Today we undertook a rather nontraditional exercise Our texting activity was designed to help you understand and develop a thesis statement. Tell me the results. Did the activity offer you any new insights? What kind of insights? Did you enjoy the activity? How do you think it can be improved? Please feel free to offer any additional observations or questions.
Once again I'd like you to respond twice minimum. That means two separate posts (as opposed to one big blob of an entry. Please answer the question in full, with reflection and authenticity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think that the activity really helped me. I was able to communicate with a friend in a way which is more comfortable then writing on a piece of paper. It also showed me the similarities between text messaging and a thesis statement. It also made us shorten our thesis' so that it would fit in the 140 character text message limit. I think next time, we should text our thesis to every student in the class, so that way the class turns into a huge texting "war." That would be exciting.
ReplyDeleteI liked this activity, it helped me make my thesis smaller and more universal. It also showed me how easy writing a simple thesis statement was.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Alex said About this activity being easier than writing it out on a pice of paper,and how it helped us shorten our thesis
ReplyDeleteThe activity in class was okay, but texting isn't my strong point. I found that my partner liked my thesis, but some of the notes in class helped me to think about narrowing my topic and being more specific. I'm not technologically savy so texting wasn't much fun, but the class enjoyed it so overall the activity worked.
ReplyDeleteAlso having to type out my thesis made me realize what was wrong.
I agree with Jhon because I too found writing a thesis statment easier. The lesson today helped me to understand what we've been doing and it brought other lessons to mind that I'd been taught on writing essays.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gio, sharing with a partner helped me find out things that I wouldn't have caught by myself.
ReplyDeleteI liked the activity, but I was not able to get feedback on my thesis. I was helped more by the notes we took in class. It was a good idea but i think the fact that there was three people in my group got confusing for us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelsey, with the fact that the notes were more helpful. I am text savy, but my group did not have enough time. But although her and I found a few diffculties with the assignment I think we both enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI think this activity helps us to make the thesis short and simple, yet strong. In a text message, you have a limited amount of space where your can express your feelings. By relating a thesis statement with text messaging, it would help us to create an informative thesis.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this activity because it was a casual approach to peer editing.
Overall. I think this activity is a good way to receive feedbacks on thesis statements.
The activity was a good idea but there I think time was very limited because I did not get as much feedback as I expected. Still, with the feedback I recieved I was still able to improve my thesis. Also after the activity I took the idea of it and texted my friends for help.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lauren, I think the class notes helped me more as well. By getting a feedback, I was able to know what I should fix. However, the feedback that people received were mostly the same, and straight from the notes.
ReplyDeleteCatherine is right, it was a casual approach that made writing a thesis less pressuring than it usually is. How text messaging relates to thesis statements is also something I agree with since when I text, there usually is a topic, no matter how random or childish, for the conversation.
ReplyDeleteI think this exercise was a great way for us to get feed back on our thesis. It made us shorten our thesis to were it could only fit in a 160 character text.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea of texting and learning from a different viewpoint, but I think it didn't have the same effect that settling down and taking notes would have so that we can get more in depth and get more detailed feedback.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Alex in saying that we should send our thesis to the entire class; each person would have there own opinion and our thesis would be shaped better.
ReplyDeleteMichelle brought up another good point. Time was a limited factor which caused there to be not as much feedback.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this activity. I was not able to get as much feedback on my thesis as I expected, but I thought that texting our thesis statements was a good idea. I learned that I had to narrow down my thesis statement and make it more clear.
ReplyDeleteBy participating in the texting activity, I noticed for the first time how similar texts and a thesis statement really are. If someone doesnt give enough information, it is difficult for the reader to understand what is trying to be said. I found the activity very interesting and unique, which I enjoyed. I think next time maybe we could send a text thesis to someone who did not know our topic and see if they were able to obtain a clear understanding of what our essay was going and supposed to be about.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle. I did not recieve much feedback, but I think that was because time was very limited.
ReplyDeleteThis activity was helpful to me and from it and the feedback my thesis was improved by narrowing it down. It was also a fun activity and I would like to do more unusual activities that make lessons fun. The one thing that would make this lesson better was to text not just one person but try to text as meny people as we can in a certain amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the texting activity. I was able to get insight from other people in the classroom as we went around talking about how our thesis's could be improved. I think that the activity will help others make their thesis's better, but also taking notes would work.
