February 27, 2008

Homework:
Study for vocab quiz 10
I changed the due date of the sensitive letter. (I am not sure when, though.)

Today:
The main goal of today was to read an example of a sensitive letter. Three years ago, during a similar assignment, a student of mine wrote a letter to the head of DIAA. The letter she wrote was understanding and polite. She did not just list demands, as if the recipient were required to do something about it. Instead, she wrote a letter that showed she understood how hard it might be for this man to make the changes she was requesting. We then read his response which showed he heard what she was saying. The letter stated that his organization already had similar requests in the past. Then he took the time to answer each of her concerns.

I am asking the students to know who they will write to by tomorrow. I had planned on being a little further by now, but that's how it always is. I want to teach the lessons I need to teach. Then I want to see my lessons demonstrated in their writing.

As far as writing goes, I graded the 300 word pieces. I had a tough time figuring out how I would grade them. At first, if you read the page, I thought I would have a detailed rubric, and the piece would be worth 60 points. That proved to be too time consuming and unnecessary. I decided to use the rubric as a general guide and base the grade mostly on one thing: was the piece an example of exploding the moment? I made the piece worth 100 points. An "A" piece was a good example of the exploding the moment technique. The piece was not supposed to be a complete story. It was to be a 30 second part of a story, slowed down and exploded. It was to focus on description and thoughts happening in the moment. A "B" piece did some of it. A "C" piece really didn't do what was needed, but the piece was more descriptive than the usual narrative.