1. Reflections on Essay three: Keep it as simple as possible. There are different moments in Zeitoun that have lessons for New Yorkers. Pick at least two passages and build quote sandwiches around them. Each passage tells us something important about Zeitoun's decisions during the storm and emergency, and/or also what happened to him. Your job is to create a claim that explains the 'lesson' of either his action or what happened to him. You could also focus on Kathy. These two claims will become your thesis (or three, depending on how much you want to say, or how confidence you are in your claims).
Thesis template
On the one hand, Zeitoun's rescue of neighbors after the storm has lessons for New Yorkers because ______________. New Yorkers should know that ____________________. On the other hand, the military conditions in New Orleans also demonstrate that _____________. One lesson might definitely be _______________________.
2. As you read over each other's papers, just know that I'm looking for a solid, tightly argued 3-page paper with an introduction, two supporting paragraphs, and a meaningful conclusion. You are still creating quote sandwiches.
3. As for critical thinking, consider these strategies:
· Close-reading of language. How can we go beyond paraphrase and “interpret” the meaning of the passage by focusing on specific words?
· Connecting the idea to a relevant passage in the same text. How can we connect this passage with another to deepen its meaning?
·Connecting the main idea to another text. How can we connect a main idea we’ve discovered in the passage and relate it to a relevant idea that we’ve found elsewhere?
4. If you have time, click here: [Critical thinking mini-lesson] [you also might want to explore the student blogs from this group of 101s...look around].
1. Move into your PR groups.
2. Determine who will read in what order.
3. Budget 10-15 minutes per person and no more.
4. The reader reads their paper aloud.
5. Give written feedback that offers specific criticism according to criteria below.
6. Put your name on this feedback and give it to the writer.
7. Keep your written feedback and staple it to your final draft.
Writing Feedback Directions (from the text Tutoring Writing)
1. Open with a general statement of assessment about the essay's relationship to the assignment. Be clear about which parts fulfill the assignment and which parts need improvement.
2. Present comments so the writer knows which problems with text are most important and which are of lesser importance.
3. Use comments primarily to call attention to strengths and weaknesses in the piece, and be clear about the precise points where they occur.
4. Don't feel obligated to do all the 'fixing.' Refrain from focusing on grammar unless it impedes your ability to understand the piece.
5. Write comments that are text-specific, and uniquely aimed at the blog and the writer.
Strategies
1. Pose at least two questions that ask for clarification or that seek other possible views or more information on the subject.
2. Let the writer know what specific lines, ideas, and stylistic touches you find pleasing.
3. When you make a specific, concrete suggestion for improvement, try couching it in a qualifier: "You might try..." or "Why don't you add..." or "Another way of writing the lead might be..."
4. If you notice a pattern of errors (incorrect use of commas, etc) comment on it in a global way at the end of the piece.
Evaluate the essays in your peer review groups by responding thoughtfully to each of the following criteria. Focus on the criteria you feel students should most address in their drafts.
Responses must be specific in order to count.
Attach written suggestions from your peers to your final drafts for full peer review credit.
1. Thesis: Contains a central assertion that places a central idea at the forefront of the essay (20%)
2. Structure: Essay organized around topic sentences; each paragraph provides context; essay explains direct quotations (30%)
3. Evidence: Essay successfully places direct quotes into each body paragraph; essay cites those quotes correctly according to MLA guidelines; essay contains a bibliography (20%)
4. Critical Thinking: Essay interprets quotes in original ways that go beyond class discussion; essay connects main ideas to other texts or moments in text; essay utilizes keywords and defines them (20%)
5. Polish and Originality (10%): Essay employs original ideas and shows evidence of revision
If you attend an extra credit event and write a blog about it, you can get up to 50 extra quiz points. That's good for 5 quizzes! If the total quiz points you achieve exceed the number of quizzes given, then those points can start to count beyond the quiz grade.
To achieve the points, compose a blog that explains the event you attended to the rest of the class. Where did you go? What happened? What did you think?
