DWRL Lesson Plans - Presentation

Agonistic Debate on a Course Blog

coulson — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:01:44 +0000

Author:

Image Credit:

Wikipedia Commons

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students break up into two groups to engage in agonistic debate regarding an issue in an assigned reading in the course. One group offers a critique of the ideas in the text in a brief written critique posted on a course blog, then the second group formulates a response also posted on the blog, followed by a reply by the first group and an oral debate to finish the assignment and debrief.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

Single Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

The goals of the assignment are to practice written agonistic debate for purposes of discussing forensic debate, particularly the form most commonly found in legal disputes. The assignment is also designed to teach principles of online writing in dispute resolution contexts.

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

In-class computers with internet access and a course blog.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

The assignment requires students to engage in agonistic debate regarding an issue in an assigned reading in the course through both written and oral forms of debate. This facilitates discussion of rhetorical strategies for each for of discourse as well as how they often intersect, while also furthering critical discussion of an assigned text. The assignment is particularly useful for helping students understand the time management and emotional considerations involved in agonistic dispute resolution, particularly the form most commonly found in legal disputes.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

This assignment is best used after the text in question has already been discussed in at least one class period or at least after the students have been given a general introduction to the text in class. To begin the assignment, discuss the purposes of the assignment and the instructions with students. Have students log in to the classroom computers and to the course blog. After the students discuss and submit their blog posts, moderate the discussion in the order of the posts and discuss the challenges and tactics involved in written forensic debate as well as how the students experienced the debate, including a discussion of the emotional component typically involved in taking sides in a dispute. The assignment should ideally be completed in a single class period.

Instructions For Students:

After breaking into groups, Group 1 will have 15 minutes to prepare 3-4 points of criticism of the ideas advanced in the text and post a brief description of the criticisms on the course blog. These may include rebuttals of the arguments advanced or important issues neglected or unanswered by the text. During this time, Group 2 should begin discussing potential points of criticism in an effort to anticipate Group 1's arguments and prepare possible responses. Once Group 1 submits its criticisms on the blog, the roles of the groups will be reversed as Group 2 prepares written responses to Group 1's cricitisms and Group 1 discusses potential points of rebuttal in an effort to anticipate them and prepare a reply. Group 2 will have 15 minutes to prepare its response and post it to the blog. After Group 2 submits its response, the roles will again switch and Group 1 will have 10 minutes to submit any desired reply. At the conclusion of this initial 40 minutes, the groups will orally debate the arguments posted to the blog and discuss how they experienced the debate.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I've never graded this assignment. It's primarily designed to engage students in questions considered during the course and facilitate class discussion.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students have enjoyed the assignment and it has led to critical and engaged discussion regarding key readings in the course.

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Course Description:

In his book On the Contrary, rhetoric scholar Thomas Sloane writes, ”Rhetorical thought is—let us admit it—highly perverse and lawyerly in nature.” In this statement, Sloane not only alludes to the closely intertwined history of rhetoric and law from the earliest days of Western thought to the modern era, but highlights the shared promotion by both of these fields of an agonistic “art of controversy” which seeks to facilitate controversy through the practice of arguing both sides of a case, a practice classical rhetoricians called in utramque partem (“on either side”). The principal theorists of classical Greek and Roman rhetoric promoted agonistic contests in which speakers argued opposite sides of disputed issues, often with specifically judicial contexts in mind, and the American legal system’s adversarial system of justice is founded on a contest of accusation and defense between parties in which each seeks to persuade a judge or jury of disputed issues on opposite sides of a case.

Despite the close relationship between rhetoric and law, however, and the fact that the lawyer remains, in the words of legal scholar James Boyd White, “the modern rhetorician in its purest form,” the modern professionalization of law has frequently attempted to deny or repress the rhetorical aspects of legal discourse and the agonistic conflict on which the adversarial system of justice is founded. Instead, modern law has promoted a view of legal discourse as a value-neutral “science” based on logical deduction and immune to social and political influence. This paradoxical relationship between law and rhetoric in modern legal discourse has produced a recent revival of questions about modern law’s denial of rhetoric, including important questions about the role of character and emotion in legal argument, the role of narrative in the analysis of legal evidence, the effect of the adversarial system of justice on social cohesion and division, and the relationship of legal rhetoric to democracy, coercion, and violence.

