Lynne's version of Purpose of Higher Ed plus Jigsaw Discussion

Hi all!  Since the Spring 2013 OA is on the Purpose of Higher Ed, and I've taught this unit a few times, I thought I would include some of my materials here.  I'm copy-pasting and attaching my Unit sheet and a description of Jigsaw discussion format for discussing Freire.


Here is my unit sheet and schedule at the end:

Unit 2:  Persuasive Essay

You’ve all made a conscious choice about why you’re here at CWI and what you hope to accomplish here.  In Unit 2, you’ll articulate your reasons in more depth in writing.  We’ll also continue thinking about the concept of writing as a conversation as you join a specific conversation:  a conversation about education.  As with Unit 1, we’ll read some readings I’ve selected, and this time you’ll choose the fourth source you want to work with:  either an interview you conduct or a source from several I’ve uploaded to BB.  For your essay, you’ll decide what you want to contribute to the conversation to persuade others to see education from your perspective.

Ongoing goals for the semester and goals for this unit:

1. 1. Explore multiple, perhaps conflicting or differing ideas and be open to listening to and considering new perspectives, even if we don’t agree.
2. 2. Make connections between our own observations and ideas and the ideas of others.
3. 3. Engage with challenging reading material and continue to work on reading strategies.
4. 4. Analyze and incorporate sources in an accurate manner to support our claims and deepen our thoughts and perspectives on the questions we choose to pursue. 
5. 5. Participate in a specific writing conversation by acknowledging contributions of other authors/sources and forwarding their ideas and/or countering them.  Apply the concept of “argument” in the sense of conversation.
6. 6. Work on honing a thesis for a thesis statement-based essay.

Unit 2 Essay:  Persuasive Essay due (the beginning of class) Thursday, October 25^th

Topic and other details:  Your essay will respond to some aspect of the question, “What is the purpose of higher education?”

Your tentative thesis might start, “The purpose of higher education is….”  OR “Being well-educated should be defined as_______ because ____________” OR something else.

Based on the readings we’ve read, what is an aspect of education that is important to you and that will allow you to usefully bring in ideas from each of the readings (David Foster Wallace, Freire, and Shupe) that we’ve read this unit?  As with Unit 1, you will choose your own way in—you’ll choose the lens or perspective that has stood out to you or been a theme for you throughout the readings.  What’s different from Unit 2 is that your theme will need to be expressed specifically as a thesis statement, wherein you’re making a persuasive claim.

Sources:  You will need to include at least one quote or paraphrase each from Wallace, Freire, Shupe, and the fourth source you choose. You can include more sources (and more quotes or paraphrases), of course.  Remember to analyze or explain the quote or paraphrase.  Why is it important to you?  Why does it parallel or challenge your ideas?  Show how you can participate in a conversation with sources in your essay.

Fourth Source information:

You can choose either 

1) to read a fourth reading from the choices on Blackboard (or, meet with me about a reading which is not on Blackboard).  

Assignment associated with this choice:  submit a regular EA to BB.

OR

2) engage in primary research (research you go out and collect yourself) by interviewing someone.  For example, we often hear the idea that employers are looking for people with critical thinking skills (or people who will “think outside the box”).  But what does that really mean?  How does that translate into employment?  How do employers determine if you can think critically or not?  You should record your interview so that you are able to include direct quotes from your interviewee in your paper.

Assignment associated with this choice:  submit an EA to BB.  Even though this is an interview, the EA format will still work for this kind of source.  I’m expecting that you’ll discuss the main points of the interview, and you should include important quotes from your interviewee.  In your projection, you would discuss how you see the interview being useful to your essay.

Other notes about sources:  I am asking you to find your way in to this topic so that it’s something that interests you, though, at the same time, I am putting constraints on the sources you can use. You don’t have to agree with or even like the readings for the unit.  But you should be open to thinking in other ways, to try on different ways of thinking.  That’s what education (not necessarily institutional education) should do:  allow you to see and understand from multiple perspectives. 

Remember:  don’t take quotes out of context for your own purposes.  Read around the quotes you’re using so that you make sure you are accurately representing what the author intended to say.  Also, don’t just throw quotes into your essay so you can say that you’ve included a required source in your essay.  Spend time thinking about the sources and your own ideas so that you can make useful connections.

Sometimes students ask, how many quotes should I use?  You’re using research to support your points.  Thus, you should have at least one quote or paraphrase from a source per paragraph, except in your introductory or concluding paragraph (you can include a quote or paraphrase there, but it’s not needed as much as it is in your body paragraphs).

