December 9, 2006

• At the office (gasp!) grading papers (gasp!). I think the rainbow-colored stocking cap is helping me concentrate. I say this because I am getting through the papers fairly quickly and also because I came up with an idea of calling the first few weeks of English 110 a “Building Up of Topics” unit. This unit would include an “All About You” packet where they create a few Top Ten lists of things they like, a list of “I believe…” statements, and the River Map idea (creating a river of your memories – got the idea at NCTE), etc. Additional idea – Within that unit and the rest of the semester, have “What’s Wrong Here?” lessons/activities where students are shown a chunk of a paper and asked to figure out what went “wrong.” WWH lessons. Better than the WWF!? I really like the idea of focusing those first weeks on 1) figuring out what they can write about well (what are they experts at), 2) an in-depth look at the process of writing, and 3) mini-lessons on grammar-based things as teeny tiny review… and 4) how writing/reading/researching skills connect to everyday life/”the real world.”

  [How crazy is the weather! It's like spring outside... 48 degrees?! This is North Dakota, right?]

  • 2:18 pm
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