We’ll study these questions by first examining the forms of argument used in the legal profession today, focusing on arguments regarding the interpretation of circumstantial evidence in legal cases and the analogical, or case-based, form of legal argument known as “legal reasoning” which is used to argue for or against the application of judicial precedent to new cases. Specifically, we’ll study arguments regarding the evidence in controversial trials such as the 1935 Richard Hauptmann (“Lindbergh Kidnapping”) trial, the 1982 Lindy Chamberlain (“Dingo”) trial, and the 1992 Randy Weaver (“Ruby Ridge”) trial, as well as arguments and judicial opinions in U.S. Supreme Court cases regarding the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure clause and the minimum standards of effective legal advocacy found in the Sixth Amendment’s right to assistance of counsel. After examining the forms and purposes of legal rhetoric as it is actually employed in the legal profession, we’ll then consider contemporary critiques of the adversary system and the agonistic rhetoric on which it depends, including critiques implicit in public perceptions of the legal system and cultural representations of lawyers.

Tags:

Refutation and Rebuttal

Mapping a Controversy Using Dipity Timelines

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:05:33 +0000

Author:

Noel Radley

Image Credit:

Screen shot of "Privacy Identity Innovation" timeline on Dipity

Brief Assignment Overview:

In this lesson, students created Dipity timelines that allow them to integrate multi-media content into a temporal-sequential order. Taking the sources from their first essay, students reflect on the benefits of the multimedia/chronological presentation.

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Single Class Period

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Annotated Bibliography

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

research, revision, reflection, digital literacy

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Dipity acccount, which is free online at Dipity.

Computer-assisted classroom.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

In this lesson, students created Dipity timelines. These timelines allow students to integrate multi-media content into a temporal-sequential order. They can embed their product into websites and other online texts, much like you can embed a Youtube video. The interface is very easy, and the students were able to create timelines within 30 minutes. Students embedded their timelines into the course blog in Drupal (15 minutes). Students also wrote a blog entry (15-30 minutes) that analyzed the differences and benefits of using Dipity to map their controversy as compared to the 4-7 page research Essay 1.1 they had just completed.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I created a sample Dipity timeline and learned the Dipity interface. I also created instructions for how to embed a multi-media element into Drupal. Students also had already researched a controversy that they were able to map in the Dipity timeline.

Students had turned in the Essay 1.1 assignment for Rhetoric 306 at the University of Texas. This essay requires students to research a controversy and map the network of positions within a critical situation. Students already had a working knowledge of their controversy, and thus were able to create a multi-media timeline with links, images, and multi-media content about their controversy.

Instructions For Students:

Today, we are going to be using the online interface Dipity to create a timeline of your controversy from Essay 1.1. For those of you with topics in common, you will be working in groups. For those of you with a unique topic, you will be work individually but will be paired with a neighbor to discuss as you go. Before creating your own Dipity timeline, please survey some of the timelines with your neighbor and discuss what you see.

Instructions for the map:

Please create your own account with Dipity; make sure to pay attention to whether your map is private or public, depending on your preference. As for the map itself, it needs to be connected to your controversy for Essay 1.1 You are free to add as many links and videos as you would like, creating a dynamic, interactive sense of your controversy.

Instructions for embedding into Drupal:

First, write your reflection in the blog using the WYSWIG as normal. Then, you can go to Dipity and copy the embed code. BEFORE you enter the embed code into the blog, you have to change the "Input Format," which is below the field where you are typing. You change the Input to HTML. Paste the embed code into the blog. Finally, hit publish. Just make sure not to go back and forth between input formats. It will mess up your embed code.

Evaluation Suggestions:

The assignment was graded on a basis of completion of the Dipity timeline and the completed blog entry. However, if I had graded it, I could have considered: the number of items on the timeline, the quality of their reflection on the learning experience with Dipity, and whether they followed instructions to embed the timeline into Drupal.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students loved the assignment. They were engaged in watching Youtube videos, finding new articles and links, and discussing the Dipity interface with their classmates. Some students expressed that they wished they had done the Dipity assignment before Essay 1.1. They were able to complete the assignment in one day, which was incredibly satisfying. They also found new sources for their rewrite assignment (Essay 1.2). Finally, students commented that creating the map was in some ways superior to their written map of the controversy, since it appealed to the senses with visual and textual content. They said it helped them to understand the controversy better.

