Proposal Due in conferences

Make sure you read this and do the portfolio proposal (last half of this post describes it) before you see me in conference. I don't want your portfolio propsal turned in, I just want to know that you understand the instructions and you have put some thought into what assignments you want to use in your portfolio. Don't come to our conference expecting me to have all the answers--it's your portfolio! Let's bring it and finish this semester out strong!

Assignment #5: Portfolio
Due April 30th (In paper form)

Proposal Due  In conference with me April 16^th or 18th (Not turning it in but I want to see it)

Audience and purpose
Your immediate audience for your portfolio is your instructor.  More importantly, however, analyzing the different parts of your portfolio is really for you—to reflect on your communication growth over the last few months more completely than you have in the small reflections you’ve done along the way.  As you finish English 250 and do this more in-depth self-assessment, you will 1) compose an overall reflection for your portfolio that introduces its contents and 2) explain in individual section reflections how the artifacts you’re including show your communication abilities.

The question we asked you to think about repeatedly in this course has been, “How does communication work in your field?” As you revise each of your pieces of writing ask yourself how you can make each piece more appropriate for your field. For your reflection, talk about why you made your major revision choices. Specifically, explain to me how you see your field differently than you did when you wrote the first draft of each piece. What changed your perspective?

Portfolio contents

Please submit the following in two, 2-pocket folders. You may also post them to your blog, especially if you have videos or color photos in your portfolio. They are due April 30^th.

Notes:

·           On pages 3 and 4 of this assignment sheet, you’ll find a proposal for the parts of your portfolio that will allow you to plan your artifacts and ideas for reflection and to share those ideas with your instructor in a proposal conference to get feedback on your thinking:

1.    Table of contents and introductory reflection

The purpose of this opening reflection is to think back over the semester and re-examine with new eyes the communication work you’ve done in English 150 in order to assess your growth as a communicator using the WOVE modes.  Write your overall reflection in the form of either a letter (addressed to your instructor), using the following questions as a guide to help you generate ideas.  (You don’t have to address all the questions and may add information not included in the questions.)

Note: Your reflection as a letter should include an introduction, conclusion, and examples from your work.

Communication habits/processes

·      How have your composing processes become more sophisticated since you began the course?

·      How do you go about generating initial ideas for pieces you’re composing, as well as the details and explanation needed to develop and support those ideas?

·           How do you accommodate different audiences when you communicate? How does audience consideration affect choice of communication mode(s)?

·      How do you draft and revise your compositions?

·      How do you use others (peers, instructor, friends, family, etc.) to assist you in making effective revisions?

·      How have you improved your editing process?  What are your typical problems with mechanics and what kind of progress have you made with these?

·           Which of your composing habits have remained the same during this semester and why?  Which have changed and why?

Communication development

·      What talents or strengths do you possess in the following areas?

o   W—writing  (context, substance, organization, style, delivery)

o   O—oral (interviews, large group discussions, small group discussions, presentations, etc.)

o   V—visual (Place or Artifact analysis, brochure, etc.)

o   E—electronic (word processing, e-mail content, ethical use of the Internet and electronic images, etc.)

·      What new discoveries have you made in these areas?

·      In which area(s) do you wish you’d been able to do more?

2.   Revision of an assignment with reflection

For this part of the portfolio, you will revise one of your earlier assignments (1-4).  As you think about which piece to revise, choose one that 1) allows you to focus on writing and 2) you can easily see ways of improving.  

Important: Revision here means more than editing; it means, “re-seeing” the subject.  You should include

additional material, delete parts that don’t work, reorganize the piece, refine your opening and closing, improve your title, etc.—in other words, you need to do a significant amount of rewriting. Importantly, envision and specify a likely audience for your piece and think about what you can do to facilitate their understanding of your communication.

Planning and Drafting

As you begin, look over earlier drafts of your chosen piece (and any accompanying process materials) as well as feedback you received (both from peers and instructor), asking yourself the following questions:

·           Which areas need the most improvement?

·           Where have I changed my mind about anything I wrote earlier, and how can I incorporate that changed thinking?

·           Where can I offer additional development or clarification?

·           What doesn’t seem to belong?

·           Can I see a better way to arrange the ideas in my new version?

·           What other issues do I need to address to make this piece more effective?

Refer to Chapters 10 and 11, The Everyday Writer (EW) for advice on revision, focus, and development.

The piece you submit here should clearly be more successful in achieving its purpose and reaching its intended audience than the earlier version.

With your new-and-improved draft include a thorough, thoughtful reflection that gives information about the following aspects of your revision:

·           Describe additions made to the piece (written, text, visuals, source material, etc.).  Highlight a couple examples of these additions and explain their benefit.

·      Describe portions you chose to delete. Explain the benefit of those deletions.

·      Explain what parts you decided required no changes.  Give a couple of examples of these and offer support for your decision.

·      If you reorganized or reformatted elements, explain how doing so benefits the piece.

