writing joy
ā€œwriting joyā€ by Julie Jordan Scott via Flickr CC BY

Week 4: Drafting and Revising Project 1

  • Dates: Wednesday, 9/20 and Wednesday, 9/27
  • Meeting Info: This course meets in person for 100 minutes twice per week, Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:00-1:40pm, in Namm 602A. By the end of each week, I will post an agenda that will outline the next weekā€™s work. It will include instructions for you and links to readings, discussion questions, and other work. We will work on developing community both in our classroom and in our online written community.

Objectives

  • To work on Project #1: Education Narrative
  • To consider and discuss aspects of education and educational experiences through the lens of our readings
  • To share ideas about our writing and writing process to help each other succeed with Project 1

To Do Before Week 4

Just in case you havenā€™t already, please:

To-Do This Week

Wednesday, 9/20: Peer Review, Revision, Process

Texts:

Writing

  • Work on drafting your education narrative for Project 1. If you are staring at a blank screen or page, try to freewrite for 10-15 minutes about an meaningful learning experience in your education (whether related to school or not) and what it taught you or how it changed you.
  • In class we will each say what we’re writing about. If you’re not comfortable speaking in class, you might want some notes to refer to or a sentence or two written down that you can read aloud. This won’t be a presentation, just a way for everyone to share ideas and for me to quickly see that everyone is on the right track.
  • Please bring a copy of your draft to class, as well as post it on our site. Here’s how to post it:
    • Make sure you’re logged in to the OpenLab.
    • On our site, click the + in the top bar that runs across the site. Or, click on the name of our course at the top of the screen and go to the Dashboard, then click Posts and click Add New.
    • Add a title for your post.
    • Write your draft in the post, or copy and paste it in. Check to see that it looks ok.
    • Choose the category Project 1 Work.
    • As you work, you probably want to click Save draft so it’s saved and you don’t lose any work.
    • If you want no one to be able to see your draft except for you and me, you’ll want to change the visibility of your post from public to private.
    • Make sure you click Publish to publish your post, and that you click it again if it asks are you sure. A quick way to make sure your post is published is if instead of the blue button saying Publish it says Update. Another way to make sure is to look for it on our site!
    • Read these help materials on writing a post to answer any questions you have. This is good practice for submitting your finished Project 1!

In Class

  • Reading ā€œShitty First Draftsā€ by Anne Lamott:
    • just write what you can, even without worrying about tone, style, etc
    • the first draft is never going to be perfect
    • write more than you need–you’ll have a good idea in there somewhere
    • she talks about writing in 3 drafts: shitty first draft, a second draft that starts to take shape, and a 3rd draft that you polish and submit.
    • one-drafter vs multidrafter–Lamott doesn’t address this
    • build in time for delay–multidrafting lets us rethink, reevaluate, make leaps.
    • writing isn’t linear: we don’t necessarily start at the beginning and finish at the end.
    • what do you do if you’re stuck because you don’t know how to start?
    • use our readings as mentor texts
  • Everyone shares what they’re writing about for Project #1: Education Narrative. Write for 5 minutes: what are you writing about for your education narrative? what else can you tell us about your draft, if anything?
  • in-class drafting:
    • How can you address the questions Bunn encourages us to ask any piece of writing when we read like writers?
    • how can you incorporate the elements of an education narrative?
    • What makes a good beginning for an education narrative? Which of our texts does it well that you can use as a model?
    • What makes a good ending for an education narrative? Which of our texts does it well that you can use as a model?
    • What are some ways to organize your narrative? Does it need to be in chronological order? Will you use flashbacks or flash-forwards?
    • Make a list of ideas you want to incorporate into your draft.
  • Some ideas from our discussion:
    • ends with a so-what, a question, a re-evaluation, a call to action, coming to terms with a struggle
    • pivotal moments; journey from HS to college; location of kitchen table helped get schoolwork done; journey with math; ADHD and procrastination journey; time management and how tough it is; first job, money management, time management, and speaking up (self-advocacy) in a gap year; learning experience in school that lead to career path; school impacting career choices; how cultural aspects (eg language) can be lost over time; an experience changed the way to approach learning; how experiences in school shape us, we evolve into adults; how specific experiences in school changed how to view science;
  • Peer review: we’re not trying to fix or edit our partner’s draft–instead, we’re offering them our perspective as a reader.
    • Read your partner’s draft without commenting. Then re-read the draft to do the following:
    • Note a part or two that stand out to you. What do you understand from those sentences? Let your classmate know what’s working with a sentence like “When you saidā€¦ this really caught my attention because ā€¦” or “Your piece got me thinking about…”
    • What do you need to understand better? Let your classmate know what you needed clarification about with a sentence like “I got confused here when you saidā€¦ becauseā€¦”
    • What do you want to know more about? This might mean asking them to expand what they have, or to include dialogue, details, description, or something else. Let your classmate know with a sentence like “I wanted to know more aboutā€¦..because…”
    • Suggest a possible title for your partner’s project

Monday, 9/25: No Classes Scheduled

Wednesday, 9/27: Finishing Project 1

Texts:

Writing:

  • Project 1 Drafts (Education Narrative) Due in class

In Class

  • Finishing, polishing, and sharing Project 1
  • Organization
    • ā€œWhatā€™s a Paragraph?ā€ by Carrie Hall
    • Re-outlining
    • One version of re-outlining: as you read your draft, make an outline on a separate page of the things you include in your draft.
    • Another version of re-outlining: make notes in the margins to see what you’re doing where.
    • Whichever version you do, consider the PIE (Point | Information/Illustration | Explanation) method from “What’s a Paragraph” and see how you might reorganize your education narrative.
  • Peer review: we’re not trying to fix or edit our partner’s draft–instead, we’re offering them our perspective as a reader.
    • Read your partner’s draft without commenting. Then re-read the draft to do the following:
    • Note a part or two that stand out to you. What do you understand from those sentences? Let your classmate know what’s working with a sentence like “When you saidā€¦ this really caught my attention because ā€¦” or “Your piece got me thinking about…”
    • What do you need to understand better? Let your classmate know what you needed clarification about with a sentence like “I got confused here when you saidā€¦ becauseā€¦”
    • What do you want to know more about? This might mean asking them to expand what they have, or to include dialogue, details, description, or something else. Let your classmate know with a sentence like “I wanted to know more aboutā€¦..because…”
    • Suggest a possible title for your partner’s project
  • Using Mentor Texts in our Education Narratives
    • Which text do you connect with, or want to juxtapose with yours?
    • ā€œQuotation Handoutā€ by Carrie Hall