ReplyDeleteEverything that Catherine posted is very true. I also think this activity was effective by challenging us to make our thesis strong and simple at the same time. It definitely was a casual way to approach editing an essay.
ReplyDeleteThis activity was very creative and helped me develop a steady more flowing thesis. It was fun to interact with students I have not been able to talk to through out my years at the highschool and getting familiar with them and their writing styles. I feel if I didnt bring my phone i would not have had the same experience because i would have partnered with somebody i knew. It was a great assignment and i hope to have more like it in the future
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michael. Texting more than one person would get you better results that would allow you to make your thesis better.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michael getting more than one person's insight could further improve our thesis
ReplyDeleteI thought the texting activity was fun, but taking notes in class definitely helped me out a lot more. I learned to change my thesis into a new and improved thesis, and the notes can help me in the future. Although, the activity was fun, it would have been nice to share our thesis with more than one person to get better feedback and results.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Catherine and Michelle. The texting idea was helpful for writing a strong thesis, but the time was limited and I did not get the feedback I had expected to receive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex it did help and it would be fun to have a big texting war. Also it made me more open to ask a friend for help.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed our texting in class today. The activity helped us to make our thesis "short and sweet" and for me it helped me recognize that I needed to be more specific in my thesis.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the texting activity was fun and was different than other assignments we have done. I just wish I wasn't the only one that didn't have a phone or better yet have brought my phone with me. Anyway, I thought it really helped the class learn about writing thesis statements by keeping it short and simple.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Alex! Next time we should send our thesis out to everyone in the class. I also agree with Catherine when she said that it was a casual approach to editing. Texting made me feel more relaxed and comfortable about sharing my thesis.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler. I think the assignment did make a lot of the class shorten their thesis which probably helped. It was also a fun way to get feed back rather than someone just reading it on paper and saying, "it's alright," or something along those lines.
ReplyDeleteI thought that sharing our thesis to a partner made it more comfortable to express our thesis without making us feel embarrassed about having a weak or imperfect thesis. The activity gave me insight because it allowed the person reading my thesis to correct and critique us in a comfortable environment, making it easier to help us express what needed to be fixed. I did enjoy the activity because text messaging in class is a rare freedom that teachers allow students to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Alex said about texting our thesis to more people in our class. I think though that if we texted our thesis to everyone else and had to critique each student individually, the critique from the other students would become repetitive and might now help as much as we had thought.
ReplyDeleteI thought the thesis exercise today was very creative and helpful. The feed back from others helped me narrow my thesis statement down to the necessary details
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Davina.I too did not get asmuch feedback as i expected. I did get two or three very important comments but overall texting my thesis made me realize i needed to be more to the point.
ReplyDeleteby texting my thesis it felt more natural because i was doing something i do everyday so it came naturally to me. the feedback i got helped direct me on how to improve my thesis as well
ReplyDeletei agree with hayden by sharing our thesis through text it was easier to feel more relaxed because we werent sharing it out loud so we would not feel embarrased
ReplyDeletei think that the texting thesis activity was helpful to me, because it seemed less formal than a normal thesis analysis, so there was less pressure.
ReplyDeletei agree with zac because texting the thesis did feel more relaxed to me, because i was using a device that i use to casually talk to my friends every day.
ReplyDeleteI think that this assignment helped me be more specific because John and Jason critiqued my thesis and helped me be more specific. I aggree with John because it was easier to write it out on a peice of paper and it was also more fun.
ReplyDeleteI think that listening to other people telling the stories is one of the best ways to hear things out and it helped me to be more precise and simple with the things i want to say. Sometimes i tried to sound too smart instead of just going with what was simple it helped to hear other groups tell us we had to be more simple and hearing simple responses because its so much more clear to me now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with grayson because everyone is familiar with their phones and texting so it is comfortable to send our thesis' through text.
ReplyDeleteThe texting activity I think was extremely helpful. It was a good method of communication. It forced our thesis' to be short and right to the point. And in the end, they actually benefited.
ReplyDeleteI think the activity could be improved by not allowing text-message words like "lol" to be used; and also the use of letters like y and u should be banned instead of writing out the actual word. This would help enhance our vocabulary use.
I agree with lauren, the notes also seemed to help with thesis statements. It was an added bonus to the activity.
ReplyDelete