DWRL Lesson Plans - Single Class Period

Course Description:

This course will explore the rhetoric within and around artistic performance, including theatre, music, dance, and performance art. Students will engage with performance as argument, including visual rhetoric and other forms of non-verbal argumentation. The course will also investigate the rhetorical techniques that artists, advertisers, critics, and audiences use when speaking about performance. You will select a specific performance that interests you and engage in an in-depth written exploration of its rhetorical situation: the performer, the audience, the time and place, the arguments made by the piece itself, and the discussion surrounding it. After examining the arguments of and around the piece, you will select a rhetorical aspect of the performance or an argument about it to analyze in detail, showing how it makes and supports a claim. Having thoroughly investigated the rhetoric of this performance, you will make your own argument about it, in both performative and written form. In this way, you will gain a thorough understanding of how performance makes arguments, how we speak about performances, and what we mean when we use the word “performance.”

Tags:

Logos

Mind mapping paper 3

Schultz — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 17:36:05 +0000

Author:

Patrick Shulz

Image Credit:

"Guru Mindmap". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guru_Mindmap.jpg#/media/File:Guru_Mindmap.jpg

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students brainstorm and outline an persuasive essay using free online mind mapping tools.

Type of Assignment:

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Arrangement

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Organization

Pre-Writing

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Visualization

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Students need internet access and a word processing software.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Late in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Students use the online mind mapping tool Mindmup (https://www.mindmup.com) to brainstorm ideas for their persuasive essay. Mindmup is free and easy to use (from their website: "MindMup is a free, opensource, online mindmapping canvas. Our aim is to build the most productive mind map system online."). Students save and share their work on their Google Drive or save it as a PDF.

An additional worksheet on "Inventing arguments" helps them come up with ideas.

They then use the mindmap to develop an outline for their paper.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Print out instruction, familiairize with mindmup web site.

Instructions For Students:

Preparing for paper 3: Mind maps

Create a mind map outlining your paper 3.1.

Instructions:

1. Go to https://www.mindmup.com

2. Create a new mind map, either public or on your Google Drive (comes with UTMail).

3. Put your claim in the first bubble.

4. Draw a mind map that outlines your paper. Right click to select a box. Hit “Tab” or right click ‘– add child” to add boxes.

5. You need to include at least:

Venue and Audience

Reasons to believe

Reasons to trust

Reasons to feel

Evidence you will use

6. When you run out of ideas, use the “Developing arguments”-worksheet (attached) to come up with more material.

7. Once you are done,
- add your name
- save as .pdf and print out (File – Print)*

*If Mindmup returns an error, just try again – the second attempt seems to work usually.

8. How do you put these ideas together into a coherent paper?

Create an outline:

-----------------------------------------

Inventing Arguments

Name: _____________________________

State your principal claim. Invent at least one reason in each of the six categories given below. You can read up on these in your Controversies textbook, pgs. 121-132.

Principal Claim:

Induction:

Analogy:

Difference:

Correlation:

Definition:

Causation:

Additional Resources:

Course Type:

Course Description:

RHE 306: Rhetoric and Writing

This course is grounded in the rhetorical analysis of "controversies," broadly defined. It is divided into three units, each one requiring some sort of outside research. The first two units are devoted to rhetorical analysis; they are mostly descriptive and allow students to become familiar with what is being said and how. The third unit is devoted to advocacy; having become familiar with the controversy, students now take a position within it and produce an informed argument for that position.

Tags:

Mind map

Teaching Close Reading through Short Composition/Revision

garbacz — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 22:19:51 +0000

Image Credit:

C.M. Battey (1873-1927), via the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division.

Brief Assignment Overview:

This lesson teaches close reading by having students compose, and then analyze, openings to biographical narratives about “great Americans.”

