TA e-meeting: November 11 , 2011

Hi Ladies.  Hope everyone had a fantastic week!

I.                    New lectures

II.                  Jordana Lenon’s talk

III.                Meeting with Don

IV.                Next week’s lectures

I.                     My students are really taking to the revised lectures.  I did an informal survey in my class, and almost every student liked the idea of shifting our current lecture format to one that that incorporates daily applied exercises and group activities.   What have been some of the reactions from students in your respective sections?

II.                  What did your students think about Jordana’s talk?  My students were pretty engaged and they asked several questions at the end.  They also seemed to make the connection that Jordan was the embodiment of what we are trying to teach them in the persuasive unit…Jordana said after my class that she was going to modify her talk for each section.  How did things go when she gave her talk to your students?

III.                I took from the email thread the meeting with Don was productive! I like his suggestions. I’m game for using Google Doc to brainstorm new ideas for the class.  It’s probably a more effective tool than the blog…Also, Haley mentioned that Don suggested some texts/activities for the class.  I’d like to hear more about those!

IV.                So, this week’s lecture:

i.                     From the email thread, I gathered that we all want to do the same thing on Monday, which is to have the students peer-review their outlines, and then have the students complete a brief activity.  Molly suggested a persuasive argument exercise (page 7 of the document http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cedwards/Teachingmodules/modules/Teaching%20Persuasive%20Speaking.pdf).  Do we want to go with this?

ii.                   We have Wednesday and Friday to show/discuss example of good/bad speeches.  I envisioned using Wednesday to discuss the “famous” speeches; on Friday,  we I thought we could cover a few of the “not-so-famous speeches” and then briefly discuss presentation tools.  We have a PP presentation in the TAC about PP presentations; however, Haley said that Don gave her a great book about visual presentation that she wanted to adapt in a brief tutorial for the students.  Haley, is that still the plan?

OK, I’m off to enjoy my Saturday…by doing homework.  Have a good one

Camille

TA e-meeting: November 7 , 2011

Hi Ladies,

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I.                    Open floor

II.                  Meeting with Don

III.                Monday (Nov 7)

IV.                Wednesday (Nov 9)

V.                  Friday (Nov 11)

VI.                The blog

I.                    Questions and/or comments?

II.                  Haley, thanks for organizing this meeting with Don on Nov 10.  As I said last week, I have class at 2:30 that day, so I will be unable to attend.  I’m looking forward to hearing about what ideas arise from your discussion!

III.                On Monday, we will discuss how to effectively structure a persuasive composition.  This presentation is text-heavy; however, I like it because it provides several concrete examples of well-crafted (also, not-well crafted) theses/introductions, organized body paragraphs (using the stacked or one-by-one method, and reflective conclusions.  I was thinking about turning the slides about thesis statements into an activity—maybe giving the students a worksheet with the various non-effective thesis statement examples and asking the students to tell me the flaws in the statements?  Thoughts?

IV.                On Wednesday, we will have our second guest speaker—Jordana Lenon, who is communications director for the UW Primate Center.  Jordana was one of our speakers last semester and she did a fantastic job—her talk was timely and fit nicely into our persuasion unit….Usually, when we have a guest speaker, I try to stick around all day and play host.  However, on Wednesdays I have a seminar from 12-2:30; it’s a once-a-week class so I can’t skip.  Can each of us try to be accommodating of Jordana before and during our sections?  Also, I typically offer to buy the guest speaker lunch.  Heather or Molly, could one of you please offer to buy Jordan something from the café next door.  I’ll pay you back!

V.                  I feel like this entire lecture is repetitive, because we’ve already addressed emotion appeals and audience types in previous lectures.  I was thinking that we should use this day to review persuasive concepts or discuss anything that we may not have had time for in the previous week’s lectures.  Or, we could come up with some practice activities for the students. Thoughts?

VI.                FYI:  From now on, I will email everyone a notice whenever I post meeting notes to the blog.  I know it’s sometimes difficult to remember to check the blog (especially on weekends), so hopefully this will help.

See you tomorrow!

