Week 2 Journal

Teaching Journal Week 2

This was a short week and that had some interesting effects on how class went and what we were able to accomplish. For Wednesday I had them bring a topic proposal, just a paragraph outlining their proposed writing construct and which aspect of it they wanted to question and research. I also had them look for three articles, but did not require them to be from any certain type of source. Consequently, most of the students had used Google and had very un-scholarly articles. However, since we did not have time to go into the articles anyway, it ended up not being that big of an issues. So, for Wednesday, though did the Kantz reading and response, as well as the topic proposals. When class started I asked them what they wanted to start with, because I had planned on splitting class between discussing Kantz and the topic proposals. Surprisingly they chose to discuss the Kantz reading. A few of them, I could tell from reading the responses, did not quite get the article. However, a few of them really did. In fact some of them were even super excited about it. This, of course, make me really excited as well. We discussed Kantz’s take on claim vs. fact and once we got the discussion going, I could tell the students who had been confused were getting it as they joined in.

When we transitioned to the proposal discussions the class took a little turn. Many of them were confused about what they had to have had prepared for class and what they needed to turn in. I think I was too lenient with them and intend to have a discussion on Monday about preparedness and participation. After we had cleared things up a bit, I had them split into their research communities and share their topic proposals. This was helpful for the students as well as for me because it allowed me to walk around and chat with groups and individuals. This also helped me plan for what I wanted to talk about on Friday.

On Friday, Lorraine Wochna came to class and went through some of the library research opportunities. I was very glad I had asked her to come in because she was not only a big hit with my students but she also covered the material faster and better than I would have been able to. After her presentation she and I both went around and talked to the students about their topics. We helped brainstorm focuses and key terms to search. A couple students were getting very excited and have very interesting writing constructs they wanted to question. At the end of class I went over what was due for Monday and received some unexpected responses. I think they were under the impression, because they were working on a paper they would not have other assignments. A couple even looked annoyed with me. I didn’t explain myself or the schedule to them and just told them where to find the reading response questions, which I posted to my blog, and sent them on their way. I think they are off to a good start on their first projects and they seem to be fairly interested in their topics.

I am really looking forward to discussing the Berger and McCloud readings tomorrow, though I wish I had thought to create some kind of reading guide to Berger before assigning it to them. That is one thing I will modify for next semester.