Finding

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION:

This assignment beckons you to interact with your readings in this class and to prepare yourself to teach about your readings to others who have not read them. You will produce a set of “Findings” from your readings which will be shared with your peers. These Findings will force you to summarize the article; pull out key terms, arguments, and conclusions; record key quotations; and articulate questions which will lead to discussion with your peers. You are preparing these Findings for two major reasons:

(1) To help you interact with the readings and to prepare yourself to talk intelligently about them during class discussion and when you are teaching each other about the reading

(2) To help your peers to access the reading better—like a CliffsNotes or SparkNotes for your article(s)

(3) To provide us with a way to assess your reading and critical thinking skills.

INSTRUCTIONS:

· Method of turning it in: Post on Canvas under the Assignment Description AND print off the completed Findings Form and bring copies to class—one copy for each member of your Jigsaw Group as well as one copy for your Instructor. You will want to write on it during class and allow instructional staff to review it before you leave class.

· Formatting:

· Use the Findings Template and the guidelines listed below. However, if something doesn’t fit under one of those headings, then make up your own headings.

· When posting your Findings, format your file: YourLastName_Findings_OriginalAuthor.doc)

· Use 10 or 12 point font, single-spaced.

· Your Findings should take as long as they take, but they should be approximately 1/4 to 1/5 of the original document—which means a 20 page article will turn into a 4-5 page Findings. Too brief of a set of Findings will result in unwanted attention.

· If you are reading more than one article for your Findings (which you will do periodically during the semester), prepare two separate Findings—one for each article—but submit them as one document onto Canvas.

· Do not include this instruction sheet in your Posting on Canvas or when you Print it out for class.

· Requirements: Follow the instructions in the Guidelines (below), taking into account the following:

· Use bullet points rather than paragraph-form statements. Don’t paraphrase. Instead, quote directly from the text—so your Jigsaw Group members get a real “feel” for the original text.

· Include your Name.

· Include your Section Number (four digit number—e.g., 1001, 1002, 2004, 2006).

· Provide a full citation for the article—author, date of publication, title, page numbers, etc.—in APA style.

· You choose what to include in your Findings. You decide what is a key term, what is a significant argument, what is a quotation worth quoting, etc. However, you need to consider what will help your other Group members access this article—what will help them to get the key points. And, what you choose to include or to not include demonstrates your reading and analysis skills.

· If something doesn’t “fit” into one of the categories in the Findings Template, then include notes to the Instructor and your Jigsaw Group members, telling them what you’re doing in your Findings. You can bend this Template to your needs, but just tell us what you’re doing.

· Your questions can be wide-ranging—whatever questions the article brings up. However, you need to create a couple questions which will generate discussion in your Divvy Groups. Your questions may be rather long—taking multiple sentences to describe why you are asking the question in the first place (perhaps quoting something from the article).

· Your questions should also include an attempt at an answer: what do you think the answers to your questions might be?

· You will print off your Findings Form and bring it to class each week. Make sure they are stapled together, so you don’t have random pieces of paper flying around.

· Grading:

· Instructional staff will review your Findings and provide feedback as needed. If your work is considered “Wanting” or a “No Show” by instructional staff, we will require that you revise and resubmit it within one week of receiving feedback or it will be considered a “No Show” and will lower your Final Grade in this course by 5 percentage points.

· If you do not post your Findings by the time class begins, then you may post them afterwards for full credit, but you will lose 5 percentage points off your final grade in the class because you did not “show up” with your Findings to teach your peers.

· If you do not print off and bring to class copies of your Findings, then you will lose 5 percentage points off your final grade in the class because you did not “show up” with your Findings to teach your peers.

· NOTE: If you fail to follow these basic instructions, the assignment will be returned to you ungraded—as “Wanting” or as a “No Show.” Even if it is your best work ever, if it is not formatted properly, we will not review it. You will need to resubmit it within one week of receiving feedback or it will be considered a “No Show” and will lower your Final Grade in this course by 5 percentage points.