Camille

TA e-meeting: October 30, 2011

Hi Ladies,

Hope each of you enjoyed the Halloween weekend!

I.  Open floor
II. Persuasion Lessons
i. Oct 31
ii. November 2
iii. November 3
III. Grading
i. Papers
ii. Speeches

I. Questions, thoughts or concerns?

II.  Big thanks to Molly for taking on the responsibility of revamping our persuasion lectures.  She did a great job!
i.  Remember, the activity for this day's (Oct 31) lecture requires the students to reflect on an advertisement that persuaded them to feel/do something.  Please send an email to your sections this afternoon and tell them to bring advertisements to class!...Also, at the end of class please 1) distribute the topic approval form for the persuasive papers/speeches (which will be due on Wednesday) and 2) remind students to read "Love is a Fallacy," which will be used in the Nov 2 activity.
ii.  To be honest, I hated our logical fallacy power point, so I'm glad it's been nixed in favor of the activity and video examples.  I'm looking forward to hearing how this lecture goes for each of us!
iii.  There is a lot of content in this lecture.  In the past, I have struggled to finish the material in time.  Be sure to pace yourself so you can get to the "putting it all together" examples at the end.  These examples are really useful to the students, especially those that struggle with organization.

III. How have each of your progressed with...
i. ...grading the papers?  I'm finished (only because I locked my self in the office last weekend).  I awarded quite a few As.  I think it's because several of my students submitted 2-3 rough drafts, so they received lots of feedback from me before they wrote their final draft.  Everyone else?
ii. ...with grading speeches?  Have you emailed speeches to your students?  Please remind your students they they can earn 5 points of extra credit for writing a self-review of their speeches.  The syllabus says that these self-reviews are due Oct 31, but I think we should extend the deadline.  Thoughts?

I never know how to end these things...so have a nice day!

Camille

Counterarguments--Nov. 4 lesson

I uploaded one more day's lesson to the folder on Learn@UW. The powerpoint is basically the same, and the activity is a pretty straightforward "lightning round" of arguing:

Split the class into groups, and have each group pull an argument out of a bag. Give the group 5 minutes to come up with valid counterarguments. Have each group share the argument/counterargument with the class. Repeat as time allows.

I left the list of counterarguments blank because I'm not being very creative right now, but my thoughts were to briefly give background information on a topic and then come up with ten or so arguments for them to counter in groups.

Enjoy the easy day today, and have a great weekend!

Meeting with Don

Hi ladies,

I talked with Don and he is happy to meet with us. However, he is very busy this week. He could meet with us generally on Monday mornings or he could do some kind of e-meeting. What do we think?

-Haley

Demo speeches

Demo speeches begin on Monday! This is my favorite part of the semester. It's (almost) two weeks of not teaching, and the students (usually) demonstrate some really cool processes.

A few things:

• We will tape the each of our students' speeches using the Flip cam in Rm 111.  I'll set up the Flip cam and the tripod every morning and make sure that it has a fresh set of batteries.  That being said...
• The Flip cam does not have the best battery life.  Once upon a time, we had a rechargeable battery pack for the Flip, but it went ka-put; since Flip cams were discontinued earlier this year, we can't purchase another one.  So, we will be energizing the Flip with regular batteries.  I'll try to keep a stockpile in Rm 111.  I would advise checking the battery level of the Flip before each student begins his/her speech (I once had the camera die in the middle of a presentation...not good); also bring a back-up pair of batteries with you to class.
• At the end of each class day, I will upload all of the videos in the camera to the computer in Rm 111 closest to the door (next to where Heather sits).  The Flip software is very easy to use; please come by at your convenience and label your videos (section number and student name is usually enough).
• Make sure that you email your students their videos (Molly and Haley, I can show you how to do this.)  Students have the opportunity to write a one-page self-review of their speeches for five points of extra credit.
• As for grading the speeches:  Rubrics are in the TAC. You will notice that there are two rubrics to a page. In the past, when I've graded a student's speech, I used the one rubric to jot down notes and the other rubric to make my official marks that I gave back to the student.
• Peer reviews...are kinds of a pain.  The forms are in the TAC.  In the past, we've administered a new PR form to students every day of speeches and asked them to review one of the days presenting students...It's a lot of paper, especially for something we're not even grading.  What do y'all think?