Things I would change: The timelines students created could have had more links and events, if we had given them time to gather links before class. If I did it again, I would have them come in with previously discovered internet media, or have them build the map over two days. Finally, I would introduce the Dipity assignment before Essay 1.1 to give students time to draw from the concepts and research for their first essay.

Course Description:

Rhetoric 306 is a course in argumentation that situates rhetoric as an art of civic discourse. It is designed to enhancestudents' ability to analyze the various positions held in any public debateand to advocate positions effectively. Students work in this course willhelp them advance the critical writing and reading needed to succeed in coursesfor their major and university degree.

Tags:

Using Prezi to Tour Course Syllabus

Cate Blouke — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:17:32 +0000

Author:

Cate Blouke

Image Credit:

Screen Shot of Prezi presentation

Brief Assignment Overview:

Make the first day of class more engaging by creating a Prezi to introduce the major concepts on your syllabus. This offers students some visualization tools for what can be a tedious lecture.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Presentations

Remediation

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

To help students absorb syllabus materials through visualization

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Required Materials:

This demonstration will require internet access and a classroom equipped with a media console. You will also need to sign up for a Prezi account, but they are free.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

First Day/Week

Full Assignment Description:

This particular lesson plan doesn't require much explanation, but I'll use this space to address why it strikes me as useful and to provide suggestions.

The first day of class is typically a bit rough - both for instructors and students alike. For the students, the first day of classes generally means a long series of introductions and going over syllabi. While a few of the more industrious students are likely to take notes while instructors read the syllabus at them, most students are more likely to zone out or glaze over during the monotany. As a result, the specific details of the four or five or six syllabi they've been given tend to blend together (or simply go in one ear and out the other). Using a Prezi to introduce your syllabus will a) make it stand out from the students' other classes, and therefore b) possibly make it stick in their heads a bit longer.

Obviously, Powerpoint would work for this assignment as well, but I prefer Prezi for several reasons. First, students are less familiar with Prezi (at least at the time that I'm writing this, in fall of 2011), so the novelty of Prezi's unique zipping and zooming seems to grab their attention more effectively than the familiar slide-by-slide presentation in Powerpoint. And if your class is going to be focused on digital learning/writing, then introducing the course materials via Prezi is in keeping with your pedagogical values and will set the stage nicely for the kind of work you may be expecting of the students.

Prezi is pretty user-friendly (once you get the hang of it) and doesn't require any specific software on your or the school's computer (so it's more portable, which is handy if you don't know what kind of computer you'll have available in your classroom).

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

If you haven't used Prezi before, I recommend giving yourself a few hours to set up this presentation. Don't try to do it the morning before class, since it's likely to take at least an hour or two your first time. As I noted above, Prezi is user-friendly - once you get the hang of it. It's easy to insert images, to re-size things, and to organize a lot of information, but it will inevitably take a fair bit of fussing to get it right. The playback function can also be temperamental, especially if your presentation layout isn't linear.

I would recommend using as many images as possible so that you don't fall into the trap of simply condensing the information on your syllabus into a fancy bulleted list. Given my unfamiliarity with Prezi (the first time I used it), I relied heavily on text and the presentation was consequently less effective than it might have been. It was still much better than simply reading to them, however, so even if you can't come up with images that fit, I highly recommend this strategy.

Instructions For Students:

Don't fall asleep.

Evaluation Suggestions:

N/A

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

This presentation certainly engaged my students better than any other time I've gone over a syllabs before. I will continue to use it in future, but I will also give myself pleny of time to put it together.

Also, special thanks to my colleague, Sydney Bufkin, whose twitter post gave me the idea to do this in my classroom (and then share it with you).

Course Description:

I first used this in my E314J "Literature and Theatre" course, but it would work for any class.

Tags:

Syllabus

Prezi

Presentation

Introductory Exercise

Free Software

Remediation