Fall 2005
Teaching Notes
English 100 and 110
Writing Groups
Prepare
for your writing group each day by asking yourself questions like these: What
do I need to bring? What handouts? Do I have everything? Do I have enough of
everything? What is the overall goal of today’s meeting? How might events
during the meeting best unfold (in what order)? How long might each task take?
What if the students don’t have what they need? What’s my backup plan? What if
things run faster than I expect? Do I have additional material to use? Additional activities? How do these additions tie in with
the overall goal of the day’s meeting? How does this meeting tie in with the
next one (and the overall course goals)?
End
each meeting with your writing group by asking yourself questions like these
(perhaps responding in your Dialogue Journal would be
best): How did the day’s activities go? What worked best? What didn’t seem to
work as well? What might account for this? What stands out today? What was I
unable to get to? Do I need to try to fit it in next time? Why or why not? What
do I wish I had done that I didn’t? Can I do it next time? What questions do I
have for others? How are my students doing? What am I learning about them? How
might I use what I’m learning in future sessions? What am I learning about
myself as a tutor and writing group leader? What questions do I still have?
Day One
- Write this on the board
(or something like it—just a suggestion): “Welcome to the first meeting of
our English 100 Writing Group (or ‘lab’).
If you haven’t already, you will need to purchase Anne Lemott’s
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing
and Life. You will also need to bring a journal with you from this
point on. I suggest you use loose-leaf notebook paper that you can then
collect in a binder of some sort so (a) you can easily keep all your
journal entries together, (b) you can pull sheets from your journal quite
easily and return them if need be. You may be using a similar journal in
your class. You instructor and I
understand this and would like for you to consider using the same journal
for both your English 100 class and your Writing Group (or
“lab”).”(English 110 tutors should not write the italicized bit on the
board for obvious reasons).
- People are likely to
be coming in late as they locate their rooms and spend a little time lost.
Welcome them. Introduce yourself. Make sure everyone is in the right room.
Share the board with them.
- Tell them you would
like to begin by finding out a little about them. You may tell them that
this is the first step in what will eventually be their final writing
assignment (see “Final Reflections” in
English 100 and the major culminating paper in English 110). Tell them
that you are looking forward to working with them, pass around a copy of
the letter (Wk 2, Day 1) and in-class writing assignment, and ask them to
take as much time with it as they need to offer readers a picture of who
they are as writers and/or readers—what concerns them, intrigues them
(etc.). Tell them you have responded to this assignment, as well, and will
be sharing your response with them soon. Why? Because you are a community
of writers, yes?
- Tell them before
they begin: “As you are working on this, I’m going to pass a sign-up sheet
around. I’d like for you to share your name, the name of your instructor,
and your contact information with me just in case.”
- When they have
completed this, they are welcome to leave.
Before
next time, read over their responses. Highlight passages from their responses
that seem particularly interesting and/or useful fodder for generating
productive dialogue about writing. Type these up on a separate handout (along
with the student’s names), and make enough copies for your group. This can be a
discussion starter next time (or the time after).
BEFORE
DAY 2 of NEXT WEEK: They should read “Getting Started” (Lemott
3-15) and “Sh***y First Drafts” (Lemott,
21-27). For those who feel uncomfortable with Lemott’s
language: you may choose to use either
“Bad Art” or Bruce Balanger’s article on writing
“badly”
Make
certain you have the appropriate materials for next time.
Week Two,
Day Two
- Welcome them. Tell
them you’d like to begin generating productive dialogue among the members
of this Writing Group by talking about how we see ourselves as writers.
- Pass around the set
of quotes from their first writing assignment, and do this: (a) Call the
name of someone on the list of quotes and ask that person to read his or
her quote out loud to the group (choose a particularly juicy quote from
the set that seems likely to stimulate productive dialogue quite
readily—it will be useful to practice getting this discussion started by
working with one of your colleagues in the writing center in a sort-of
mock situation). (b) ask the members of the
writing group to speak to their own associated experiences: Did you think
something similar, Judy? Like what? Tell us a little about your own
experiences with writing groups? Have you had much of your work read by
anyone other than your teacher? If you have, what did you get from that
other reader’s perspective? If you haven’t, what did you gain from your
teacher’s perspective? (etc). Keep
the discussion going for about ten minutes or so before passing
around the syllabus.
- Walk them through
the syllabus as it relates to the function of the Writing Group as support
for their other writing-intensive courses.
