Last Post: Reflection

Please read the directions below, but do not respond to the blog until class on Tuesday, July 30th:

Think of one class activity (a paper, a discovery exercise, a peer review, an in-class exercise or lesson) that stands out for you. In paragraph form, identify the activity, describe your experience with that activity (positive or negative), and explain what you gained from the experience. 200 words.

Week 8: in-class

Please do not respond to this blog before the lesson on Tuesday (but please review the sources). We will be responding in-class as part of the class exercise:

Look at the following sources, formulate your own thesis based on the ideas presented in the sources, and offer some supported opinion: quotes, summary, paraphrasing. Cite the sources, even if you don't have page numbers (because one is an article, and another is a video), just so your reader will know which information came from which article. Please endeavor to be as scholarly as possible, and remain objective. Keep your responses short. The thesis should only be one or two sentences, but you'll still want to keep it in a separate paragraph from your (brief) evidence and analysis.

Boston Strangler AP article

Boston Strangler NBC News Story

DNA and Cold Cases

Feel free to skim the last source, the .gov Special Report, and settle on evidence that helps you support your claims about the first two sources. You can also use the Find function in order to look for information that might help you.

Reply: discuss with a classmate what pieces of evidence you found in the sources that might help them prove their points better.

Working on body paragraphs

Take the class thesis we devised on the "We Can Do It!" Poster and come up with one body paragraph to support the thesis (the thesis is posted on the News Items on the front page of D2L). The paragraph must center around only one idea in the poster and offer only one or two points of support for that one idea. The paragraph must have an introductory sentence and a concluding sentence to encompass the main idea of the paragraph.

If you feel like the thesis could still use some work, then please type an alternate thesis above your main body paragraph, but make sure to label the two: Alt. Thesis and MBP to avoid confusion.

Reply: Offer one of your classmates some constructive criticism on his/her response to the initial post. Please avoid commenting on grammar and focus more on ideas (e.g. One of your ideas in the main body paragraph is well supported, but there are two ideas rather than one, and the second is not as well supported and could be eliminated).