3.   -OVE piece(s) with reflection

Include in this section of your portfolio, one or more examples of your work that highlight your best efforts in oral (e.g. small-group work, interviewing, individual presentations, group presentations), visual (e.g. brochure or other piece with image included), and electronic (e.g. e-mail correspondence, brochure, or other piece that relies heavily on the electronic) communication.

In your reflection for this section, discuss the following:

·           Why you chose this/these piece(s) as evidence of your best work in the oral, visual, and electronic modes

·           What, if any, changes you made to the original versions, why, and to what benefit

·           What you believe the piece/s demonstrate about you as an oral, visual, and electronic communicator

Portfolio Evaluation Criteria

·              The portfolio includes all required components (see above).

·              The reflective pieces (introductory letter/essay, individual section reflections, and closing letter/essay) accomplish the following:

o   Include specific references to prior work (examples) to support your discussion

o   Demonstrate a thoughtful, honest, thorough and coherent analysis of your progress

·              The written revision (Pocket 2) better satisfies the criteria of the original assignment:

o   Substance: demonstrates a thorough rethinking of the subject

o   Context: contains additional material appropriate for audience and purpose

o   Organization: achieves improved focus, structure, and coherence

·              Other OVE piece/s (Pocket 3) demonstrate/s competence in these modes

·              Revision and reflection avoid errors distracting to the reader

Portfolio proposal

Purpose of chart and planning questions

• To sketch out the contents of your final portfolio, plan what you will be doing with each of your presentation pieces, and begin to consider what you can meaningfully say about them
• To discuss your proposal with your instructor and get feedback on your plans

Planning the contents

In the space below, jot down your thinking about the pieces you’re planning to present for grading in your portfolio

In your portfolio you need to revise two of your pieces of work:

1.    Represents your best written abilities

2.    A piece that represents your best work in the oral/visual/electronic modes

Thinking of what to say about the contents

Now that you’ve tentatively chosen some pieces to present in your portfolio, in the space below, sketch out ideas you have at this point for reflecting on these pieces (e.g. what your chosen pieces show about context, substance, organization, style, and/or delivery; what their strengths are, their weaknesses; what strategies they try to use; etc.)

Ideas you have for reflecting on your revised written piece

Ideas you have for reflecting on piece(s) contained in your OVE section

Posing questions about your plan/proposal

Note in this space, the questions you want to ask your instructor about your plans or any other aspect of the portfolio during your proposal conference:

Evaluating your proposal

·                      Does it show careful thought?

·                      Is it complete?

·                      Is it specific?

·                      Does it give you meaningful ideas to discuss with your instructor?

Conference Times This Week

Here are the conference times you signed up for. There are only 16 of you signed up, and still some empty slots, so if you're not signed up yet, please post a comment to this post with what time you want of those available. Try to stick to those, but if they don't work, send me an email.

Remember, just like last time, missing a conference constitutes 2 absences (because we don't have class two of the days), so please don't miss yours!


Wednesday, April 16

1:30 Joe H.

1:45  Amanda G.

2:00   Blake H.

2:15 David M.

2:30  Matt B.

2:45  Ashley M.

3:00  Sophie F.

3:15 Kayla A.

3:30  Adam C.

3:45  Zack A.





Friday, April 18

1:45  Wyatt B.

2:00  Josh L.

2:15  Kaitlin S.

2:30  Sam G.

2:45  Michael W.

3:00  John L.

3:15  Ryan S.

3:30

3:45

4:00  John A.

4:15  Jacob R.

This Week's Oral Presentation Schedule

Mon (4-7)

1. Kayla Anderson

2. Amanda Gridley

3. David Mena

4. Sophie Finerty

5.Ashley Meyn

Wed.

1. Josh Lendi

2. Sam Gaylord

3. Wyatt Burns

4. Robert Young

5. Kaitlin Stockman

Fri.

1. Michael Wuestenberg

2. John Lauer

3. Adam Cardaras

4. Zach Amenda

5. Ryan Swenson

Mon (4-14)

1. Matt Beth

2. Blake Heimann

If your name isn't on the list, please see KJ Gilchrist on Monday to get your name into a spot. Be prepared, because if there is time after the people listed have presented, you may well get pulled into any remaining slots left that day.

Mallory's tip for success: Be proud of the research you did and tell us what it is and why it matters--to you and others. 

Can't wait to watch your videos!

Oral presentations next week!

Oral Presentations of Research
Due: Week of April 7-11

Essentially you are telling us what coolness your research paper covered. You're just doing it as if we're colleagues in your field, rather than dorm room buddies. Your experience Friday at the Graduate Research Conference should help you get a sense of what that tone looks/sounds like.

Research Paper presentations will take place April 7-11. Each presentation must include a well-organized and professional-looking visual component (to be emailed to me by noon on the day of your presentation) and be 3-5 minutes long. The instructor will give you a warning when you have 30 seconds left, and after that, your presentation will be cut off. If you don’t reach 3 minutes, you must dance, sing or otherwise entertain the class until the 5 minutes are up, so you might want to practice. J

I highly recommend that you practice this presentation at least 3 times before you give it. This will ensure that you know when to move from one part to the next of your visual element, and you will ensure that you meet the time requirement.