Enjoy your football Saturday.  I'll be in m room hiding from tailgaters  :-)

TA e-meeting: October 9, 2011

Hi Ladies,


OK, I'm kind of late with this. Sorry!

I. Open floor
II. Peer reviews
III. Sign-up sheets
IV. Demo speech practice day
V. Draft conference room assignments


I. As always...

II. Tomorrow we have in-class peer-reviews. Please distribute copies of the review form (in the TAC) to your students. When students are done, have them staple the review form to the paper they reviewed and give it back to the author. Students should be able to review 1-2 papers depending on how fast they work.

III. Tomorrow, if you haven't already done so, please pass around a sign-up sheet for draft conferences (which will be held on Friday, Oct 14). I won't tell you how long to make your conferences but, in the past, we have scheduled them in 15-10 minute blocks. Also, please pass around another sign-up sheet for the upcoming demonstration speeches. If possible, try to cap speeches at four per day.

IV. Wednesday is demo speech practice day. Last semester, we put the students in groups of two or three and let them practice going through the steps of their respective processes. Make sure the students stay on task! Don't let them use the time to sit and talk about nothing.

V. Friday is draft conference day....long, long draft conference day. Here are our room assignments so far:
Camille--Rm 135
Meg--Rm 137
Heather--Rm 111
What we have left is Molly and Haley's office and the grad student lounge. Molly and Haley, can you decide among yourselves, who will go where? Also, I know neither have you have conducted draft conference before, so please drop by the Rm 111 this week if you have questions!


OK. That's it! Ah....I can't believe the weekend is over! :-(

TA e-meeting: October 3, 2011

Hi Ladies,

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Sorry this post is so late!

I.                    Open floor

II.                  In-person TA meeting #2

III.                Week 5 review

IV.                Week 6 overview

V.                  Additional  readings and activities

I.                    Any general questions and/or comments?

II.                  Almost all of you have noted that we should have another in-person TA meeting.  I agree. Some of us have spoken informally about some of the challenge we are facing in presenting the content to students, but I think we should meet and address these issues collectively…. I will send out a Doodle link this week so we can schedule something!

III.                How did the organization and interviewing lectures go for everyone? I think my students broadly grasped the content; however, I wish the course provided more time/opportunities for the students to practice some of the concepts and techniques in the material before they jump into outlines and rough drafts…How did your students like Vidal?  When he left yesterday he said he enjoyed himself and would love feedback from our students.

IV.                This will be out last week of lecturing until Week 10.  This week, we will quickly introduce the students to informative/demonstrative speaking through two presentations: one that’s concerned with content and organization (Oct 3), and one that’s focused on style (Oct 5).  Both presentations include examples, which I highly recommend that you show.  In past semesters, I’ve found that, when it comes to the speeches, students learn best by example.

V.                  Big thanks to each of you for contributing additional readings/activities to the TAC and blog!  Anything that can help the students put the concepts into practice is a plus!

That's it...I'm going to bed :-)

Interview exercise

The powerpoint is short for tomorrow and there are a few slides that easily collapse into my discussion of readings, so I've more or less planned a couple of different things. I'm going to be briefly talking about science vs. pseudoscience (one of my students offered chimeras as a topic ...oi). They were assigned to read the article I posted about global climate change (and why people in the U.S. still don't get it) and I'm going to show them the Bob Jones University bit I posted the other day to reinforce the issue of credible sources and some of the kinds of logical fallacies we will get into when we talk about persuasion. Then I have a short "interview" exercise that might help them think about their interviews. I may model some ice breaking strategies if there's time, but they will have a half page paper with the following text on it:

(Take notes on your answer so you can directly quote your interview subject)

"Madison is the largest of the UW campuses. UW staff expect student to have difficulties adjusting to their life here. (_______________Transition based on interviewee's answers <--goes under the line) ____________(Interviewee name) from _____________(answer question 1) says she/he ____________________________(Answer question 2). The UW tries to provide opportunities to meet people (Transition ______________) ____________(Interviewee)____________________________(Answer Question 3).