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Textual Analysis

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Citation

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Printouts or electronic copies of student compositions.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

First Day/Week

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Students bring to class segments of fiction or creative nonfiction (100-300 words) they have prepared, introducing a “great American” (very broadly defined). They then form into groups, and each group choses one story to revise and quote, focusing on the way its various elements (organization, vocabulary, selection of events) work together to cast a vision both for the character discussed, and for America as a whole. The class contributes to two larger discussions: that about the nature of literary evidence, and that about the constructedness of national narratives.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Prepare a brief lecture introducing the nature of literary evidence (words and phrases that are tied to larger patterns present throughout the text) and describing the “quotation sandwich” (summarize a quotation, quote it, and then analyze it.) This can be done the class before (especially if you have 50-minute classes) or at the beginning of class (in the case of 75-minute classes.)

Instructions For Students:

[Note: as in all group activities, I find it particularly useful to insist that each student records or presents one aspect of the work. Therefore, the student who wrote the story should not mark the story, a different group member should type the analysis, and a fourth student (assuming groups of four) should read the analysis to the class.]

1) Each student should have already composed the first 100-300 words for a fictional narrative about a historical figure he or she feels represents distinctively American virtues, and posted this to the class discussion site. If you are not using a tech-enabled classroom, these narratives should be printed as well.

2) In class, students will be assigned into groups. Each group should choose one member’s paper for analysis (not necessarily the “best” story, but certainly the one they feel most comfortable analyzing.)

3) Have students mark the compositions, focusing on key words and phrases that might hint at the ways their characters represent larger “American” virtues.

4) Have students compose *and post online* (or write, if using a non-digital classroom) a short analysis of the chosen narrative, focusing in particular on the way that tensions or conflicts within the text recreate a particular vision of what it means to be American.

5) Have students read the paragraph they have written out loud to the class.

6) If possible, gently guide class discussion towards appreciation for both the diversity of ways texts reflect larger attitudes, and for the ways this process is mappable at even the smallest levels of the text.

7) Remind students that the close readings will remain online as an example to consult when creating their Close Reading Assignments.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Because this is not a creative writing course, I found it essential not to grade students’ actual compositions. Instead, the compositions received full credit as long as effort was made. The group analysis of the compositions could be graded, though I chose instead to give credit on a credit/no-credit basis.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

The exercise was met with a certain degree of awkwardness, but by and large students enjoyed the change of pace and profited from the discussion. I found it particularly important to spend time chatting with each group individually, so as to provide further guidance as to what constitutes “literary evidence” and how it can be quoted.

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

This exercise was used in a lower-division, writing-flag literature course focused on national narratives. Students ranged from first-years to seniors, and came from a number of majors across campus.

Tags:

Speed Dating with Thesis Statements

Amy Tuttle — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 20:40:00 +0000

Author:

Amy Tuttle

Image Credit:

Amy Tuttle

Brief Assignment Overview:

Meet a room full of thesis statements that want to meet YOU!

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Kairos

Style

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Having computers for every student would enable them to save electronic copies of their documents with ease; however, this exercise could easily be adapted for use with pen and paper.

You will need a stopwatch or other timing device.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

For this activity, have students bring in a draft of their proposed thesis statement. After a short introduction about what you expect from their thesis statements (which could vary widely, depending on what type of class you’re teaching), provide questions for students to answer about their peers’ claims.

Give students 2 minutes to provide feedback to each thesis statement, as you keep time and facilitate their rotation around the room.

When they’ve made a complete rotation, each student should have a document full of suggestions about how to improve their existing thesis statements.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Instruct students to bring working drafts of their thesis statements to class on the day of the exercise.

Make sure you have a stopwatch or some other timing device handy.

Some instructors may prefer to use an audible signal, like a bell or an alarm, but there's really no other prep involved.

Instructions For Students:

Write your thesis statement in a Word document and save it to your computer as LastNameTHESIS. It may help your readers if you make the thesis statement stand out in some way (larger font, highlighting, bold, etc).

Once everyone is finished writing and saving their thesis statements in the document, you will stand up and move one computer to the right (or clockwise, if computers are in a circular format).

Sit down and read the thesis statement in front of you.

