Sunday, September 25, 2011

Week 5: Days One and Two: Stylin' and Profilin' with MLA

This week was a week of working with the big, bad MLA Style. On Tuesday, students worked in groups of 4 on a jigsaw activity in which everyone was an expert in an area of MLA: the layout expert, the in-text citation expert, and the works cited expert. The fourth member was the Performance Improvement Consultant whose job was to observe how one member of the group worked to find the answers to the four questions that were asked. 

All the answers to the questions were found at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Each member of the group shared their answers with the other members and then submitted their document in the discussion forum.

Here is Sean C's PIC Comments on this group:

I viewed Conner as he worked extremely hard on finishing his task and understanding his section of questions. Conner seemed to type very fast and search thoroughly as he looked up the most reliable information. He took his time and finished about 10-12 minutes into the project. A few times he even said "nice" or "yeaaaaa" as he found the correct info he wanted. Shows a true student willing to work hard until they receive the info they want. This seemed to apply for all group members as well. This group I would rate an A++ for all of their hard work. Any difficulties you may ask? Nope not that I seemed to have noticed. Conner got all his questions answered and same with Carly and Anna Marie. Excellent job guys! 


EXTRA NOTES

All group members gave their best effort and communicated very well among themselves.
The only question that seemed to come up was whether we submit one or four different posts to the discussion board.
(with time we figured out we send four).

Here is a sample Layout Expert Submission from Mackenzie F.


MLA Format Activity
Mackenzie F. Group 3 Layout Expert

Answers to Guiding Questions for Layout Expert:
  • What are measurements for the margins in specific parts of the page?
            -The margins of the document should be 1 inch on all sides

  • What font and sizes are acceptable?
            -You should use a legible font like Times New Roman. Your fonts regular and italics            type styles should contrast enough that they are recognizable from one another. The font size should be 12 pt.

  • What information is found in the heading? How is that info ordered?
            -On your first page, create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your name, followed by a space with the page number. Your header should number all pages          consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. Your instructor may ask that you omit the number on your first page. 

  • How should the paper be paginated?
            When you divide an essay into sections, you should number each section with an Arabic number and a period followed by a space and the section name. 

  • Do you underline your title?
            -Do NOT underline your title. 

On Thursday, the Palmetto Writers worked on Part II, creating a Works Cited page.  Before they did the Works Cited page, they each had to take a short quiz. Some of the pairs worked on the quiz together; some worked alone. Here were the directions to the task:
 
Directions: Work in pairs and read the directions below.

Name of Writer:

Name of Resource Person:

Directions:

1.      Click on the links below and do the exercises. Note the ones you got wrong on a piece of paper and note your final scores.



2.      Create a Works Cited page on the topic of cheetahs. You can use http://www.easybib.com/ or http://www.bibme.org/ or OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ Format the Works Cited page correctly as the second page of this document and submit the document in the drop box in Angel. Save and label the document to include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g., Susie Smith MLA In-Class Activity).



a.       Youtube video: Fast and Furious: Lives of Cheetahs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSFS4cFnTk&feature=related

b.      Do a Search on Creative Commons and find an image of a cheetah and cite the image.

c.       Do research on a folktaleof how the cheetah got his spots and cite the website.

d.      Do research on a cheetah organization whose purpose is to research and implement strategies for cheetah conservation. Cite information from the Home page of the organization’s website.

e.       Do research on the cheetah and find a book from our library on cheetahs (http://library.fgcu.edu/

3.      Submit your work as an attachment in the Week 5 Thursday Discussion Forum and save and label your file with both names and the name of the assignment. Your subject heading of your post should also include both names and the name of the assignment. (e.g., Reid and Nicole A MLA Works Cited Page).


 Students reflected on what they learned from this activity putting in a sticky on Wallwisher. Check out what they said they learned. Use your cursor to move the stickies around.


I would like to showcase the blog posts that were exceptional this week. The first was on describing a person, place, or thing. The second blog post was to summarize and respond to an article in the New York Times on plagiarism.

Carly C's A Sky with Colors

The only way to experience the sky unfolding like a blossoming tulip is to set your wake up call for 6:00 in the morning. Sure that’s a little early for some, but if you want to feast your eyes upon an unreal site, you won’t hit the snooze button when your alarm clock jangles. Gold, violet, blue, and purple engulf the horizon and swallow it whole. The sun starts to creep up on you like a shark stalking an injured tuna, using its lateral lines to track its prey’s every move. Calmness swells the air and you feel as though you’re breathing in pure happiness. The waves play catch with the little birds that dare run the shoreline. Sandy toes beg for more like a five year old with puppy dog eyes in the middle of the game aisle in Toys-R-Us. You want to feel the comfort of home when you’re really just lounging outdoors? Watch the sunrise on a perfect morning from Fort Lauderdale beach and you will never want to leave. 
Mackenzie F's Stolen Words



Stolen Words


      The growing use of technology has made it easier for students to "copy and paste" work off the Internet into their papers. Our generation has grown up in a time where information on just about anything is just one click away. The only problem with this is that a lot of this information does not have a listed author. This allows people to believe that they do not have to cite the information and that it is there for anyone to use. The amount of people who believe taking information from the Internet is a serious crime is declining. They do not understand that using other peoples words is stealing and is a serious matter. This was all explained in the New York Times article, Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age
      I agree with the article in that plagiarism is a serious crime and that students do not take it seriously enough. It is unfair for someone to have worked on a piece of writing and put it on the Internet for other people to read and expand their knowledge on the subject just to have it stolen from them and not get any credit. I know what this feels like because in my marine class in high school, we worked in groups while doing lab assignments. I would always make sure that I did my share of the work because I hate when people just sit there and copy after not doing work the whole class period. There was this one kid that was always in my group and while the rest of us were finding answers, he was always texting on his phone. When class was almost over he would always rush to copy our answers. I hated when he did this because I would have much rather text the whole class time and not do any work, but I knew that was not fair to the rest of my group. People should be penalized for plagiarizing and should not be able to take credit for other people's work.


It was a great week. My observation is that the in-class activity takes longer than I expect. There was time at the end of the lesson to go over some quiz items and talk to the students about their final Paper 1 drafts which are due next Tuesday. The class is attentive and hard working. I am constantly amazed at the quality of the work that is coming out of them.

Grammar, word choice, and mechanics continues to be a problem. I am going to put peer editing groups together that are experts in different areas. I will put one grammar and mechanics expert in each group of four to serve as a mentor.

Ciao for now.


 








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