Today’s main topics: Concluding Phase 1; Looking a sample of a student’s submission for today’s Peer Review; Peer Review Session; Looking ahead to Phase 2.
Agenda
- Concluding Phase 1
- Looking a sample of student submission for today’s Peer Review
- Peer Review Session
- Looking ahead to Phase 2
Concluding Phase 1: The Multimodal Language and Literacy Narrative Assignment
- < 10 minutes: I want to take a few minutes to honor the hard work that we have done in this phase. Though this phase terminates in the WLLN Draft 3, let’s also look at all the assignments we have done. There are 12 assignments we have done!! That’s a fair bit of writing!! We have done 3 Rhetorical Situation Worksheets, a Response paper (Tan), a brainstorm, a “snapshot”, in-class emails to me, peer-review, and 2 drafts of the Written Language and Literacy Narrative, with a third draft due on Monday (see the email I sent for details and our homepage included the same information as a reference).
- What I think is important to highlight here is that we are engaging in this class in the PRACTICE of writing (this is a PRACTICE based class), and recognizing that writing is a RECURSIVE PROCESS that can – and should – involve different steps or tools. I highlight this because it has been my experience that we sometimes think the work we produce is “just” the final paper. But this “final paper” involves much labor, and all of this is “writing.” So, recognize what you have done to this point and honor yourself for your hard work, and the attention and care you have given your work. Each step in the writing process points to the creation of, and the reviewing of, a text. This is the “recursiveness” of writing. With this in, mind, can we “name” some of the recursive steps that we have done?
Hint: Peer review is one of these steps…
Looking at a student submission as a sample for today’s Peer Review
When you go into peer-review today (breakout rooms) you will be offering each other what you have selected from your WLLN’s.
As practice, I will model an approach, based on Umaima’s submission. It is important to remember that as I do this, this is a SUBJECTIVE analysis based on what I see. Others may find something different, and that’s ok too. We are engaging to some degree in speculation, but our analysis should be grounded in the text.
This is from Umaima, and she has given me permission to share it with the class.
“Fast forward 4 years later I was in 8th grade and it was my last year in Pakistan. I improved my Urdu to a point where I was on the same level as my class.”
MY SAMPLE ANALYSIS:
Umaima, in your sentence I see a theme I would expect to find supported in your complete narrative, that being the time it takes to develop a second (or third) language. When you say “same level” I sense that you were in a new environment and that there were challenges where you were made to feel “other” or deficient, or behind. But I also see achievement when you write “improved”. Finally, this sentence also suggests that listeners should be more understanding of those you are developing a language that is not “their own” and not judge them for a (so-called) “deficiency”. You might be alluding to language discrimination that happens in many languages?
ANOTHER EXAMPLE FROM ANOTHER TEXT
I would always walk by that library during breaks between classes and peak inside with wonder.
I was drawn to that little room with books organized to their own accord.
I read 3 three books before I gave up on reading books outside the school because it took me a long time to finish a single book since I had to stop frequently to search up words that I did not know and it did not make my reading experience enjoyable.
I see these libraries as a reminder that I was always drawn to literature. It is my interest in books that encouraged me to build up the courage to step inside that library and figure out how I could start borrowing books. It was my passion for reading that that made me keep trying to read and understand books in English even if that passion for reading died down.
I take regular trips to the library to take out some books and read them. I appreciate the decisions and moments that led me up to having a class and teachers that rekindled my love for books and because of that, I have a dream of writing my own book someday and getting it published.
Peer-review Session
20 minutes (or so).
In peer-review, I want you to read each others selections, and make some comments on what you think these passages – be they short or a bit longer – are doing or suggesting to you. Remember, these are taken from a larger context, but they are meant to serve as representative of what that author is “doing” in their text when it comes to them relating their text to a larger theme (or issue) – AND/OR it is meant to be representative of what they “know.” Share your findings with the writer of the text you read. You will be reading 2 other people’s submissions.
Post peer-review discussion
It is my hope that you got something interesting out of the session, and that your peers saw what you intended, OR – sometimes even better – they revealed something to you that you did not realize was there. This does happen sometimes.
Here’s how I would like us to think of this exercise, and then how to use what we received from your peers:
First: think of what you offered from your text to your peers as a kind of annotation of your own narrative. (Perhaps it is even a “pre-annotation”.)
Second: consider what your peers offered you in response is an annotation of your annotation – a comment on your “comment.”
Third: hold on to these reflections from your peers, because I want you, as the writer of your WLLN, to consider their comments in a reflective postscript to your WLLN Draft 3, due on Monday, September 28th. It is my hope that your peers helped you to see what your narrative is “doing” when it comes to making a connection to a larger theme. I offer this because I know some of you have indicated having difficulty tying your narrative to a larger theme, or if you have done so, some have expressed some dissatisfaction with what you have produced. This is all ok whatever the case may be.
But this exercise was also designed to help raise your awareness around what you were doing (not just “saying”) in your text – whether by design, or unconsciously.
So think of the selection you made form your text as an annotation of your text. You may even want to write some notes (annotations) on what you have been given. Whatever you choose to do as far as this is concerned, please try to do the following.
Consider the comments you received and do a small reflection on them. Place this reflection at the end of your WLLN draft 3 at the conclusion of your text and label it “Postscript”. it should look something like this:
“…lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”
Postscript:
Your reflection here…
Looking ahead to Phase 2
As we prepare to move into Phase 2 (The Rhetorical Analysis Essay) AND the assignment due on Thursday, October 1, let’s consider what we did today in peer-review.
- We looked at some brief moments from a text and practiced what we thought that text was “doing” in terms of laying out, implicitly or explicitly, a theme.
- In the same way that you practiced analyzing what a text was doing, do the same for the assignment.
Assignment Description (seen also in Phase 2)
Choose any one of our (written or video) texts, ideally your fav, and complete a “Charting” worksheet using the “Charting” handout (Web | Word | PDF).