Below the thesis statement, give feedback to the author of the thesis statement about the effectiveness of his or her claim.

Try to respond by rewriting the thesis statement for clarity and specificity. Consider the following templates:

Tell more about WHY the author's claim is persuasive by adding a "because" statement.
Foreground something you really like about the thesis statement by expanding on it. Offer additional significance.
Foreground something that is unclear by making the thesis statement more specific. Replace vague words and phrases with clearer ones.

If you are unable to rewrite the thesis statement, offer narrative feedback, telling the author:

Why you agree with their thesis statement
What you like about their thesis statement
What you wish you knew more about their thesis statement
What confuses you about their thesis statement
What you wonder about their thesis statement
What their thesis statement makes you think of

Hit save after you've left your feedback.

Remember that you will only have two minutes to read and respond to each thesis statement, so think quickly and succinctly. I will signal you when it's time to rotate again.

Also, upon subsequent rotations, remember to return to the author's original thesis statement, leaving all peer feedback intact for the author.

We will repeat this process until you arrive back at your original document, which should be full of ideas for revision!

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

First Day Introduction to Rhetoric Prezi

Literary Studies Course

First Day Introduction to Rhetoric Prezi

Sloan — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 23:44:32 +0000

Image Credit:

Casey Sloan

Brief Assignment Overview:

This Prezi presentation is designed to introduce students to basic rhetorical concepts on the first day of class. I used this Prezi in an RHE 309k course The Rhetoric of Superheroes, but it can be adapted to work for any introduction to rhetoric class. By analyzing two character speeches in Christopher Nolan's 2008 movie The Dark Knight, students will learn about audience, style, and evidence while developing a working definitin of rhetoric. The presentation includes several writing and group discussion prompts along with the basic lecture content.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Performance

Structure and Form

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Multimedia

Presentations

Video

Media Requirements:

First Day Introduction to Rhetoric Prezi

Required Materials:

Media console/ projector, Prezi

Timeline for Optimal Use:

First Day/Week

Full Assignment Description:

Walking through this presentation with students should take up a full class session. I have included some relevant notes/ writing prompts for each slide below

Slide 1: Before showing the video, make sure all of your students know the basic plot of Nolan's movie. Summarize and give context if necessary. (A thorough understanding of the film is not required for a reading of the speeches). Play Alfred's speech for students through once. Ask them to take detailed notes during a second playthrough, paying close attention to Alfred's argument. What is Alfred trying to get Bruce to do/feel/believe/think? How is he making his argument? What are his argumentative tactics? Play the video a second time and give students a few minutes to write a paragraph defining Alfred's argument and detailing how his argument is made.

Slide 2: This slide includes a few important points about Alfred's rhetorical strategies. Use this moment to discuss the importance of audience (Alfred's relatinship with Bruce impacts the way the two communicate). You can also talk about Alfred's use of the anecdote as evidence and his appeal to Bruce's (and the viewing audience's) emotions.

Slide 3: Alfred's argumentative strategies can lead into a discussion about the definition of rhetoric. Before showing this slide, ask students to write down their current definition of rhetoric. Have volunteers share their ideas and discuss. This slide shows my current understanding of rhetoric and presents two discussion questions on crucial aspects of the concept (communication as an "art" with intentional stylistic choices and the ethical dimensions of communication/ argumentation).

Slide 4: I used this slide to spell out the major goals of my course. If you download the Prezi, you can insert your own class objectives.

Slide 5: Another speech from Nolan's movie. Repeat writing prompts from Slide 1

Slide 6: Student introductions

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Download the Prezi and insert your own course goals on slide 4. View the videos and take your own notes on how each rhetor constructs his argument.

Instructions For Students:

Before the presentation, ask students to take out pen and paper for the writing prompts throughout the Prezi.

Course Type:

Course Description:

RHE 309K is a rhetoric course at the University of Texas at Austin that focuses on reserach and writing skills, rhetorical analysis and the study of persuasion. My particular course teaches rhetorical concepts through superhero fictions and culture.

