The first drafts were due tonight and I felt that between the workshops and discussions the class was well equipped to work on this assignment. Earlier during the module I had had them post photographs of the places they were going to write their proposals on and that had taken care of any intervention that their ideas might have needed. But I knew that the major stumbling block for them would be the language. They were not used to writing to a decision making body and to compensate for that I had them write one paragraph of their proposal in formal language. We then workshopped the paragraphs and looked at simple ways in which to adopt a more authoritative tone of voice and build audience awareness.
By this Friday my class was already well-versed in peer review so things went smoothly. I was happy to see that after I had threatened them with dire consequences they were commenting on ideas and arguments rather than sentence level changes. I circulated among the groups giving them feedback and hearing their criticisms. I like that we have an offline component because then it becomes easier to guide the students about the way they should give and receive feedback.
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