Starting an assignment
by Rebecca Hartman

One good use of the computer classroom, especially at the beginning of the semester, is to have students begin their rough drafting in a computer classroom session. I often pair students up and have them discuss the assignment for 5 minutes. Then they can collaboratively type up what they think the assignment is asking them to do. Then the pair works on brainstorming how to approach the draft. Some students prefer to begin with selected quotes, others may choose to draft a working thesis, while others may begin with free-writing. (Instructors can also require a 3-5 minute free-writing session to get students warmed up.) The students then work independently, but side-by-side, getting their rough drafts on paper. In the last 15 minutes of the class, have the pair exchange their drafts, and do a mini-peer review, making suggestions as to whether the draft is directly responsive to the assignment, what direction the essay should take, and which quotations to use. This exercise is especially useful in demonstrating to students that papers get produced in pieces and by actually sitting at the computer and working, a fact that 100 and 100R students often need repeatedly demonstrated.