Tags:

Introductory Exercise

Prezi

Multimedia Presentation

Multimedia

Exercises in Style

Boruszak — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 22:10:54 +0000

Author:

Jeffrey Boruszak

Image Credit:

Claude Strassart-Springer, from the book "Alphabet" by Raymond Queneau (image from Wikimedia Commons)

Brief Assignment Overview:

Teach revisions and the infinite possibilities of rewriting the same paragraph with this exercise, adopted from Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style.

Type of Assignment:

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Multimedia

Remix

Media Requirements:

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

This assignment is meant to be a fun activity that allows students to exercise their creative muscles, while simultaneously demonstrating the possibilities of revising style for different audiences. The lesson plan in adopted from Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style (first published in English 1958). In this book, Queneau writes a single (2 page) short story, in which a narrator sees an argument on a bus, and then later recognizes one of the men on the street due to his strange hat. Queaneu then rewrites the story 99 different ways--for example, he rewrites the book as a sonnet, in slang, using exclamation points in every sentence, and even grouping words by the number of letters they contain.

I use this assignment immediately after students submit the first draft of their second essay, giving students the opportunity to either complete it in class, or work on it for credit over the next week. Students select what they believe to be their weakest paragraph from the essay they just submitted. How they evaluate the term "weakest" is up to them--all I ask is that it is a paragraph that they would genuinely like to rework and to which they would like to pay closer attention. After having students answer questions about why they would like to revise that paragraph, I turn them loose on revisions. Typically I provide a copy of Exercises in Style for reference, but some sample exercises I suggest are:

Translate the paragraph to another language, and then back to English (either on your own or through Google Translate)
Rewrite the paragraph as a tweet with 140 character limit (include mentions and hashtags if possible)
Create lists of parts of speech, and place each word under the correct category
Record yourself reading the paragraph outloud, and set it to music or remix it
Rewrite the paragraph as an internet meme

After rewriting the paragraph five times, students are asked to respond to a few questions reflecting on the process, before revising the paragraph for the next draft. The reflective questions ask them to consider their own writing voices and styles. The assignment is graded as complete/incomplete--students that actively participate in the assignment and satisfactorily meet the requirements get credit for attending class, those that do not meet the requirements are marked absent for the day.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I suggest skimming Exercises in Style in order to familiarize yourself with some potential options with students. PDFs of the first few story permutations are easily found through Google, and most University libraries should have a copy (the most recent edition is published by New Directions, and translated by Barbara Wright). Creating your own list of suggested processes is useful as well--students might be paralyzed by the "anything goes" aspect of the assignment, and creating a list of suggestions helps them get started.

Instructions For Students:

Reflect carefully on the essay that you just submitted, and choose the paragraph that you believe was the weakest in the essay. In a few sentences, describe the specific reasons you felt this paragraph needed improvement. Did it not have enough quotes? Too many quotes? Was it too long or short? Did it feel repetitive? Out of place in the essay? Did you just plain run out of time to revise it?

Experiment with your paragraph by rewriting it five times in entirely different styles. You might choose a model for your style (a favorite book, movie, song, etc.). Rewrite it as a poem. As a speech. Or you might choose a constraint a la Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. This is your chance to be creative and stretch your wings. The sky is the limit on this assignment.

Once you have rewritten the paragraph in five different ways, reread them all. Which was your favorite, and why? Was it just the style that made the paragraph your favorite? Or did you substantively change your paragraph's content as well? Now, answer the hardest question of all: Why don't you always write in this style? Is it the demands of the formal academic context? Or had you just not considered it at all? Do you think this style can be assimilated to your own voice when writing papers?

Now that you've had a little fun, and really atomized how the paragraph is put together, revise it in a way that you would like it to appear in your revised. And remember: sometimes the only way to improve a draft is by playing around and experimenting with it.