Audience:  If the purpose of your essay is to persuade, WHO is it that you want to persuade?  For this unit, you need to choose who your audience is.  Will it be fellow college students?  High school seniors?  Educational theorists?  Politicians?  Who will care about what you’re writing about?  Then, write with that particular audience in mind.  If you’re not sure about who to direct your piece to, consider a more formal audience so that you’re working on thinking about academic audience.

Page length:  minimum 5 full pages and not more than 8 pages.  Please note that the Works Cited page, though it is the last page of your document, does not count toward the page length requirement.

Formatting requirements:  See MLA template on BB or check Palmquist.

Cover Letter: written and turned in during class the day the essay is due

On the day the essay is due, you will write a cover letter reflecting on your writing process for the essay.  I’m including information about the cover letter here so that you know what to expect.  Or, if you prefer to type your letter, you can complete it beforehand and take a nap while everyone else is writing the cover letter in class.

Details:  The cover letter is a letter, so it should fit within those genre conventions. Start with “Dear Lynne,” followed by your meta-analysis of your essay, ending with a closing (Sincerely or Regards), and your name.  You will need to do the following when writing your Cover Letter:

1. 1. Tell what you intend for the essay to do for its audience. Describe its purpose(s) and the effect(s) you want it to have on the audience. Say who you think the audience is.
1. a. Describe your process of working on the essay.  What steps did you go through, what changes did you make along the way, what decisions did you face, and how did you make those decisions?  Also, be sure to address how you chose the theme or focus for your essay.
2. b. Evaluate your writing process:  What elements of your process will you continue to use for writing the next essay? What will you do differently for the next essay?
3. c. How did comments from your peers, in peer review, help you? How did class activities help you? 
4. 2. On your essay, hand-write letters A-Z next to your paragraphs (so the first paragraph in your essay is A, the second paragraph is B, etc).  Which paragraph (which letter) is the strongest?  Why?  Which paragraph is weakest or needs more work?  Why?
5. 3. Take a look at your letter.  Does the essay do what your letter promises? If not, then list some ideas you have for revising the essay so that the essay will reflect what your letter explains.
6. 4. Remember to sign your letter. 

Why do I have you write cover letters?  In order for you to take charge of your writing, you must be aware of what you are doing and thinking as you write.  If you’re not sure about how you are composing your essay, how can you change or further improve on your writing?  The cover letter gives you space to reflect on your process.  It also gives me some insight into how you’re approaching your writing so that I can better respond to your work.

Unit Two Essay:  Due Thursday, October 25^th

In a two-pocket folder, you will turn in the following:

--On the left-hand side:  1) peer review sheets, 2) rough draft of your essay, 3) other rough draft/process work related to your essay

--On the right-hand side:  1) cover letter—written in class, 2) Unit essay including works cited page 

Unit 2 Homework Schedule Week 6

Due Tuesday, October 2 1. No homework is due.  Enjoy the weekend! In class: ♦ Listen to/read Wallace speech and discuss.

Due Thursday, October 4 1. Submit extended annotation (EA) to Blackboard (BB) for  a. Wallace In class: ♦ Introduce Freire reading. ♦ Discuss Jigsaw discussion format.

Week 7

Due Tuesday, October 9 1. Submit extended annotations (EAs) to Blackboard (BB) for  b. Your section of Freire:  assigned in class on October 4; also listed on BB in the Unit 2 homework assignments folder (where you submit the assignment). In class: ♦ Jigsaw discussion of Freire.

Due Thursday, October 11 1. Submit extended annotations (EAs) to Blackboard (BB) for  a. Shupe 2. Bring Palmquist textbook to class. 3. We’ll spend time in class working, so bring in a laptop if you have one.  Otherwise, be prepared to write in class. In class: ♦ Discuss Shupe ♦ Read and discuss persuasive essay information in Palmquist. ♦ Discuss thesis statements. ♦ Brainstorm direction for your essay so that you can choose a fourth source option that fits

Week 8

Due Tuesday, October 16 1. Submit extended annotation (EA) to Blackboard (BB) for  a. The fourth source option you choose.  See earlier in this sheet for details. 2. Submit your response to the questions below to the Review of Unit 2 Essay assignment on Blackboard (in the “Unit 2 assignments” folder on Blackboard). a. Read the sample essay assigned to you.  Type up responses to the following questions for the essay you read:  What is the writer’s thesis statement?  What evidence does the writer use to support his/her point?  What does the writer do to persuade you that his/her point is valid?  What could the writer improve on to make his/her point more solid? In class: ♦ Discuss sample student essay(s). ♦ Discuss thesis statements; take thesis-y quiz ♦ Work with Find your Thesis handout ♦ Around the world with thesis statements