- Bottom line: Make
sure they understand that any time they decide they need some feedback
from the group on something they are writing or are attempting to revise, they should bring enough copies for the group
and let you know they are interested in getting some feedback. You will
always work it in. The writing they are doing is priority in this Writing
Group.
- (handouts):
You should have a copy of a writing assignment and the handout on how to analyze writing assignments.
Move into this analysis.
- Any questions?
- Ask them to read it
carefully before next time and bring back any questions they may have.
They should also bring back the signed acknowledgement attached to their
syllabus.
- Remind them to have
read pages 1-15 and 21-27 in Lemott before Day 2
of next week.
Before
next time, gather enough copies of “Critical
Complexity” and the “group workshop” guide for each
member of your group. You may wish to work with a few other tutors to role play
this session before you go in to work with your students.
Week Three,
Day One
- Ask them if they
have any questions regarding the Writing Group plans?
- Ask them to open up
their Dialogue Journals and write a response to one or more of the
following questions: “Have you ever had someone else review something you
have written before turning it in for a grade? If so, how did it work? If
not, why not? What are your expectations with respect to peer review in
this Writing Group?” It may be useful to write this on the board before
your meeting begins.
- Share and discuss.
- Tell them they are
going to engage in a mock workshopping session
together.
- Pass out “Critical
Complexity” and the group workshop guide.
- Share the process
with them (via the guide)
- Ask students to
pretend that one group member is the writer of this piece. Ask them to
think about one or two ways the way they respond to the piece may be (or
should be) affected by the writer’s presence.
- Write their
responses on the board as you prompt them for more. For instance, if
someone says they might have to be a bit more complimentary about the
piece than they might otherwise be, ask them why. After they respond, you
may ask them something like this: “Is it possible to offer feedback that
is really complimentary yet utterly useless to the writer? How so? Can you think of an example of advice
like that” (and so on).
- Put these two
principles on the board: “Readers should offer the kinds of responses that
will make writers (1) feel like continuing to write, and (2) enable them
to improve a particular piece.” Give them a list of responses.
- Ask someone to serve
as “writer” and read the responses on “Responding to
Peer Reponses.” You read as “tutor” and ask the “writer” to read as
“writer.”
- Ask someone to read
PR1, someone else to read PR2 (and so on). After you have done so, ask
them to choose the one that might be most likely to offer writers
something that would (a) make them want to continue to write, and (b) help
them improve this specific writing project on eating disorders.
- Ask them why they
made the choice they did. Ask them to take their responses back to the two
principles (stated above).
- Note: If you have
time, you may ask them to make these decisions in pairs.
- If time, you may
begin the mock group workshop with “Critical Complexity.” Otherwise, ask
them to respond to the idea of peer response in their Dialogue Journals.
Week Three, Day Two
·
Before
class begins, write something like this on the board (or on an overhead or type
it out and give it to them as a handout as the come in): “From this point on,
most of our meetings together will begin with you responding to a prompt like
this by writing about it in your Dialogue Journal. Remember, your Dialogue
Journal is worth a large percentage of the course grade in here (see syllabus).
You must keep up with it, and you cannot make up entries you’ve missed as they
are used to generate dialogue during the meeting itself, though they will also
be useful to you as you generate your Final Reflections (check your syllabus
for more on this). For today, you were expected to have read Anne Lemott’s “Getting Started” (3-15) and “First Drafts”
(21-27). Your prompts will deal with this reading. Write about a page
(total—more if you can) on the following prompts. We will discuss them in a
moment: (1). How do you get started on a new writing project? What moves do you
make? What makes getting started hard? What do you do to make getting started
easier? What does Lemott suggest? Which of her
suggestions do you think you’d find most useful? (2) What’s the function of
these terrible first drafts Lemott tells us “all
writers write”? Why should anyone consider writing badly? What can we get out
of doing so?
·
After
about 10 minutes (or so), ask someone to read his or her response aloud. Ask a
specific student if she/he responded in similar ways (and how so). Keep the dialogue moving.
·
Ask
a couple folks to share a quote or two from Lemott
that they found particularly interesting, poignant, exasperating, or otherwise
worth mentioning (and why). You may share one of yours.
·
You
may (if time) read aloud your favorite passage and ask them to respond to it in
their journals by “writing badly.” Share your own response. Ask them to share
theirs.