In order to be considered complete, the following must be submitted in a single document:

The original paragraph from your essay
A reflection on why or how it needs improvement (minimum 1 paragraph)
FIVE rewrites, with an indication of the rewrite's style
A reflection on the experiment process, answering the questions in the third paragraph of the assignment instructions
A fully revised paragraph for the next essay

If you rewrite a paragraph in a non-text format, include links to the material, or email it to me separately.

Evaluation Suggestions:

The key to this assignment is effort, so I suggest a simple complete/incomplete grading rubric. Numerical or letter grades might discourage students' creativity or invention--the use of which are not always highlighted in introductory composition classrooms, but which are critical for high levels of writing.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

This was an especially successful assignment in my class. Students responded positively, and they especially enjoyed the ability to follow their own interests. Some asked me about whether or not they could use curse words--I encouraged it as long as it was relevant to the style of their rewrite. The assignment was completed by all students within a 75 minute class period (with computers available in the room).

Additional Resources:

The Wikipedia article on Exercises in Style, which includes a list of all styles used in the book.

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Tags:

Words in Motion: Kairos and Kinetic Typography

Amy Tuttle — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:51:24 +0000

Author:

Amy Tuttle

Image Credit:

PowerPoint Spice

Brief Assignment Overview:

Kinetic typography is an animation technique that allows writers to mix text and motion. Students will take part of a speech or a piece of dialogue and animate it, carefully considering how they might visually enforce and/or subvert the text's underlying themes.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Style

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Microsoft PowerPoint

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

In film and live performance, the use of time allows a writer/designer to show the reader/viewer/audience precisely what s/he wishes when s/he wishes. Kinetic typography is fundamentally different from static typography on a page, and those differences are explored in this project. In order to understand and appreciate the implications of using time as an available means of persuasion, students will create a kinetic type animation using PowerPoint, to accompany a quote of their choice.

Students are to find a brief quote to animate. The quote can be selected from poetry, music, stage, or screenplay, but the best quotes are often the ones that offer a range of emotions. Students will visually represent their selected text by expressing the content with typographic elements sequenced over a span of time. Students will carefully consider relationships between the spoken word and the visible and dynamic word, attending to variables like, typeface, typesize, weight, color, texture, focus, orientation, entrance, performance, exit, sequence, speed, pacing, transition, transformation, timing, tone, emotion, feeling, atmosphere, and interpretation.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Traditionally, shorter quotes work better for beginning animators. So, instructors may choose to provide a fixed list of quotes from which students may select their text for this project.

This lesson plan would work well in tandem with lessons related to visual rhetorics in which students build visual analysis skills by examining the visual features of texts.

Instructions For Students:

Having seen the examples in class, you will complete a short piece of kinetic typography. Choose a favorite quote and animate it using Microsoft PowerPoint. You may want to start by learning how to use PowerPoint's animation features. YouTube features a number of tutorials like this one that you may find useful.

Next, pick a quote. Write it down. Begin brainstorming what you might do with it. Think of ways to visualize the content of the quote using only text and shapes. Think about how the timing and/or motion of the elements might function rhetorically, or work together with the quote's content. Questions to keep in mind as you work: How difficult will this be? Will it add much to the final product (compared to the amount of work it will take)?

Then, get to animating! Try to take the quote apart so that the kinetic typography offers us a kind of visual analysis, showing something that wasn’t immediately obvious about the quote.

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Bridging Summary and Analysis with Standup Clips

Plourde — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:51:20 +0000

Author:

Aubrey Plourde

Image Credit:

Image Credit: Cory Schmitz

Brief Assignment Overview:

This assignment uses clips from standup comedy specials to hone student skills of summary and synethesis, for the controversy map essay assignment. It can also function as a precursor to Unit 2, Rhetorical Analysis. At this point, they have gathered data on the contexts of their controversy, and performed two summaries of viewpoints. They are currently writing their controversy maps, which require them to demonstrate that they can identify and incorporate a speaker's major claims and supporting statements. This summary exercise is meant to help students practice those skills and to introduce rhetorical analysis.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Writing Process

