For the last day I taught over the position paper, I gave a lesson on how students' world views affect the positions they take on controversial issues. I felt it was an important lesson because apart from students being able to make strong arguments and refute poor ones, I think it is important for them as individuals to know why they believe as they do and hold the moral codes they hold. It was a lesson more on themselves than on the issue.
I gave them a chart to fill out answering the following (relating to the debate they wrote their position paper on) : What influences you most of the three pisteis? (ethos, logos, pathos). What background influences have affected you? (culture, religion, family, gender, etc). How firm is your stand? (are you still open minded or grounded and unswaying in your position?) Is your position based more on immediate gratification or delayed? Is your focus more on the individual or society? What is the strongest argument for your position? What is the most worrisome argument against your position? Are there any other factors that have influenced your world view and consequently your stand on this issue?
I wanted students to realize where their sympathies lie and more importantly, why. Before I had students apply the above questions to their own position I had them read a position paper from Composing Ourselves, and as a class we applied the questions to that text (which took some hypothesizing). This prepared them for applying world view related musings to their own work.
About Me
- Charity Gibson
- This semester I am taking 603 Practicum in Teaching (of course)as well as 621 Theory of Basic Writing, 692 Linguistics in Rhetoric and Composition, and 503 Advanced Writing: Poetry. Things I do outside of school: Dance, pilates, piano, spend time with my husband, church activities, family and friends
3 comments:
Tag, you're it!
http://niki603.blogspot.com/2008/04/six-word-meme.html
This sounds interesting. I'd like to hear more about how it worked out and about whether students thought it helped develop their critical thinking skills.
Nice work weaving in real-world learning and self expression/understanding--I often set similar goals in my class exercises. When I was an undergrad, it was this type of learning that really opened me up to academia and the critical thinking skills that I stress in all of my assignments. One day in a short-fiction class it just clicked for me, and I've seen the world through different eyes since. I hope to give my students the same opportunity.
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