Critical Reading Response
stingray19
second_half_week_2_fall.pptxEnglish 101 Online First Half of Week 2
Learning Goals for Thursday:
>>Becoming more familiar with summary and paraphrase
>>Becoming more familiar with strategies for responding critically
>>Reading James Paul Gee’s, “What is Literacy?” and writing your second critical reading response.
As a fun way to get started, watch this nine-year-old address standardized tests…
Link: https://youtu.be/ogBuz4dU5Ew
Where are we at in the quarter? What are we working towards by reading these course texts and writing these reading responses?
>>Your first essay will be a summary + critical response. In other words, your first essay will take one of your reading responses and revise it into a 3.5-page academic essay.
>>For Thursday, 10.1, you’ll be continuing to address Robinson’s ideas. You will also be reading James Paul Gee’s “What is Literacy?” and writing Critical Reading Response #2
Note: I have given comments for all Reading Response #1s that were turned in on time.
Click on folder Submission details View Feedback/Rubric
Summary of assignments due on Thursday by 10 a.m. These assignments will be explained in detailed in this PowerPoint.
Responding to Monday’s “Imagining Educational Alternatives” discussion board (at least 250 words).
2. Critical Reading Response #2: (200-word summary + 400-word critical response).
3. Optional discussion board for questions about course material.
Part 1: Summary Writing .
Take a few minutes and think about these questions: 1. Why are we emphasizing summary writing at the beginning of this course? Is it “anti-creativity”? 2. Why might summary and paraphrase be important for academic readings and writers?
Now, take a few minutes. Can you remember key points about summary writing from last week’s PowerPoint?
1. A summary is neutral and objective. 2. A summary includes mostly paraphrasing with direct quotes given only when you absolutely want to maintain the words/phrasing of the author. 3. A summary uses attribution tags with strong verbs. 4. A summary avoids the first person (I, We, Us, Me) and the second person (You) and instead uses the third person. 5. A summary is logically organized, connecting ideas for the reader using transitions. Remember: Imagine someone reading your summary who is not familiar with the original text. Will she or he understand the main idea and organization of the text based on your paraphrasing in the summary?
Review:
Open the document called “Annotated Sample Summary” on Canvas. This is a summary on an article we won’t be reading in class. It includes my comments in bubbles on what the summary is doing well and why. Read the summary and my comments carefully.
If you want more information on how to paraphrase – putting someone else’s words in your own words – visit the following link on paraphrase: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html .
Part 2: Critical Responses .
After reading some of your responses, here are some ideas to keep in mind when writing your responses. I will explain them more in the next several slides. What makes for a strong critical response? 1. It doesn’t simply repeat the author’s same point and give the same examples. It says something unique about the ideas. 2. It is descriptive, specific, and detailed. 3. It is focused and coherent.
Descriptive / detailed writing: Making sure that you describe your ideas in detail, with specific language and sustained description, is a key skill for writing critically. You want to make sure that your critical responses are detailed. This means in your response you probably shouldn’t respond to more than 1-2 ideas. If you try to respond to more, you won’t be able to fully and vividly express your ideas. When should you be descriptive and specific? When describing an example. When describing a personal experience. When trying to get your reader to “picture” or sense something. Using concrete language rather than abstract language. For a little more information on description, read the following link: http://www.iup.edu/page.aspx?id=61881
Focus and Coherence: Coherence is the ability to stay on topic and deeply explain a point you’re making. Writing that is “incoherent” jumps from topic to topic and is not focused. There might be several main ideas in one paragraph in an “incoherent” or “unfocused” paragraph.” Writing that is coherent clearly follows a “train of thought” and logically develops the ideas. In your responses, make sure that you aren’t taking on too many different ideas. Instead, I want you to focus on and coherently develop 1-2 specific ideas. For more information on coherence: https://www.southeastern.edu/acad_research/programs/writing_center/handouts/pdf_handouts/coherence.pdf
Part 3: Assignments for Thursday, due by 10 a.m. on Canvas.
A key aspect of critical response is to be able to respectfully disagree and challenge others’ ideas. The following assignment is to help you begin challenging/questioning others’ ideas. The point here is to adopt a “devil’s advocate” towards someone else’s point of view. When you play devil’s advocate, you don’t necessarily have to believe what you are saying. Rather, you are trying to question and locate the weaknesses in someone else’s thinking. Assignment: 1. Open up the “Imagining Education Alternatives” discussion board from Monday. 2. Read through everyone’s responses carefully. 3. Choose one of your peers’ imaginings and CHALLENGE / QUESTION the ideas behind it. Please choose a response that no one else has responded to yet. Remember, your goal is try to take the argument apart. In doing so, you’ll also be challenging Robinson’s ideas. Here are some ways you might think about challenging your peers’ ideas: What hasn’t been “filled in” about the education proposal? Where is it vague? What would you ask for clarification on? Are the ideas practical? What are the practical problems? What are its limits? When would the proposal be too extreme? What might be unintended consequences? What is possibly negative about the suggestions?
Discussion Board Assignment #1: Challenging our education alternatives (250 words)
Read James Paul Gee, “What is Literacy?” on Canvas. Write a 200-word summary and 400-word critical response (see previous two days’ PowerPoints for more on summarizing and responding critically). Make sure to write at least 600 words overall. Also, make sure to separate your summary from your response. Remember to focus on: Detail/description Focus/coherence Moving beyond repeating the authors’ ideas. In your summary, try to answer as many of these questions as possible: What is discourse? What is dominant discourse? What does it mean that discourses are like identity kits? What does it mean that discourses are ideological? What is the difference between acquisition and learning? What is the difference between a primary and a secondary discourse? What is literacy? What is powerful literacy?
Critical Reading Response #2: “What is Literacy?”