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This class activity came out of several grading sessions, wherein I realized my students were having a hard time subordinating an author's points during a summary. They seemed to give each of the author's statements equal weight, without differentiating between which ideas were primary and which were more supporting details. So while this activity is meant to reinforce the skills of summary and syntehsis, it's foremost an thought-exercise, which I hoped would help them give themselves permission to fairly emphasize certain statements over others.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

This activity will go more smoothly if each student can efficiently take notes. I allow them to take digital notes on a laptop or tablet, but this isn't strictly necessary. The project does require that the instructor have a media console and projector.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

Ask students to sit in groups of three. These groups will be informal, and they shouldn't get too hung up on them. Most of their work will be individual, but asking them to share with a tiny group before discussing with the entire class can make them feel more confident.

Screen a clip from a popular comedian's standup special. I chose Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, and Bill Burr, to get a range of comedic styles. Each clip should last no more than 3-4 minutes, although the length will of course be based on the amount of time devoted to a single topic within the special. I also chose clips that I felt addressed primary controversies circulating in the news, and ones I felt my students would probably be familiar with.

Ask students to take notes on the clip and to identify the comedian's main point. Then ask them to fill in the supporting details.

Students should share their breakdown of the clip with their miniature group.

Once they have had a chance to discuss (this should only take two minutes or so), get a class consensus about what the comedian is "really" talking about, and what lines are there for effect or support. This is an opportunity to point out which points may seem like they're geting a lot of focus but are actually in the clip for a laugh or for emphasis.

Students should be able to summarize the clip in one statement. Encourage them to write an informal thesis as a class. For example, "In this bit, Aziz Ansari pokes fun at gender conventions by highlighting the arbitrariness of marriage rituals." This statement bridges a summary understanding of the text and an introduction to basic analysis. The extent to which the dicussion veers toward how the comedian's performance and language are affecting the humor is flexible; depending on how far the instructor would like to introduce or foreshadow Unit 2, this activity could stick to summary, or it could invite students to begin considering ethos, logos, pathos, and so on.

Repeat the exercise two or three times, time permitting, and debrief with students. They should feel more confident identifying primary and secondary points, especially with such a flexible genre.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I recommend converting the YouTube videos to an MP4 file that can be embedded in a Prezi or PowerPoint. This avoids the mid-class confusion of watching ads, finding the right clips, and so on.

Instructions For Students:

1. Watch the following comedy clip.

2. Take notes on what is being said.

3. When the clip is finished, re-read your notes and organize the bit based on its primary argument and its supporting subpoints.

4. Discuss with your group: compare your own breakdown of the primary and secondary claims with the others. Be prepared to report your organization to the class.

Repeat with three different clips, time allowing.

Homework:

1. Find your own clip.

2. Take notes on the content and revise your notes into some kind of outline that separates the main ideas from the subpoints.

3. Write up a short paragraph summarizing and synthesizing the comedian's argument.

4. Post both the paragraph and a link to the clip on the Canvas discussion board.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I ask students to share their choice/phrasing of the comedian's main argument and subpoints with the class. This is an informal evaluation, but it allows me to both determine their comfort with pulling out the major threads of an argument and to encourage them to make those distinctions between which ideas are emphasized and which are supplemental.

I also ask students to do one more summary/synthesis on a Canvas discussion board. They find their own set of clips, summarize them and synthesize their relationship to one another, and post their writing with the clip link on Canvas. I grade it for completion, but it can be a good, efficient way to guage whether students can differentiate between main ideas and subpoints.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

My PowerPoint didn't actually work, but I did have the separate downloaded clips, so it went relatively smoothly. Despite the technical glitch, I got a lot of positive feedback on this assignment. I think my students liked the project simply for content--it made a nice vacation from reading arguments about marijuana legalization--but they did also seemed to really enjoy applying their summary skills to less-conventional media. After we discussed the major/minor points, they enjoyed very briefly discussing how the rhetorical turns worked, which was what made me think this assignment worked well as a pseudo-bridge between Unit 1 (research/summary) and Unit 2 (analysis).

