{"id":620,"date":"2011-12-09T11:03:34","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T15:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/?page_id=620"},"modified":"2017-06-16T12:51:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T16:51:33","slug":"exploratory-essay-sample-assignment-sequence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/exploratory-essay-sample-assignment-sequence\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploratory Essay:  Sample Assignment Sequence"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Exploratory Essay:\u00a0 Sample Assignment Sequence<\/h2>\n<table id=\"AutoNumber4\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\" width=\"844\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_left_filler.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"7\" height=\"2\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<td colspan=\"3\" align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#669966\" width=\"831\">\n<h2 class=\"legalhead\">Initiating an Inquiry into Technology<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_right_filler_upper.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"6\" height=\"2\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">\n<h4><strong>Goal for unit:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>To identify a technology that presents an<br \/>\nintriguing question, one that students can investigate in a variety of<br \/>\nways for the entire semester. The essay will serve to pose their question, through personal<br \/>\nobservations and stories and through consideration of one of the essays.<br \/>\nRead two of the following Presence<em> of Others <\/em>essays on science and technology,<br \/>\nmost likely Rifkin, Oppenheimer, J. Q. Wilson, Samuelson.<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The focus of this entire unit is to get students<br \/>\nto raise questions instead of jumping to answers, to become invested in an<br \/>\ninquiry into technology that will last a semester&#8211;and not get old.<br \/>\nThe primary evidence will come from their own experiences and<br \/>\nobservations, but students will be expected to consider part of one essay<br \/>\nas well.<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">Day 1.<\/p>\n<p>Introduction to the unit.\u00a0 Students can brainstorm\/list<br \/>\ntopics\/thoughts about technology and do some focused freewriting, all with the<br \/>\npurpose of finding a topic of interest. This could also alter the choice<br \/>\nof essays assigned from <em>Presence<\/em>.\u00a0 Students can share and<br \/>\nrespond to ideas in Blackboard.\u00a0 As a way of introducing these<br \/>\nessays, students could be introduced to the art of skimming for a purpose:<br \/>\nto find a topic of inquiry for the semester.\u00a0 <em>Homework<\/em>:<br \/>\nRead essay in technology unit (probably Wilson).\u00a0 Respond by making a<br \/>\n<a href=\"..\/Reading\/double_entry_journal.htm\" target=\"_self\">double-entry<br \/>\njournal<\/a> response in Blackboard.\u00a0 Also in Blackboard, write a<br \/>\nbrief nonfiction story or detailed observation that in some way seems<br \/>\nimportant as you think about the technology they&#8217;ve tentatively chose.<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Students are introduced to some processes of<br \/>\ngenerating language:\u00a0 listing, freewriting, double-entry journaling.<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">\n<h4><strong>Day 2.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Students practice reading their and others&#8217; writing<br \/>\nwith the purpose of discovering an engaging question about technology.<br \/>\nFirst, in groups of three, students reflect on the possible meaning of<br \/>\neach of their stories in Blackboard.\u00a0 Then the groups share their<br \/>\ndiscoveries with the class, always moving in the direction of finding<br \/>\nquestions.\u00a0 This process will probably need to be modeled by the<br \/>\ninstructor.\u00a0 Discuss Wilson essay first to capture the general<br \/>\nargument and evidence, then consider the questions it explicitly or<br \/>\nimplicitly raises.\u00a0 <em>Homework<\/em>:\u00a0 Students read another<br \/>\nessay in the technology unit, this time of their choice and respond (1) by<br \/>\nsummarizing in 100 words or less and (2) using double-entry journal<br \/>\ntechnique in Blackboard, especially using it to raise questions.<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The key to this day is to transform experience<br \/>\ninto wondering, not answers.\u00a0 Ultimately, this entire essay may<br \/>\nbecome the introduction to the final essay of the term<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">\n<h4><strong>Day 3.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Work on communicating the essence of an essay to<br \/>\nsomeone who hasn&#8217;t read it.\u00a0 This involves figuring out what is<br \/>\ncritical to include and articulating the<br \/>\n<a href=\"..\/04-analytical-2\/part-whole-churchill.htm\">summary<\/a> in a<br \/>\nconcise, even elegant way.\u00a0 In new groups of three, in Blackboard,<br \/>\nstudents share their homework assignments and add to each other&#8217;s<br \/>\nquestions.\u00a0 Discussion regarding how they&#8217;re coming along with<br \/>\nfinding a question they&#8217;ll willingly pursue for the semester.