EDUC604 Proseminar Book Reflection and Synthesis Rubric - 2018

2018 Proseminar Book Synthesis Paper Expectations

Three goals of the Writing Assignment: Note that the most important thing to remember for this paper is that it is a synthesis of the themes of the four books. In composition courses, “synthesis” commonly refers to writing about printed texts, drawing together particular themes or traits that you observe in those texts and organizing the material from each text according to those themes or traits. The best scholarly writing uses paraphrasing and citations to convey supporting details from each of the texts, as opposed to multiple direct quotations from the texts. Bazerman (2010) stated that “Writing a careful paraphrase—that is, putting the meaning of the text into new words—makes you pay close attention to the author's ideas and thereby improves your level of understanding” (p. 28).

NOTE: Please refer to the rubric while reading and while setting up the sections for your paper.

1.  Identify multiple common themes of the four books with rationale (see rubric); support your claims with paraphrased material from each of the four texts.

2.  Make connections from these common book themes to the theme of ‘All Are Welcome: Meeting All Students All the Time’

3.  Make additional connections to your personal experiences in the classroom.

Helpful hints: Reading can be messy . . . keep a journal, mark with a highlighter, use colored Post-it notes, or write in the margins. Find a way to keep track of your personal learnings and wonderings.

ü  Typed, double-spaced (8.5” x 11”) with 1” margins on all sides.

ü  You should use 12 pt. Times New Roman.

ü  Include a title page and a page header with page numbers at the top of every page.

ü  6-8 pages of text (does not include title page or references)

ü  APA style is expected for all aspects of the paper

Paper is due to your Proseminar instructor electronically (submit via the Moodle site – not via email) no later than June 15th.

Criteria Requirements / Exemplary (4) / Proficient (3) / Approaching (2) / Not Yet (1)
Introduction / Writer eloquently and masterfully introduces the content of the paper with an explanation of the ‘why’ behind his/her book choices, and clearly/coherently addresses the themes that will be developed in the paper. / Writer introduces the content of the paper with an explanation of the ‘why’ behind his/her book choices, and clearly addresses the themes that will be developed in the paper. / Writer introduces the content of the paper with some information about his/her book choices, and somewhat addresses the themes that will be developed in the paper. / Writer fails either introduce the ‘why’ behind his/her book choices or to address in the introduction the themes that will be developed in the paper.
Identify common themes among the four books / Writer clearly and eloquently synthesizes the content of the four texts to identify multiple common themes among the books with cited rationale from the texts for how/why each common theme relates to the field of education. / Writer synthesizes the content of the four texts to identify three or more common themes among the four books with rationale from the texts for how/why each common theme relates to the field of education. / Writer identifies two common themes among the four books with rationale from the texts for how/why it relates to the field of education. / Writer fails to clearly synthesize the content of the four texts to identify common themes among the texts or how/why the common theme relates to the field of education.
Utilizes textual details and examples to support the common themes / Writer accurately and coherently provides specific textual details and examples to support the common themes among the four texts by paraphrasing and citing the original authors’ words. / Writer accurately and coherently provides general textual details and examples to support several common themes among the four texts using paraphrasing and citations. / Writer provides some textual details and examples to support the identified common themes. Paraphrasing at times fails to convey clearly the original message. / Writer fails to provide textual details or examples to support the identified common themes among the four texts.
Identify how these books fit with the Proseminar theme All Are Welcome: Meeting the Needs of All Students All the Time / Writer accurately and coherently provides specific textual details and examples to relate the common book themes to the theme of Proseminar by paraphrasing and citing the original authors’ words. / Writer accurately and coherently provides general textual details and examples to relate the common book themes to the theme of Proseminar using paraphrasing and citations. / Writer provides few textual details and examples to relate the common book themes to the theme of Proseminar. / Writer fails to provide textual details or examples to relate the common book themes to the theme of Proseminar.
Make connections between the identified themes and your experiences in the classroom. / Writer creates multiple rich and meaningful personal connections among all of the identified common book themes and his or her teaching experiences. / Writer creates a few meaningful personal connections among all of the identified common book themes and his or her teaching experiences. / Writer creates one or two meaningful personal connections among some of the identified common book themes and his or her teaching experiences. / Writer fails to create meaningful personal connections among the identified common book themes and his or her teaching experiences.
Conclusion / Writer utilizes the conclusion to clearly connect he introduction and body of the paper; the writing is strong and logical and provides a clear answer to the question ‘so what’ or ‘now what’. / Writer utilizes the conclusion to connect parts of the paper; the writing is adequately strong and provides an answer to the ‘so what’ or ‘now what’ question. / Writer utilizes the conclusion to tie together the parts of the paper, but the conclusions are somewhat illogical with no real answer to the ‘so what’ or ‘now what’ question. / Conclusion is weak with no real evidence of tying the paper together or answering the ‘so what’ or ‘now what’ question.
Use of APA style in writing and citation of sources in all parts of the paper including the title page, the text of the paper, the reference page and all citations of sources. / Writer utilizes to the full extent APA formatting and style (including grammar and style – see APA pages 77-124 and 174-179) on the title page, in the text of the paper, on the reference page(s) and for all of the citations of sources throughout the paper. The paper presents as error-free. / Writer utilizes to a great extent APA formatting and style (including grammar and style – see APA pages 77-124, and 174-179) on the title page, in the text of the paper, on the reference page(s) and for all of the citations of sources throughout the paper. The paper has fewer than four APA errors. / Writer utilizes to a moderate extent APA formatting and style (including grammar and style – see APA pages 77-124, and 174-179) on the title page, in the text of the paper, on the reference page(s) and for all of the citations of sources throughout the paper. The paper has fewer than six APA errors. / Writer fails to adequately utilize APA formatting and style (including grammar and style – see APA pages 77-124, and 174-179) on the title page, in the text of the paper, on the reference page(s) and for all of the citations of sources throughout the paper. The paper has more than six APA errors.

Proseminar Synthesis Paper 2018 – All Are Welcome: Teaching All Students All the Time