Instructor’s Handbook: Unit Two

• World of Work: Eh 200 Instructor’s Guide to Unit Two

Rationale and Overview:

Recognizing that literature is the common record of our nation’s cultural heritage, this unit continues to address key concepts as they are represented in short works of twentieth and twenty-first century American fiction focused on the professional aspirations of lower-income and middle-income individuals and their families.

Students will read works closely and repeatedly for the purpose of addressing various aspects of each narrative’s significance as it relates to uniquely American experiences of work.

The purpose of Unit Two is to expand on the fundamental social and literary concepts investigated in Unit One through considerations of work as it exists in America.

Students are asked to make connections between work as it is experienced in their own lives and work as it is represented in the texts from Unit One for the purpose of drawing distinctions and noting the particular social factors that may bear on these experiences.

Students will use the writing process throughout, and will, in particular, begin to focus on the importance of well-defined terms in argumentation.

Unit Documents:

• Unit Guide for Instructors

• Literary Argument Assignment Sheet.

• Peer Review Sheet

• Scoring Guide Sheet

• Argumentation

• Oral presentation

• Close reading

• Use of definitions in argumentation: specifically, definitions for “work,” “professional,” and “tone.”

• Recognize that there is a meaningful distinction to be made between concepts of class and concepts of income.

Unit Skills:

Recommended Readings:

“Maggie: A Girl of The Streets,” by Stephen Crane

“I Stand Here Ironing,” by Tillie Olson

While the instructor is free to choose selections from the text, a major goal of this unit is to encourage close readings. Consequently, students should be working with each story for at least one week – and preferably two. Discussion of the stories should be on the major class concepts.  Stories need to be returned to as new concepts are introduced.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed by a combination of written and oral tasks. They will produce a 4-5 page comparison essay that undergoes significant revision. There will be and at least two semi-formal oral presentations. Other assignments they must complete include regular journal entries, peer-reviews, and reflection assignments. For the student to be successful, he or she must demonstrate a facility and proficiently with the necessary texts.

Mini-Lesson Possibilities:

• Argumentative Précis

• Journaling

• Blogging

• Re-reading

• Revision workshop

• Peer Review

• Effective oral presentations

• Identifying thematic elements

• Idea generation

• Précis review

  

Guided Argument Assignment:[For distribution to students]

• Paper Two prompt. At this point, you have read several stories, all of which touch on issues related to play and work, though in different ways.

• You job is to draft a persuasive argument with a contestable thesis that compares and/or contrasts scenes from two stories.

• In your comments on each scene, you are to identify how income impacts a character’s understanding of play.  You need to incorporate our other major terms, low-income, class, setting, boredom, and plot and any others into your general argument!

• This paper will require that you define these terms when you first introduce them into the paper.

• You are to follow the structure of a Toulmin argument, use proper in-text citation, and we will also be including a works cited page.

• Three secondary sources will be required

Eh 200: Peer Revision for Guided Argument

Reader:_________________________

Writer:_________________________

1)      Please provide a brief summary of the paper. You may use the back of this sheet.

2)      Describe the organization of the piece. It is effective? How? How might the wrier organize it better? Be specific.

3)      Has the writer demonstrated a clear understanding of the conventions of persuasive argumentation? Explain in detail.

4)      What are your overall impressions of the piece?

5)      Please comment on the mechanics (grammar, paragraph structure, ect.) of the piece. What are the writer’s weak points?

 

 

 

EH 200 Guided Argument Rubric

Dimensions of Content	Exemplary	Accomplished	Developing	Beginning
Evidence	Text presents excellent evidence in support of the thesis. It addresses questions of audience and purpose in a sophisticated manner.	Text provides strong evidence in support of the thesis. Text adequately addresses questions of audience and purpose.	Text provides some appropriate evidence to support the thesis. However, detail may be lacking. Text does not fully address questions of audience and purpose in its presentation or investigation of evidence.	Text provides little reasonable evidence in support of the thesis. Detail is lacking. Text neglects questions of audience and purpose in its consideration of evidence.
Sources	Text thoroughly integrates appropriate sources that address the issues being raised in the argument Text addresses key implications of these sources in a detailed and precise manner.	Text adequately incorporates and develops secondary source materials. Text adequately addresses key issues/questions implied by these sources.	Text provides some development of the ideas raised in the secondary sources, but details may be lacking. There may be lapses in development/ incorporation.	Text provides little development of the secondary sources and/or misses key issues suggested by the source. Detail is lacking.
The Thesis	Text thoroughly develops a thesis by providing specific and detailed analysis specific evidence from the story in question.	Text develops the thesis of the article and adequately develops examples used to support that thesis.	Text provides some development of the thesis, but details may be lacking. There may be lapses in development.	Text provides little or no development of the thesis and provides little if any specific examples of support used by the author of the article.
Dimension of Process	Exemplary	Accomplished	Developing	Beginning
Process	Final draft of assignment is accompanied by at least three additional drafts demonstrating true revisions and effective editing strategies.	Final draft of assignment is accompanied by at least two additional drafts, though these drafts may demonstrate some struggles with revision and editing.	Final draft of assignment is accompanied by some draft work, though attempts at revision and editing are not always clear.	Final draft of assignment lacks draft work or drafts show no visible revision and/or editing. Please note that assignments without draft work will be returned to you without a grade, so you can begin the revision process.
Dimensions of Structure, Style, and Documentation	Exemplary	Accomplished	Developing	Beginning
Sentence Structure, Punctuation, and Surface-Level Issues	Text maintains appropriate Standard American English structure throughout essay and avoids major sentence errors. Text is clear of minor surface-level errors, such as misspelled words and typos.	Text usually maintains Standard American English structure but may contain a few major sentence errors. Text is relatively clear of minor surface-level errors, such as misspelled words and typos.	Text struggles to maintain Standard American English structure and contains a several various major sentence errors, though errors do not prevent basic comprehension. Text contains several surface errors but these do not affect comprehension.	Text contains severe struggles with sentence structure, and some errors affect comprehension. Text contains numerous surface-level errors.
Format and Documentation	Text maintains appropriate MLA format for page set-up, margins, headings, references, etc. Text provides proper in-text citation for both quoted and paraphrased material.	Text generally follows MLA guidelines for format, though there may be a few minor errors. Text attempts to provide proper in-text citations, though there may be instances without proper in-text documentation.	Text may struggle to adhere to MLA formatting guidelines, but clear attempts have been made. Text struggles to provide proper in-text documentation.	Text lacks MLA formatting as required by the assignment. Text does not provide in-text citations for any quotes or paraphrased material.

           

Three Suggestions for Revision:  1.   2.   3.

           

Score

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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