Jack's blog

Revising and Rewriting

Jack — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:25:09 -0500

Here is a powerpoint I made to help my students understand the difference between revising, rewriting, and editing. I presented this to them before they attempted their first rewrite. I took it directly from CDA 213-222. I hope this is helpful.

Identity

Jack — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:08:21 -0400

This week we have been discussing the concept of identity in the classroom. We are finishing the reading from RUG 33-54 and focussing on the ethos of the students. I was given a great idea by a fellow medievalist to help students further develop their sense of identity. I asked the students to bring in one object that represents who they are for class on Thursday. They will be asked to explain why they chose the object they will have chosen and what significance it has to their identity. On Monday, I will be bringing in four objects that represent who I think I am. I will give the students the chance to evaluate these objects and the possible reasons I chose them.

Class this week

Jack — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:58:10 -0400

I decided to assign a second response paper before the first 3-5 p. paper. I am hoping this will help the students develop their writing styles a bit further (or, if nothing else, forcing them to practice more). The students were required to outline this second response paper and to provide the typed outline with their paper when they turned it in yesterday. There were a great many organizational problems with the first response. I also assigned the first paper yesterday, which will be due next monday. I will attach and post this assignment as well as the grading/assessment guidline on the materials page with all the other posted materials.

Yesterday's Class

Jack — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:12:00 -0400

In class on Tuesday we discussed Rug pgs. 21-32 in which Ramage compares rhetoric with the legal system. I had the class brainstorm about laws, listing on the board those which they felt were black and white and those which they felt were gray laws. It was an interesting discussion, and the students seemed to have some strong emotions and opinions concerning certain laws. In fact, one student stated that she felt every law was, in some way, a gray law, that--and thank you Socratic method--"circumstances alter cases." This was the main point I was trying to drive home with the discussion--not that we live in a relativistic society that holds to no system of ethics, but, that we live in a society in which rhetoric plays a crucial and foundational role.

Thursday's Class

Jack — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:34:59 -0400

My classes are typically discussion oriented. Students tend to drift off if I talk too much; so, I try to keep my talking to a minimum--though, the occasional lecture does find its way into class. We have been going over the parts of the texts I have found particularly important to discuss; it seems as though the students are catching on to the major ideas of the course fairly well. This Thursday, we spent half of the class period discussing RUG, and the other half in group work (I let them split up into their Advertising Assignment groups to prepare for presentations on Monday). They seemed to appreciate this and really used the time to get things done.

Portrait and Advocacy assignment

Jack — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:20:42 -0400

Dr. B.,
I think the link to these two assignments is the same. I wasn't sure if this was intended. I started downloading the files and wanted to check before I grabbed these two from the web.
Thanks,
Jack