|
|
Richard.Jewell.net |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Activities & Exercises for Writing Evaluations |
|
 |
Activities for This Chapter (or scroll down) |
|||
|
|
GO TO "Activities & Groups" (or go to the following individual activities) | |||
|
|
 |
Activities for Groups |
|
Running a Small Group |
|
|
 |
Activities for Individuals |  |
Computer Lab, Telephone, & Online Groups |
|
|
|
Topical Activities |  |
Activities for 25 Different Types of Papers |
|
|
|
7 Metacognitive Thinking Activities | ||
|
|
Activities for This Chapter |
EVALUATING A JOB APPLICANT: In
a small group, make up a business or professional situation
in which you are on a committee of job interviewers. Develop two lists of five
or more judgments each. In one list, write down the kinds of questions
you would ask a job applicant to determine whether he or she could do the
job well. In a second list, write down the kinds of questions that you
do not need to answer about the applicant's personal life, beliefs,
habits, and background. Then interview someone from a different group
who knows what the job is; as you interview, be sure to avoid any hint of
asking questions from the second list. Finally, hire the person, but
first work out a description of how well he or she meets the qualifications
on the first list.
HAVING A BABY: (Note--This exercise may take two to three periods.) Divide into at least four groups. This exercise may take two to four class periods. In your group, consider the following situation: You are a family, almost all of who are adults (father and/or mother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and/or children 21 or older. You are a close family. In your family also is the youngest member: a sixteen-year-old daughter or son who has become pregnant or gotten someone else pregnant. The other responsible party also is sixteen, has a reputation among school and juvenile authorities for being quite wild, and lives with only one parent who is poor in a dirty, run-down, two-bedroom apartment.
(A) SUMMARY/DESCRIPTION: Your first job as a group is to summarize, briefly, factually, and meaningfully in 50-100 words, your situation: your family, the son or daughter, the pregnancy, the other party and his/her reputation, the other parent, and the living conditions of both your child and of the other child.
(B) RESPONSE #1: Next, react to the situation for 50-100 words. Give, as a family, your intellectual, emotional, and physical reactions. Then pass your two writings (A and B) to another group.
(C) RESPONSE #2: Pretend that as a group you are now the teenager in the family. You have come home late and discovered the sheet of paper from A-B lying on the kitchen table where your family accidentally forgot it. React to what you read: give your intellectual, emotional, and physical reactions for 50-100 words. Then pass the writings to another group.
(D) EVALUATION #1: Now pretend you are a group of friends of the family described in the writings in front of you. Write your evaluations or judgements of what you think the family should do. Give evidence of what you know about the family to support your suggestions. Pass the writings to another group.
(E) EVALUATION #2: Now pretend that you are a group of tough but fair psychologists or psychiatrists. The writings before you have been sent to you by the family named in them. You have therapeutically counseled both the family members and the teenager in question, and you are ready to make evaluations and recommendations. Write an evaluatory comment about the situation for each of five evaluatory categories from this chapter, and a recommendation (what should be done) for each evaluatory category. You will not need to show your evaluatory comments to anyone in the family--they are just for your own diagnosis and treatment.
(F) Finally, evaluate in writing, individually and privately, your group's work. Write one sentence for each evaluatory category listed earlier in this chapter. Share your evaluations with each other, and then compile a group evaluation with one or two sentences per category.
(G) Read all of your results to the class.
ROUND-ROBIN EVALUATION GAME: (A) As a class, you should move into a circle formation. Each person then should take out a standard sheet of writing paper. Then read this evaluative system from the "Basics" part of this chapter:
GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING
|
(B) Each person then write the following sentence on a piece of paper, filling in the blanks:
(C) Pass this paper one person to your left."1. A strange person might believe about ___________________ [choose any belief about politics, religion, sex, abortion, or anything else controversial] that everyone should ___________________."
(D) Read the paper now in front of you and add to it the following sentence, filling in the blank as you do so using one of the evaluative categories above. Be respectful and logical:
(E) Pass this paper one person to your left."2. Evaluation of this belief shows that it is ____________________ [use one of the evaluative categories above] because _____________________________________________________________________."
(F) Read the paper now in front of you, add another about the paper's subject as follows, and fill in the blanks using a separate evaluative category from above. Again, be respectful and logical:
(G) Pass this paper to your left."3. Evaluation of this belief shows that it is ____________________ [use a second evaluative category above] because _____________________________________________________________________."
(H) Continue until a number of categories have
been used. Choose the most interesting several papers and read them aloud.
"FUN" PAGE: Go to the
chapter's "Fun" page and, as an individual
or a group, engage in one of its activities.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Read the chapter and take
notes about it using one of the three methods in "General
Study Questions."
OTHER ACTIVITIES: For a wide variety of other
activities and exercises, go to "Activities
& Groups."
ROUGH DRAFT: As an individual or a group, write an
evaluation of a reading as described in this chapter. Use the
subtitles shown in the "Introduction" or the "Basics"
section as subtitles of your rough draft, and write at least 50+ words in
each body section. If you are working as a group, you may, if your
instructor allows, develop a fictional and fanciful background and subject
for your rough draft.
GROUP CRITIQUE OF A
LATER DRAFT:
If your class has a paper all of you are preparing for grading, gather in a group to
critique each other's developed drafts:
(a) Simply pass the papers to each other;
your paper preferably should be checked by three other people. (Some
instructors prefer that you make several copies, distribute them to your
group members, take the copies home that you receive, and comment on them
there.)
(b) Write comments for each other.
To do so, use a a
set of grading guidelines (or "rubric"):
for example, "How are the contents,"
"How is the organization of parts," "Do paragraphs work
well," and "How well have editing errors been corrected?"
Preferably, you can use the guidelines your instructor applies when grading.
(c) For each question or requirement in your guidelines, write one or more
comments. Your comments should be substantial and specific (more like a
complete sentence, and more specific than just "Nice!" or "Needs
work"). Your comments also should be positive or helpfully
constructive: when positive, they should offer specific praise of a particular part, detail, or
method; when constructive, they should offer specific advice about what to add or do to make
the paper better.
(d) Add a final positive or constructive comment about how you think the
average reader of this paper might respond to it, and/or how the paper could
be changed or fixed for a stronger or more positive response from its
audience.
(e) After
receiving your comments from others, take them home. Review
what they have written. Remember
that your readers are not commenting on you as a person, but rather on how
easily (or poorly) they have been able to read your paper as its audience
members. Pay attention in particular to comments that may have
been repeated by more than one of your readers.
----------
|
Contents and Page Design © 2002-2004 by Richard Jewell. Nonprofit copying for education is allowed. Images courtesy of
Barry's Clip Art, Clip
Art Warehouse, The Clip Art
Universe, Clipart Collection,
Microsoft Clip
Art Gallery and Design Gallery
Live, School Discovery, and Web
Clip Art |
|