BEFORE
NEXT TIME: (1) Students should read “Perfection” in Lemott;
(2) You should take up their DJs and respond to them briefly. Remind us to
discuss how when we meet on Wednesday.
Week Four,
Day One/Two
NOTE: You decide the order on
this one. You should probably start with a DJ entry, but you needn’t. You can
ask other sorts of things if you like. You should probably get with another
tutor (or so) to learn what they have planned for this week. Use the discussion
format offered above, perhaps.
- Return Dialogue
Journals to them.
- DJ2: What are you
working on in English 100 right now? [for English
110, put “What are you working on in your writing-intensive classes right
now? Perhaps English 101?] What questions or concerns do you have? What
has pleased you most about this recent writing experience? What has
frustrated you most? Has your instructor responded to this essay yet? What
did you learn? What can you apply to future writing projects?
- Group Workshop (use
handout from “Test Drive”
or one attached).
- DJ3: What is the
problem with “perfection” when writing, according to Anne Lemott? What does she suggest writers do instead of
focusing on perfection? What do you think about that?
- If time, you may
also decide to read from the next assigned chapter (together) and begin
the discussion about it.
BEFORE
NEXT TIME, read “School Lunches” and “Polaroids” (Lemott).
Week Five,
Day One/Two
- DJ3: (1) What’s your
version of “school lunches” as Lemott presents
it? How is she using this metaphor? How might you use it in your own
writing? Why might you do so? (2) Discuss the most recent writing project
you created in English 100 [for English 110, write “in a writing-intensive
class this term like English 101]? What did you write about? Why? How
might you apply tehse metaphors “school lunches”
and “polaroids” to the process? (NOTE: You may
want to have worked out a response to this prompt with respect to your own
writing if the discuss does not seem to be forthcoming. This is a
difficult concept, but an important one.)
- Ask students to tell
you about school lunches and go through the exercise Lemott
illustrates with your own students, asking them what they might get out of
doing so (when they are done).
- DJ4: How is writing
like “watching a Polaroid develop” (see Lemott)?
Has this been your experience? Explain.
Begin
each day with a DJ. Get at least one Group Workshop in. If you have extra time,
use one or more of the discussion methods outlined in Week 3 to fill in the
gaps. You may also decide to analyze another assignment (via the handout
offered in a previous week), as they will likely have another assignment at
this point.
Take
up their journal again and respond.
BEFORE
NEXT TIME, they should read “How Do You Know When You Are Done?” (Lemott).
- DJ5: (1) Do you know
when you are done with a writing project? How? Explain. Respond to Lemott’s argument on the same subject.
- DJ6: What does Lemott mean when she says “you need your broccoli in
order to write well (111)? What useful metaphor can you use to describe
your intuition? Why this metaphor and not something else? (NOTE: This is
complicated, so you may wish to share your own “broccoli” with them before
they begin, maybe even that of your colleagues if you can learn what
theirs might be. It may even be useful to read this section aloud before
moving into the discussion, as it is a particularly complicated issue.
Begin
each day with a DJ. Get at least one Group Workshop in. If you have extra time,
use one or more of the discussion methods outlined in Week 3 to fill in the
gaps. You may also decide to analyze another assignment (via the handout
offered in a previous week), as they will likely have another assignment at
this point. It may also be useful to ask students to pair up and discuss their
responses to the prompt that way before they share their findings with the
larger group.
Take
up their journal again and respond.
BEFORE
NEXT TIME, they should read Part Three (pages 131-185).
- DJ7: What does Lemott do with her index cards (see assigned chapter
with same name)? Respond to this. Wht do you hink? Do you do something similar? Do you have a
different system? If so, what? How’s it work?
- DJ8: Lemott suggests you get other people involved in your
writing process, whether by using a writing group (like this one!),
another reader (one-on-one, like the ones you have available to you in the
Writing Center and in your peer review
groups in the classroom). How have you used other people in your writing
process thus far, and how has that worked for you?
Begin
each day with a DJ. Get at least one Group Workshop in. If you have extra time,
use one or more of the discussion methods outlined in Week 3 to fill in the
gaps. You may also decide to analyze another assignment (via the handout
offered in a previous week), as they will likely have another assignment at
this point.
Take
up their journal again and respond.
DJ9:
What does Lemott say about writer’s block? What does
she say about it that you found most beneficial? Have you experienced writer’s
block yourself? When? What’d you do about it?