1. When students receive their feedback from the second essay, they will
email the professor a response to the paper's comments. Respond to the
following questions: Do you understand the comments? Do you have
questions about the grade or the comments? Do you plan to revise? What
will you do differently for the second essay?
2. In-class blog: follow the directions here and craft a blog that you may be able to use for Essay 3.
3. Writing Lab: Work on Essay 3. Use this time to prepare your draft for peer review Friday. The professor can read what you've drafted so far. Some of you may also want to:
- catch up with Zeitoun reading: click here.
- consider Zeitoun within post 9-11: click here.
- consider Zeitoun and Katrina: click here
Secretary of State John Kerry indicated that a report’s findings on the rate of climate change would influence foreign policy.Credit
Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency
WASHINGTON
— The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to
national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict, a report published Tuesday by a leading government-funded military research organization concluded.
The CNA Corporation Military Advisory Board
found that climate change-induced drought in the Middle East and Africa
is leading to conflicts over food and water and escalating longstanding
regional and ethnic tensions into violent clashes. The report also
found that rising sea levels are putting people and food supplies in
vulnerable coastal regions like eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong
Delta in Vietnam at risk and could lead to a new wave of refugees.
In
addition, the report predicted that an increase in catastrophic weather
events around the world will create more demand for American troops,
even as flooding and extreme weather events at home could damage naval
ports and military bases.
This is a reminder to leave comments on the student blogs.
If you have already done so, be sure that the comments you left were extensive enough and followed the assignment directions. Most of the comments I've seen so far do this, but some could be expanded. Full credit means you wrote about 200 words in total, or about 100 words per response. If you didn't quite write 100 words that's ok, but significantly falling short will affect your grade.
I should have added a section in the directions about 'tone.' It's very important for you to be respectful in your criticisms and to offer praise in addition to criticism. I will be checking to see how students followed the directions given in the assignment. Disrespectful comments will need to be revised. If you feel you received a disrespectful comment, please let me know. I apologize for making this aspect of the assignment unstated.
1. Your keyword will be present in a topic sentence claim, but two different passages will provide support for it. AS YOU DRAFT, it's simply important that you have the keyword and that you make some (any) generic claims, such as: In Zeitoun cultural fears play a role in Zeitoun's experiences.
Note that this language WILL BE REVISED for the final draft, in part because the paper is asking us about the lessons Zeitoun might have for climate emergencies in New York's future. The language will then shift to: One of the lessons Zeitoun offers us is that climate emergencies something something cultural fear.
Note, too, that your critical thinking about the passage(s) in your key word will necessarily change, in part because you will be relating your discovering about Zeitoun to the lessons they might offer.
2. Remember that your reader will not accept transitions to your direct quote that use page numbers, such as "on page 33..." Do not use page numbers in your writing except in citations, like this ----> (Eggers 33). Where your instinct is to write "on page 33," that is where you summarize what's happening in the book for your reader. You then transition from this summary into your direct quotation.
3. Remember, keywords are 1-2 words that are ideas, such as "shock doctrine." They explain more than one thing - more than one situation, time, event, etc. They also have to be specific enough to the text that the reader feels they work especially for the text in question (in our case, Zeitoun). They have to be accurate, creative, and yet also 'portable' - that is, other people, including your classmates, could use them.
4. Critical thinking in a paragraph with two quotes: perhaps you should approach like this:
claim - keyword
define keyword
introduce first passage (remind the reader what's happening in the part of the book from where you're pulling the quote)
direct quotation and citation
brief explanation of relation between quote and keyword
transition to second example of keyword
introduce second passage (same directions as introducing first passage)
direct quotation and citation
CRITICAL THINKING: compare and contrast how both moments demonstrate your keyword idea, but also make the clear each of the two examples show individually, or separately, about the text.
OTHER OPTIONS: After you've done this, you can relate these examples to your thesis as a whole. You can may thus relate these examples to their wider importance about what they teach us about climate change and disaster preparation.
