2.19 Workshop on response essays

Grades:  Each of your should have received a grade-sheet with a grade so far.  The sheet listed all the assignments + other class work that received credit, and provided your score in each category.  If you have questions about your score or how the grade was tallied, be in touch.

As I said in class, if you had missing work, or if you received a score that you want to improve by revising your work, I will be re-grading work from the summary unit at the portfolio-check for the Response Unit (due at the end of class, Thursday, February 26).  You will make a note of any work that needs to be graded/re-graded on the landing page of your portfolio.  I will go over this in class on the day you turn in portfolios.  I will not be accepting make-up work, or work for re-grading from the summary unit after February 26.

Workshops on developing response essays: During classtime we worked on writing response essays two different ways. For the first class, we talked over Addison's reply to Perlstein about the value of college education.   In this discussion we looked at the essay Addison was replying to, talked about the "times" Perlstein was writing about  and the vision of "college" from that point in history, and then considered Addison's more contemporary perspective.  We noted how the identies of students have changed, that the economics of paying for a college education have changed, and that what students want out of their education has also changed.  Through out that discussion we kept referring back to Addison's points about community colleges, and Perlstein's points about "the way college used to be."

Some things you noted about Addison's essay:
she uses language in a way that shows she felt disrespected by Perlstein's representation of how college is "not what it used to be" Their is an edge in the way she refers to what he says (for example the way she uses the terms "hand wringing" "shudder" "University of Privilege" and so on
she feels that Community Colleges are places like the "college of the past" = where students engage in self discovery,  but CC is for working class students rather than people with privilege.
she begins with "they say" - but in a way that seems to assume her readers are familiar with Rick Perlstein's original piece (see link at the last post)
She is writing a response essay!  (her essay has the form of a response essay=> starts with TS, makes a series of points about the TS where she develops her perspective in terms of the points set up in the TS

After our discussion you wrote a general statement of your take on what Addison's essay was about. As you read out your statements to the class = we noticed that they all had a slightly different take!

You then checked the text for points you would need to mention as you developed that representation of the essay's focus.

Then you worked on a statement of what you would say in response -what new information, ideas, perspectives you wanted to contribute to the conversation .

Workshop on revising response essays
During the second part of class we took a close look at the assignment sheet, and using the description of the assignment along with the criteria for the grade, we developed a kind of checklist for what a good response essay needed to do.
Then you worked in groups to provide feedback for a sample response essay (2 sample response essays are posted to the side of the blog - we only got to go over 1).

You gave GREAT feedback, and I am hoping by thinking about what the sample essay's author needed to work on, you got some ideas for what to work on what you for you own essay.

For next class:
Read:  Look through the readings on the American Dream:  Think about which essays you want to read for the persuasive writing unit.
Write: 1) revise the response essay on the essay of your choice (Ungar, Hacker + Dreifus, or Carey); 2) write a draft response essay to Addison. Post your writing to the response page on the portfolio.

In class on Tuesday we will talk about which readings from the American Dream section that you want to work from for unit on persuasion.

We will spend the rest of class workshopping your draft response essay + the revised response essay, and choosing your "best response essay" (the essay you will revise for a grade).

Have a great weekend!