First Semester Group Presentation
External Materials:
Reflection
Tara and I worked together on this project smoothly and without conflict. We met up in the library and worked side-by-side on separate computers, building the lesson plan and slideshow simultaneously. We used the same strategy with our discussion board. I came to our first meeting prepared with sample questions for the discussion prompt. I also pulled quotes from six or seven different potential readings. I presented them to Tara and we decided together which readings best fit my prewritten questions and her additional questions. After the responses came flooding in, we worked together to pull quotes from the most relevant posts. We used those responses to form our lesson. I suggested our Agree/Disagree activity and Tara suggested our sentence-building activity. We built the rest together!
As I stated, we chose the readings before we made our lesson plan. We chose the Corrigan readings as supplemental passages because they were short and written by the same author. I found questions that could be answered with personal experience because it seems to be a simple enough “ice breaker” for the discussion posts. I’ve found that once people actually start the writing process, it becomes easier to finish the more difficult prompts. We chose Petit’s reading on semi-colons because we both agreed it was an interesting read. The last text was actually from a link in Corrigan’s piece, and because it related to our topic and fulfilled numerous requirements, we added it to our discussion board.
We did not feel we needed to comment on the discussion posts because we brought them up in class and discussed them there. We tried to balance out two different aspects of our discussion board: proof that the class read the texts and opportunity for critical thought regarding style and error. We posed three different sets of questions and chose to let the class choose two out of three. The posts influenced our section of the lesson that directly pulled from the board and the section that directly pulled from the readings.
I think our group contributed the most to three of the learning objectives. The first, “demonstrate an ability to collaborate in order to bring about a successful outcome in a composition course,” I think Tara and I worked well together. I believe we had smooth transitions into our respective sections of the lesson. Everyone seemed to understand our topic, especially after we established the difference between stylistic choice and grammatical necessity. The second, “produce and share lesson plans and teaching artifacts that reflect research relevant to composition and pedagogy,” I believe was shown in our activities. The activities worked well for our lesson but could also be manipulated to fit dozens of different lesson plans. The last objective, “Effectively communicate the application of scholarship through ancillary material” I think relates to our readings. They were the building blocks of our lesson and they provided support for the rest of our work. Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to present this lesson and work with Tara. I had a great time!
I learned a lot from my classmates over the last few weeks of class. I enjoyed the wide variety of activities we were all subjected to, especially the mock-revision session with Tino, Jenna, and Natalie, the memo building activity with Ray and Byron, and the poster activity with Sanna and Juliana. These activities were twofold: they gave me insight on being a TA and they gave me new ways to present activities to my classes in the future. The presentation on Language Diversity had the most impact on me. I have always felt very strongly about the need for students to be aware of their words and the possible consequences they can have. Even so, I learned new ways to be culturally conscious from this lecture. I made sure to bring the things I learned from Sanna and Juliana into my classroom immediately. While I appreciated every group's effort and ability to present complex material in simple ways, I felt their lesson resonated with me the most.
As I stated, we chose the readings before we made our lesson plan. We chose the Corrigan readings as supplemental passages because they were short and written by the same author. I found questions that could be answered with personal experience because it seems to be a simple enough “ice breaker” for the discussion posts. I’ve found that once people actually start the writing process, it becomes easier to finish the more difficult prompts. We chose Petit’s reading on semi-colons because we both agreed it was an interesting read. The last text was actually from a link in Corrigan’s piece, and because it related to our topic and fulfilled numerous requirements, we added it to our discussion board.
We did not feel we needed to comment on the discussion posts because we brought them up in class and discussed them there. We tried to balance out two different aspects of our discussion board: proof that the class read the texts and opportunity for critical thought regarding style and error. We posed three different sets of questions and chose to let the class choose two out of three. The posts influenced our section of the lesson that directly pulled from the board and the section that directly pulled from the readings.
I think our group contributed the most to three of the learning objectives. The first, “demonstrate an ability to collaborate in order to bring about a successful outcome in a composition course,” I think Tara and I worked well together. I believe we had smooth transitions into our respective sections of the lesson. Everyone seemed to understand our topic, especially after we established the difference between stylistic choice and grammatical necessity. The second, “produce and share lesson plans and teaching artifacts that reflect research relevant to composition and pedagogy,” I believe was shown in our activities. The activities worked well for our lesson but could also be manipulated to fit dozens of different lesson plans. The last objective, “Effectively communicate the application of scholarship through ancillary material” I think relates to our readings. They were the building blocks of our lesson and they provided support for the rest of our work. Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to present this lesson and work with Tara. I had a great time!
I learned a lot from my classmates over the last few weeks of class. I enjoyed the wide variety of activities we were all subjected to, especially the mock-revision session with Tino, Jenna, and Natalie, the memo building activity with Ray and Byron, and the poster activity with Sanna and Juliana. These activities were twofold: they gave me insight on being a TA and they gave me new ways to present activities to my classes in the future. The presentation on Language Diversity had the most impact on me. I have always felt very strongly about the need for students to be aware of their words and the possible consequences they can have. Even so, I learned new ways to be culturally conscious from this lecture. I made sure to bring the things I learned from Sanna and Juliana into my classroom immediately. While I appreciated every group's effort and ability to present complex material in simple ways, I felt their lesson resonated with me the most.