On a slide I will have Q.1 Are you from Madison? Q.2 Are you glad you picked this campus? Q.3 Have you made friends here? All of these are, of course, yes/no answers. They'll be asked to interview their neighbor, then fill in the answers. Depending on the time, I will have them ask the second set of questions on the next slide, or I'll just ask them to think about how it would change their answers. Q.1 Where are you from (home town?). Q.2 Why did you pick this campus to attend? Q.3 What kinds of things have you done to meet people?

The goals of the exercise is to get them to think about how they craft their interview questions to avoid yes/no answers, and how you break the ice.

TA e-meeting: September 24, 2011

Hi ladies.  Hope everyone had a great week!

I.                    Open floor

II.                  Next week (September 26-30)

i.                     Monday: Intros, conclusions, arranging/integrating points; Outlines

ii.                   Wednesday: Interviewing

iii.                  Readings

iv.                 Friday: Guest Speaker

III.                Lecture time/Lecture material check-in

I.                    Any thoughts, questions and/or concerns relevant to last week’s material?  How did the library session go for everyone?  My students actually LIKED it. They walked away saying that they weren’t as knowledgable about the library system as they thought and that they learned a lot from the library aides.

II.                  i. This is an important lecture.  If the students grasp the major concepts in the material, they will craft polished outlines, which (usually) lead to polished rough drafts and polished final drafts. While this is no “right” way to do any outline (since people organize their thoughts in a variety of ways), the example provided in the lecture slides is a great one for the students to follow.   Please emphasize to your students that no matter what the style of their outlines, they should: (1) be at least one page in length (3) have a clear and consistent organizational structure (4) demonstrate that they have put some thought into their chosen topic and relevant subtopics (5) be turned in with a APA style bibliography sheet w/5 (potential) sources. These outlines are due a week from Monday (Oct 3) and are worth 25 points.  Last semester we students’ outlines using the following criteria: thesis statement (5 pts), organization (5 pts), spelling/grammar (5pts), five sources in APA format, overall style and development (5 pts).

ii.  There is a lot of “common sense” advice in this lecture (ex. dress nice,  show up on time) but it’s all worth repeating.  It’s worth emphasizing the importance of the query email that students’ will send out to potential interviewees.  Remind them that this is a formal email to an academic/professional, so proper style and grammar is necessary.

iii.  As always, I won’t tell you how to incorporate Monday and Wednesday’s readings into the lectures, but please try to do so.  I had a lot of success last week breaking the students into small groups and giving each group a question relevant to the readings to answer to the entire class.

iv.  Vidal Quvedo will be our guest speaker.  For the past three years, he has served as Manager of Online Communications for CALS.  He has recently been promoted to serve in the same position for the entire university.  Vidal was a guest speaker last semester, and he spoke about his time in LSC and some of his current work responsibilities and projects.  He’s going to give a similar talk this semester.

III.                Just a check in:  How is each of you doing with time?  Are you (generally) finishing class early, on time, or not having enough time to finish the material?

Enjoy your evening!

Camille

Paraphrasing and Summarizing Exercise

I didn't have time in class on Wednesday to have students practice paraphrasing and summarizing, but I think that they would really benefit from practice. I created a worksheet for them to do for homework that I'm giving them at the beginning of the library tour tomorrow, and I thought I'd share if anyone's interested in using it. I've uploaded it to Learn@UW.

Oh .... my

An example, perhaps, when it comes to issues of credibility ... this is from an actual text book by BJU Press which provides Christian education.

http://www.bjupress.com/about/electricity-large.jpg

And this is BJU's explanation. I went looking for a Snopes bit to prove this was just exaggerated, and instead found their explanation for the text ... they're fourth graders.

http://www.bjupress.com/about/electricity-is-a-mystery.php

"In our new edition, we have not used the word "mystery," but the concept of some things being beyond our knowledge is still there. We believe it is better to teach students that the study of science is limited by our human senses than to teach them in such a way that they leave the class thinking they know things none of us really does."

