4.30 Presentations!

Dana, Arlette, Karl, and Suzy gave presentations today.  Thank you, Stephanie, for your good note taking!

Presentations for May 2: Janeida, Joanne, Kim, Sharelle, Corinne

Blog 26:  If you gave your presentation today, post your reflections on what you have to work on
if you gave your presentation last week, post your revisions,
if you are doing your presentation May 2, post the draft you will present on
if you are presenting May 7, post any writing you want feedback on

If you need more feedback than you got in class, schedule a conference!

Good work on these projects!

4.25 Presentations

We re-arranged the schedule for presentations so that you could make better use of the feedback from me and your classmates.  The new schedule is as follows.

April 25:  Krista, Jenna, Stephanie, (Jillian)
April 30:  Dana, Arlette, Karl, Suzy, (Jillian)
May 2:  Janeida, Joanne, Kim, Sharelle, CorinneMay 7:  Maritza,  Robert  + evaluting your draft so far by using the rubric.

Also, we went over the points you should hit in your presentation.  They are as follows:

1. explanation of issues surrounding/related to your research project

2. context + your assumptions = why you are dioing this project = importance to writing studies

3. present your evidence (talk about your data)

4.  what your data shows with respect to your research question

5. conclusion= implications for writing studies+what your research shows.

As pointed out in class, if you hit these points as best you can, and ask questions about points where you need input = you will get full credit for your presentation.  As you saw in class today, this presentation is an important opportunity for you to consider the focus/organization/development of your essay so far; how to set up your essay;  how well your data support (or not) your research question, how to develop a more powerful conclusion (where you state the importance of your findings), and so on.  

 A second important purpose for these presentations for program evaluation.  I will be rating them (using a rubric) to assess whether and how well our work together for this course has prepared students to give this kind of a presentation.

GREAT CLASS TODAY!   Thanks for the excellent presentations and for the excellent comments on what presenters can work on to make a stronger paper.  I was very impressed at the effectiveness of the language you used for the comments (you must have paid attention to that "rhetoric of teacher comments" paper!).  

For next class:

Blog 25: Today's presenters = write up any plans/notes you have for revising your essay in light of your presentation
Tuesday, April 29 presenters= poste the essay-so-far that you will present on
Everyone else: post any writing that you want credit for as part of your drafting process, or any in-process analysis that you want credit for  as part of the data collection/analysis part of the project(see assignment sheet for research project)

See you next week.

4.23 And yet another workshop.

I began class by clearing up confusion over the email note about due dates.  If you turn in your work before the dates listed below, you will get full credit for your work.

Data (transcript, observations, screenshots, whatevery you uses) must be made available to me on your blog or as an attachment to an email, no later than April 25

Sections of analytic writing (lists of categories + examples, sections of data with discussions of what that data show, or other drafty representations of what you see going on in your data) must be made available to me on your blog or as an attachment to an email, no later than May 2,

Drafty writing for your essay = due the day of your presentation

Final essay = due May 9.

Meeting the deadlines will allow me and your classmates to give you feedback in time so that you can use that feedback to write a stronger final essay.


Revised plan for Thursday: the original plan for Thursday was that we would go over the rubric and you would analyze your essays and make a plan for revision. It is clear the most of you are not ready to do that, and that it would be more useful to begin the presentations. This will allow us to talk through how to present data analysis in a paper in a way that provides feedback for the writer - and lets the rest of the class get some ideas for how to present their own data.

Jenna, Krista, Stephaniem and (reluctantly) Jillian have agreed to present their drafty writing on Thursday.

Blog 24: Jenna, Krista, Stephanie and Jillian will post their draft-so-far. The rest of you should post sections of analysis or writing for your essay that you would like feedback on (I will have feedback for you by next Tuesday - or in a conference if you schedule one).

Good class today!

4.18 Another Workshop!

We started class by looking at the calendar and noticing what we were doing for the rest of the term. Next Tuesday is another in-class workshop, hursday we will review the rubric for grading the essays and you will be evaluating how you are doing. After that you will be giving presentations.

The sign up for presentations is as follows:

April 30:  Dana, Stephanie, Krista, Arlette, Jillian

May 2 : Jenna, Janeida, Sharelle, Joanne, Kimberly

May 7:  Suzy, Robert, Maritza, (Karl - OK for you?)

Remember - these presentations are about getting feedback from your classmates and me on how to write the best research essay you can write.

Blog 23: post what you worked on in class today - or anything else you want me to look at.

I will be looking at blogs before class on Tuesday - and giving you feedback on "writing so far".

