Wednesday, November 9, 2011

11.8 Elevator talks, rubrics, and planning a focus group

We started class by practicing some replies to classic (unpleasant) questions about writing centers as a way to move into a positive, informative elevator talk - a plain language, relevant pitch for the writing center.  Sorry if I took you off your guard.  I thought you did pretty well.  We will practice some more next week.

This week's practice pointed out the importance of making a connection to the images/ideas of your audience (in terms of simple, vivid comparisons, or easy-to-connect-to language), having some simple, descriptive "sound bytes" at your disposal = catchy words and phrases that are easy to remember= student-centered, focus on making better writers, peer coaching, etc.  This was a good start.

Rubrics:
Next we worked on rubrics.  Tim and Joe are going to finish the writing-to-learn checklist, and Simone & Josh are going to finish the Social Interactions Rubric.

The plan is to take couple of videos of session (about 10 minutes of session should do) = and then you can use the rubrics - and compare you rating processes to arrive at some standards. If you have a video for next class - we could apply each rubric as a group and see where we are.


Focus group.  We finished class with a short discussion of Joe's script for the focus group.  Joe and I are going to work on it - and we will "test drive" it in class next week.

GA reports.  Keep working on your GA reports.  If you would like to schedule a meeting to set up the format - and get through the introductory discussion - send me an email.

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