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Introduction Unit

 

Day 1

What are we going to do in this class?

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DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Discuss course policies, practices, and goals

 

  • Introduce and practice in-class writing and class discussion procedure

 

  • Begin defining rhetoric and thinking about language

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • Introduction  

 

  • In-class writing    

Write down every word you know

 

            What were all those things you just wrote down? What are words? What is writing?

 

  • Discussion of in-class writing

 

  • Go over syllabus

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  • Explain homework procedure

 

HOMEWORK

 

  • Watch:

 

 

  • Answer these questions and post to the class discussion board. Find a classmate’s post and respond to it with something you have in common.

 

  • What is your all-time favorite book or movie?  Why is it your favorite?

 

  • What questions do you have about the syllabus?

 

  • Do you speak or write any languages in addition to English?  In which language do you feel most comfortable communicating?

 

  • Write a funny story about yourself. This can be something that actually happened to you or make up your own story.

 

 

 

Day 2

What is a mindset?

 

DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Discuss mindset

 

  • Identify how a “growth mindset” can help students succeed in this class

 

  • Introduce and practice small group discussion procedure

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • Small Group Discussion

 

  • What is a mindset?

 

  • What information in the Dweck video was surprising to you and why?

 

  • What didn’t surprise you and why?

 

  • Discussion

 

  • What is a mindset?

 

  • What can you do to develop more of a growth mindset in this class and in your day-to-day lives?

 

  • What are some specific ways we can be more open to challenging and growing our brains?

 

  • Answer questions about syllabus, course policies, and Blackboard

 

  • Reminder: sign and turn in syllabus contract

 

 

HOMEWORK

 

  • Watch

 

 

 

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Day 3

Why are we talking about stereotypes?

 

CLASS GOALS

 

  • Discuss stereotype threat, how it might apply to our own lives, and what we can do about it

 

  • Identify class activities where having a safe space will be important

 

  • Practice the believing and doubting game

 

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • In-class writing

 

  • In your own words, what is stereotype threat?  Who does it affect?  In which contexts (when and where)?

 

  • Can you think of a specific time in your life when you feel you were affected by stereotype threat? What happened? Why?

 

  • How can we make our class a safe and inclusive environment for everyone?

 

  • Discussion

 

  • What is stereotype threat?

 

  • Has anyone observed or experienced stereotype threat?

 

  • How can we make our class a safe and inclusive environment for everyone?

 

  • When might a safe environment be important in a writing class?

 

  • Introduction to the believing and doubting game

 

  • Break students into groups of 3-4

  • Assign topic(s)

 

  • Groups report on believing and doubting game

 

  • Reminder: sign and turn in syllabus contract

 

 

 Day 4

Why aren’t we writing five-paragraph essays in this class?

 

 

DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Question “good writing” norms

 

  • Identify the traits of open- and closed-form writing

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • Small Group Discussion

 

  • In your opinion, what is “good writing”?  

 

  • How is your idea of good writing similar to or different from what you’ve been taught in school?

 

  • Discussion

 

  • Mini-lecture: open- and closed-form writing

 

  • Discussion: When are open- and closed-form writing useful?  What are you most comfortable with?

 

  • Begin student introductions

 

HOMEWORK

 

  • Read

 

  • Introduction to The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing, introductory pages iii-viii, xi-xiii, xxv-xxviii

 

  • Allyn & Bacon Chapter 1 "Posing Problems: The Demands of College Writing”

 

  • Write

    • In your own words, what is rhetoric?

 

  • Who are you as a writer? Answer the following questions (5 points each)

 

1) Have you had any positive or negative experiences with writing in the past?

2) What aspects of writing do you enjoy?

3) Is there anything about writing that makes you nervous? 

4) Which aspects of your writing would you like to work on or develop in this class?  How could you build on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses?

 

 

 Day 5

What is Rhetoric?

 

DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Define rhetoric

 

  • Develop rhetorical vocabulary: audience, purpose, and genre

 

  • Identify usage of audience, purpose, and genre

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • In-class writing

 

  • What is rhetoric?

 

  • How has rhetoric come up in the last week?

 

  • How do we persuade others? How do we get what we want?

 

  • Discussion:

 

  • In-class writing topics

 

  • Purpose, audience, genre

 

  • Activity: Split into groups of 4-5.  Each group will be given a link to either a short article, a sample resume, a video, an advertisement etc.  A different source will be given to each group.   Groups must identify how purpose, audience and genre are being used. Analyze how successful and offer suggestions to correct weak areas.  Groups will briefly present to the class.

 

  • Finish student introductions

 

  • Reminder: sign and turn in syllabus contract

 

 

HOMEWORK

 

  • Read Allyn & Bacon Chapter 2

Friday 2

 

 

DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Discuss purpose, audience, message, and angle of vision via “Blank Space” video

 

  • Practice developing closed-form introductions based on the problem

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

 

  • Freewrite re: what stood out to you in this video?  Why?

 

  • Complete the “Examining Problem-Thesis Structure of Introductions” exercise on page 40 of Allyn & Bacon

 

 

HOMEWORK

 

Read Allyn & Bacon Chapter 3

 

 

Day 6

 

DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Define the methods of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos

 

  • Practice identifying methods of persuasion

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • Mini-lecture: Methods of persuasion

 

  • Activity: Have students break off into groups and search for videos that effectively use one or more methods of persuasion in the video

 

  • Write a brief summary explaining why you feel the video was successful

 

 

HOMEWORK

 

  • Read Allyn & Bacon Chapter 4

 

  • Write 2 short emails, 200 words each, one to a friend and one to an old high school teacher. The email to your friend should be to ask them to meet up for dinner later this week while the email to your teacher should be about requesting a letter of recommendation to a lab you want to volunteer in.

 

Day 7

 

DAILY LEARNING GOALS

 

  • Introduce the concept of critical reading

 

  • Demonstrate how to read and analyze a given text

 

  • Interact with texts by agreeing with or challenging the text

 

 

CLASS ACTIVITIES

 

  • Mini-lecture: reading rhetorically

 

  • Project students’ emails from homework assignment on the board and have other students analyze the emails, applying what we discussed in the lecture

 

HOMEWORK

 

  • Summarize an article presented on Blackboard

 

  • Read Allyn & Bacon Chapter 5

 

 

 

 

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