More About Kickstarter

Thinkwrite: Can you think of a word that you learned recently? Have you used it? What makes a word useful to you? How big would you say your "useful" vocabulary is (guess a number)? What are some words that you have learned in your program area that you didn't use before you started taking classes?

Let's find out. Please record your results in your daybook.

I hand out the Kickstarter newsletter. Read. Discuss.

Now I hand out the assignment sheet for Solo Paper #1.

Use the rest of class time to look at Kickstarter sites and decide which TWO you'll write about.

Homework:

1. Take at least one FULL page of notes in your daybook, recording information about the two sites. These notes will form the basis of Solo Paper #1.
(See assignment sheet for instructions in Step #2.)

2. Daybook Check #1 happens on Monday, so have your daybook ready to hand in on Monday.

3. TWFTD: your choice from a Kickstarter -- a word you're not sure about.

Legos Due/ New Genre

Organize your Legos to be ready to hand in. (See white board.)

Nomenclature: context is key to communication. What does that mean?

What kinds of thinking did you do yesterday?

How about assumptions? We watch Derek Sievers on assumptions.

Thinkwrite I: How did the Lego project go for you? Did you make any assumptions you were not aware of? How did you handle the nomenclature problem? Was it hard to give feedback AS you were building?

I show you the set of directions that taught me the key elements in this genre of writing (assembly directions with no pictures). I did not instruct you to do these; I was hoping you would discover them by trial and error. Key elements: ______.

Thinkwrite II: Assess the directions you created. Which of the key elements did you come up with on your own? Explain.

When you are done, please hand in your Lego Project. Only leave the parts in the bag if you think I might need to build it.

To keep you thinking about the relationship between the key elements of a genre and effective writing (rhetoric in action), our next two writing projects involve another genre that none of us has written before.

Look at Kickstarter.com.

Some projects I've found....#1 and #2 and #3 and #4.

Homework:

1. Go to Kickstarter.com and look for projects that interest you. Use "Search" or "Discover" to see completed projects. You are looking for two that interest you; one that succeeded and one that failed.

2. In your daybook make a list of at least 5 projects that you looked at. Record enough information about them so that you could find them again.

3. TWFTD: crowdsourcing

Lego Build #2

Open up The Bedford Guide to page 26. Look at the graphic at the bottom of the page, which is one version of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Thinkwrite (Do this in your daybook at the END of class today):

Bloom's Taxonomy is a way of classifying or naming the ways we think. Copy these down in your daybook:

Reading the directions-
Assembling the parts-
Writing/reacting on the directions-
Filling out the feedback green sheet-

How many ways can you think at once? Next to each activity you copied down, describe how you think as you do it, using the terms listed in Bloom's Taxonomy.

Again, I pass out a green scoring sheet, and you build, give feedback, and score/comment.

After you have built two, your project and all papers should come back to you.

Homework:

1. Finish the thinkwrite at the top of the blog.

2. Read the input from your builders. If there were still problems, make further revisions, and discuss further revisions on the green "Revision Brainstorming" sheet given out yesterday.

3. Print out a single final version of your directions to hand in tomorrow. 

4. Bring ALL former versions to hand in, with ALL green score sheets, and the legos.

5. Be ready to discuss the Lego Nomenclature reading tomorrow. The questions at the end of the reading should be answered in your daybook.

6. TWFTD: taxonomy