Course Type:

Course Description:

Rhetoric 306 is a course designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of research and argumentation. They are asked to research a controversy, summarize and analyze the arguments of the major stakeholders in that controversy, and then develop their own arguments.

Tags:

Performance

Bridging Summary and Analysis with Standup Clips

Plourde — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:51:15 +0000

Author:

Aubrey Plourde

Image Credit:

Image Credit: Cory Schmitz

Brief Assignment Overview:

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Writing Process

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

Ask students to take notes on the clip and to identify the comedian's main point. Then ask them to fill in the supporting details.

Students should share their breakdown of the clip with their miniature group.

Repeat the exercise two or three times, time permitting, and debrief with students. They should feel more confident identifying primary and secondary points, especially with such a flexible genre.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I recommend converting the YouTube videos to an MP4 file that can be embedded in a Prezi or PowerPoint. This avoids the mid-class confusion of watching ads, finding the right clips, and so on.

Instructions For Students:

1. Watch the following comedy clip.

2. Take notes on what is being said.

3. When the clip is finished, re-read your notes and organize the bit based on its primary argument and its supporting subpoints.

4. Discuss with your group: compare your own breakdown of the primary and secondary claims with the others. Be prepared to report your organization to the class.

Repeat with three different clips, time allowing.

Homework:

1. Find your own clip.

2. Take notes on the content and revise your notes into some kind of outline that separates the main ideas from the subpoints.

3. Write up a short paragraph summarizing and synthesizing the comedian's argument.

4. Post both the paragraph and a link to the clip on the Canvas discussion board.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Course Type:

Course Description:

Tags:

Performance

Teaching Kairos through Allegorical Performances

Streusand — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:04:28 +0000

Author:

Deb Streusand

Image Credit:

Len Radin

Brief Assignment Overview:

This lesson teaches the concept of rhetorical kairos by placing allegorical performances in their historical context.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Kairos

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Projector

Computer with the capacity to stream video

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

This in-class exercise uses Arthur Miller's The Crucible and an episode of the television show Battlestar Galactica to teach rhetorical kairos. It will help if the students have done reading on kairos ahead of time. I used chapter 2 of Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. Class began with a brief lecture introducing the concept of kairos, using examples such as Sandy Hook and 9/11 to demonstrate how events can open up an opportunity to make an argument on a specific issue. Next, I described the situation at the time of The Crucible's production, explaining the phenomenon of McCarthyism, which turned out to be review for many of the students. On the projector, I showed the students this video of the courtroom scene in the play. The class discussed the parallels between the McCarthyist approach to communism and the Salem Witch Trials as portrayed in the play. I explained how performances can use allegory to make comments on current events. I told the class that I would now play them a video and have them tell me what conversation the performance was contributing to. I played them the beginning and the ending of the Battlestar Galactica episode "Collaborators," which combines various issues from the Iraq War, including government authorization for torture, punishment without trial, and the killing of civilians by the miltary. I told the students only that the episode aired in 2006. They were able to make the connection between the episode and Guantanamo Bay. I had to explain what the other elements of the Iraq War the episode portrayed by allegory. The discussion afterwards covered how both performances made use of allegory to make an argument about current events. The students will shortly be doing rhetorical analyses of the performances they are writing about this semester, so the goal was to get them to see how kairos operates in performances specifically as well as to understand kairos in general.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Prepare a brief lecture introducing the concept of kairos. Watch the videos. Make notes on the elements of allegory you want to make sure the students pick up on.

Instructions For Students:

Watch the performance and take notes on any allegorical elements you see in them.

Evaluation Suggestions:

This assignment was not evaluated. The students will be evaluated on the rhetorical analyses of the performances they saw, papers that will follow this assignment in the chronology of the class.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Based on the discussion, the students did understand that the performances were using allegory to make a comment on current events and that they were taking advantage of a pre-existing conversation about the issues at hand. If I did this again, I would follow up in the next class with an example of a well-timed argument made in writing based on current events, so the students could see how kairos is used outside of allegory or performance.

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