1. Revised Zeitoun keywords paragraph - take out your notes from Friday. Type them into an in-class blog. As you read over your work, revise it: be sure that you have posted a solid quote sandwich that elaborates on your claim about the text, with the keyword as your anchor idea.
2. Log into your Instagram account either from your phone or on the computer. Leave a comment on two photographs by fellow students. In your comments, discuss what the image made you think about regarding the future of climate change and New York City. What do you think the image will tell a future historian or time traveller?
3. Log into Twitter. Using the hashtag #zeitoun, compose two tweets about the text that contain claims about what the text teaches us about climate emergencies. Please place a page number in parentheses (56) where we might find a passage tied to your claim, or supporting your claim. Do this even though I'm NOT asking you to create any direct quotes or citations.
SAMPLE: #zeitoun teaches us that strangers are important during chaos (168)
4. Now look at what your classmates posted. Retweet at least two claims that you agree with. Then find a claim you could disagree with, even 'for the sake of argument.' Explain why in your nicest voice and leave a page number in parentheses that contains a passage you believe supports your claim.
William Nordhaus an economist
at Yale, came up with the idea of a carbon tax and developed a model
for determining the price tag of climate change.Credit
Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
WASHINGTON
— In the New Mexico of the 1950s, the two brothers grew up steeped in
the beauty of the landscape, the economics of energy and the power of
science. They skied, fly-fished, explored on the family’s 50,000-acre
sheep ranch, watched oil towns go boom and bust, and talked of the
nuclear weapons up the road at Los Alamos.
Today
the work of Robert and William Nordhaus is profoundly shaping how the
United States and other nations take on global warming.
1. Essay Two Reflection: Counts for 30 quiz points
Reflection on your writing process: letter to the professor.
Answer the following questions in a brief letter to the professor. 1.
Overall, are you confident that your essay meets the expectations of the
assignment? Why or why not? 2. What was the most difficult part of the
assignment for you? How did you overcome it? 3. Based on your experience
with the this essay, what would you do differently next time? 4. What
writing skills or techniques do you think we need to work on most as a
class going forward? 5. How has this assignment changed your thinking on Hurricane Sandy?
4. Discussing the reading: groupwork. Together with a team of
classmates, explore two different aspects of the reading: 1) create and
define a "keyword" you'd use to explain a passage, and give another example from the text about where and how it could explain something;
5. In-class writing: Return to your notebooks. Write a reflection
that answers the following question: How does a passage from the
reading connect with what you've learned or read in class so far? Link
the reading to other passages, texts, or ideas from class discussion.
ENG 101 Midterm 2014
Name
1. Thesis: Contains a central assertion that places a
central idea at the forefront of the essay; thesis statements is 2-3 sentences;
thesis statement answers the main question posed by the assignment (20%)
15678910
2. Structure: Essay organized around topic sentences; each
paragraph provides "they say" context; essay uses summary and
paraphrase to explain main ideas from reading (30%)
15678910
3. Evidence: Essay successfully places direct quotes into
each body paragraph; essay cites those quotes correctly according to MLA
guidelines; essay explains direct quotations; essay contains a bibliography (30%)
15678910
4. Critical Thinking: Essay interprets quotes in original
ways that go beyond class discussion; essay connects main ideas to other texts
or moments in text; essay utilizes keywords and defines them; essay offers
original perspectives and argument (20%)
15678910
Directions: First
read the following directions. Then examine the chart on the next page, making
notes where useful. Finally, write a response that summarizes, interprets, and
connects the information in the chart.
-Summary/summarizing:
explains the information for a reader who has not seen it yet.
·hint: be sure to address what the information says as well as how it measures and presents its data
·does the graph communicate any pattern, trend,
or story?
-Interpret/interpreting: explains the
information for a reader wondering what it means.
·hint: interpretation requires that you explain
the significance of something: why is this data important? Who should care
about it?
·Can you imagine reasons that would explain any
pattern, trend, or story in the graph?
-Connect/connecting:
explains the information’s links to an idea, issue, or claim from class or
course text.
·hint: return to your class notes or class text,
and explain the significance of the data for the idea, issue, or claim you
choose.