DJ10:
In Part Four, Lemott offers several reasons why one
might write. Which reasons do you find most compelling and relevant (and why)?
What might be some other reasons one might write?
Also:
Share
the handout on the “Dialogue Journal” tutor-student conferences and the
relevance this project will have for generating the Final Reflections. (WG) DJ
presentations: If you haven’t done so already, sometime this week you should
set up the DJ presentations. Hand out copies of the DJ handout (The one I gave
you during our meeting was developed for your students. You can use that.) Tell
them they are going to present key points from their DJ rather than sharing all
of their journal entries. Ask them to read through their DJ, highlighting key
passages (things they like, things that seem meaningful to them, interesting,
telling . . . ). They should then write a one-page response to their DJ (place
this in the DJ—How have you grown/changed as a writer? What have you learned?
If they are not specific in the discussion that follows, make them be specific.
They should also answer the questions asked on the DJ handout. Sign up for
presentations (next time)—tell them they can’t miss. Tell them they should not
come unprepared.
·
(WG)
At the presentation: Treat it like a very quick tutorial session (What have you
learned about yourself as a writer? As a reader?) Pass out the final writing
assignment. Encourage them to visit the Writing Center.
Help them understand the DJ relevance to final reflections.
·
BEFORE
NEXT TIME, sign up for conference with you to present and discuss the DJ (they
should do this some time next week).
See
above.
Assign
Final Reflections (they received this handout during their presentation last
week).
Give
them some time to generate a draft (in class—draft due in one week).
- Ask them specific
questions that force them to consider what, specifically, their writing
experiences required of them and how, specifically, they have met these
challenges. Ask them to talk about specific writing assignments, specific
drafts, specific readings, specific peer review sessions, specific
instructor feedback on specific drafts, specific days (you get the
picture). Pass out a list of
questions they can use to generate final reflections in their DJ and
discuss their findings (in specific terms!). They should use the responses
they generated on the first day of their writing group to develop these
plans as well.
- You are welcome (and
encouraged) to dismiss your class the second day of this week, but they
must return on Day 1 of Week 11 with a draft of this important essay and a
“Proof of Writing Center Visit” filled out and attached, as you will only
dismiss the writing group if they can get in to work one-on-one with a
tutor at some point before you meet again one week from they day you are
likely to have this conversation (conversation: week 10, day 1; draft due:
week 11, day 1).
- Make certain they
turn in a draft of the Final Reflections before our meeting (Wednesday of
this week). Handwritten or not. . . up to you. Most important is that we have
a chance to offer feedback on it.
- Those meeting
students on Tuesday/Thursday may need to figure out a way to set up their
schedules so that they get these papers in earlier.
- (WC Meeting
Wednesday): We will meet today to review and respond to the Final
Reflections together. That way students will have a chance to utilize the
feedback before they turn in their final portfolios.
- 100: After we
respond to these essays, make a copy of each essay and place it (or the
original) in the appropriate. English 100 instructor’s box.
- BEFORE NEXT TIME:
Assign “The Last Class” in Lemott.
- Return essays with
feedback. Help them understand feedback and generate plans for revision.
- Locate and discuss
favorite passages in “The Last Class.”
- If you can get in a
couple of Group Workshops on this essay, do so.
- Make an appointment
to meet with you before Day 1 of next week (Week 13) to discuss Final
Reflections in more detail, as well as plans for revision. They will have
to turn in a Proof of Writing Center Visit when they turn in the essay
next week (along with all previous drafts, notes, feedback, and other
suggestions.
BEFORE
NEXT TIME, they must be sure to revise
the Final Reflections for next time (due Day 1 of Week 13 at the beginning of
class, along with their Dialogue Journals).
- Final Reflections
due
- Dialogue Journal due
- They should return
on Day 1 of Week 14 to pick these
up, along with your responses. Make appointments with them to do so,
discussing what is missing in their Dialogue Journals and reminding them
of the weight the DJ will carry in the overall score for English 100/110.
You can also take this time to discuss whatever is lacking in the Final
Reflections, help them understand that both the DJ and the Final
Reflections are to go in the Final Portfolio for English 100.
- English 110: You can
decide if you think the students should be given another chance to bring
up their scores based on the DJ and the Final Reflections.
Conferences with students regarding DJ and Final
Reflections.
Catching
up, GW, feedback, developing final reflections through collage, revise, revise,
revise and reflect, reflect, reflect.