Planning

Synthesis Planning

Lesson Materials: For the student-facing pedagogical materials needed to teach today’s class, please open the following page: Synthesis Planning Lesson Materials.

Lesson Objectives: 1. Identify a strong research topic; 2. Practice identifying relevant reliable research; 3. Develop a connection between academic writing and the familiar concept of synthesizing in music and research; 4. identify sources to summarize and synthesize; practice synthesizing using action verbs; 5. Understand and practice conducting thorough rhetorical analyses

Connection to Major Paper/Project: Students receive support in their endeavors to gather relevant information for their research and make sense of it.

Connection to Course Goals: This lesson assists students in learning to use appropriate linguistic conventions when analyzing information, combining ideas from various sources to express their own perspectives; it helps students identify tropes, audience, and purpose in writing

Day 1: Identifying a Research Topic and Conducting Research

Activities

  1. Take attendance (5 min)
  2. Introduce new assignment (25 minutes):
    1. 10 min: Have students read the assignment sheet silently. Prepare questions about what they may not understand, what might seem scary, anxiety-provoking, or too much work.
    2. 5 min: Have students speak with each other and help each other understand the assignment, answer questions, and feel better about the assignment.
    3. 10 min: Discuss as a class any remaining questions or anxieties about the assignment
  3. Assignment Scenario (20 min): Have students complete the activity with instructions called Activity on Understand Sample Assignment Scenario. Discuss as a class and help students understand their role in the rhetorical situation.
  4. Assignment Guide (20 min): Have students read the reflective annotated bibliography guide, make notes of any questions, work with a partner to answer them, and finally discuss as a class.
  5. Topic Selection (20 min): Have students share with the class their topics one at a time, and provide feedback. Make sure everyone as a solid topic.
  6. Identifying Sources (20 min): Use the research guide to begin finding relevant sources. Walk around the class and offer assistance to students.
  7. Have students create their Google Doc in the same format as that of the professor. Students will put APA references for each of the sources that they identified, and make sure to save them somewhere in their personal computer/cloud system. Ask students to briefly explain their choices of sources in terms of reliability and relevance.

Day 2: Rhetorical Analysis

Activities:

  1. 5 min: Take attendance and begin establishing a code of engagement
  2. OWL PPT (15 min): Use the OWL PPT to go over important aspects of a rhetorical situation.
  3. Video Think/Pair/Share:
    1. 10 min: Have students review the Rhetorical Situation Handout
    2. 10 min: Have the whole class watch the substitute teacher video, while taking notes in relation to the handout. After the video, provide students 5 minutes to compile their notes and fill any gaps.
    3. 10 min: Have students share with their teammates and fill any further gapes, putting together a full rhetorical analysis of the video and addressing all the elements in the handout.
  4. Academic Paper Think/Pair/Share:
    1. 10 min: Have the whole class review the academic paper, while taking notes in relation to the handout. After the video, provide students 5 minutes to compile their notes and fill any gaps.
    2. 10 min: Have students share with their teammates and fill any further gapes, putting together a full rhetorical analysis of the video and addressing all the elements in the handout.
  5. Class Discussion (30 min): Discuss as a class what students found and complement their analyses and comparisons as needed.
  6. For the remainder of the class, provide students time to work on their papers, identifying more sources, emailing professors to set up interviews, reading, summarizing, organizing layout, asking and answering questions, etc.

Day 3: Synthesizing Information

Sequence of Activities: 1. Introduce New Assignment; 2. Synthesis Lecture; 3. Think, Pair, Share

Activities

1. PPT Lecture (40 minutes): assisted with the PPT in the student site, go over key concepts that are essential to understanding how to analyze and synthesize information. Provide an example that synthesizes various sources. Provide examples of action verbs and address how to use them.

Define synthesis and discuss how a DJs music mix is considered a synthesis. Review the PowerPoint segment that combines the discussion of synthesizing and remixing using quotes and concepts from the interview that students will have listened to in advance of today’s lesson. The PowerPoint also guides them through the discussion questions below. Ideal outcomes or answers that instructors should drive students toward are included below each question. These are not to be explicitly shared with students unless needed.

Discussion Questions (30):

i. How is synthesizing in music (sampling/remixing) similar to synthesizing information in a research paper? What common skills are used in both music and research synthesis?

Answer:  They both rely on being familiar with the sources that are available in a given field. In the case of music, a producer must be aware of the music they are sampling and/or consciously seek it out. In this case, the music producer has conducted research (even passively listening to the radio) to discover the music they want to incorporate. The same is true for writers who need to go out and find resources to include in an essay. They also both involve excerpting the correct part (e.g. the quote, or the musical passage) needed to generate the desired result.  What’s more, there are multiple ways to synthesize information that is included in both types of meaning making. For instance, you could have both a direct quote or paraphrase in writing, and you could have an explicit sampling or an interpolation in music.

ii. How is synthesizing in music different from synthesizing information in a research paper? What skills are used in one and not the other?

Answer: Citing sources is typically different in both cases. For instance, in writing, you typically included acclamation in the text as you are including information from another source. In music, it’s rare that a musician directly mentions the source they are using while the song is playing, though both require a form of acknowledgement outside the body of the text itself (e.g. credit sheet for music, and a bibliography in writing).

iii. Why would an artist choose to incorporate the music of another performer? Why would a writer choose to incorporate the writing or ideas of another writer? How are these motivations similar? How are they different? How are their final products similar? How are they different?

Answer: An artist might incorporate music from another performer to generate a particular feeling. As Ronson states discussing the Doug E. Fresh line from “La Di Da Di,” “It’s like a grunt from James Brown or, you know, a saxophone blurt from Jr. Walker. It’s, like, it will sound good over everything, and it will always make your track sound more legit and more real and hip-hop.” In such instances, the musician is trying to make the listener feel something that can only be felt by going directly to the source most known for a given feeling. This lends authenticity and emotion to the song. Similarly, a writer might quote another writer because there is simply no better way to capture the same feeling or information in words. If a writer quotes another writer it is often to demonstrate authority for their claims or ideas beyond their own. This is slightly different than a musician, who may not care as much for authority. And although musicians and writers might have similar motivations when including outside sources (e.g. added authenticity, or authority), their end products have somewhat different goals in the final version depending on the genre (e.g. entertaining/sounding good in music, versus being comprehensively explanatory or proving a point in writing).

2. Think, pair, share (20 minutes): provide students with time to begin their research and brainstorming for their paper. Answer student inquiries as needed. Encourage students to ask questions.

Note: Take one 10-minute and one 15-minute break after about 50 minutes of class time.