We've been working on the final project, and things are all moving along smoothly. Another student (my second) missed the max amount of absences and I had to fail him, so that was rough. However, recently I assigned a response (analysis) paper, and that's what my blog entry is about.

Basically, 6 students plagiarized information. Not that they copied something out of a text word for word, but they included a lot of information that they clearly got from sources, and didn't cite the information. I gave them zeros on the paper. However, my policy is to let any student who gets a D or an F on a paper revise for a C, so basically they're going to get C's (i'm positive they'll revise).

On Tuesday I assigned the final paper. I have revised my schedule, and now (thank god) i've got the rest of my semester completely planned out. Check out my revised syllabus at web.ics.purdue.edu/~eplough. Notice I've thrown in the final 2 response papers. One thing I will ask the group next time we have class is what these response papers should be about. Anyway, as for the paper, I like it that we're spending so much time, because I want their papers to be REALLY good. We're going to work in a lot more peer critique, which pleases me as well. We're still burning through the presentations during class, which are going well.

Yesterday (Wednesday), we started out class with a 10 minute discussion of the CDA reading. Then we went right into the portrait playlist presentations. We got through about 4 of 'em. There were some technical difficulties, but it went very well otherwise. After each one, I commented on a few rhetorical strategies that I thought were particularly effective. After that, I assigned the 2nd response paper. I rearranged the assignment. I have attached it to this blog entry.

Last week we began our Portrait Playlist. As I mentioned before, we are using Andy's version. We spent the week talking about what constitutes identity, borrowing from our reading of both CDA and RUG. Samantha came to observe on Wednesday, and I was nervous about that, but once class started flowing my nervousness went away. The reading for that day was particularly excellent- RUG's explanation of given, readymade, and constructed identity. The students really got into it, and it was a great day of discussion. On Friday, I returned their Paper 1's, and as before I compiled a handout of their mistakes, and we went through them.

Today we went over the 3 musketeers of Rhetoric (though I didn't call them that). We discussed the reading at length, and really dug into some (I think) heavy concepts. Also, we did the excersize that I designed during our orientation, and it went pretty well. Next week we are getting into the Portrait Playlist project. I am using Andy's version, which I think builds really well upon our "Paper 1" project, and will segue nicely into Paper 2. We are going to spend 2 weeks on this project, but I don't think I'll be taking them through the same activities that we did with this last project (i.e.

Peer Critique went really well. The worksheet provided plenty structure, and they all seemed to be handling the whole thing in a mature manner. Tomorrow they turn in their papers, and I plan on talking about Ethos, Pathos and Logos. I was really happy to have 2 weeks to work on this paper with the students. I'm a little hazy on exactly what this portrait playlist is all about, but it sounds like fun. Other than that, there isn't really too much to talk about for today.

Today we talked a bit more about the papers. Several students have come to my office hours, and I really think their papers are going to be, for the most part, quite good. At least much better than their Adver-gaming papers. We then spent the rest of time talking about Peer Review. I went through the handout (attached) and tomorrow we'll spend the hour working on each other's paper. The handout I put together is a hodge podge of a bunch of peer critique handouts I found through google search. I am a little nervous about the students and peer critique, but I think it will go well.

Today we went over their topics that they chose and figured out ways to narrow them down and make them as specific as possible. We went through the "Narrowing Topics" handout that is attached below, and tonight for homework they will complete the other attached handout, "Writing a Thesis Statement". I have also posted these handouts on my website. On that note, I have discovered a 106 website that has a LOT of excellent resources (handouts galore!). Mitch Simpson isn't at Purdue anymore, but as luck would have it his website is still alive. Download his handouts while you can!!!

So we dug into the RUG reading today. Nobody dug the RUG reading. However, we discussed it for about 25 minutes, and managed to extract some interesting/important ideas from it. My class, myself not excluded, is waiting for RUG to GET TO THE POINT. They've spent a lot of time comparing this and that to Rhetoric (baseball, fast food, legal proceedings, architecture, etc...) and it's always a little too convoluted and philisophical for my tastes. Hopefully, RUG will get to the point sooner than later.

Having that said, I began what will be our work for the next two weeks. We are going to write a 3-5 page paper. I am experimenting with the concept of the students choosing their own topics- an idea Phillip and I discussed in 505 yesterday (no teacher showed up!).

So far, I've been pretty much going by the book with my class. Probably the biggest departure, if you want to call it that, from our syllabus that I have implemented is my method of taking attendance. Instead of quizzes or anything like that, I will have a discussion of the reading. Each student is required to have something interesting to say about the reading, and they all must say something, as that is how they are assuring me that they are in attendance, both in mind and body. A few of my colleagues have called this method into question, but so far it has worked really well.

I have worked very hard to make my website, http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~eplough/ a useful tool for my students. Probably the best feature of my website is the conference calendar. It was generated from Microsoft Outlook, which has an excellent "publish as website" feature that is as simple as it is useful.