\u00a0 <em><br \/>\nHomework<\/em>:\u00a0 Write another nonfiction story or detailed observation<br \/>\nthat makes your technology question more compelling or that alters it some.<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Day 3&#8217;s focus is two-fold:\u00a0 to learn to<br \/>\nsummarize effectively for an audience unfamiliar with what they&#8217;ve read,<br \/>\nand to read a published essay on their topic for a specific purpose:<br \/>\ndiscovering or refining their question.<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_left_filler_lower.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"7\" height=\"2\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">\n<h4><strong>Day 4.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Instructor models how students can read the new<br \/>\nstory in relation to the original story as a way of complicating the<br \/>\nquestion being asked, or complicating the <em>way<\/em> the question is being<br \/>\nasked.\u00a0 Then students work in pairs or groups of three.<br \/>\nAfterwards, students can do some focused freewriting to arrive at their<br \/>\nbest version of a question and to consider which pieces that they&#8217;ve<br \/>\nwritten so far might go in their essay and in what order. <em>Homework<\/em>:\u00a0 Write first draft of exploratory essay,<br \/>\nincluding Works Cited page and metatext.\u00a0 See<br \/>\n<a href=\"exploratory_paper_topic.htm\">essay prompt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\">\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">This assignment is tricky because they have to<br \/>\nfind a story that does not simply provide evidence for their way of<br \/>\nthinking about technology but raises a question.\u00a0 In other words,<br \/>\nthey need to search their experience for a perspective that challenges or<br \/>\ncomplicates their initial perspective.<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_right_filler_lower.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"6\" height=\"2\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">\n<h4><strong>Day 5.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Instruction based upon common problems noticed in<br \/>\nfirst drafts (possible through pre-class preview of drafts by instructor).<br \/>\nInstruction on peer review, along with<br \/>\n<a href=\"exploratory-peer-review-questions.htm\">questions for peer review<\/a>,<br \/>\nto precede<br \/>\n<a href=\"..\/04-analytical-2\/peer_and_instructor_comments.htm\">peer review work<\/a> via Blackboard and in person.\u00a0 <em><br \/>\nHomework<\/em>:\u00a0 Write second draft of essay, including new metatext.<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\">\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s possible to quickly look through Blackboard<br \/>\nbefore class to get a sense of what students will need to work on.<br \/>\n(See <\/span> <a href=\"..\/computer_tech_in_the_classroom.htm\"><br \/>\nsuggestions <\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for using computers in the classroom.)<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\">Day 6.<\/p>\n<p>Editing work on second draft, including in-class<br \/>\nexercises based on sentences copy and pasted by instructor from drafts in<br \/>\nBlackboard.<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"7\" height=\"2\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"467\" height=\"5\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"9\" height=\"5\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#FFFF99\" width=\"355\" height=\"5\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"top\" width=\"6\" height=\"2\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"bottom\" width=\"7\" height=\"13\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_leftcorner_bottom.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"7\" height=\"13\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<td colspan=\"3\" align=\"left\" valign=\"bottom\" width=\"831\" height=\"13\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_bottom_filler.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2\" height=\"13\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\" valign=\"bottom\" width=\"6\" height=\"13\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/images\/legalpad\/legal_rightcorner_bottom.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"6\" height=\"13\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploratory Essay:\u00a0 Sample Assignment Sequence Initiating an Inquiry into Technology Goal for unit: To identify a technology that presents an intriguing question, one that students can investigate in a variety of ways for the entire semester. The essay will serve to pose their question, through personal observations and stories and through consideration of one of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/exploratory-essay-sample-assignment-sequence\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Exploratory Essay:  Sample Assignment Sequence&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-620","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/600"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/620\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}