Update: Space and Workshop

Thanks to my fellow UH 261ers, I have now instituted a circle in class -- it is tight but *just* fits. I can't be at the board easily which really cramps my teaching style, but the circle has made a HUGE difference. Put them in it halfway through last Thursday . . . it wa still pretty dead. Today, though, very lively: students chatting with each other, talking across the circle; non-speakers participating voluntarily multiple times. Hurray! For the last 25 minutes of class I had them working by themselves on a question for a second reading and told them they could move out of the circle for more comfort, but they said they prefer it and stayed in it.

Okay, here's what we've been up to:

Last Thurs.
- Finished group reporting about the pages from Pratt they broke into an outline; talked about how she moves between ideas, etc
- Workshop: I handed out copies of 4 papers. We workshopped 1 as a class, analyzing it using the same questions we had for Pratt: What's the project? What's at stake? What's the organization [had them do an outline of the paper]? What suggestions do you have for revision?

Then, we read the next 3 papers [I always have us read our workshop papers aloud as a group]. These three were all on the same topic -- text messaging. We didn't have a lot of time left, so I asked them to reread them to themselves and identify a strength in the paper. We then discussed these -- good conversation about voice. The paper that got the least enthusiasm was a traditional 5 paragraph paper -- all part of my devious plan.

Today

They returned with the papers I had given out last Thurs. Roughly 1/3 of the students took responsibilty for one of the 3 papers to address these questions: What's the project? What's at stake? Organization? Suggestions for revision. Then big group discussion about them all. Went really well. The students very smartly criticized the 5 paragraph paper for saying nothing and really have no stakes (they were very respectful, though). I had to push them to be more specific in their descriptions in their outlines -- it's not enough to say this paragraph is the introduction, what kind of introduction, what does it seek to do?