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support their answers, and 3) students connected this abstract concept to their own research
projects by asking questions about how they might use these moves in their own essay
introductions.
At this point in the class session, students seemed to have a good grasp of the purposes
for each of the three CARS moves. The third and final activity of the day was a small group
discussion aimed at helping students to identify the three CARS moves in articles they had
already read. The reading choices were Green, Grabill, Fishman, Winsor, Marro, Grant-Davie,
Prior, and Straub. At around 10:00, Rachel gave instructions for the small group activity:
students were to get into their peer review groups, identify where the three moves were located
in the article Rachel assigned them, and prepare to present their findings to the class.
Unfortunately, because of time constraints, students were not able to present their findings to the
entire class, but they did discuss their articles with Rachel.
During the last twenty minutes of class, Rachel explained students homework, collected
their quick writes, and walked around to each peer review group at two different points. The first
time she visited each group, Rachel asked the students how they felt about identifying the three
moves in their assigned article. The second time she visited each group, Rachel asked the
students to explain where they were seeing examples of each CARS move. The students seemed
comfortable sharing their findings with Rachel, and, for the most part, students stayed on task
throughout the duration of this last activity. At 10:21, Rachel dismissed her students.
Overall Impressions and Thoughts
Overall, I believe that Rachel did a good job of using different types of activities to
promote her students engagement with the class material; in less than an hour, Rachels students
completed an individual quick write, contributed to a class discussion, and worked in small
groups to identify an application of a course concept. That is a lot of ground to cover in such a
small amount of time. Moreover, during each of these activities, students played an active role in
contributing to the knowledge of the class through their questions and examples.
One of the aspects of this class session that I was most impressed by was how well (and
often) students used their textbooks to support their discussions. During the whole-class
discussion and small group activity, students had their books open on their desks and they were
clearly using them. Another impressive aspect of this class session was the way Rachel allowed
students to interact with the material at different levels: individually, with small groups, and with
the entire class. In sum, Rachel did an excellent job of facilitating her students understanding of
a complex concept, and it was a pleasure to observe her teach.
Sincerely,
Lissa Pompos Mansfield
Instructor and Composition Coordinator
Department of Writing and Rhetoric
University of Central Florida
Melissa.Pompos@ucf.edu