WP3

Beth’s Incredible Potion to Success.

              There once lived young girl named Beth who was going to school to learn how to become spell caster. Beth was an excellent student and she was on her way to become one of the greatest spell casters of her time. To become a master of spell casting, Beth would also need to take a potion class, a class she thought would really help her cast spell better in the future.

First day of Class

              On here first day of Potion class, Beth walked into the classroom excited and ready to learn. She was of course thinking it would be an easy class because Beth knew most intro class always were. Beth’s teacher was a 27-year-old tree-man whose name was Kirk, apprentice to a potion master. On the first day of class he explained to everyone the rules of the class and what he wanted from each of his students. Beth didn’t pay too much attention because the teacher gave the students a piece of paper with everything he was saying.

Potion number 1

              Three weeks had gone by and it was time for Beth to prepare her first potion. Back at her house Beth read the instructions and continued to make the potion. She thought the instructions were easy, almost like learning how to cast a spell. It took Beth about 30-minutes to finish making the potion, thanks her spell that makes object move. The next day she brought the potion with her to class and turned it in to the teacher. Two days later the teacher handed back every potion with the grade drawn on the bottle. Beth was sad when she saw she had gotten a B- on her potion. She started to think to herself that Kirk was just a hard grader who would take off points for every single mistake. Beth was angry and when she reached home she started to ask herself questions of why she had gotten such a low score.

The Meeting

              Beth set up a meeting with Kirk so they could talk about her grade and what she had done wrong. Beth meet with Kirk at his house, which was a giant spiraling tree, she found this to be bit weird since he, Kirk, was tree-man himself. At their meeting Kirk and Beth had lovely conversation over a cup of tea. They talked about why Beth had taken the class and why she didn’t understand why she had gotten a B-. Kirk tried to explain to her the purpose of the course, but Beth had already heard this and didn’t get much of it, but when learned that Beth was a spell caster he tried something new. Kirk tried show how in spell casting the pronunciation of the words is important, he compared this to the amount is actually necessary when instruction mention certain portions. Beth found this to be really helpful and had now started to see her mistakes.

Weeks to Come

              In the following weeks Beth took into consideration what Kirk had told her and made sure to look more into the exact amount needed when a certain portion was mentioned. She also figured out she could continue to cast spells to make sure every portion was perfect. She learned to used spells to make some great potions worth an A.

A

              At the end of the year, Beth had to make one last potion and did so using here spell casting skills and knowing what each portion was meant to be. In her class, Beth was the only student to use magic. Ingredients were flying everywhere and everyone stared as the potion magically made itself as Beth spoke words. Beth was the first to finish, and when Kirk was finished grading it, an A+ appeared on her potion.

In the end Beth got an A in the class and learned to communicate with others whenever she had problems.

The End

Syllabus

Irish History 1- Spring 2016- UCSB

Required Materials:

·       A Brief History of Ireland (6^th or 7^th edition) by Reta Odd       

·       iclicker

Grading:

·       Homework: 15%

·       In class participation (iclickers): 15%

·       2 Midterms: 30%                                                         (4/20/16 and 5/11/16)

·       Final: 40%                                                                     (6/10/16 8:00-11:00am)

Student Help:

·       Me:

o   I am available to offer students help Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 12 pm. My office is located in North Hall 3211.

·       CLAS

o   You may sign up for CLAS beginning Wednesday. You must attend these sessions if you sign up because one may be dropped if one has unexcused absences. The sessions last about an hour and are a great form or reviewing what I teach in class.

Purpose:

·       In Irish History 1 students will learn about the origins of the country up until its foundation on April 18, 1949. Student will also learn to write like historians through the various assigned essays and think like historians. Along with having learned how to write like historians, student will begin to gain insight into how historians think and how they present their proposals. The end goal of this class if for student to know about Ireland, but it’s also for students to get an insight into what being a historian is like.

History: gossip well told. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary

Expectations:

·       Cheating will not be tolerated, if a student is caught cheating, they will be punished to the full extent and receive an F in the class.

·       Student will also be expected to write with the conventions of a history major—if one wishes to incorporate their own style of writing based on their majors, one may do so. If students have any trouble with this writing style they may contact me for assistance, I wish to make this transformation as smoothly as possible.

Things to Know

·       For students to have the best experience possible I would like for there to be clear communication between us. If something is ever not clear, please do not mind asking question. I know many of you are taking this course because it meets a graduation requirement, but I would genuinely like for each of you to get something out of this class: how be historians.

·       Because cooperation between you and I is essential, knowing what activity theory and genre system theory is important. To sum them both up for:

o   Activity theory is the act of seeing things as whole and how they connect with each other working together to teach the same end goal. For example, how can this contribute your specific major?

o   Genre system theory is what explains the what, how, why, and who of the writing of different genres. Its purpose is to demonstrate how different subjects require different writing styles (this doesn’t mean that two different writing styles may not be combine).

Summary

              I chose the scholarly article, “‘Big Picture People Rarely Become Historians’: Genre Systems and the Contradictions of General Education” by David R. Russell and Arturo Yañez. This article was based on the study about how students performed on a general education Irish History course which put an emphasis on its writing requirement. The study discussed how students have trouble actually creating good writing because of how the students (non-experts) are expected to be experts by the professor/TA’s (experts). Both authors also discussed how students take GE courses because they want to fulfill necessary graduating requirements, so most come in with little interest for the actual subject, thus coming in thinking they know how to write for the class when in reality they probably don’t because each subject has its own unique way of creating what is considered good writing.

