August 18, 2014
This activity can be done at any point of the semester for any number of thought-provoking questions. Perhaps it’s an electronic version of thinking-writing or writing-thinking. Whenever you would ask questions to the whole class and yet get no response or only a response from one or two students, use this activity to showcase more than one perspective and nudge students toward responding.
August 18, 2014
“This survey activity should be scheduled after the first peer-reviewed assignment so that students have some experience in interacting with their classmates and they can really respond to the survey items. Since the survey is online, this activity has to be carried out in a computer lab. The survey can be made based from students’ perspective, using either Likert scale based statements or open-ended questions. The specific items can be tied back to the lecture of Peer Response activity in earlier weeks and/or draw actual responses from students’ peer reviewed drafts. Alternatively, this survey activity can be used before the first peer response activity to elicit students’ previous experiences and their expectations of peer response activity.”
August 18, 2014
“I think students, or any writer for that matter, have a difficult time understanding that an audience can’t see what they are seeing as they write a description of a memory or place. The result is often a sparse description that doesn’t paint much of a picture for the audience. This activity forces students to put themselves back in the place they are describing and give a hyper-detailed description of their place in order to help their audience see, smell, hear, taste, and feel it more like the writer. This activity is used during the invention stages of the Letter-As-Essay assignment that asks students to write about home.”
August 18, 2014
“This activity is useful during the first week of the Campus Architecture/Campus Art Analysis assignment. Students are bringing their own versions of analysis and seeing to this class, so initial activities such as a basic description and contextualizing activity such as this one will get them to see that they DO indeed have plenty of insight that can fill the paragraphs in their papers. Additionally, some students may be art majors with clear ideas of what “art critique” looks like. This activity is a chance to show them a rhetorical perspective on the viewing art.”
August 18, 2014
“This activity works best in a computer lab. If you are trying to teach students how to revise, I recommend this activity as a sound method for teaching how to organize content. The activity reveals some of the problem spots that might need attention. In addition, the students who struggle with length will find this a helpful strategy. This activity gives students a tool that enables them to see the essay in a new light.”
August 18, 2014
“This activity works best in the classroom. If you are trying to teach students how to revise, I recommend this activity as a creative and fun method for teaching the different actions of revision. Sometimes revision can seem like a difficult practice, and this activity allows students to play with their writing.”
August 18, 2014
“This activity works best in the classroom. If you are trying to teach students how to paraphrase, say before a large research paper, I recommend this activity as a way to both model paraphrasing and to practice the art of paraphrasing in the classroom. I find that many students struggle with proper paraphrasing: they may copy too much from the original text or use too many quotes in their own essays. This activity helps them see what might be a more appropriate amount of paraphrasing and direct quotes.”
August 18, 2014
“This is a classroom activity. I usually use this activity before a unit designed to teach either summary or description. This activity is a good way to help students develop vocabulary, a vocabulary that will help them be much more conscientious writers. The interactive nature of this activity creates a very energetic beginning to any written unit.”
August 18, 2014
“This is a classroom activity. I usually use this activity right before a major writing assignment or during a unit on grammar and punctuation. Because the activity is a game of sorts, it removed some of the writing anxiety.”
August 18, 2014
“This is a computer lab activity. Whenever you have students do any type of research this activity can be useful way of helping them find interesting questions to research. The activity teaches students that to perform research one must have a question in mind, questions that require rigorous pursuit of knowledge. This activity also invites students to share their ideas with each other which can help foster a community within the classroom.”
