Wednesday, February 17, 2016

AGENDA 2/17

Revising persuasive letters to improve style
List of first and second semester texts for help with citations

Review rubric on Turnitin.com

HW: Continue to revise persuasive letter: add three rhetorical techniques, make sure you have included appeals to emotions, ethos, and logos, proofread and edit! Letter due before midnight on MONDAY. Make your discussion board posts on Turnitin.com for The Pact - 2 posts on George, Sam, and Rameck, each including a direct quotation from the text, due before midnight SUNDAY. Email me with questions or contact me through Remind!

Thursday, February 11, 2016

AGENDA 2/11

Collect revised Chavez paragraphs

Discuss techniques used and appeals made to ethos, pathos, and logos in Pust's sample letterhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7F0_YI12yXJa2Q3SUZzZ1E0MEU/view?usp=sharing to Marie Claire magazine editor
Planning for your rhetorical letter:

  • Consider your request first: Do you want the person or company to send you more information? Do something differently? Add on to what they are already doing? Make a change?
  • Determine your recipient: Ask for help narrowing it down or finding the appropriate audience if you need to!
  • Select your text: You must include a direct quotation from one of our class texts and incorporate it into your argument as an "expert opinion."
Bring a typed rough draft to class on Tuesday for peer revision and advice!

Work time: Begin responses to The Pact discussion boards on Turnitin.com using your tree maps and book. You'll need to complete a total of six posts to the three discussion boards--two for each. You may start a new topic or respond to the ideas of another student (or me), and must use academic English (capitalize proper nouns, no texting language, etc.) and must include a direct quotation in each of your six posts. If you write more than six posts, you only need to include direct quotations in six of them.

In-class work check: (don't turn in; points given at your desk)

  1. Tree maps for The Pact
  2. Circle maps for letter brainstorming
  3. Intro/body paragraph for Maria Stewart prompt
  4. Intro/body paragraph for John Downe letter prompt
HW: For Tuesday, bring a typed draft of your rhetorical letter. Complete six Pact discussion board posts (2 for each topic) before 2/21 at 10pm.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

AGENDA 2/10

Introduce rhetorical letter assignment and share Pust's sample letter

Return timed essays on the Chavez prompt and explain the revision assignment, due tomorrow

HW: Revise one body paragraph from your Chavez timed essay according to the criteria we discussed in class (FLTs R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, W2, and W3). Also, write a brief reflection paragraph describing the changes you made and what you realized about writing rhetorical analysis essays.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

AGENDA 2/2

Two-circle discussion: "America Skips School" by Benjamin Barber

HW: Continue reading and annotating/adding to tree map for The Pact, chapters 11, 12, 13, 14

AGENDA 2/3

Finish discussing "America Skips School" by Benjamin Barber - focus on rhetoric today

  • How can we describe Barber's tone? What words give evidence for this?
  • Why does Barber use humor and sarcasm? How does the sarcastic "multiple-choice quiz" help make his argument?
  • Why does Barber use anaphora, the repetition of "If we were serious," to make his point?
  • What is the lasting take-away from this essay? The most powerful part of this piece?
Return timed essays and discuss pointers for Rhetorical Analysis - review FLTs and flow chart


HW: Continue reading, annotating, and adding to your tree maps as you finish The Pact for Monday. 

Monday, February 1, 2016

AGENDA 2/1

Work day: Read, annotate, re-read, funnel and prep for discussion "America Skips School" by Benjamin Barber

HW: Prep for class discussion tomorrow; read on in The Pact.