DWRL Lesson Plans - Patrick Shulz

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:

Introductory Writing Course

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 Credibility with Twitter

Schultz — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 23:48:25 +0000

Author:

Patrick Shulz

Image Credit:

Twitter

Brief Assignment Overview:

Introducing the concept of credibility by analyzing tweets.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Ethos

Rhetorical Analysis

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Research

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Multimedia

Social Media

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Required Materials:

Twitter

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

This in-class exercise/discussion gets students to think about author credibility. It familiarizes them with concepts and terminology they will need 1) when researching and writing papers and 2) for rhetorical analysis.This lesson plan is based on a paper studying the credibility of Twitter users ("Tweeting is believing?", available online: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/155374/tweet_credibility_cscw2012.pdf). In this study, participants rate the credibility of tweets such as the following:

First step: To start things off, students rate the credibility of these tweets (or bring your own). They then come up with criteria that influenced their ratings.

In the study, among the most important indicators of credibility are:
1) "verified author topic expertise", "author often tweets on topic",
2) "personal photo as user image", "credible user name"
3) "non-standard grammar/punctuation".
4) "is a RT [retweet] from someone you trust"

The students will come up with similar criteria. To illustrate, teachers can then show made-up tweets such as:

@SillyKitty95
There is life on Mars.
v.
@NASA
There is life on Mars.
v.
@SillyKitty95
RT @NASA: There is life on Mars.
v.
@NASA
There is life on Mars ;).
v.
@NASA
Their's life on Mars.

For each example, students discuss which feature affects the tweet's credibility in what way.
Second step: The point, obviously, is then to point out how these criteria apply to TV news, newspaper editorials, books, research articles, and other publications that students work with every day. Since a lot of students work with newspaper editorials in RHE 306, I try to make it explicit for that genre: What is the equivalent to a credible user name? How do we assess "verified author topic expertise" in this context? Can we find out whether the author often "tweets" about this topic? What is the newspaper equivalent to a retweet? A short discussion of differences (edited content v. social media) could/should/might follow.
As a third step, students should try to apply these ideas to their own writing. Some, such as "non-standard grammar", will be obvious. But what are other ways of improving credibility? They might discuss how to signal author expertise (e.g. by citing external research), how to present a "personal photo" in writing (e.g. discussing personal experience and background) and how the use of non-standard grammar/punctuation will affect their credibility.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Read the paper. Bring some tweets to class, made-up or real. Any part of the paper may be used in class: "Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copiesbear this notice and the full citation on the first page."

Instructions For Students:

See above.

Evaluation Suggestions:

No evaluation.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

RHE 306. Rhetoric and Writing
An introductory writing course that includes instruction in practical reasoning and the principles of rhetoric.

Composing Tutorials for Navigating Databases

Schultz — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:18:29 +0000

Author:

Patrick Shulz

Image Credit:

"Database cleanup work" by windsordi on Flikr

Brief Assignment Overview:

RHE 306 group work: Students write short manuals outlining how to use databases (LexisNexis, Infotrac Newsstand, Academic One File, Opposing Viewpoints, Google/Wikipedia).

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

Single Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Audience

Delivery

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Research

Summary

Technical Writing

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Teach students how to use databases; students familiarize themselves with advanced search techniques

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Each group needs at least one computer with internet access; probably will not work very well outside computer classrooms.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

We look at the UT library website to find opinion, editorial and viewpoint articles.

Then students work in groups of four or five; each group produces a guide (including screenshots) to one database to help their classmates use this database. I usually make them them look at LexisNexis, Infotrac Newsstand, Academic Onefile, Opposing Viewpoints, (Factiva), Google/Wikipedia.

They basically write down (1) how to search the database most efficiently (2) how to find opinion articles as opposed to news reports (3) what kind of material this database offers. See below for detailed instructions.

They then present their findings to class and e-mail the completed manual to me. I put the .pdf on the wiki for students to use later on. We talk about strengths and weaknesses of each database (How to use texts from Opposing Viewpoints? Is it okay to use Wikipedia? etc.).

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Print out worksheets and familiarize yourself with databases enough to assist students.

Instructions For Students:

This is the worksheet (needs a little adaptation to work with Google/Wikipedia).

Group X: Database X

Go to the University of Texas Libraries website, and access the databases

Pick a topic you are interested in (or just use the "Texas textbooks" example) and search for material in this database.

1. Do you get useful results? How can you sort your results?

2. Does the database focus on a specific sort of text, e.g. scholarly articles, newspaper reports, editorials? Does it include other media such as videos?

3. Is it easy to tell opinion articles and news texts apart? What is the easiest way to find an opinion article?

4. Take screenshots* of the homepage and the results page, be prepared to show your classmates how to navigate the database.

5. Does the database have an “Advanced Search” feature? How can you filter your results? (For example, can you restrict the search to a text genre like “editorial” or a newspaper, e.g. “The New York Times”?).

6. Take a screenshot of the “Advanced Search” interface and be prepared to show your classmates how to use this feature.

7. What is good/bad about this database? Does it have any special features that seem helpful?

8. Is it a good place to find material for your research summary? Why (not)?

9. Put all the screenshots in a word document (one per group) and write a little manual on how to use this database. Present to class and email the document to the instructor. Make sure to put the names of all group members in the document.

*Taking a screenshot on a Mac: Press Command-Shift-3. The image will be saved to the desktop. In Word, click “Insert”, then choose “Picture”/”from file” in the drop down menu to insert the image into your word document.

Taking a screenshot in Windows: Press F14. Open “Paint”. Click paste. Save image to desktop. In Word, click “Insert” and then “Picture”.

Evaluation Suggestions:

It was not graded.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

RHE 306:

Tags:

Advanced Search Techniques

Group Work