Due Thursday, October 18 1. Submit three-page typed, double-spaced, size 12 Times New Roman draft of your Unit 1 essay to BB.  You should 1) copy and paste the essay and 2) upload/attach it in the assignment submission area.  Note that the FINAL essay you turn in will be five pages; this draft is a shorter draft than the length requirement for the final essay. 2. We’ll work on Unit 2 in class, so bring in a laptop if you have one.  Otherwise, be prepared to write in class. In class: ♦ Peer Review of Unit 2 essays.

Week 9

Due Tuesday, October 23 1. We’ll work on Unit 2 in class, so bring in a laptop if you have one.  Otherwise, be prepared to write in class. In class: ♦ Work in class; conference with me.

Due Thursday, October 25  1. Unit 2 essay is due.  See earlier in this sheet for details and for how Unit 2 folder should be organized.   2. Submit an electronic copy of your Unit 2 essay (and cover letter, if not written in class) to BB. In class: ♦ Turn in Unit 2 folder.  Write cover letter in class.   ♦ Introduce Unit 3. Jigsaw Discussion (some general notes and some specific notes for use with Freire) A jigsaw discussion has two parts.  Students start out in one set of groups--the expert group--and then are mixed up into new groups--the home group.  The expert groups might be numbered as 1-5.  Then, an expert from each group will come to form a new group, the home group, which might be designated by colors.  Each expert teaches the other students in the group about the expert's section.  Students have a limited amount of time to teach their section. The day I used Jigsaw discussion in Fall 12 for Freire, several students were gone.  Jigsaw doesn't work well if many students are absent:  there aren't enough experts to go around!  So, I changed the format.  Instead of students meeting in their expert groups and then their home groups, I had each expert group discuss their own sections.  Then, the expert group presented their findings to the rest of the class.  This format worked well. As I side note, I used Jigsaw for the Fall 12 OA readings as well.  I assigned two students to each OA reading.  Students wrote a summary and analysis paper on their section and posted it to Discussion Board.  In class, students participated in a jigsaw discussion (the "real" way this time) of the articles.  Students said that they enjoyed talking about the articles and it made them more interested in reading the other articles available for OA.  Prior to Jigsaw Discussion We read the first page or two of Freire in class, paragraph by paragraph.  We discussed each paragraph.  A volunteer was in charge of looking up difficult words on the computer. Then, we discussed how Jigsaw works.  For homework, students read all of Freire, and wrote a summary and analysis paper specifically about their assigned section of Freire. Below are in-class instructions for jigsaw of Freire. Jigsaw Discussion of Freire reading Part 1:  Meet with your expert group.   1. Discuss your section of the Freire reading.  Make sure you’re at some consensus on the main points of the section and what your section adds to the reading.  I want you to take the time to have a conversation about your section.  Then, I will let you know when you need to move on to other activities in your groups.  Discuss for about 4 minutes. 2. As a group, complete a reverse outline of your pages:  what is the main point in each paragraph of your section?  What is new in each paragraph?   About 7 minutes to complete this. 3. Then, discuss how you want to teach your section.  What makes your section different from other parts of the Freire reading?  What is NEW in your section?  How will you explain it to other students?  What major points should they know?  Which paragraph(s) on which page(s) should they focus on?  And, is there a really difficult paragraph or two that you can help explain to them (or have a conversation about)?  About 7 minutes.  You might work together on how you want to teach your section.  Or, you might have your own idea that you’d like to try out. Part 2:  Meet with your home groups.  1. Each expert will have 5 minutes to teach his/her section.  Everyone else should listen, ask questions to clarify if needed, and otherwise engage with the expert’s teaching method. 2. After the expert has taught his/her section, we’ll take 2 minutes or so to freewrite some notes or questions.  Basically, I’d like you to write down what you learned, what questions you have, paragraphs and page numbers you want to look at again, ideas that came up for you, etc.   This is your chance to debrief and process what you just learned and capture it in writing.  (This freewriting, as with any freewriting we do in class, might very well become part of your essay.  The questions or ideas that come up for you during this unit are leads you should follow for writing your essay!) 3. We’ll continue this process of experts teaching and time for freewriting for each expert. Once each expert has taught, we’ll debrief:  what did you learn about the reading?  What questions do you still have about Freire?   You’ll turn in your freewriting at the end of class.