Pacing the Work
Exploded Syllabus for a Focus Group Assignment

Complete for Class

In-Class Work

Class 1

Read: Melanie Lowe, "Colliding Feminisms"

Go over assignment carefully

In groups, students look at Lowe's essay, pointing to examples of her techniques in incorporating focus groups into her argument

Class 2

Re-read: Interviews chapter, especially stage 2 and stage 5

Write: proposal for paper

Submit proposals

Students present results of group work from previous class

Students discuss how Lowe reading and Interview chapter prepare them for their own focus groups

Class 3

Prepare focus group questions

Conduct small group informal focus group(s)

Class 4

Develop focus group protocol

student-run formal model focus group

other students take notes on what was being said and what was or was not working

Class 5

Write: online journal about what they learned from watching (or participating in) the focus group.  How could they use the results of model focus group in service to an argument?

Conduct focus groups

Workshop student paper(s) from previous assignment (interviews), looking at how interviews determined (or should have determined) the shape of paper and how focus groups might call for different writing strategies

Class 6

Complete focus group paper

Peer review, with special emphasis on focus groups: introducing them smoothly, moving away from them smoothly, using them to support a point, etc.

Class 7

Complete final revision of paper