10.28 Workshop

Tonight you worked in groups to workshop your memoir-so-far.  These were the groups:

Saran, Luis, KimAmir, jorge, XioadingAna, Da Sun, Fadi, MeliaMarie, Dorothy, Hilda

Each person took a turn being the author; when you were not the author, you participated as a coach for the author.  As a coach, you listened and asked questions as listed below.,

Process:

1.  Author read the whole memoir a paragraph at a time; coaches ask questions about parts that are not clear + vocabulary.

2. Author: say what the focus is=> what are you writing about?
Then, as a group, have a conversation about how the essay develops this focus.

3-4 (together)Talk about paragraphing and organizationFor paragraphing, ask:Does this paragraph develop the focus in a slightly different way?  (if not – combine it with other paragraphs that make the same point)Does this paragraph make more than one point?(if so- divide into several paragraphs)Need to add another paragraph?  Need to delete a paragraph that is repetitive?

5. Identify grammar patterns & make a list for your group.

Most of you got most of the way through this. We didn't get to spend as much time on sentence patterns as I hoped, but in the few minutes we had at the end of class we mentioned some of the issues that came up in your papers.  These included:

how to use quotations/paragraphing with dialog
revising long sentences
transitional words
prepositions
use of articles
comma splices
brainstorming

For next week:
We didn't do vocabulary as a class tonight, so you will need to post your own words. List the words with the date on your vocabulary page.

Using the feedback from your workshop this evening - revise/develop/expand your memoir and post it on your in-class writing site as an attachment by Sunday, 11.3.  I will return your writing to you with some sentence patterns for you to work on in class.

Have a good week!