[Englecturers] Re: [Gsa-english] An exercise, in search of 1A instructors

[Gray Scott]

Hello all,

Two reminders for folks still wrapping up syllabi:

1. We have a departmental wiki (collaborative Web site) at http://ucrcomposition.pbwiki.com where you can find boilerplate for common syllabus components, assignment ideas, book lists, and other stuff handy for instructors. If you'd like to add materials to the site to shore up its light areas (or you'd like to change something that you think is hopelessly screwed up), you'll need to log in -- the password is rivera (the name of our library, lower-cased). 

2. I'm still looking for instructors willing to help me out with the research described below my signature. If you're teaching 1A this quarter and willing to help, I'd love to hear from you.

Regards,

Gray
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gray Scott 
  To: TA ListServe ; Lecturer ListServe 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 4:17 PM
  Subject: [Gsa-english] An exercise, in search of 1A instructors


  Hello all,

  Are there any experienced instructors out there who are 1) teaching English 1A this fall, and 2) willing to fit a 45-minute, in-class, collaborative writing exercise into their class schedules for some research I am doing? The exercise would be followed in a later class session by a 5-minute survey. You would not need to grade the exercise. 

  If you're interested or just have questions, feel free to contact me by phone or email (see contact info below). Also, if you have a quid-pro-quo in mind (like subbing for you on some date), go ahead and fire away, and we'll see what we can work out. I'm hoping to recruit about 12 classes, to help ensure I have a good sample size, and given the lateness of this announcement (I've hit some speed bumps setting this up), I'm in a pretty agreeable mood. 

  If you express interest, at some point later I will need to send you an "informed consent" statement to read and return, once my statement has been approved by the university's research board. The gist of the statement, however, I will share with you now: You may change your mind at any time, even in mid-exercise. Participate for as long as you are comfortable with it. 

  Additional details appear below my signature, and a draft of the exercise prompt is attached.

  Thank you,

  Gray Scott
  gray at scotts.net
  (909) 394-0979

  ADDITIONAL DETAILS

  Timing
  The exercise would need to be conducted toward the beginning of the quarter, preferrably before students start working on remembered event essays. The exercise combines elements of the personal narrative and the profile interview, and would probably work as a kind of ice-breaker. (See the attached document.)  

  Procedure
  Part 1 -- The Exercise: You'll need to read the students an informed-consent statement, break them up into teams, distribute the prompt, and then, at the end of class, collect the responses. That's pretty much it for you at this point. During the exercise, you may read, grade other papers, or whatever. If students have questions, tell them to interpret the instructions as best as they can. Put the responses in my department mailbox; I'll photocopy them and return the originals to you for dart practice or class discussion, your choice.

  Part 2 -- The Survey & Debriefing: I'd appreciate it if you'd also complete a quick (5 minute) online survey for instructors and, in the next class session, administer a 5-minute multiple-choice survey to the students who participated. After collecting the survey, or after the exercise if you choose not to distribute the survey, you should read a short debriefing statement to the students and give them my contact information in case they have questions. Put the surveys in my box. At some point, after I've gone through the responses and scored them, I'll return the scores to you, which you may then shred, ignore, interpret, criticize, share with the students, or any other such thing. 

  Research Goals
  This research comprises a small but key piece of my dissertation work. I want to test the effects of grading approaches on the performance of students who are writing in groups. In short, does it matter significantly whether group writing is graded or simply recorded as credit/no-credit? (I have some expectations, based on decades-old research into the impacts of grading on individual work, but there's very little work on the impacts for groups. My goal here is to test my assumptions and see if they're on target.) 

  Among other things, this means that if you participate, your class will be assigned to one of three groupings, which will be compared against each other in my analysis: a graded group, an ungraded group, and a credit/no-credit group. Put another way: One group of classes will tell students that the assignment is being graded on an ABC scale, and that it counts about the same as a quiz; one group will tell students that they'll be given credit on the assignment as long as they participate; the third group will administer the assignment as an ungraded exercise. 

  Of course, once the exercise is completed, you don't have to actually count it as part of the student grade, though you may if you wish. (I personally would not. It's not an easy exercise, particularly for students at the beginning of the 1A quarter.) The debriefing statement that you'll read to students afterwards will explain why some groups were told they were being graded, and students may contact me if they like. 

  You may, of course, also contact me, using the information above. Thank you. 


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