(if you have time…)
-Critique/critiquing:
explains the chart for what’s missing, unclear, or inaccurate.
·hint:
is there a problem in the way this chart presents its information, methods, or
sources?
(Source: Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed February 11,
2013, http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/08/26/wave-of-hate-crimes-directed-at-muslims-breaks-out/)
1. Quiz: How has your reading experience of Zeitoun been so far?
2. Announcements: Essay due; essay extension requests by several. Blog 4 due. Instagram Assignment Due.
3. Class Activity: Let's look at a few key passages from Zeitoun. Keep notes that would be readable to a student in the class wanting to know what was happening, and also how they might think about it.
4. Tweet: Using the hashtag #zeitoun, summarize the passage you read and then develop a claim about the passage you related. Favorite at least one other tweet, and reply to at least two more. In your reply, consider either asking a question, making a counter-argument, or agreeing/disagree with a reason (I agree/disagree because...)
5. Blog: Make a claim about Zeitoun and defend it using textual evidence. Be sure to explain how the textual evidence supports your claim (consider quote sandwich rules).
The paper is due Monday
Without peer review comments you will lose five points. You can make up these points by taking the paper to the Writing Center. There doesn't seem to be much time for this. If you've already taken essay two to the Writing Center, let me know.
Maybe you missed because of the derailment. You may want to apply for a 3-day extension; see the syllabus.
1. Move into your PR groups.
2. Determine who will read in what order.
3. Budget 10-15 minutes per person and no more.
4. The reader reads their paper aloud.
5. Give written feedback that offers specific criticism according to criteria below.
6. Put your name on this feedback and give it to the writer.
7. Keep your written feedback and staple it to your final draft.
Writing Feedback Directions (from the text Tutoring Writing)
1.
Open with a general statement of assessment about the essay's
relationship to the assignment. Be clear about which parts fulfill the
assignment and which parts need improvement.
2. Present comments so the writer knows which problems with text are most important and which are of lesser importance.
3.
Use comments primarily to call attention to strengths and weaknesses in
the piece, and be clear about the precise points where they occur.
4.
Don't feel obligated to do all the 'fixing.' Refrain from focusing on
grammar unless it impedes your ability to understand the piece.
5. Write comments that are text-specific, and uniquely aimed at the blog and the writer.
Strategies
1. Pose at least two questions that ask for clarification or that seek other possible views or more information on the subject.
2. Let the writer know what specific lines, ideas, and stylistic touches you find pleasing.
3.
When you make a specific, concrete suggestion for improvement, try
couching it in a qualifier: "You might try..." or "Why don't you add..."
or "Another way of writing the lead might be..."
4. If you notice a pattern of errors (incorrect use of commas, etc) comment on it in a global way at the end of the piece.
Evaluate
the essays in your peer review groups by responding thoughtfully to
each of the following criteria. Focus on the criteria you feel students
should most address in their drafts.
Responses must be specific in order to count.
Attach written suggestions from your peers to your final drafts for full peer review credit.
1. Thesis: Contains a central assertion that places a central idea at the forefront of the essay (30%)
2. Structure: Essay organized around topic sentences; each paragraph provides context; essay explains direct quotations (30%)
3. Evidence: Essay
successfully places direct quotes into each body paragraph; essay cites
those quotes correctly according to MLA guidelines; essay contains a
bibliography (20%)
4. Critical Thinking: Essay
interprets quotes in original ways that go beyond class discussion;
essay connects main ideas to other texts or moments in text; essay
utilizes keywords and defines them (20%)
1. Announcements
2. Peer Review
3. EXTRA CREDIT: I have to cut class early today for a special conference on community college students. The link is here: [click here] . It's at the Graduate Center at 34th and 5th and starts at 3.15pm (C Level Room 198). If anyone wants to go, they can ride the train with me there, or go on their own. It'll be an hour long panel. If you write a blog about it, you can get extra credit: 20 quiz points. If you can't make it or can't go into the city today, that's understandable. There will be other extra credit opportunities.
