There was a lot of good thinking and question-asking in class today, everyone. Nice work.

Speaking of meta-knowledge, as we were, I hope you’ll pause to notice the approach you’re taking in completing the writing process for Project 2 — in other words, to step outside of the Discourse of being a student in this class in order to analyze the elements of that Discourse. It’s true that you’re taking steps toward completing a required project. But you’re also picking up skills for completing big, complicated projects. One skill to master: breaking the project down into small, manageable pieces with separate deadlines so that (1) completing it is less painful and (2) you give yourself a chance to produce work of real quality.

Part of producing work of real quality is owning that work — deciding for yourself how you want it to be judged. You won’t have the freedom to do this in every class, with every assignment, but you can always look for ways to take more control over how your work is perceived. Gee might call this mastering the Discourse of schoolwork. When we next meet again as a class, we’ll complete the rubric we started today.

Which brings me to next week: There will be four blocks of time during which I’ll meet with each of you on Wednesday, October 18, to discuss where you stand in the class, what issues you’re having (if any), what questions you have about how best to finish up the semester successfully, and the like.

Block A: 8:00 – 8:45 a.m.
Block B: 8:45 – 9:30 a.m.
Block C: 9:30 – 10:15 a.m.
Block D: 10:15 – 11:00 a.m.

Please email me by 9:30 a.m. on Monday, October 16, to let me know which block of time you’d like to sign up for. Sign-up will be on a first-come/first-served basis; that is, I will put you in your desired time block according to availability (there are six slots in each block). If there are no slots in your desired time block, I’ll put you in the next closest one. The sooner you email me with your desired time block, the more likely you are to get it.

If you fail to meet with me, you’ll be marked absent for the day. If you don’t come during the time in which you’re scheduled but you come at a different time, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to meet with you. Let me know if you have questions, and don’t forget to email me! (Also, don’t forget to add entries to your annotated bibliography for the Lyiscott and Lowi pieces, and to conduct another round of data collection.)