The main subject (student) of this article was Beth, a Journalist major, taking the class to see how she could become a better writer by learning about history. She came in thinking only like a journalist so when it came to writing like a historian, she was unexperienced. She had trouble with the writing and thought that it was bad grading on behalf of the TA, but after meeting with her TA and getting to talk to him and beginning to start to see how writing is different based on the field, she improved and in the end got her A. Beside telling Beth’s experience, the authors went into a deeper description of how this struggle could be resolved by having the system (the universities, departments, professors/TA’s) think about using the activity theory and genre system theory to address the contradiction students have about writing in a new perspective compared to the perspectives they come in with.

Self-Analysis

 When reading this article, I began to think of possible transformation I could make to it for it to be relatable to two different audiences. After having finished the article, the first idea I had was to make it into a children’s book because of how Beth’s struggle seems like it could be narrated. For the second one I originally came up with the idea of making a contract, but after some thought and reading the comments left on my PB3A, I thought that Chad’s idea of making something more like a syllabus and less like a contract would be a smarter way to go; this way I could address everything that study mentioned and more.

Before beginning to write my short story I need to think of a more specific audience to which I would be addressing this to. I knew I wanted to make it story that contained magic because I think that younger audiences really enjoy reading science fiction and magic tool that can gain much attention when used right. Knowing that I would be writing a short story with magic, I chose to aim this toward an audience between the ages 8-10. Having this range would allow me use a bit more complex words such as pronunciation and ingredients, along with using a friendlier tone. Having such a young audience also got me thinking how complicated I should make the plot. Because I didn’t think they would able to understand any of the scientific portions of the journal, I chose to just focus on Beth’s story and the main idea that communication between a teacher and student is key to helping the student succeed.

Writing the story was a bit easier than I thought it would be—possibly because I was following how the journal had followed Beth’s progress through the semester or quarter. Since this was meant to be a short story I decided to break it up into small chapters; this would allow me to jump to certain key points mentioned in the journal without needing to continue the story with filler. Even though each chapter had to do with something different, everything chapter build upon the other making the story easy to follow. This helps everything flow together, “guiding readers through and between…pages…” (McLoud, pg. 10). Having such a young audience I thought that too long of a chapter would discourage my intended audience from wanting to read the story so I decided to make each chapter about a paragraph long this way enough information would be given to keep the audience engaged while not making them wonder how much longer was left.

              With any short story meant for an audience as young as mine images are important. That is why each chapter would be spilt into two pages and with each individual age, a drawing would be included portraying the most important part of the text—I didn’t include drawing because I thought having the on the word document would not have the same effect as if were a real book. One example would be the inclusion of portrait of Beth in her spell caster clothes; another example would be a drawing of a classroom with students staring in awe at the various ingredients levitating. These picture would not only compliment the text as McLoud explains on page 10, but they would also help capture the audience because of how colorful they would be and the idea that the pictures would make the experience more enjoyable.

              When approaching the older audience and having changed my idea of a contract into a syllabus I thought I could still maintain some of ideas I originally had with contract. To begin, they would both have the same formal tone and of course split into sections that described different main ideas.

              Before beginning to write the syllabus I looked at a couple of syllabi to capture some of there convention. I noticed that the syllabi all were direct given only the important pieces of information relating to the class, and given them in short paragraphs and bullet points.  They were also authoritative and of course written in the first person. Having identified some conventions, I went on to write my own.

              The structure of chose was split the main categories and then have subdivision of them if there were to be more information needed. The main categories have a bigger font that way the student are able to distinguish where each new section starts. As mention before the sub-bullet points indicate other important information. I thought that this structure would make the framing better because student only have to focus at one thing at a time and nothing is too long to the point where two main ideas would converge with each other and lose the main point. The main point of the syllabus is to give student the information and that is why I kept it simple without any graphics or color—very monotone, after all I am a professor and that what most students think of professors initially.  

              The scholarly journal was about getting student and teachers to work together to help the transition to a new form a writing easier. I added this into my syllabus by adding text that put an emphasize on this—I accomplished this with the addition of boldness to some words. In this case the boldness is meant to indicate what main point of the class is, helping my students identify this easier and know that they can come to me for help in their writing. There is a quote I added to the syllabus because I thought it really exemplified what was said in the journal about how history is very biased, and I thought that this quote would get the student thinking about this and how history can be view from many different points making certain new views right and other older one’s wrong.  The journal also mentioned activity theory and genre system theory—something that I did not mention in the short story because it would be too complex for the young audience. I incorporated these two theories into this syllabus because they are key factors into addressing why the bold words are of the utmost importance.

              With the syllabus I tried to address more points from the journal that I did with the short story because I thought it the audience could understand it better and it fit in with the rest of the context. The short story was about giving the children the idea that communication is the key, while with the syllabus I focus more on giving the student that communication and adaption combined can help one achieve their goals, this being applicable to every situation and not just the classroom.