Lesson Plan: Kantz

Possible lesson plan for Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Journal: "Thanks But No Thanks"

Pass around attendance sheet

Journal Share

Begin discussion on Kantz

• Initial reactions and volunteer to share their summery of the essay
• Ask students how many of them identified with "Shirley," why do they identify with this student? How is that important to the article, but to them as new college writers?
• Discuss problems with the article
• Discuss how Kantz's article impacted their understanding of how they do research
• From here, go back to Kleine and discuss the two pieces together (synthesis)

Time break down:

Journal and Journal Share: 15 mins

Kantz Discussion: 30 minutes

Cushion time: 10 minutes (also with this time, assign new work, collect any work due (Topic proposals), answer questions relating to project 1, discuss Library Day).

Informal Writing Assignment: Kantz

Informal Writing Assignment: Kantz

Author/Title:

Margaret Kantz, “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively”

Summary:

In her article “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively,” Margaret Kantz narrates the story of two students (Shirley and Alice) as they approach writing a research paper. She argues that students (like Shirley) have only been taught how to find main ideas and agree or disagree with them. Because we want to elevate our students writing to also include critical thinking and analysis (like Alice), Kantz suggests instructors need to find a way to teach the concept of rhetorical situations.

Synthesis/Mapping Theory:

Kantz’s piece reminds me of Kleine’s essay (see earlier blogs), in that both authors are seeing a lack in the student writing process and attempting to fill that gap. For Kleine, it was the writing process itself and attempting to develop a non-linear model. For Kantz, it is the Rhetorical situation; she gives Kinneavy’s Triangle as an example of one way to approach teaching these skills

. Kinneavy’s Triangle

Another way of seeing into the rhetorical situation would be the Rhetorical Triangle:

Pre-Reading Exercise:

Facts/claims in commercials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-t6AIMSCdw Old Spice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZGZGA_6i-M Doritos

http://www.youtube.com/user/SKITTLESbrand?v=dwe9Qxo3_Cs Skittles

There were no “facts” presented in any of these commercials, and only the Old Spice commercial made a claim—if you wore Old Spice you would “smell like power.”

Using commercials to highlight “Facts” and “Claims” is a great idea for the classroom—I could see building this into a lesson plan!

Questions for Discussion:

1. According to Kantz, facts, opinions, and arguments are “In a rhetorical argument, a fact is a claim that an audience will accept as being true without requiring proof, although they may ask for an explanation. An opinion is a claim that an audience will not accept as true without proof, and which, after the proof is given, the audience may well decide has only a limited truth, i.e., it's true in this case but not in other cases. An audience may also decide that even though a fact is unassailable, the interpretation or use of the fact is open to debate” (76).

2. According to Kantz, students do not know or understand the follow:

• ·         Sources
• ·         Building notes into original ideas
• ·         Management skills
• ·         Planning
• ·         Organizing patterns—cause/effect and general-to-specific
• ·         Retooling the paper into something that answers a person’s questions—teaches

This is not an inclusive list; however, the above represent very significant areas students need help with.

Based on my own experience, as a graduate student I am much more versed in these ideas and concepts than the undergraduates I teach, however, I could still benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of the above.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

2. Creativity and Research

I think many people would assume that creative writing is not part of the research writing process, however, Kantz disagrees. I have always used creativity to my benefit in many of my academic papers; I feel giving my papers that extra flourish adds voice and depth. Kantz sums it up perfectly, “And after all, creativity is what research should be about” (81).

Meta Moment:

What constructs or conceptions is Kantz trying to analyze?

One of the constructs I see Kantz attempting to break down is the conception that facts are inherently true statements. She explicitly tells us they are not inherently true and thus constitute claims. It is very important to understand this as “facts” play significantly into our claims, argument, and audience, among other things. Questioning facts produces better researchers, and better research makes for better and more convincing arguments.

Final Thoughts:

The use of “Shirley” and “Alice” was an interesting way to frame the essay. I would think many students would identify with one or both of these characters, and by doing so, become more engaged with the text. Kantz examples her concepts and ideas well—I especially like that a sample paper is included. However, despite the praise I can give this piece, I do not think freshman will enjoy reading it. I worry about how well a discussion will go over this piece and what I might be able to do in order to create larger understanding—especially with the Kinneavy Triangle.

In-Class Journal: What is Worrying Me Most (8/29/12)

What is worrying me most right now? Just worried about being prepared, hoping that I can fit everything into one hour and address all of my students concerns--either inside or outside of the classroom. I think I need to see how the first several class sessions go, adjust myself to the 55 minute class schedule, and then build plans out based on those experiences that will in fact fit into that time frame, as well as being productive. Possibly also utilizing Blackboard more to communicate with my students.

Lesson Plan: Kleine and the Writing Process

This lesson plan has been adapted from Sarah Primeau's "Drawing Concept Maps: Reflection and the Writing Process in English 120/121."

Purpose:
To directly apply Kleine's essay ("What Do We Do...") and to make students aware of their own writing process, as well as to provide them with other writing process example they may find useful.

Step one:
Ask students to think about their own writing process, in a brief, 5 minute journal exercise, ask them to write out that process.

