During the Assignment 2 conference, you will have the opportunity to meet with me to discuss your first draft of an assignment. This is also a good time to talk about your general progress on the learning and personal goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of the unit when you filled out your assessment plan, and to check in on what you need to do to stay on track for the grade that you’re working toward earning.

While these conferences are not mandatory, I will not be giving written feedback on first drafts in the way that I give feedback on weekly work. Draft feedback will happen during this conference time. Unlike the draft feedback that you get on weekly work, assignment conferences are more directed by you, the student.

This means that before you come to the conference, there are several things you should prepare. Here they are.

👀 Re-read your draft. Identify at least two of its greatest strengths. Did you find really relevant sources that helped you to answer your research question? Did you do a nice job synthesizing them? Did you learn something or consider something differently after drafting this proposal? Did you make any progress toward your writing goals when completing this first draft? What is going well with this draft or what went well in your process of creating it? Be as specific as possible: identifying and being able to articulate your strengths is just as important as identifying the places where you need more time and feedback.

🤔 Identify at least two places where it would be helpful to have a second pair of eyes. Please be as specific as possible: showing up to your conference and saying “I would like to know what you think are my weaknesses” shows that you have not prepared for your conference or adequately considered what you want to know about your draft. Are you having trouble with the way that you’ve crafted your Methods and Audience section or with thinking about how to translate your research to a public-facing audience? Did you have MLA questions that weren’t answered by the weekly work or by the process of doing this draft? Are you still having trouble navigating the library resources? Do you feel like your organization is not working yet? What else can I, as a reader, help you to do to take this draft where it needs to go?

✅ Review the requirements for this assignment. How many do you think you’ve met, and what do you still need to do to meet the number that you need? Here is the prompt (which includes the requirements) for Assignment 2. Also, here is the checklist that we generated in class.

💯 Review the requirements for this unit on the grading agreement. How many weekly work assignments do you still need to attempt in this unit? How many have you done that have already met requirements? What is realistic for you to finish between now and the end of the unit? Do you need to revise the grade that you’re working toward? What can I do to help?

📊 Review your assessment plan in your personal Slack channel and, especially, the learning and personal goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of this unit. What kind of progress have you made so far? What will you need to do in the final weeks of classes to keep making progress?

💬 In a typical, successful draft conference you should talk (or type!) more than I do. Think of me as a partner who is helping you to get to where you want to go rather than the person with all the answers about what you should do. This is your draft!

📝 To sign up for a conference, go to the #conferences channel on Slack, find the Google Doc sign-up sheet, and put your name and e-mail address in the slot that works in your schedule. Indicate whether you would like to hold the conference on Slack or on Zoom. Importantly, if something comes up and you can’t make a conference slot, please take yourself off of the list to give someone else a chance to take your spot. I have a lot of students! Please also respect my time, and their time, by showing up to a conference that you signed up to do. Make sure to make note of the time of your slot when you sign up. Don’t leave me sitting alone in a Zoom room, staring into the void 🥺😭

⏰ If you miss your conference, unfortunately, I cannot reschedule with you outside of the times that are available on this list. You can sign up for a different time if it is free, or you can also reach out on Slack or over e-mail.