Day 2

Sorry the titles are so lacking in creativity: even untitled 1 would be better :)

Here's what I did today:

First, the students did this quickwrite:

QW (20 m): What surprised, interested, or puzzled you in the Introduction? How do Bartholomae and Petrosky characterize reading and writing? Find a place in the text you would take us to start a discussion.

Then we had a discussion about what they wrote. It was the best discussion I've had happen at this point in the term ever. Good group, for sure. They were really engaged, had read ((!)) and were really interested in discussing how B and P thought about reading and writing. They especially wanted to discuss how reading and writing were related and what it would mean to read against the grain or to encounter difficulty.

This discussion segued into discussing strategies for dealing with challenging readings. I stood at the board for the entire class and wrote what they had to say about everything. We also created a list of things to annote for when you read and marks to use when annotating. I mentioned the $ sign and they laughed.

In the final part of class the students did their "diagnostic" essay. I don't grade these but I do give them back to the students at the end of the quarter for a reflective essay they then do:

· In-class essay (try to write for 30 min – practice)

o Reflect on and describe your history with reading and writing. What experiences, good or bad, stand out for you? Why? What have you recognized about yourself as a writer? What would you like to work on in your writing?