“ Building & Dressing Your Pedagogical Mannequin! (AKA Preparing for & Passing Your Comprehensive Exams)” Dru Tomlin September

Moderator of Conversations in Doctoral Preparation Dr. Peggy Albers, Professor, Language and Literacy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA,

Online interactive and participatory web seminars with a purpose to prepare doctoral students to work in the Academy Website: Doctoral students at all stages in their program are invited to present; Please contact Dr. Peggy Albers,

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Tonight’s Presenter: Dru Tomlin Doctoral student Research interests in body as text; multimodalities Completed his comps in the spring of 2011 Doctoral advisor: Peggy Albers

Building & Dressing Your Pedagogical Mannequin! (AKA Preparing for & Passing Your Comprehensive Exams) Dru Tomlin September 22, 2011 Georgia State University Webinar

 Who’s Dru?  Educational Career: 10 as high school & middle school teacher 7 as a middle school and elementary school administrator Other “stuff”: Presenter: Georgia Middle School Association and National Middle School Association conferences (2003, 2005, 2009, 2010) Faculty member: National Middle School Association Leadership Institute (2008 to current) Somewhat dutiful graduate student at GSU: too many years to officially document at this point Father of two excitable squirrels, Parker & Holden (4 & 7). They are my joyous lifetime, at-home literacy project. Husband to one very patient wife, Laura –who is part saint, therapist, psychologist, and dear dear friend.

Why Building & Dressing your Pedagogical Mannequin?  Power of metaphors: helps to have a concrete symbol!  For me:  My coursework helped me build the mannequin: my epistemological viewpoints, my educational interests and philosophy my theoretical interests my specific study interest(s) These make the steady form around which I tailor my interests.  My experience with comprehensive exams helped me dress and tailor the mannequin. I continue the “mannequin dressing process” today.  Remember! You wheel your mannequin wherever you go, explain it, and continue to add clothes, change clothes, remove clothes, etc.

Important Logistical Things to Remember!  Comps are taken when all (or almost all) of your coursework is done….but they should always be on your mind!  There are 6 key pieces in the Language & Literacy Comprehensive Exam outfit! DocumentDue Date Submit to a. Memo of Intent Semester before taking your comps (April 15 or November 15) Your major advisor b. Written Exam (deciding on your question areas) Semester before writing your exam answers Major Advisor and committee members c. Writing your answers 10 days after you get them (except your research methodologies question, which you will get in EDCI 9900). Due date typically coincides with 1 st day of PAW. Your committee members d. Manuscript for publication 9am on the Wednesday of PAW Your committee members e. Syllabus for mock course 9am on the Wednesday of PAW Your committee members f. Orals 2 to 3 weeks following PAW (TBD by you & your advisor) Your committee members

More 411 about Each Piece for the Mannequin! DocumentDue Date Submit to a. Memo of Intent Semester before taking your comps (April 15 or November 15) Your major advisor Key questions, thoughts, concerns: 1.Are you ready? 2.Are you really ready? 3.Have you finished your coursework (or almost all of it) to the point where you have a solid (or semi-solid) sense of your key educational areas? 4.Have you kept easily accessible files of your course readings, articles, presentations and papers that you’ve written? 5.Are there other people who are at the same stage? 6.Have you alerted your friends and family? 7.What’s your plan with the rest of your life –especially work?

More 411 about Each Piece for the Mannequin! Key questions, thoughts, concerns: 1.Are you ready to choose the areas for your questions? 2.You must be able to write about: a)Research & theory in your cognate area b)Research methodologies (quant, qual and mixed methods) c)Research & theory in 2 major fields of Language & Literacy: Reading (teaching, learning, development, curriculum) Writing (teaching, learning, development, curriculum) Literature and/or Media (teaching, learning, response, curriculum) First/Second language issues (teaching, learning, development, curriculum) DocumentDue Date Submit to b. Written Exam (deciding on your question areas) Semester before writing your exam answers Major Advisor and committee members Please Note!