Step two:
Form small groups of 4 and ask students to share their process--what is similar? What is different? Take notes on the board of each (or ask students from each group to report their finding)

Step three:
Hand out examples of other writing processes and ask each group to look at them and discuss them--again, what is different? What is similar? Which of the examples do they think is the best, why?
Example samples (you can find many examples by simply googling "writing process images"):



Step Four:
Groups report findings to the class

Step Five:
Ask students to now draw out their process as completely as they can, adding any additional steps they may use after looking at the examples.

I model this part to the students by showing them my writing process as a visual representation looks like:

Step Six:
If time allows, ask students to journal again about their process--how successful has it been in the past, if they made any changes to it based on today's workshop, how do they think it will impact their writing?

Dialectical Journal: Kleine

Author/Title

Michael Kleine's "What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One--and How Can We Get Students to Join Us?"

Summary

In this essay Kleine works through the differences between the student writing process (copy research), and the "professional" writer's process. He explains his four stage process based on Joseph Campbell's Hunter/Gather metaphor: collecting data, sifting data, seeking patterns, and translating findings into writing. Next, Kleine steps us through his research interviewing 8 faculty members about their writing process and attempts to code their processes into his model. He concludes with a list of Pedagogical Implications he developed after interpreting his research. Please refer to the following dialectical journal for specific quotes and comments.

Reflection	Quote
In this quote, Kleine is showing and explaining the trend of “copying” students do as part (or all) of their research.	“I knew they were writing research papers because they were not writing at all—merely copying” (23)
Now he is explicitly saying that these other necessary parts of research are not present in student research methodology.	“I detected no searching, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, selecting, rejecting, etc.” (23)
I thought it was interesting Kleine worked Kurtz’s famous line in from the Heart of Darkness, perhaps the library is akin to the African Jungle in that a student experiences college similarly to that of Kurtz in the jungle…	“The horror. The horror.” (23)
Making a connection to the student that is probably reading this and identifying similar habits of “copy research.”	“I recognized the transcribing behavior, I was one of them.” (24)
Next, Kleine makes the move directly questioning what it is exactly “professional” writers do and what is the value of that process—further, where is the value (public/private).	Do college level academics—teachers, I mean, who actually do academic writing—really live in the night library? Or do they participate in a rich process of discovery and communication, a process that might have both private and public values?” (24)
I found this section interesting because it shows the authors struggle with the system in place and his desire to change it—to create a more effective model for writing.	“[We became]Disenchanted with linear stage models of the writing process: not only do they fail to account for the role of data-gathering and reading in academic and professional writing, but they also, in their linearity, suggest that planning and inventing (“pre-writing) guides a writer through subsequent acts of text production and revision.” (24)
From Joseph Campbell’s “hunter/gather” idea—puts research into context with another model—gives us a new way to perceive research methodologies.	“A hunter finds what he is looking for, a gather discovers that which might be of use.” (25)
The four stage process of research writing	Four stage process Kleine and co. devised: (25) *collect data *sift data rhetorically *seek patterns in the data *translate findings into writing
This passage was important to me because it is dense and needs to be unpacked—specific words like “epistemic” and “rhetorical” need to be defined and placed into context for students to better understand what Kleine is saying here.	“Collecting data and seeking pattern in it seemed to us to be more intrinsically epistemic, while sifting the data nad translating knowledge into text seemed more intrinsically rhetorical.” (25)
This page poses only problems for me—as Kleine details his interview process, how he interpreted data, asked others to react to it, etc, it seems forced—I don’t get the impression Kleine found what he wanted, or was surprised by how much more complex the writing process seems to be (beyond his 8 cell table.) I guess this part makes me really question the author—he loses something here.	ALL OF PAGE 26
Okay, that’s great for those who actually find themselves in the position of writing academically because they want to—because they have found something to write about that interests them, but what about our students who really do have academic writing imposed on them? How do we get them engaged in the research process if the very topic, question, problem, etc., in outside of their authority?	The exigence, in all cases, was personal interest and dissonance: some problem, some question, some contradiction, some opposition, some surprise was worth exploring, thinking about, writing about. The remembered motivation to write academically was internal, not externally imposed.” (27)
This continues from the last passage, and again I question who we are supposed to take this to our students, who are having to write for an authority figure. There is a feeling of hypocrisy underlying this—but, despite this problematic area, this could be a great starting point into a really in-depth conversation with students about who they write for, and why.	“Never did a subject remember writing for an authority figure, a critic, or a subordinate: always, the subjects gestured at a concerned community of peers and found starting points within the ongoing discourse of such a community.” (27)
So this is a great passage to take to students—to show them that even “professional” writers have difficulty with their writing and there is a “sloppiness” to it! J	“[…] all subjects recalled complex academic processes and talked about both the sloppiness and richness of their processes…” (27)
This list is specifically directed towards instructors, calling on those of us teaching writing to look at theses as a list of goals to work towards. I would like to see what could happen in a conversation with students about this list—what would their input be? How can they contribute to this process?	The following is Klein’s list of implications: 1.       A hunting/gathering model of the research-writing process, while it has categorical limitations, has tremendous potential as a heuristic. 2.       All of us who teach academic writing need to work on building, in our classes, genuine research communities. 3.       We need to promote genuine reading in our classrooms and allow for research that might not involve the library alone. 4.       We need to invite students to participate in a range of research tasks—some that would be more characteristic of the natural and social sciences some more characteristic of the humanities. 5.       Finally, we need to help students who are already writing across the curuiculum enrich their own processes.