Tuesday, September 29th

Hi all:

Since all of the classes are working on slightly different paces, I am going to write up the summaries a little differently. First, though, I would really like to thank everyone for their hard work with Mike Rose's piece. It is tough going, but I feel like we are really starting to make some inroads in understanding his central argument.

Okay... for today's work:

8 am
We spent most of our time today talking about the final draft of WA #1 and in understanding how to figure out "work-arounds." A work-around is when you come up with a problem that you can't solve, but you do need to deal with in order to get what you want. This was a great class discussion, and I am appreciative for all of your honest input.

HW: Review Mike Rose 1-14

10:15 am
This brave class dug deep into Mike Rose's piece. We discussed various terms: remedial, develpmental, basic writer and how they felt different from "unprepared." Additionally, we spoke at length about how grammar (Go Grammatica!) really can mess with a person's head - and their perception of self. Also, we worked the concept of Tone into our discussion. Rose really hit home with this line:

"These are the truly illiterate among us" (Rose 3).

We decided that sarcasm is a pretty cool thing to find in writing.

11:25 - Bring on the statistics!!!
In our class, we tried not to think about lunch. Instead we focused hard on how a writer could use statistical evidence to either prove or disprove a claim. This idea launched another discussion on the differences between Claim and Fact.

We also ran through all of the numbers and learned that there is not actually an increase of students who are labelled "basic" or "remedial" writers. Instead, there is an increase of students going to college - and that the percentage of this increase who test into basic skills is actually consistent with the past. So.. the presidents of Harvard and Brown really ought to stop complaining about "Why Johnny Can't Write."

HW for this class: read from 14 - end and be ready to discuss

To all, thank you for the hard work, and I look forward to another great class tomorrow.

Best,
Prof. K