Exercise on Citation and Paraphrase

I really like this document.  I think I'm going to break my class into groups on Wednesday and have them tackle the exercises in pt 2:

http://web.grinnell.edu/Dean/Tutorial/EUS/ECP.pdf

TA e-meeting: September 17, 2011

I. Open floor
II.  Grammar exam/key
III. Next week (September 19-24)
i. Monday: Understanding your audience
ii. Wednesday: Selecting and integrating credible sources
iii. Friday: Steenbock Library session
VI. (Optional) supplemental readings
V.  Learn@UW class pages

I.  Any general thoughts, concerns or questions about the course so far?
II. The grammar portion of the course is over.  Yay!  I would like to apologize for my exam key snaffoo on Friday.  Heather's original key was fine.  I just over-thought those two questions and convinced myself they were wrong.  Meg, thanks for setting me straight!...When each of you has finished grading the exam, would you mind reporting (via the comments) your class average?  Also, could each of you note frequently missed questions by your students?  This will help us refine the exam in the future.
III.  Next week we get into the meat of the course.
i.  This a brief and fairly straightforward lecture, so feel free to punch it up with relevant examples and anecdotes, or use the extra time to have a deeper discussion about the reading (or to discuss the commercials on the last slide)...Also, please remember to give your students the topic approval form (due on Wednesday) and the CLUE assignment (due on Friday).
ii. In the past, I've found that this lecture takes the whole class period, especially if you show the Colbert Report clip...I usually spend the bulk of the lecture discussing web sites, since students have a hard time determining which ones are credible.  I also emphasize (and re-emphasize) that Wikipedia is not a credible source and that they will lose points if I see a wiki page referenced in their papers...SN: Please remind your students that the next class is the library session and will be held in the basement computer lab of Steenbock.
iii.  Inevitably, someone will come to the classroom on Friday, so I'll place a sign on the door saying that we're in Steenbock.  I recommend that you arrive at Steenbock a few minutes prior to your class and  hang out in the basement study area so stray/lost students see you...Please collect CLUE assignments at the beginning of class (Sometimes the librarian wants them, and sometimes she doesn't.  If she doesn't, just toss them).  Then sit back and relax.  You don't have to do a thing.
IV.  Meg has uploaded two additional readings to the TAC:  "Writing About Science" (which she authored) and a progress progress report that she edited for style and grammar. Both of these documents may be useful reference materials to you and your students; the first provides strategies for crafting science articles/papers that are effective and accessible, and the second is a great example of the importance editing and reworking a composition.  I encourage all of us to upload  useful supplemental readings to the TAC throughout the semester.
V.  Haley and Mollie, do either of you have a Learn@UW class page?

That's it!  Let the commenting begin. Have a good weekend!

Camille

How to use a semicolon and an apostrophe (courtesy of The Oatmeal)

LSC alum Travis Balinas introduced me to these a year ago.  They always make me giggle.

How to use a semicolon: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon
How to us a an apostrophe: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Also--The Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

This video jug clip on quotation use is pretty good

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-use-quotation-marks

Goofy film on the semi-colon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czQrOR2Nqmw

I'm constantly trying to find something to break up the monotony.

Looking for ways to liven up grammar ...

I	This actually might be just a little too violent and dark, but for those really impressionable students ... www.collegehumor.com/video/6060107/grammar-nazis

Free grammar quizzes

Here are some free interactive quizzes  from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.  Over the next few class days, if you find that you have extra time at the end of lecture, please go through a quiz or two with your students.  There is no such thing as too much practice :-)

http://www.grammarbook.com/interactive_quizzes_exercises.asp

The Purdue OWL's Grammar Blog

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is an excellent resource for students and instructors who are seeking to refine their compositions.  You may find the OWL's blog "Grammar Gang" to be of use to you during these first few weeks of LSC 100.

http://thegrammargang.blogspot.com/