February 18

Today, we wrote about what we have learned and/or thought about since the beginning of the semester.  Then, we got into our inquiry groups and wrote out our golden lines on giant post-it notes.  We walked around to read all the quotes and had the following discussion:

• When we see the quotes standing alone, they seem more significant than when we read them in the article.
• The quotes sum up the article as a whole.
• Every group had the quote about humanities giving richness in life.
• I wanted the author of the article to give more examples.  For example, he could have explained more about how humanities leads to richness in life.
• I like his teaching methods.  For example, he made his students figure it out on their own.  He highlighted the creativity and diversity of the classroom.
• The quotes made us think about the benefits of liberal arts.
• Rich people are above social norms.  They can get away with things that would make other people weird.
• You should take classes based on what you are pursuing.  Not everyone needs a liberal arts education.
• If you don't know what you want to do in life, you shouldn't focus on one subject.  You should do something like a liberal arts education.
• You should be able to choose your course path.
• There should be more flexibility in the kinds of liberal arts classes you take.  They should have classes that would be more related to specific majors instead of these broad catch all classes.
• They should have whole universities devoted to one occupational focus.
• There are schools like that, culinary school for example.  They still have to take liberal arts classes.
• Why not take them?  Liberal arts classes aren't going to hurt.  They can only help you.
• Liberal arts classes will help you interact with people.
• People who don't want to take liberal arts won't have the drive to apply what they learn.
   

After this discussion, we reread the assignment description for the Exploratory Essay and talked about the "Exploratory Essay - Further Explanation" handout.  Then we did brainstorming about the Exploratory Essay in partners.  We wrote about our ideas and then talked them over with our partners.

Homework:

• Read Swales' article "Responding - Really Responding to Other Students' Writing."  As you read it, pay attention to the do's and don't's of workshopping (peer review).
• Post a reading response.