Top articles
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March 27 - Why Get married?
Since Paper 2 asks my students to answer the question, "why get married?" and to give me grounds to defend marriage I have decided to read a few stories that may help them get started on the subject: 1. Kate Chopin, The Storm: woman, at home; man, outside....
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Tuesday, March 25th - Revenge
Today, we studied three texts dealing with the theme of Personal Justice: Spanish Roulette: “Spanish Roulette” by Ed Vega is the short story of a young, ‘spic’ poet named Sixto whose sister has recently been raped by a local gang member and dealer. Sixto...
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March 11th - Fairy-Tales and the Idea of Marriage:
Today, we started working on the idea of marriage and the social conventions associated with the idea of marriage. Students will have to answer the question Why Get Married in their second paper. Therefore, I have tried to use the following stories as...
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Tuesday, April 1- Hollywood and Justice
Today, I was observed by two of my peers. It was also the last "real" day of class; therefore, I decided to criticize the way Hollywood looked at Justice and also ask my students one important question: from all the models of manhood or womanhood that...
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Day 4- January 17. Types of proofs
Objective: Still working with the magazines students brought, I introduced the concepts of Pathos, Logos, Ethos - Types of Proofs. We then applied this to the reading of "Hard Rock Returns to Prison". This enabled me to introduce Pathos, Logos, Ethos,...
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Day 3 - Januray 15. Toulmin Model
Objective : Today, Magazine activity to introduce the Toulmin Model (Claim, Subclaim, Evidence, etc.) I use a Powerpoint Presentation to introduce Toulmin and then ask students to flip through the pages of the magazines they brought to identify the audience,...
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June 9 - 11: First Week of Class, Summer semester 08 - American Literature
WEEK 1 - WHO IS AN AMERICAN ? June 9 - Introduction to the course and to literary analysis: what does it mean to close read a text of American literature? What symbols, metaphors, techniques should we look for in a text? June 11: Defining the New Nation....
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Day 2 - January 10
Objectives: 1) Before teaching students how to write well, I like to tell them what not to write and what I consider is bad writing. I use a special exercise: a list of sentences taken from former papers. students need to identify the mechanical errors...
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Day 5 - January 22. Types of Claims
Objective: Today, we worked on the Types of Claims (Fact, Cause, Value, Definition, Policy). Using three pieces, "Richard Cory" "I am alone" and "A Worn Path" we talked about the claims of definition - Who is who? How are we perceived by others? How can...
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Day 8 - January 31. Producing Research results
Tuesday was a research day, meaning that the class did not meet, yet students were supposed to go to the library to do some research on their own on a topic or issue they were interested in. Working in groups, they had to produce the results of their...
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Day 11 - Feb.12th - MLA formatting and Arguments in Movies
Today, I gave back the Focus Essays that students had written last week. This gave me the opportunity to talk about what they should do and whould not do when studying literature. As I had noticed that most of them still did not know how to use MLA, I...
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Day 9 - February 5. Fallacies
Objectives: We have now spent a whole month on analyzing arguments, claims, identifying types of proofs and types of claims, warrants, etc. We have also discussed our first theme of the year: Individual vs. Community. Students turned in their first focus...
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Day 6 - January 24. The Rogerian Model
Objective: Today, I introduced the Rogerian Model. Students had an activity in class, on different topics. Working in pairs, they have to argue on the different topics and try to find a way to reconcile the diverging views with the Rogerian model. Application/Exercise:...
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Day 10 - Feb 7th. Fallacies continued
Today, students continued their presentations on fallacies found in movies, etc. We then finished our discussion on the poem The Colonel. I love using this poem to introduce the analysis of characters and how characters can define themselves against other...
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March 20th -Thursday: Peer review session of paper 2
Today, I met with students in a computer room (for the class that is not held in a computer lab). We used wiki as a space where students could read each other's paper and comment on it. This avoids the hard copy issue (some students forget to bring a...
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Day 1 - January 8
Day 1: Today, I got to meet my english 1102 students. I have decided to teach this class, using literature. Knowing that some students were not ready for this (and were probably going to drop this class), I did not do much, handed out and discussed the...
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Thursday April 3d - Teamwork Research 4
Today: No class. Students are at the library, doing research for their in-class presentation on Theme 4: Justice, Revenge, Authority, etc.
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Thursday, April 10th - Teamwork 4
In-class presentation of the students' research on Theme 4.
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End of April - Beginning of May: Individual Conferences
The last day of class (sad!!!) has arrived . Since Mid-April, I have asked my students to come for individual conferences: I have noticed that working one-to-one on papers was reaping more results that any other peer review session. Time to grade now...
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Day 12 - February 14th
AN Inconvenient Truth continued, using the following handouts: - Types of Claims - Types of Proofs - Assignment
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Day 13 and 14 - No class
This week, my students had no class. We met on campus for special research sessions, learned how to do research, how to quote from sources, and how to assess the validity and credibility of the sources found.
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Day 7 - January 29. Research
Today, no class. Students were asked to go to the library to start researching on a controversial topic. They were asked to use the databases we have here at GSU and to bring an annotated bibliography of the article they will have read.
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First Week of March : Spring Break
NO CLASS
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March 18th - Teamwork presentations on Theme 3
Today, students used Powerpoint to present a topic and make a claim about an issue on Theme 3: Gender and Marriage. I had very constructive remarks on topics like Gay Adoption rights, Gay marriages, Stereotypes about Men and Women in today's society,...