I think this looks good. I can offer you some advice as a person who has basically done some version of this before in two different ways, but nothing by way of criticism:
First, I have some questions that I got from Robert that help students find problems that they see in NYC. Remind me of this if you want them and I’ll send them to you if I have them on my home computer (they may be at work.) Next, when students come up with a topic, I have found it’s helpful to get them to deepen it by using a little in-class (or however you want to do this) KWL+ in which they do the KW and then 10 mins of internet research, then the L + on what they learned from that research and what they STILL want to know. That gets to deeper, more interesting questions.
I think it will help you to really outline what you are looking for in each entry. You don’t have to do this on the assignment sheet of course, but it just might be helpful. Ruth does this quite well in her assignments. Another thing I have found really useful (stole this from Jackie Blain) is to START with having them write an intro, which is a wierd suggestion. In this kind of intro, I have them write what they expect to find and why they chose the topic. This is kind of an iSearch paper idea, but it helps them get their thesis-y thinking out of the way. Hope this is helpful!
For Unit 3, and this again comes from my having done a similar assignment, I might start with audience. That is, I might frame it as: okay, you’ve learned all this stuff, now WHO needs to know about it and WHAT IS THE BEST GENRE for delivering that message. Pick one of the genres you’ve studied. They might pick a different one, to be honest, or just something else that’s come up during the semester, and it’s okay to be open to that.
Hope this helps! And remember, I’m still around if I can be of any help. Keep sharing those ideas with me!
Rebekah, here are some comments on Units 2 and 3:
I think this looks good. I can offer you some advice as a person who has basically done some version of this before in two different ways, but nothing by way of criticism:
First, I have some questions that I got from Robert that help students find problems that they see in NYC. Remind me of this if you want them and I’ll send them to you if I have them on my home computer (they may be at work.) Next, when students come up with a topic, I have found it’s helpful to get them to deepen it by using a little in-class (or however you want to do this) KWL+ in which they do the KW and then 10 mins of internet research, then the L + on what they learned from that research and what they STILL want to know. That gets to deeper, more interesting questions.
I think it will help you to really outline what you are looking for in each entry. You don’t have to do this on the assignment sheet of course, but it just might be helpful. Ruth does this quite well in her assignments. Another thing I have found really useful (stole this from Jackie Blain) is to START with having them write an intro, which is a wierd suggestion. In this kind of intro, I have them write what they expect to find and why they chose the topic. This is kind of an iSearch paper idea, but it helps them get their thesis-y thinking out of the way. Hope this is helpful!
For Unit 3, and this again comes from my having done a similar assignment, I might start with audience. That is, I might frame it as: okay, you’ve learned all this stuff, now WHO needs to know about it and WHAT IS THE BEST GENRE for delivering that message. Pick one of the genres you’ve studied. They might pick a different one, to be honest, or just something else that’s come up during the semester, and it’s okay to be open to that.
Hope this helps! And remember, I’m still around if I can be of any help. Keep sharing those ideas with me!