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