I also highly recommend that you use some sort of notes. These are not required, but they can be extremely useful in helping you to remember what you were going to be talking about.

You will be assigned to give feedback to one other person on the days you do not present. You will also fill out a self-assessment form that will be confidential between you and I.

Assessment Criteria:

Delivery: How confident is the speaker? This speaker speaks loud enough to be heard, clearly enough to be understood, and slowly enough that I can keep up. This speaker is speaking to me somewhat conversationally, not reading or reciting.

Assignment: Is this a presentation of the research paper I assigned? This presentation should be focused on which specific communication skills are key, argue for why and how they are important, and then argue for the best way an undergraduate can develop these skills. This presentation should include a visual element and be 5 minutes long. This presentation should include a works cited page.

Visual: How professional and readable is the visual element? This visual element should supplement or add to what the speaker says – not replicate it. This visual should be engaging and interesting without being distracting or off-topic.

Organization: How well organized is the presentation? This presentation should have a clear opening, clear transitions between your main points, and a clear closing (A good sign of a clear closing is unhesitant applause).

Friday: Special Class!! (Not meeting in Ross)

Your mission: go find something cool that has to do with your field, write about it in your blog. Be sure to include the name of a researcher, what department they are from, the name of their project, and details that show why it's cool (for ummm, me, your reader, who is not in any of your fields...). It'd be really cool if you introduced yourself and got contact info. Presenters want this!

Preparation: (see below) Register Before April 2nd. View the program and pick something you want to attend. Attend! You can go any time during the day. Your write-up will be due by Monday. If you want to post pictures to your blog, or a video rather than do a write-up, please do! Just make sure they capture the details listed above.


 

2014 Graduate And Professional Student Research Conference

Friday, April 4th, 2014

10 AM to 6 PM

College of Design

FREE

Registration

All attendees should register for the meeting in advance. Attendees who preregister for the conference will have a name tag ready for them when they arrive. Pre-registration is required for complimentary lunch. To pre-register, click HERE. 

Why Attend?

• Come to learn more about the exciting work being conducted by 185 ISU graduate and professional students from all seven colleges
• Attend the workshops and panel discussions
• Meet and network with students and faculty within and across diverse disciplines
• Vote for your favorite poster and 3 Minute Thesis presentation
• Enjoy free lunch (pre-registration is required)

Program

View the detailed Program HERE. For a concise Program click here. 

Questions?

Vivek Lawana vjlawana@iastate.edu
Zachary Zenko zenko@iastate.edu

Sponsored by: 
Graduate and Professional Student Senate 
The Provost Office 
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 
College of Business 
College of Design 
College of Engineering 
Graduate College 
College of Human Sciences 
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 
College of Veterinary Medicine 

(To see the live website, click the link below)

https://www-gpss.sws.iastate.edu/students/gpsrc/?f5redir=a50508cefe86571f0b4eb7c0daaad6b4

Welcome Back!

Homework for Wednesday, 3-26-14

Read EA Chapter 19 "Using Sources"

Look back over your notes and research paper draft, bibliography, and proposal. Remind yourself why this topic is important to you.

Identify two things and write a one-page blog post that talks about them:

1) Why is your research paper important--to you and to the world?

2) What is one thing you are/were having a hard time doing in the process of writing your research paper?

Come to class Wednesday ready to talk about those two things, as well as the reading.


Hope you had a wonderful Spring Break and I'm glad to have you back!

This week (MArch 10-14)

No Class!

Conferences!

If you are not signed up for a conference with me, email me ASAP. Just FYI, missing a conference is counted at 3 absences (see course policies tab on our blog home page for how much that sucketh). But you see the common sense behind it, right? No class. All week, you have 15 minutes you have to spend with me. Please come in prepared for it--bring in your research proposal and finished bib. Post them on your blog, but have a way to have them hand to discuss with me.

For assistance with your projects, please read: EA chapter 21, "Documenting Sources"

If you don't have your appointment time written down, please email me. And for the record, always, always, always write down your meeting times with instructors!

Homework before class on Monday, March 3

Due date change: Your research proposal and completed bibliography is due (on your blog) right before your conference with me during conference week.

Read:  EA Chapter 12, Proposals

Write: A proposal for your research paper. Use what you read in Chapter 12 of EA to decide what to include and how to format it. If you still have questions once you're done, add them into the end. 

You will peer review them on Monday, and I will help you out with them so you can revise them, since they are due on your blog at the time of your conference with me. I don't care about the length, but I do care how completely you have thought through your paper. I'm guessing a page or two double spaced is how much room it will take to record all the details of your plan to write your research paper.

Your proposal should be something of a map another person could use to research with you, so it needs to be detailed. Where is the research conversation now? How will you find out? (What specific journals, etc will you look in to find out, etc.)