This week Sophie turned in a complete first draft of her research essay, while Cheryl turned in an annotated bibliography. These were our last meetings!
I was impressed by Sophie’s draft. She has done a lot of research, and did a good job of organizing the information in a logical way. She used almost no quotes, instead choosing to paraphrase her sources. The info was not cited well, so we spent some time during our meeting reviewing MLA. We also adjusted her introductory paragraph in order to introduce topic in broader terms.
Cheryl’s annotated bibliography was fairly thorough. Although the annotated bibliography failed to concretely connect each source to her proposed thesis, as the assignment required, I was glad to see that she had found some good literature. During our meeting we discussed her thesis and narrowed it a bit. She wanted a break from her research paper, so I had her write a final reflection about how she thinks her writing has improved throughout the semester. She reflected that she has grown more confident and sharpened many of her skills. She mentioned that the portfolio assignment was a bit overwhelming, but after reviewing its elements I decided it should be easy enough to finish, especially since I gave it to her 2.5 weeks in advance of the due date.
Both Sophie and Cheryl will be turning in final drafts of their research essay on Wednesday. Their final portfolios are due Tues., May 14.
Do you feel confident that both students wil be able to hand in their portfolios by the 14th, or do you anticipated some problems? I am mainly concerned with Cheryl, since her grade is due sooner than Sophie’s. Keep me posted.