REMEMBER that the writing process and data parts of the grade for this projects are lots of points = so make sure to post your data and your "writing so far" so you can earn your credit.

Have a great weekend - and see you next week!

4.16 Workshop: Analyzing Data

Reminder: Turn in informed consent forms.

Today we talked through the following protocol for analyzing data.  The idea is to spend some time looking not just at the content - but also at the language (look back to the questions in Gee, and to the handout you used for the short analysis essay).  By starting with 3 sections, you can get an idea of what is going on in your data without getting overwhelmed (trying to look at everything at once).  After you analyze each story/section, you can go back to your data to look for more of what you have found in terms of the 3 "important" pieces.  It's only a suggestion - and can be a good place to start.

1. Look for 3 sections/stories within your data that seem important to your focus. 

2. Cut and paste them into a document and analyze them in some detial: ask what this section/story shows with respect to your focus? Look at:

3. Analyze each section of data in terms of:·         Content (what it says)·         Form ( how the way language is used presents a feeling/information/other keys to what is going on)

4. After you have made a list of what is going on in the chosen section(like we did in class) do the following·         State what the data shows ·         Identify quotes from the data that illustrate the points you want to make

5. Look back at your data for other sections/stories that show or illustrate similar or related informtaion=> analyze them in terms of what you found in the third step (above).  Add any new names/points to your list of what that section "shows".

 

Blog 22: Post your analysis so far

Class Thursday will be another workshop.  Come prepared to work.  I will be available for conferencing.

4.11 Transcribing + Working on your introduction + literature review

Transcribing your interview file

Do: 
create a "quick and dirty trancript from beginning to end
mark the time at random intervals
mark "good stories"  and significant patterns for talk*
get the flow of talk
write down as much detail as you can
use markers for sections of text that you are having trouble understanding  = ?? or IDK
use a "template" (like we did in class) so that you don't have to format as you type

Don't:
skip over large sections of text
obsess over getting every word

What counts as a good story + a significant pattern for talk?
Good stories = stories related to your content, stories that are long and fully developed, stories that the speaker introduces on his/her own, stories that are told or referred to more than once

Significant patterns for talk = when speaker: introduces the topic, shifts the way s/he is talking (from fast and fully developed to slow and hesitant, from easy-going to "careful", from loud to soft, ) shifts the emotion or tone of voice,  talk interruped by either individual or shared laughter, etc)

Workshop on introduction & literature review sections
Author
1. state your focus (what you are studying)
2. state your research questions (what you hope to find)
3. state why your project/questions are important to writing studies
4. tell/talk about the reference (research essay) you will include in your literature review
5. say what your reference(s) show about 1, 2, & 3

Coach
1. Take notes!   Write down as much as you can of what the author says
2. When the author is finished talking, say back what you heard and ask if you got it right
3. Ask any questions you would need answered to get a full understanding of what the author is writing about (add answers to your notes)

Author
ask your coach about anything you would like feedback on

POST YOUR WORK FROM THIS WORKSHOP ON YOUR BLOG = Blog 20 (class credit)

If you want feedback from me on your introduction + literature review = post it by the end of Friday and I will write back to you by next class with some comments

For next class:
Blog 21: Post sections of your transcript or other data that you want to analyze for your research project

I will be reading blogs over the weekend.

4.9 Just so you know what your paper needs to do/be

We spent class developing a rubric to evaluate your research essay, and then applying that rubric to one of the sample research essays (posted to the right).  The rubric we came up with is available at the previous post. 

For next class:
Blog 19: In light of todays discussion, what are the strengths of your research project (do you have a strong research problem/question? the right research essay(s)? a solid plan for collecting data? will you have enough data? are you working with the right participants) Identify any place where you need to "catch up".

We will have an in-class workshop on the introduction and literature review.  Clearly, from our work in class today, you can not write the FINAL introduction + literature review - rather, you are going to map out the points you will need to make.  "Moves" you need to make in these introductory section include:

• setting up the overall focus of your project (providing any background),
• clearly stating your questions,
• identifying the importance of your project to writing studies
• pointing out what has been found (relevant to your focus) in the research
• stating what your project will add to this area of research

Even though this cannot be your "final" draft for the introduction - it is important to set it up because it can help you focus your data collection.  It can provide a kind of guide so that you need what kind and how much data you need to collect.

In class you should work on:

• making sure you understand + know how/what to refer to from your research article
• checking the  statement of focus+ what you will show against your plan for data collection (will your data actully show what you say it will show?  do you have the right questions? the rigth participants?)
• writing a DRAFT intro, literature review, methods section and workshopping it with classmates

Bring any materials you will need to work effectively on these tasks.
,