GUIDELINES FOR SECTIONS/HEADINGS IN YOUR FINDINGS:

1. FINDINGS & TITLE. In the syllabus, we give each reading a number and a title, for example, Findings #1: Enlightenment & Colonial Periods … or … Findings #2: The Common School Era (1785-1865). Include that here, so we know which Findings we’re talking about—and the general theme of that set of Findings.

2. ARTICLE CITATION. Use APA Style Guide. For example, if you’re reading “Gutek, Ch. 8, John Calvin, pp. 107-127 (22 pages),” your citation would look like this:

Gutek, G. L. (2011). John Calvin: Theologian and educator of the Protestant Reformation. In G. L. Gutek (Ed.), Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: A Biographical Introduction (pp. 107-127). 5th Edition, Boston, MA: Pearson.

Or, if you’re reading “Tozer, Ch. 12, Thomas Jefferson and Classic Liberalism, pp. 29-53 (26 pages)”, your citation would look like this:

Tozer, S. E., Violas, P. C., & Senese, G. (2012). Liberty and literacy: The Jeffersonian era. In S. E. Tozer, P. C. Violas, & G. Senese (Eds), School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (pp. 29-53). 7th Edition, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

3. EXPLANATION OF THE TITLE (1 Minute Version). Quote the Title of the article or chapter, and decipher or explain it in 2-4 sentences. If you can explain the title to your Jigsaw Group, then you’re well on your way to explaining the whole article. This is the 1-minute version of this article.

4. AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT. We want you to provide your Jigsaw Group members with the abstract—the summary—of the article, “from the horse’s mouth.” Simply cut & paste the author’s abstract from the article. If the article does not have an abstract, then type “Not Applicable.”

5. YOUR ABSTRACT (3 Minute Version). Using your own words, write your own abstract for this article, in 8-10 sentences. This is a summary of the article. And it’s potentially more readable than the one the authors provided. This is the 3-minute version of this article.

6. OUTLINE OF QUOTATIONS. This is probably the biggest part of your Findings, as it is essentially a shortened version of the article. Provide an outline of the article, using significant quotations from the article. You do not need to write anything yourself in this section: just cut and paste significant, useful quotations from the original text.

It should be an “outline” of the article, so use bullet points or outline formatting. We have provided a couple bullet points, but you should use as many bullet points as necessary. Begin by listing the headings and subheadings of the article in the bullet points to the farthest left. Then, fill in any pertinent quotations, ideas, statistics, names, etc. from that section. Identify the key points the author is trying to make, and provide supporting details about that idea underneath (indented).

Special Instructions:

· Every quotation should include a citation of page numbers as to where to find those quotations.

· Include definitions of key terms (whether they are terms used in the article or just words you don’t know). Underline the key term (so we know you’re defining it) and provide a definition from the article itself or use an online dictionary (you do not need to cite this source).

· Bold 5-6 key quotations from the article—not quotations you think are cool; rather, key quotations of the author’s argument … that you want to draw the attention to of your Jigsaw Group members. These will become the main points in your Findings that you’ll share with your Jigsaw Group members.

7. REFLECTIONS. Reflect on 4-5 significant quotations from the article. First, quote and cite the page number of part of the text which makes you think something significant. These will most likely be quotations you have already used above (in the Outline of Quotations section), and may be the ones that you’ve bolded. That’s okay. Quote them again.

Next, provide the “context” of the quote/paraphrased material: explain what the author is talking about before the quotation. Your Jigsaw Group members may not understand the quotation because you’ve taken it out of context, so provide them a little context so they know what the quote is about.

Then, provide your own reflections on the quoted material, explaining what you think about what the author is saying, what it makes you wonder, what it has to do with you and your thinking, etc.

Use the following format for each quotation:

Quotation:

Context:

Reflections:

8. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS. Prepare at least 3 questions based on your readings. These are not test questions. And they should not be simple “yes” or “no” questions. Instead, they should be authentic questions that emerge out of your experience with the article. Explain where the question comes from—including page numbers (where appropriate). In addition to the questions, if you have a beginning answer (your own answer) to the question, then provide a sentence or two outlining your answer.

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