*The header image again comes from the original ten Rorschach inkblots.
Descriptive Post-Writing
Using last week’s descriptive paragraphs, you are going to learn how to evaluate and, as necessary, revise your writing. Start by clicking this chessboard image:
Opens in Google Drive
All writing can be processed through the tools in this folder, which we collect under the name bishop composition. Today, and likely for the rest of the week, you will be learning these components by running a post-writing protocol on the paragraphs you wrote.
Before we do anything else, I want you to note that this “post writing” analysis can be applied at any point after you’ve produced enough writing. Without grades, you aren’t beholden to a score for this step of the process, and the process is more important than the product.
Start by reading this document in full:
Post-Writing: Guide
Then load the modified template given to you in Google Classroom. It will ask you to complete Step #1 and Step #3. Follow the directions below, and make sure you replace the filler text in the template. This is a test of your ability to follow directions as much as a breakdown of your descriptive writing.
Step #1: Process Reflection
Print a copy of your paragraphs. Set that aside, and turn off any devices you have. For the moment, you are assessing exactly what you have — no more and no less.
The first step of any post-writing work is to assess how you spent the time allotted for the assignment. In this first step, you are also determining the extent to which you meet the criteria for a fourth-tier GAP score. This is not a completion check, however. Some of you will have negotiated a slightly different assignment by speaking to your teachers; that negotiation meets the threshold for a “student-generated feedback loop,” which is a significant part of these higher profiles.
Many of you will not have completed your assignment, and you will not have spoken enough with your teachers to excuse that lapse. You will have wasted time in class and failed to complete the work at home. This is evidence that we must process in order to help you improve.
Right now, any of you who do not have a finished assignment are locked into the third tier of GAP scores. You can unlock passage into the fourth tier through renewed assiduousness and a kind of academic makeover — change that creates a new version of you that does your work and advocates for your learning.
If, however, your habits do not change, that is a failure to take this feedback and apply it. At that point, you are likely locked into the second tier of profiles. You can see the logic for this by reading the first tier again and noting its focus on amenability and improvement.
Step #3: Metacognition
After you’ve taken stock of your work ethic and time management, you can move into a concerted analysis of your writing itself. This was a descriptive assignment, which means that we are primarily focused on the first three most important elements of writing: the meaning you derived from these images, the details you used to describe what you saw, and how you arrange those details into a paragraph. Answer the questions and follow the prompts in this post-writing protocol. Annotate your printed paragraph. Look for patterns, and try to balance your analysis between strengths and weaknesses.
While you are annotating, work with a peer or teacher on one more element from the rubric: grammar and mechanics. You will catch basic mistakes yourself. Letting a peer or teacher look over your writing will help you identify more errors. The goal isn’t perfection, but the development of control.
When you have enough insight generated, write the metacognitive section of the post-writing assignment.