More 411 about Each Piece for the Mannequin! Key questions, thoughts, concerns: 1.Have you chosen the major fields with which you are the most comfy? 2.How well do you know the historical aspects, the key people, and the current trends of your major field choices? How much refresher work will you need? 3.How will you write yourself into your answers? How will you weave your perspective into the work? 4.Do you have many, varied, and easily accessible resources to write your answers? Are they organized and how? 5.How well do you know APA style at this point? 6.How are you going to plan out your life for the 10 days that you have to write your answers? Take off work? Leave the country? Join a monastery? All of the above? DocumentDue Date Submit to c. Writing your answers 10 days after you get them (except your research methodologies question, which you will get in EDCI 9900). Due date typically coincides with 1 st day of PAW. Your committee members

More 411 about Each Piece for the Mannequin! Key questions, thoughts, concerns: 1.Have you already submitted something to a journal for publication? Do you have the s, etc. from the journal to show that? 2.If you haven’t already submitted something for publication, what journals interest you (and possibly your committee, too)? Do you know their guidelines for submitting an article? 3.Do you have papers that could be revised as articles for submission? How much time will you need to revise, etc.? 4.Does your possible article “represent you as a literacy scholar”? 5.Remember that you don’t have to actually be published in the journal –just show evidence that you have submitted something of worth. Hence, being rejected is okay! DocumentDue DateSubmit to d. Manuscript for publication 9am on the Wednesday of PAW Your committee members

More 411 about Each Piece for the Mannequin! Key questions, thoughts, concerns: 1.What courses/subjects have you taken at GSU that have really excited and engaged you intellectually, emotionally, etc. –in both your major field and your cognate? 2.What elements of those courses/subjects (assignments, classwork, readings) did you really enjoy –and what elements didn’t you enjoy? What could have made them even better? 3.What articles, books, and other readings did you enjoy and how do they all relate? 4.To what educational theory (or theories) do you subscribe? Do you know them well enough to teach them? 5.Do you know the different elements for a syllabus at GSU? DocumentDue Date Submit to e. Syllabus for mock course 9am on the Wednesday of PAW Your committee members In some ways, this part of the process is like play! Have fun!

More 411 about Each Piece for the Mannequin! Key questions, thoughts, concerns: 1.Are you ready? Are you really ready? 2.How well do you know your own work –as well as the journey that got you there? 3.Can you just talk about your answers –and expand upon them to show that you can go beyond the page? 4.Are you prepared to defend your answers –especially if there are aspects that are missing? 5.Do you have someone with which you can practice this part? 6.Are you prepared if you have to rewrite a section? DocumentDue DateSubmit to f. Orals 2 to 3 weeks following PAW (TBD by you & your advisor) Your committee members

Top 10 Things Not to Do When Preparing For your Comps! 1.Let it sneak up on you –and your major advisor, family, etc. 2.Don’t talk to anyone before you start your comps experience – you are alone and you better like it! 3.Have your course readings in various folders that are unfiled, defiled, or otherwise scattered, smothered, and chunked. 4.Whatever you do, don’t organize your readings by theme and don’t worry about creating annotated bibliographies for those readings! 5.Make sure your life is extremely full and complicated.

Top 10 Things Not to Do When Preparing For your Comps! 6. For at least one of your major field questions, choose one about which you are only somewhat confident already. 7. When you have your questions, don’t spend time researching to find additional articles to help you answer them. You have everything you need! 8. When you get ready to write, don’t consider space issues. You should be able to write in a cramped cubicle –that’s just part of the experience. 9. When you get ready to write, don’t worry about time. Heck, you’ve got 10 whole days! 10. For your oral comps, just wing it. Honk.

Questions, comments, concerns? Thank you for your kind attention! Good luck as you journey on into the world of comprehensive exams! Merci! Gracias! Thank you!

Thank you to Dru Tomlin September 22,

Please join us for our next Doctoral Web Seminar Featuring Heather Lynch Preparing, Writing, and Defending the Prospectus, Oct. 13, AE9B729C8A9B473B37F AE9B729C8A9B473B37F9979

Upcoming Web Seminars: Fall 2011 Writing for Publication, Oct. 27, M.DCEA30C3D E3CC6E786

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