12.18 Thanks and Grades

What a great semester this has been for me.  And thank you so much for your constructive comments about how to present the material in this course in a way that might work a little better for the next group of students.  I took good notes and will be looking through them carefully.

As stated in class, I will be reviewing your work over the next couple of days.  I hope to send you a gradesheet with comments on your final project, and your scores for all the categories listed below.
At that point, if you are OK with the grade, that's the grade you will get.  

If you do not agree with the grade - or if I made a mistake adding things up or if you don't agree with the score - send me an email and explain and we will see if we can work things out.  I may or may not revise the score (I am really obligated to evaluate the writing  that is turned in, and cannot grade on effort) but at that point we will know where we stand.  If you remain convinced that the grade is not calculated in line with the terms we agreed upon in the syllabus and in the revisions/discussions through out the course, the process for making a grade appeal is described in the Undergraduate Student Catalog under Grade Grievances.

I expect to send grade sheets by Saturday, and to post your grades on Keanwise by Monday.


Thanks again for being such a great class and Happy New Year!

1.  Blog + comments (response to readings; practice analysis, drafts, reflections, etc)    150 points   

          
2.  Class presentations + group work + participation + homework                                 250 points

16 points each class

3.  Short analysis project                                                                                           100 points

4.  Research project                                                                                                  500 points

250 points = creation of  data collection tools, presentation and preliminary analysis of data

125 points=evidence of writing process including invention writing, successive drafts, and writing to critique and plan revisions to successive drafts

125= final research essay

Total points for course                                                                                                           1000 points

Comments to your drafts

You should have received an email with comments to your post for Blog 17.   For most of you, I have attached a copy of your draft with comments.

Make sure that your revisions to your drafts meet the requirements stated on the "writing process" section of the Research Project Assignment Sheet.  I am looking for "thoughtful revisions" to successive drafts.  That means, in general, there should be substantive changes between Blog 17 (the draft project) and Blog 18 (the final project).

Hang in there!   You are all most finished.  See you on Tuesday night.

12.10 Presentations and how we will wrap up this term

We started class with a discussion of how you would turn in your work, and how you wanted the research project to be evaluated.

The class agreed as a whole to allocate points for the project as follows.

Data: 250
Writing Process: 125
Final essay: 125

Criteria for each of the components are stated on the assignment sheet, and have been clarified point by point in the blog posts.  I think you have chosen a way to assign credit for the project that  reflects the work and learning associated with what you actually did.  Great.

The remaining time was spent with presentations.  You provided your classmates with excellent feedback and clarification.  Good job on this!

For next class:
I will be working through your blogs/providing comments to anything posted before this morning.  This will be the last round of written comments to your work.  If you have questions/requests for feedback - be in touch and set up a conference for Wed, Thur, Mon or Tues (I am not available on Friday).

Due at the end of class, 12.17: your final project, attached to an email which lists/links to all blogs with writing for Data credit, and all blogs with evidence of writing process.

Blog 18: Final Research Essay (due by the end of class)

Plan your time so that the email with your essay and your final blog will be sent by the end of class.  I am also going to ask you to do some writing to help my revise/plan this course for the next time I teach it.  What should be changed/kept the same/added/deleted?   what advise would you give to a student coming in to this course about how to do well?

See you next week, and be in touch if you get stuck.

12.3 Presentations!

Tania, Sam, Tanaera, Danielle J,Sarina, Rachel, Jaleel, and Jen gave presentations today - and you all provided great feedback in terms of clarifying questions, pointing out patterns, and helping pull out relevant data.  Good work!

Next week we will hear from Brianne, Carolina, Julissa, Danielle B., Silvia, Trisha, and Eli.

For your presentation, since you will be talking about drafts instead of data, use the following revised format (I changed this from the original post).

1. State your research question.
2. Provide an overview of the research paper you have chosen to reply to/set up your research.
3. Describe the organization of  your paper.
4. Draw classmates attention to the particular writing issues/sections of your paper you want support on.

 Make sure to have a question posed for your classmates.  Give us a task to help.

For next class:
Read: classmate's blogs
Blog 17: Draft Research Essay