Feedback Review (10-15 min)

1. Review all feedback you have received on your research project (if you don’t have any due to absence or late submission, reread your project and take notes for strengths and possible revisions)
2. Write a bit about what your project’s strengths are.
3. Write a bit about what you want to keep working on.
4. Start to sketch out what you are learning about so far, what the argument is that you are making, and what questions you have for peers to help with. Some of you may have already submitted your audio essay. If so, this is a good opportunity to start planning for revision. If you haven’t submitted, the time you take to do this is helpful for making your audio essay!

To make your audio essay:

• You first need to use a device to record yourself: laptop, tablet, phone.
• You need to figure out what program is on your device that can record audio. This is usually fairly easy to do and involves hitting a few buttons. On Apple devices, the program is called “Voice Memo.” On Windows devices, it is called “Sound Recorder.” There could be other programs.
• If you want to cut parts out, adds sounds in, etc. you can use Audacity, which I have tutorials for here. You are not required to do any audio editing for this assignment, though.
• When recording, you have to really make sure you are in a quiet environment, you are close enough to the microphone, and everything is easy to understand. You should test things once or twice (can say anything) just to see if everything is coming through clearly.
• ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE NOT EDITING: I would recommend having a script written out first. This will keep the timing tight. Time yourself like 2-3 times while reading your script. Revise your script based on how you feel it sounds. Once ready, record it.
• When it is ready, upload it to the discussion board. I said you have until 1pm today to do this, but if you need more time, you need to let me know. I mostly want to make sure everyone has enough time to listen to the audio essays since you have to submit comments on Wednesday.

Research Centers (35 min)

There will be 4 groups and you are going to rotate around the following “centers” (resources for review in parentheses):

1. Finding and Evaluating Sources (Searching for Academic Sources, Using Popular/Public Online Sources,
2. When to Cite (whenever using information in a sentence that does not directly come from your own head, you should probably cite the source you got it from)
3. Paraphrasing and Directly Quoting (Signal Words and Phrases for Paraphrasing and Quoting)
4. MLA Formatting (MLA formatting for in-text citation, MLA formatting for works cited page, see menu bar on left side of page for either of previous links for formatting for specific kinds of sources)

For each “center,” you will spend 8 minutes on that topic (e.g., paraphrasing and directly quoting). Ask group-mates for any help or questions you have as you review your paper on that topic. After we are done all centers, let’s talk about any questions you have:

If we had more space in this room, I would want you to get up and move. There’s an interesting effect of movement and learning. But this room is just too small. So I will announce when it is time to shift to the next “center.”

Podcast Topics and Episode Groups (35 min)

I have been thinking about your topics and I hope you have, too. I am worried about the subway group as I think it would take a lot of time to research, extensively and with enough focus, to produce a good quality investigative podcast. I think you should start with stories and see where that leads you. Might it be good to simply tell stories of people’s commute via the subway? And see what connections you could make to specific research you should do based on what you are hearing? If you want to go in that direction, you need to start interviewing pretty much now.

For the other group, it sounded like a similar approach was interesting to you. Having some element of representing “voices” from people around the city. What that would ultimately be about was unclear based on last class. The top vote-getters after the subway were: financial literacy for college students and hidden costs of education. Maybe also navigating college but that was a bit further down. If you, too, want to have a voice-centered podcast, you also need to figure out: who would you be most interested in talking with and why?

If you were absent on March 19, you need to decide if you rather work on a podcast about the subway OR about something a bit more undecided as discussed above.

To start to settled on this, take 5 minutes and brainstorm. Then, take another 5 minutes and talk with a partner or two. Then, based on that brainstorming and discussion, start writing out ideas at this Google Doc.

Then, you will finalize the topic with your podcast groups. HOPEFULLY, we have time to split up into episode groups. I will try to get a handle on who is on what podcast and what their preferences were for roles.

Next Time (5 min)

-Listen to all audio essays about research projects

-Comment on at least one where you give some feedback about their project (just like we give feedback in peer review: think positive but also push toward revision)

-By end of next class, we will be in episode groups and you will work on your team charter and first task schedule. I will explain next class.

-Do weekly private writing: How do your values interact with what you are doing at college? What are your values (e.g., keeping promises, loyalty, religious views, being a helper to those less fortunate, hard work)? What are 3-5 things you believe in, a sort of “code” you want to live by (at least for now, we grow and change and sometimes our values change with us)? Once you write a bit about some values you hold that you do your best not to fall short on, talk about how what you are doing in college and what you might do for your career can exist alongside those values.

-Want to talk with: Jocelyn, Amira, Fati, Gilayne, Jhosanna